Transcript for Maverick Businessman Ricardo Semler

And now to the maverick businessman

who over the past 15 years or so who has created what surely must rate as one of the worlds most unusual work places with resounding success

Brazilian entreprenuer, Ricardo Semler, turned business convention on its head.

When he took over the relatively small family engineering firm Semco

Introducing a radical form of participative management

Giving workers a rather extraordinary say in the running of the company

As one of Latin America's fastest growing companies, Semco's workforce has gone from a few hundred, to five thousand

Turnover has grown from about 40 million a year, to more than a billion

And the profits just keep going up.

The workers set their own wages and productivity targets and select their managers

And now Ricardo Semler is applying the same principles to school, again with startling effect

I spoke with the Brazilian business guru; also the author of 2 best selling books; after a business conference at the Gull Coast

Ricardo Semler, after the amount of time that you've put into it

can you say with certainty that it really is possible to establish a truely democratic workplace in the modern world?

Oh..Absolutely. I mean if I went back to the company today and said