Ricardo Semler took over his family's industrial pump manufacturing company in 1980 and transformed it from a traditional hierarchical structure to a novel non-hierarchical approach by eliminating rules and boundaries between departments, giving employees freedom over decisions large and small, and treating all employees as responsible adults rather than subordinates to be managed. Key aspects of the novel approach included no internal frisking, open floor plans, democratic decision-making, job rotation, transparency around finances and salaries, flexibility in schedules and mandatory vacations. The goal was to promote innovation, responsibility and replaceability of all employees.