Um portfolio de iniciativas

Quando falo de sistemas de gestão tento passar a ideia de que o sistema de gestão ideal traduz-se num portfolio de iniciativas, num portfolio de projectos, alinhados por uma estratégia. Tudo o resto é treta de consultor e de auditor, para justificar honorários.

Basta recordar a definição de sistema de gestão (da ISO 9000) que tanto valorizo: "Sistema para o estabelecimento da política (da estratégia) e dos objectivos e para a concretização desses objectivos." Tão simples, tão claro... para quê complicar!?

Assim, foi com interesse que encontrei três artigos da revista "The McKinsey Quarterly" que formam um todo coerente, partilhando desta ideia que tanto aprecio.

Em "Just-in-time strategy for a turbulent world" de Lowell Bryan, publicado em 2002, podemos destacar os seguintes trechos:

"But suppose we no longer believe that the future is foreseeable. What if defining and achieving an enduring competitive advantage is really just a conceit that must be abandoned? What if the outstanding fact of business, as John Maynard Keynes once described it, is the "extreme precariousness of the basis of knowledge"? What if it is no longer possible to block out the "noise" of the world's messy reality in order to rationalize a plan to achieve predetermined outcomes?"
...
"The result is an economic environment that is rich in opportunity but also marked by a substantial increase in awareness of risk and aversion to it— a phenomenon reflected in the rise of risk premiums throughout the world even while the risk-free cost of capital remains low."
...
"Likewise, a CEO can think about corporate strategy not as a "portfolio of businesses" but as a "portfolio of initiatives" aimed at achieving favorable outcomes for the entire enterprise. Usually, these initiatives will be organized around themes ... Portfolio effects increase the likelihood that some of these aspirations will be achieved even if many others fail."

De "Building the healthy corporation" de Richard Dobbs, Keith Leslie, e Lenny T. Mendonca, publicado no número 3 de 2005, destaco:

"First, a company's strategy should be reflected in a portfolio of initiatives that consciously embraces different time horizons. ... Some initiatives in the kind of portfolio that we recommend should bolster a company's short-term performance. Others should create options for the future—new products or services, new markets, and new processes or value chains. A key management challenge is to design and implement initiatives that balance the company's performance and underlying health on a risk-adjusted basis.
Such a portfolio of initiatives helps companies overcome certain traditional shortcomings of strategy, such as its episodic nature and a tendency to ignore the resources and capabilities needed for execution and to plan the future instead of for the future. By developing and managing a portfolio of initiatives—rather than a single approach to strategy—companies can lower the risk that unpredictable events will place them on the wrong foot."

De "Anatomy of a healthy corporation" de Aaron De Smet, Mark Loch, e Bill Schaninger, um exclusivo na net de Maio de 2007, sublinho:


"Companies can keep an eye on their health by regularly assessing all their business ideas and new initiatives—projects or programs to change or improve something in the business. They should evaluate these projects both by mapping the point when each would be likely to create the greatest value and by looking at whether a project involves familiar, routine work that plays to their strengths and experiences or is a novel departure, which could be riskier and consume additional resources. Healthy companies seek to keep a balance between the two and know that it is not a trade-off between the short and long terms: investing for the long term means action today."


Só as iniciativas, quando implementadas, quando executadas, mudam uma organização. Tudo o resto, estratégia, mapa da estratégia, balanced scorecard, indicadores, metas,... não passa de conversa de café, enquanto não começarmos a mudar a realidade!!!