"Similarly, when Michelin, the tyremaker, tried to introduce lean production methods — as pioneered by Toyota — in the 1990s, it succeeded in improving productivity at the expense of agility and at a cost to its carefully nurtured humane corporate culture."
E o que é que Mongo requer? Agilidade e mais agilidade.
"“Businesses are still organised in the same way they were in Victorian times when we were building factories that churned out consistent objects. We’re now in a world where we sell concepts, content, ideas and thoughts [Moi ici: Em linha com "the more important it is to think about boundaries"] and the traditional organisational structure really isn’t effective in being able to do that.”"
"These practices are combined with the tradition within Toyota Production System of freezing the production schedule eight weeks before production begins, which substantially reduces responsiveness."
"“Queríamos produzir algo especial, criar um novo clássico com total liberdade de movimentos,...“Este lançamento é muito importante porque significa voltar o foco para as nossas raízes e o nosso know-how”,"
Esta semana, ao conversar com o D. Pedro IV, que tinha comentado este postal, "Cuidado com o benchmarking" (e de certa forma o que a Benetton fez, como relatado nas partes I a III desta série, foi benchmarking e cópia de outros modelos que estavam e estão a resultar em outras empresas com outro ADN) falámos em Reeves e no, muitas vezes necessário, encolhimento para renovar e recomeçar tendo por base o ADN e não para copiar o que funciona com outros (cargo cult).
"He shrunk Apple to a scale and scope suitable to the reality of its being a niche producer in the highly competitive personal computer business. He cut Apple back to a core that could survive."
Para depois criar o nível seguinte do jogo.
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Muitas vezes os custos afundados e, sobretudo a vaidade (palavra usada pelo D. Pedro IV), impedem as empresas de fazerem este encolhimento estratégico.
Greg Satell em "Why You Shouldn't Copycat Strategy" expõe muito bem como tantas e tantas empresas grandes praticam "cargo cult strategy":
"Yet many modern executives believe by mimicking the tactics of other businesses they will somehow achieve the same results.[Moi ici: Cuidado com as melhores práticas. Cuidado com a cópia indiscriminada do que é publicitado] These “cargo cult strategists” don’t do much better than the islanders. ... The executives at Blockbuster understood the Netflix threat and built a viable strategy to compete with it. What they did not understand was that, unlike Netflix, they were not a startup. They had investors who expected consistent profits and franchisee partners that depended on revenues for their incomes. That was the part of the Netflix model they couldn’t replicate. ... Unlike Apple and Blockbuster, IBM follows a strategy that is built to fit its unique capabilities and culture. ... Every organization can benefit by learning about the best practices of others. Certainly, Apple needs to find a way to compete in a new cognitive era that advances in artificial intelligence are bringing to the fore. Blockbuster’s management team was smart to borrow tactics from Netflix. IBM should try to be as agile as it possibly can. . Yet at the same time, we also must accept certain realities. Apple does not have the organizational culture in place to explore scientific horizons. It never has. Blockbuster, as a public company with thousands of investors and franchisee partners, had limitations that Netflix didn’t. IBM, with nearly 400,000 employees, will never be as nimble as a startup. . You can’t simply decide to build an airfield, without learning how to build machines that can fly first. In much the same way, you can’t expect to adopt the strategies and tactics of another organization and enjoy the same success, without building the capabilities and culture that will make those tactics effective."[Moi ici: Não resisto a recomendar uma nova leitura do texto sobre o erro infantil da McDonald's.]
"Best practices are techniques that supposedly are proved to be widely successful, but in reality, they’re easy to copy-and-paste and can be disguised as one-size-fits-all solutions. ... Few management approaches are universally applicable, and attempts to implement a mismatched approach can do more harm than good. ... Every best practice is a paradox by its nature and makes itself obsolete. ... While it works for some to start with understanding the why (principles) before the how (practices), other times it’s better to start with the how before the why. In other words, it’s not necessarily wrong to implement the practice first and understand the principles after. Oftentimes people and organizations learn best by doing first and understanding what works and what didn’t later, perhaps through a postmortem or a retrospective."
"And what appears to be strategy, isn’t. ... Best practices. “Follow the leader” is by definition a losing proposition. It immediately and forever relegates you to also-ran status. ... They neglect context entirely. They forego thinking in favor of the silver bullet.[Moi ici: Recordar "Não existem boas-práticas"] ... thinking is the main event of strategy…thinking about how to be unique, not be the same. Even if you fool yourself into believing that you can adopt a best practice and do it better, you’ll never hold a winning position that way. A same-but better approach will result in long-term mediocrity, in which case you’ll be easily comprised by another fast follower. . Organizational effectiveness. Certainly the optimization of a firm’s resources and processes is important, and a critical component of long-term success. But it’s just that…a component. No firm I know of ever created a sustainable leadership position or competitive advantage solely on the basis of a method like lean or six sigma.[Moi ici: Pois, recordar "Cuidado com o que escreve, não culpe a caneta"] ... Corporate efficiency has ruled many a firm in the last decade. But that’s not strategy, because it neglects a real danger: resource exhaustion at the hands of overoptimization of the wrong capabilities and activities. . Plans. Nice, dense, long documents or decks that spell out a detailed, tactical to-do list, complete with resource allocations, timelines, budgets, and even balance sheets. What’s missing, almost every time, is the clear thinking on how all these wonderful and ambitious actions will add up to a winning position, much less a sustainable one. [Moi ici: Alinhamento!] ... Denial. “Strategy doesn’t work in a fast-changing world.” Those aren’t the exact words I hear, but they reveal the sentiment. It’s a debilitating and defensive mindset which ignores the fact that the pace of change is being set by players with new and creative strategies. It’s a mindset that almost automatically puts a firm in an entirely reactive and defensive mode, ever vigilant for possible disruption. The old cliche of “the best offense is a good defense” simply doesn’t work over the long haul. ... None of these approaches are true strategy, which is always focused outwardly on the future, and all about making the difficult choices required to win with customers and against competitors."
"Professor Frances X. Frei has something to say about being bad at what you do.
. She thinks it is a good thing.
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In fact, she believes that if you want to be a successful business, you must strive to be really, really bad in ways that may surprise you.
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Her argument is both simple and profound and goes like this: Companies that make the mistake of trying to be good at too much end up being mediocre across the board. And in today’s environment, there is no way to succeed if you are a five on a scale of 10 overall.
. If you excel at one distinct and meaningful thing, you may have actually earned the right to be truly lousy at everything else.
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Implicitly, or explicitly, you have decided to make sure your company is different. But are you making the necessary trade-offs to become great?
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“The company without a strategy is willing to try anything.”
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This begs the question: Do the people around you have explicit permission to be bad—really, really bad—at anything?
... Strategy is the art of sacrifice."
"Just because a practice, process or capability has been associated with success in one setting, does not mean that it will lead to success in another. All firms are unique. They differ, often substantively, along a wide range of dimensions, such as size, location, history, and culture. All these differences can profoundly affect how firms operate. . In other words, best practices are imperfectly mobile. While they may work like a charm in one environment, they may fall flat in another. ... By adopting industry best practices, firms in essence give up the ability to differentiate themselves from competitors on the basis of that practice. This problem is particularly acute when best practices are incorporated into business process re-engineering plans promoted by consulting firms, or built into enterprise software packages, like SAP. Because these systems are based on standardized processes, and because customizations can be very expensive and disruptive, firms within industries that have high rates of SAP adoption end up looking a lot alike."
No ambiente de mudança em que vivemos e, registado neste postal "Escrito nas estrelas" e continuado em "Viragem no sourcing – Parte 2", de certeza que muitas práticas estabelecidas ficaram obsoletas e passaram a ser mais prejudiciais do que benéficas:
"Companies identify best practices, particularly those of market leaders, and try to implement them. Such benchmarking has a role to play in business, but I’m not exactly a fan of the process. (Moi ici: Não há melhores práticas) It may allow enterprises to catch up with competitors, but it won’t turn them into market leaders. Organizations become winners by spotting big opportunities and inventing next practices
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Next practices are all about innovation: imagining what the future will look like; identifying the mega-opportunities that will arise; and building capabilities to capitalize on them.
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If you look for ways to develop next practices, opportunities abound. In fact, executives are constrained not by resources but by their imagination."
"Most companies follow "best practices." Often, these are practices that most firms in their line of business have been following for many years, leading people in the industry to assume that it is simply the best way of doing things.
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One reason why a practice's inefficiency may be difficult to spot is because when it came into existence, it was beneficial — like broadsheet newspapers once made sense. But when circumstances have changed and it has become inefficient, nobody remembers, and because everybody is now doing it, it is difficult to spot that doing it differently would in fact be better.
...
with all the best intentions, executives often implement what is considered a "best practice" in their industry. What they do not know is that some of these practices are bad habits masquerading as efficiency boosters, their real consequences lying hidden."
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BTW, muito interessante a história sobre a origem e persistência do formato "broadsheet" nos jornais.
As empresas grandes que operam em Portugal, como por exemplo a IKEA (a nível fabril), apostam na produção massificada em que o custo baixo é fundamental.
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Nesse âmbito, uma ferramenta como o 6-sigma é fundamental para reduzir desperdícios e, promover as melhorias incrementais que se devem suceder na sequência de um processo de lançamento da produção em escala crescente.
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Recordando que não existem boas-práticas universais, cuidado; não com a caneta, mas com o que se escreve com ela. As PMEs, que apostam sobretudo na rapidez, na flexibilidade, na criatividade, nas pequenas séries, são iludidas quando adoptam as ferramentas que se ajustam à produção massificada... se calhar mais um exemplo do uso incorrecto da assimetria da informação.
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Mesmo uma empresa grande como a 3M não percebeu isso e está a pagar esse erro "Six Sigma 'killed' innovation in 3M":
"Rigid process a significant roadblockThe lack of freedom, or too strict a process, is also a significant roadblock, such as the Six Sigma process. . Six Sigma was popularized in the late 1990's and introduced into 3M by former CEO James McNerney, a former GE executive. It involves a set of process tools designed to eliminate production defects and wastage, and raise efficiency. (Moi ici: Sempre a doença da escola de gestão americana, a concentração doentia no eficientismo, mesmo quando ele não é relevante para a estratégia) . "The Six Sigma process killed innovation at 3M," said Nicholson. "Initially what would happen in 3M with Six Sigma people, they would say they need a five-year business plan for [a new idea]. Come on, we don't know yet because we don't know how it works, we don't know how many customers [will take it up], we haven't taken it out to the customer yet." . However, the 3M ambassador pointed out he had nothing against the Six Sigma, but felt it was not ideal for the creative process. "I met the guy who in fact put Six Sigma together and I said to him, 'What about innovation? Because at 3M right now we are having problems--we're being asked about Six Sigma and trying to utilize it in the creative stage'. He said it was never designed for that, it was designed for manufacturing when starting to scale up a product," said Nicholson."
Este artigo ""90% das abordagens [para ser fornecedor da Volkswagen] falham"" desperta-me uma torrente de ideias...
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No meu primeiro emprego, na Divisão Automóvel da TMG em Campelos-Guimarães, tinha como missão estudar formulações de couro artificial que respondessem aos requisitos super-exigentes do cliente Volkswagen. Eu adorava trabalhar para a Volkswagen!!! Eu adorava o desafio de uma especificação que me obrigava a estudar e a experimentar dezenas de misturas de e-PVCs, de plastificantes, de modificadores reológicos, de estabilizantes térmicos, de sei lá que mais... percebia o jogo de constrangimentos que impunham: baixo nível de fogging; limite superior de líquidos; resistência térmica e alongamento superior, ...
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Se estivesse a ler o artigo lá de cima em Outubro de 1988 não pensaria duas vezes, daria a António Melo Pires toda a razão.
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Hoje, passados 24 anos a experiência de vida ajuda-me a encaixar estas palavras do director-geral da Autoeuropa num outro patamar. Hoje, tenho medo da forma como os media interpretam e veiculam estas mensagens.
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Os media acreditam que existem boas-práticas!
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Boas-práticas serão práticas recomendáveis e aplicáveis a todas as empresas e sectores de actividade.
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Por mim, já aprendi, não existem, não confio nessas boas-práticas universais.
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A Autoeuropa é uma empresa que pertence ao grupo Volkswagen, um grupo automóvel particularmente bem sucedido na produção em massa, o paradigma da economia do século XX.
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Quando discuto a operacionalização de uma estratégia assente no custo mais baixo, assente na produção em massa, como a produção de automóveis Volkswagen ou a produção de hambúrgueres numa cozinha McDonalds, dou sempre o exemplo da paragem num pit da Formula 1:
Se olharem para o filme verão como funciona uma empresa que aposta nos custo mais baixo como o factor competitivo de eleição:
não há invenções;
não há prima-donas;
não há liberdade;
um lugar para cada coisa e cada coisa no seu lugar;
um lugar para cada interveniente e cada interveniente no seu lugar;
planeamento central conhecido e obedecido.
Por isto é que António Melo Pires critica o nível de informalidade das nossas empresas:
"O director-geral da Autoeuropa, António Melo Pires, disse que as empresas nacionais funcionam num registo de informalidade que não facilita a sua inserção nos mercados internacionais."
Imaginem uma organização que funciona como um relógio, como uma sinfonia harmoniosa, ter de lidar com um grupo de agentes habituados a informalidade e fantásticos no desenrascanço. Choques!!! Vamos ter choques!!! Vamos ter duas civilizações a não conseguirem encaixar-se.
""Os alemães têm uma personalidade muito própria, e o desenrascanço não é nada bem visto", defendeu. ... Melo Pires disse que quem aposta na informalidade não inspira confiança."
Diz Melo Pires:
"O responsável do gigante do sector automóvel justificou ainda os problemas de competitividade das empresas portuguesas com a sua escala. “Temos muitas microempresas e que não conseguem ter produtividade para ser concorrenciais”, rematou."
Quando uma PME, como aconteceu no ano passado, vem ter comigo a dizer que anda a ser assediada pela Autoeuropa, para começar a ser fornecedora. Digo sempre:
Como é que uma PME tenta competir pelo preço mais baixo?
Como não pode usar o trunfo da produção em larga escala, opta por uma organização muito enxuta, eu a algumas chamo anorécticas. Organizações muito enxutas são muito flexíveis, não combinam com funções rígidas... logo, daí nasce a propensão para a informalidade.
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Quem acredita nas boas-práticas acha que temos de mudar, temos de nos tornar máquinas competitivas super-eficientes.
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Hoje, 24 anos depois, estou noutra. A nossa cultura é a do desenrascanço, é a da flexibilidade, é a da rapidez, não é a da uniformidade, é da liberdade, não a do planeamento central. Hoje, em vez de querer mudar de povo, defendo é que temos de mudar de referencial, o nosso referencial não pode ser o da produção em massa, não pode ser o da eficiência. O nosso referencial tem de ser o da pequena série, o da novidade, o do artesanato, o da autenticidade, o da originalidade. Nesse referencial, a nossa cultura de informalidade, em vez de ser um empecilho, é uma vantagem cultural.
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Basta recordar a figura:
Aquilo que é uma má-prática para uma proposta de valor, pode ser uma boa-prática para outra proposta de valor.
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Fornecer a Autoeuropa não é necessariamente uma boa decisão para uma PME portuguesa-tipo.
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Pois é, eu não acredito em boas-práticas universais, aplicáveis a todas as empresas, independentemente da sua estratégia.
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Usando uma linguagem de consultor, ou seja, simplificando a realidade, posso apresentar este quadro:
Posso pensar, qual é o negócio da Galp? Como é que a Galp aborda o mercado? Qual o papel do volume de produção, da escala no negócio no sucesso da Galp? Qual a relação da Galp com o Estado? Tudo cheira a bolas azuis da figura.
"As pequenas e médias empresas devem juntar-se a empresas de maior dimensão para aprender bons modelos de funcionamento e desta forma crescer. Para Pedro Reis, presidente da AICEP, este é o modelo mais urgente nos dias de hoje: criar oportunidades para as empresas mais pequenas e, desta forma beneficiar o seu funcionamento e o dos parceiros.
"Está a aumentar o número de pequenas e médias empresas, principalmente as familiares, que procuram profissionais com experiência em empresas multinacionais. A conclusão é da consultora Hays, especializada no recrutamento para quadros médios e superiores.
De acordo com dados disponibilizados pela consultora, este movimento já acontece com alguma regularidade nos últimos quatro anos, sendo que, entre 2010 e 2012, a tendência aumentou cerca de 40%."
Isto pode significar que, quer empresas familiares, quer profissionais de multinacionais, acreditam na existência de boas-práticas!
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Por mim, já o escrevi há quase 2 anos: "Não existem boas-práticas!"
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O profissional formado, qualificado e habituado a trabalhar numa multinacional adquiriu uma prática de execução estratégica que, normalmente, não se adequa ao universo competitivo de uma PME familiar.
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Por exemplo, se se trata de um profissional vindo da indústria automóvel, ou de uma GE, vão ser exímios na redução de custos, na redução de desperdícios... e quantas PMEs podem ser sustentáveis no campeonato do preço mais baixo?
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Preferia que as PMEs tentassem percorrer o caminho menos percorrido, melhor do que combater contra tubarões.
"The upside to doing something that you’re unfamiliar with, like rockets, is that it’s likely that no one else is familiar with it, either. The competitive bar is lowered. You can focus on learning and substantive things over process, which is perhaps better than competing against experts."
"In war, there can be only one winner. Not so in business, where companies like WalMart and Target can thrive and co-exist, each offering a different kind of value to its customers.
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In sports, there is just one contest with one set of rules. Not so in business, which is more complex and open-ended. Within an industry, there can be multiple contests, not just one, based on which needs are to be served.
(Moi ici: o que muita gente ainda não percebeu foi esta evolução:
Quanto mais picos tem a paisagem competitiva enrugada mais hipóteses há de várias empresas, com diferentes clientes-alvo e diferentes propostas de valor, poderem prosperar em simultâneo no mesmo sector de actividade)
... Here's the problem: When rivals all pursue the "one best way" to compete, they find themselves on a collision course, trapped in a destructive, zero-sum competition that no one can win. Everyone in the industry follows the same advice. Companies benchmark each other's practices and products. Customers, lacking meaningful choice, buy on price alone. Profitability deteriorates.
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Instead, Porter urges a different kind of competition: compete to be unique. Focus on innovating to create superior value for your chosen customers, not on imitating and matching rivals. Give customers real choice and price becomes only one competitive variable. But understand that doing this profitably means accepting limits and making tradeoffs — you can't meet every need of every customer. Nothing is more absurd — and yet more widespread — than the belief that somehow you can do exactly what everyone else is doing and yet end up with superior results. (Moi ici: Por isso, já aqui escrevi que não existem boas-práticas universais, genéricas, aplicáveis a qualquer empresa de um sector)
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Grasp the true nature of business competition and you'll see that the performing arts provide a better analogy than war or sports. There can be many good singers or actors — each outstanding and successful in a distinctive way. Each finds and creates an audience. (Moi ici: Recordar aqui e aqui) The more good performers there are, the more audiences grow and the arts flourish. This approach produces positive sum competition. Companies that do a good job can earn sustainable returns because they create more value. At the same time, customers benefit by getting real choice in how their needs are met.
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What's your organization's underlying model of how competition works? It's a question well worth asking. If "best" is your model, you will follow the herd. Copycat products and services will always make sense. Growth at any price will seem reasonable. Acquisitions will always look better than they really are. How you think about competition will define the choices you make and your ability to assess those choices critically."
"Spurious frameworks and torrents of data often obscure the basic principles of good strategy. To beat the market, companies must exploit imperfections that stop (or at least slow) its workings. (Moi ici: Batota é, aumentar as imperfeições do mercado, é dificultar a competição perfeita) Such competitive advantages are scarce and fleeting because markets drive a reversion to mean performance as middling companies emulate the best and the worst exit or undergo significant reform. Good strategies therefore emphasize difference—versus direct competitors, potential substitutes, and potential entrants—not industry-wide best practices."
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Trechos retirados de "Why best practice isn’t the best strategy"
A conselho de Rick Kash adquiri em segunda mão um livro de 1994 “The Value Imperative” de James McTaggart, Peter Kontes e Michael Mankins.
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O sexto capítulo, “Strategic Determinants of Value Creation” inclui um texto que continua super-actual:
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“In addition to understanding the impact that competitive forces have on profitability, most managers lack an economic framework that explicitly links the forces of competition and a business unit’s competitive position directly to value creation. This leads to two common problems. First, most managers have no clear understanding of the competitive advantages that are likely to create value and those that are unlikely to do so. As a result, most businesses invest as though all competitive advantages are equally likely to create wealth and, therefore, underexploit their most valuable assets. (Moi ici: Já o escrevi aqui no blogue, esta situação leva a que as empresas, muitas vezes, se substimem... Ah!!! Como podia esquecer Flávio Silva?) Second, in the absence of an economic framework that clearly delineates the strategic determinants of value creation, many large, diversified companies seize upon the latest ideas for building competitive advantage and mandate that every business unit pursue the same general strategic direction, even though these businesses compete in very different markets, with very different competitive requirements. (Moi ici: É a mania das boas-práticas. Quando é que as pessoas vão aprender que não existem boas-práticas em abstracto)
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In our view, having an economic framework that explicitly links competitive forces directly to value creation is not just a good idea, it is a necessity. (Moi ici: Como o mapa da estratégia) In order to systematically create value, managers must understand how their business unit’s competitive performance in the product markets impacts its value in the capital markets.”
"Every strategy carries the risk that an individual’s actions will push the business off course. The risk intensifies when managers feel pressure to hit growth and profit targets.
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There are two ways to control such risk: You can tell people what to do, or you can tell them what not to do. Telling people what to do helps assure that they won’t make mistakes by engaging in unauthorized activities. This is the prudent approach if safety and quality are paramount concerns—if, say, you’re running a nuclear power plant or overseeing a space launch. In such cases you want employees to follow standard operating procedures to the letter."
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Julgo que podemos generalizar: Quando a proposta de valor é o preço, a concentração deve ser nos custos. Assim, é essencial a eficiência, o planeamento central, o respeito de regras centralmente definidas. Costumo usar o filme que se segue para ilustrar como funciona uma empresa que compete pelo preço mais baixo.
Não há primadonnas, tudo está definido!
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"However, if innovation and entrepreneurial thinking are important, you should follow a different course: You should hire creative people and tell them what not to do. In other words, you should give them freedom to exercise their creativity—within defined limits."
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Mais uma vez, não há boas-práticas definidas no limbo.
. Trechos retirados do livro "Seven Strategy Questions" e do artigo "Stress-Test Your Strategy The 7 Questions to Ask" publicado no número de Novembro da revista Harvard Business Review.
Afinal não há boas-práticas num limbo à espera de serem aplicadas:
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"Zappos built their culture to be what it is. If you are working in HR at a company with more than a few hundred employees and more than 5 years of history I’m gonna save you some time here – don’t follow the Zappos plan. Don’t do parades. Don’t do tours of the offices. Don’t offer people $2,000 to quit. It won’t work for you.
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You already have a culture. You may need to change your culture. And changing a culture is a much different issue than building one.
My concern is that I think we’re going to see many companies adopt activities that are similar to Zappos and see them fail miserably because what Zappos does isn't what you should do. What you need to do is find those things that resonate with your existing culture – and move them toward what you want your culture to be."
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Trecho retirado de "When Will Zappos Jump the Shark?"
"It is widely believed that restructuring has boosted productivity by displacing low-skilled workers and creating jobs for the high skilled."Mas, e como isto é profundo:"In essence, creative destruction means that low productivity plants are displaced by high productivity plants." Por favor voltar a trás e reler esta última afirmação. . "Lovaglia’s Law: The more important the outcome of a decision, the more people will resist using evidence to make it."
"If an organisation is too stable it can ossify, but if it is too unstable it can disintegrate. Successful organisations work between these two conditions or states, in what Stacey called ‘the chaos zone’."
"If the customer doesn't care about the price, then the retailer shouldn't care about the cost," “It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required”. "Das Leben, das uns gegeben ist, ist uns nicht als etwas Fertiges gegeben, sondern wir müssen es uns gestalten, und zwar jeder sein eigenes." "Eine Regierung, die nichts wert ist, kostet am meisten." "Forget trying to persuade them; light their pants on fire." "O futuro é o que importa. O futuro é a base do significado, é de onde vem o projecto que alguém tem para si próprio" "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
"o Marketing só existe a partir do pensamento estratégico, caso contrário "não resulta"" "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" "Perder diversidade é como arrancar páginas de um livro. Quantas páginas poderemos arrancar até deixar de compreender o enredo?" The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
"By strategy, I mean a cohesive response to a challenge. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. The most important element of a strategy is a coherent viewpoint about the forces at work, not a plan."
"Un desastre està punt de succeir a Espanya. El malentès de la gravetat de la crisi costarà car als inversors, ja que tindrà profundes conseqüències per a tot el sistema bancari europeu", afirma.
Entre d'altres coses, Mauldin diu que "els inversors estan fumant crack si creuen que els bancs espanyols són entre els més forts d'Europa, ja que estan amagant les seves pèrdues".
“… there are no “sunset” industries condemned to disappear in high wage economies, although there are certainly sunset and condemned strategies, among them building a business on the advantages to be gained by cheap labor”
"o vencedor da vida, o optimista que vive em incesto com o próprio ego, é o traço mais frágil do líder"
"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish." You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race.
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
“Trust your guts. But not too much!”
"Customers will try 'low-cost providers,' because the majors have not given them any clear reason not to." "
"Natal é quando as Crianças pedem e os Pais pagam. Défices é quando os Pais pedem e as Crianças pagam."
"A imprevidência dos povos é infinita, a dos governos é legal"
"What a man sees depends both upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual-conceptual experience has taught him to see"
“The leaders first task is to be the trumpet that sounds a clear sound”
"lamented the lack of any systematic data on the scale of unfunded IOUs that care-free politicians have handed out like confetti."
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..."
O problema não é o consumo. O problema é o consumo assente em endividamento."
"There are designations, like "economist", "prostitute", or "consultant" for which additional characterization doesn't add information."
When it becomes more difficult to suffer than change, you will change"
"Hope is not a strategy and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste"
The more you can see of the present, the more you can see of the future"
Yes, You can change the future, but only changing the present"
"Entrepreneurship is 'Having aspirations greater than your resources'"
“The single biggest reason companies fail is they overinvest in what is, as opposed to what might be."
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that"
"A estabilidade é uma ilusão"
"When we create the conditions of possibility, the universe becomes our co-conspirator"
Thinking about doing is not doing. Talking about doing is not doing. Doing is doing."
"'God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another'.
...
"Each of us has a mission, each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person.
"As our Lord tells us in the Gospel we have just heard, our light must shine in the sight of all, so that, seeing our good works, they may give praise to our heavenly Father."
"The future is not there waiting for us. We create it by the power of imagination."
"confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea"
"Much consulting involves the application of models to a system, as opposed to getting involved in the system as a positive change agent""
"O Portugal que pára sem orçamento é precisamente aquele que vive dele e que há todo o interesse em parar."
"credibilidade da política financeira e dos seus executores está ao nível da credibilidade de uma barraca das farturas"
"The role of the manager is thought to be reduction of uncertainty rather than the capacity to live creatively in it"
"today an entrepreneur is closer to artists than managers"
"A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby"
"If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)"
"Storytelling isn’t just how we construct our identities, stories are our identities"
"'He who has a why to live can bear almost any how' "
"They can because they think they can"
"Se há coisa que não suporto é misturar catequese com negócios, é a incapacidade para calçar os sapatos do outro e só pensar na nossa posição de coitadinhos, pobres vítimas indefesas dos maus e que por isso precisamos do Estado todo poderoso para nos proteger e, nem percebem na volta, os juros que o Estado cobra por esse serviço mafioso de protecção que, ainda por cima não resolve nada."
"Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble."
"In victory, do not brag; in defeat, do not weep"
"Value it's a feeling not a calculation"
"An economist is someone who has had a human being described to him, but has never actually seen one."
"Don't finish first--it's not about running a rat race. Start with a better ending in mind."
"If you sit in on a poker game and don’t see a sucker, get up. You’re the sucker.”
"The 'value added' for most any company, tiny or enormous, comes from the Quality of Experience provided."
"Crediting government with the success of entrepreneurs is like crediting the guy who built Bill Gates’ garage with the success of Microsoft."
"I have found that assuming social scientists understand the difference between correlation and causality is not generally a good one."
"Promising never to raise taxes, without reaching a deal on spending, really means a high and rising commitment to future taxes."
"Some things are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them, for no ordinary man could be such a fool"
"os bancos não financiam a economia, a poupança sim"
"I do not know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody"
"Never be afraid to try, remember... Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic."
"terms such as 'experiment' and 'observation' cover complex processes containing many strands. 'Facts' come from negotiations between different parties and the final product - the published report - is influenced by physical events, dataprocessors, compromises, exhaustion, lack of money, national pride and so on."
"'science in the making' is 'the consequence of [a] settlement' of 'controversies'."
"If the state wishes to spend more, it can do so only by borrowing your savings or taxing you more. And it's no good thinking someone else will pay, that someone else is you."
"All failures of strategy are rooted in the assumption that outcomes are predictable."
"Doing things like your bigger competitors is how to get killed in the wars out there"
“Uma moeda boa e forte é como a saúde. Só lhe damos verdadeiramente valor quando não a temos.”
"Life’s tough. It’s tougher if you’re stupid"
"O homem de bem exige tudo de si próprio; o homem medíocre espera tudo dos outros"
"Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me."
"As elites foram deixando de falar das exportações à medida que se foi percebendo que o país consegue exportar sem elas"
"Your toughest competition is the little voice inside your head telling you to stop"
"Pain is just weakness leaving your body"
"Built to last" is bad economics. Built to do something great" is the better idea. Think: "Creative destruction."
"the world is an uncertain place no matter how many Greek letter equations you affix to a problem."
"You never change things by fighting existing reality. To change s.th., build a new model making the existing model obsolete"
“No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.”
"Success is not a destination. It's the trail you leave behind you."
"Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event."
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around”
"Strategy as the "smallest set of - intended or actual - choices and decisions sufficient to guide all other choices and decisions sufficient to guide all other choices and decisions."
"When something is commoditized, an adjacent market becomes valuable"
"nature evolves away from constraints, not toward goals"
"There aren't any textbooks on what to stop doing!"
"With great power comes great irresponsibility "
"Weird things happen when you take price out of the equation for consumers"
"‘It’s so damn complex. If you ever think you have the solution to this, you’re wrong and you’re dangerous.’"
"Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love."
"Increasing stuff that doesn't add value dilutes existing value."
"O federalismo não é a alternativa à troika, é a troika para sempre."
"Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs by facts"
"Stressors are information"
“If you hear a “prominent” economist using the word ‘equilibrium,’ or ‘normal distribution,’ do not argue with him; just ignore him, or try to put a rat down his shirt.”
"The advantage of experiences over things for most of us is that we can make them seem unique, which = scarce, which = value"
"Pedras no caminho?
Guardo todas, um dia vou construir um castelo"
"Without risk, faith is an impossibility."
"Não posso com quem vive a achar que os outros lhe devem sempre alguma coisa."
"In a world of increasing automation, our ability to perform tasks is not nearly as important as our ability to dream. The questions we need to ask are not ones of action, but ones of meaning"
"Me arrancam tudo a força e depois me chamam de contribuinte."
"Letting people vote for expensive programs that “somebody else” will finance is a good recipe for getting people to vote irresponsibly"
"what's fairness gotta do with pricing based in value?"
"The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird."
“Price is emotional”
"There will always be a reason why you can't pursue it, until competitors create a reason why you must."
"The most important thing to study is opening theory"
"The greater the contrast, the greater the potential"
“Customers don't care about your solution, they care about their problems.”
"Todos querem conhecer a verdade, mas o que desejam é que lhes contem uma mentira em que não sejam protagonistas."
"Execution efficiency strangles innovation in the crib, but not with malice, by default.”
"Our obsession with scalability is getting in the way of unleashing the potential of the 21st century."
"The system is optimized to mitigate risk, not create value"
"Champions are made when no one is looking"
"Don't bargain on value. Half as expensive is often twice as cheap."
"Customers care about outcomes, not effort, technology, or originality."
" I can't believe it. That is why you fail."
"You don't have to pick between 1) playing the game and 2) not playing the game. You can *change* the game."
""The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." "