The religion of efficiency has a dark, dark side

Há dias, o meu filho mais novo no meio duma conversa (em pleno circuito ciclista) sobre o Android e o iPad dizia "A Palm tinha projectado apresentar um novo produto para este Verão e o site deles estava sempre cheio de novidades, foram comprados pela HP e parece que morreu tudo, nem novidades nem surpresas".

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Ouvi e registei.

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Entretanto, encontro informação que corrobora a sua preocupação.

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Qual o futuro da HP: eficiência ou eficácia?

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Para uma multinacional qualquer resposta é possível e honesta. Mas para uma empresa com tradição no mundo digital o que será um futuro radiante: ser uma nova Foxconn ou uma nova Apple?

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Joe Nocera, que aprendi a apreciar na CNN, levanta esta ponta do véu "Real Reason for Ousting H.P.’s Chief":

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"H.P. under Mr. Hurd has “become the benchmark for efficiency in an industry known more for its whiz-bang appeal than its operational excellence,” wrote Adam Lashinsky of Fortune in 2009. Four months ago, Forbes put Mr. Hurd on its cover, attributing H.P.’s success to “dramatic cost-cutting” and “a brutalizing culture of accountability.”"

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"in recent internal surveys, nearly two-thirds of H.P. employees said they would leave if they got an offer from another company — a staggering number. “He didn’t have the support of his people,” ... “He alienated himself from the people who might have protected him.”"

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Neste texto "Mark Hurd's moment" da revista Fortune de Março de 2009 pode ler-se:

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"But HP is not just the largest; it has become the benchmark for efficiency in an industry known more for its whiz-bang appeal than its operational excellence.

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"He's the most adept at taking costs out of the system of any executive I know.""

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Este parágrafo é paradigmático desta filosofia:

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"A master at slicing and dicing, and a peerless control freak, Hurd, 52, still hasn't proven himself as a builder, a rap he has faced from the moment he stabilized HP after about a year as CEO. HP was once among the most innovative of big tech companies. Today, with the exception of its printer group, a cash cow that has stopped growing, most of HP's hardware runs on standard technology. (Read: Microsoft software and Intel chips.) Over time this should lead to industry-average growth levels and profit margins that improve only if there remain costs to cut."

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""The religion of efficiency has a dark, dark side," says Michael Tushman, a Harvard Business School professor whose research has quantified the shortcomings of stressing operations at the expense of innovation. "For too many general managers, the certainty of today trumps the uncertainty of the future."

It's simplistic to think of Hurd as merely a cost cutter, but he's an unrepentant left-brainer. He personally maintains a spreadsheet that tracks and analyzes his daily tasks. "