Uma das minhas inspirações iniciais

Suzanne Berger... recordo o precioso e "eye oppening" livro “How we compete” de Suzanne Berger and the MIT Industrial Performance Center, publicado em Janeiro de 2006.
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Julgo que foi este livro que me iniciou numa visão optimista da realidade económica quando recorremos ao caminho menos percorrido.
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Com Suzanne Berger, como mais tarde confirmei com Christian Lindgren, aprendi que nunca estamos condenados, há sempre uma alternativa.
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Estas palavras demonstram que continuamos na mesma onda:
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"One useful observation emerging from Berger’s studies of France is that globalization is not an inexorable historical force changing everything in its path, including social values and political traditions. In the early 20th century, she notes, “people also thought that globalization was irreversible,” only to see it slow for decades thereafter.
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Berger’s interest in the relationship between politics and economic forces helped steer her toward the study of manufacturing — which she thinks has a similarly practical value. “The use of this work is to show a space for choice,” Berger says. “We really can make decisions about what kind of companies or society we want. The idea that we’re being forced into something can blind us to the opportunities we really have.”
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"“Dell outsources just about everything,” Berger notes of the computer maker, “whereas Samsung is making many of the same products, but they're trying to keep as much as possible in-house. Over the years they have been very profitable companies. If we take industries that are under the most ferocious competitive pressures in the world — consumer electronics, apparel, automobiles — we see there are real choices for those companies.”
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“Labor costs are a very small part of overall costs,” Berger says. Probably a more important driver of firms’ decisions to locate activities abroad is the emergence of millions of new consumers in developing countries; selling to them leads firms to produce goods in those markets.
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More strongly, Berger asserts that chasing lower labor costs can be a self-defeating strategy for many firms. (Moi ici: Podemos começar a listar os académicos, paineleiros e políticos portugueses (a tríade) que não conhecem alternativa ao preço mais baixo e aos salários baixos)
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“If you get your advantage by reducing labor costs, then you’re in a place where your advantage is not sustainable,” Berger says. “Your margins will be thin and evanescent. There will always be someone who can undercut you, because there will always be other regions where people are willing to work for less. (Moi ici: Fácil de equacionar essa resposta, excepto pela tríade) Instead, profits come from being able to do something that another company cannot easily replicate.”
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(Moi ici: Segue-se a grande mensagem deste blogue) As Berger sees it, a more sustainable future for U.S. manufacturing would be one in which its comparative advantage comes from new products, ideas, and business models; from skilled workers; or from quality advantages that are hard to replicate, in fields ranging from energy and transportation to pharmaceuticals, among others.
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“There are a lot of pressures,” Berger says, “but they do not force us down the path of only one solution.”
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Trechos retirados de "In Profile: Suzanne Berger"