A lição dos nabateus acerca da eficiência e da eficácia

"Any efficiency measure applied relentlessly ultimately becomes inefficient.
...
Efficiency is a classic area where the impact of a relentless focus on a single practice can be self-defeating. Engineers know this, but managers have not yet learned the lesson." [Moi ici: O exemplo dos nabateus de Petra, com vários milhares de anos]

Isto é muito bom:

"Business practices are widely copied. People develop expertise in a single practice and become like those described by the phrase “to a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail”. We over-apply efficiency measures because they worked before or they worked elsewhere. We rarely consider their systemic impact on effectiveness" [Moi ici: Mais alguém a fazer o jogo entre os conceitos eficiência e eficácia]

E este trecho final vai ao âmago:

"Responsive Organisations recognise that efficiency is not the only goal. Efficiency does not deliver on the purpose of the organisation. It merely ensures resources are well applied. Effectiveness delivers the purpose of the organisation and needs to be a greater part of the management toolkit.  Efficiency measures need to be tempered to reflect their effectiveness and their impact on the effectiveness on the organisation as a whole." 

Quantas empresas focadas na eficiência, são muito eficientes a produzir e, no entanto, têm o armazém repleto de produto acabado que não conseguem vender. O objectivo é satisfazer clientes, não o de produzir barato. Como Hsieh disse:

"The most efficient way to run a warehouse is to let the orders pile up, so that when a worker walks around picking up orders, the picking density is higher and the worker has less distance to walk. But we're not trying to maximize picking efficiency.
We're trying to maximize the customer experience, which in e-commerce involves getting orders out to customers as quickly as possible."

Trechos retirados de "The Inefficiency of Relentless Efficiency"