"uniqueness is a necessary condition for outstanding performance"

Quase me arrepiei ao perceber que escrevi este postal há sete anos, "Now, something completely different... para nos deixar a pensar", como o tempo voa.

A provocação desse postal, resultado de uma reflexão baseada no livro "Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd" de Youngme Moon, materializa-se neste texto, "Does It Pay to Hire Consultants? Evidence from the Bordeaux Wine Industry":

"On average, I found that wines made with the help of consultants had higher quality ratings. However, they also had less extreme quality ratings. Use of consultants, therefore, correlated with middle-of-the-road, less extreme wine ratings: neither excellent nor terrible. Many outstanding wineries did not use consultants, preferring to use only in-house talent.
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This is because the coin of the consultant’s realm is knowledge, which has two main origins: expertise, gained through education and training, and experience, accumulated by working with clients. Importantly, the raison d’être of consultants is not to provide their clients with ordinary knowledge. It is to develop best practices and to use them to improve their clients’ performance.
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Because best practices are more tested than the practices of individual firms, they decrease the likelihood of very low performance. On the other hand, uniqueness is a necessary condition for outstanding performance. Because best practices are less unique than the practices of individual firms, they also decrease the likelihood of very high performance."

BTW, "Paradoxically, the firms that could benefit the most from help are the very ones that are less likely to hire the help they need."