Curiosidade do dia

"The digital giants of today are companies that were founded relatively recently. It was not Smith Corona, the US typewriter company, that invented the PC. Smith Corona tried to integrate the computer into its typewriters and was rather good at it. But it could not think beyond the typewriter. [Moi ici: Quando se convida a "DVD leadership team" para as reuniões sobre o futuro do negócio ... fica-se preso ao passado] Its strategy worked well, up to the late 1980s - until it didn't.

Germany has a Smith Corona problem. It has been hanging on to old technologies and old companies for too long. Innovation was inextricably linked to existing companies. [Moi ici: O que relato para Portugal quando escrevo sobre os ausentes, os mastins dos Baskerville, que não ladram] Innovation was defined by what VW, BMW and Mercedes decide to innovate. That, too, worked until it didn't.

The digital world, by contrast, is a world of start-ups. Start-ups need support - in the form of a strong capital market - and mostly need to be left alone and not encumbered by bureaucracy. Germany offers a great support network for existing companies, but not for start-ups. It lacks a modern venture capital industry. Subsidies are geared towards large companies with legal departments, not to entrepreneurs whose mind is focused on their business. The problem with bureaucracy is that large companies find ways to manage it. Small companies do not."[Moi ici: E agora regressem à Junqueira e à fixação com as empresas grandes só porque sim. BTW, eu em 2013 ainda não tinha descoberto a teoria dos Flying Geese. Eu ainda acreditava que os Geese podiam ser a solução. E são se pensarmos em competitividade, não são se pensarmos em produtividade. E competitividade sem produtividade é ... empobrecimento]