I tried to look at where did the kind of learning we do in schools, where did it come from? . . . It came from . . . the last and the biggest of the empires on this planet, [the British Empire].Of course, we like this explanation because it describes things as computers and machines. But more fundamentally, we like it because it points out that the three Rs were once the skills that workers needed to contribute to the most advanced economy of the time. As Mitra points out, the educational system of Victorian England was designed quite well for its time and place. But that time and place are no longer ours. As Mitra continued:
What they did was amazing. They created a global computer made up of people. It’s still with us today. It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine. In order to have that machine running, you need lots and lots of people.
They made another machine to produce those people: the school. The schools would produce the people who would then become parts of the bureaucratic administrative machine. . . . They must know three things: They must have good handwriting, because the data is handwritten; they must be able to read; and they must be able to do multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in their head. They must be so identical that you could pick one up from New Zealand and ship them to Canada and he wo uld be instantly functional.
The Victorians were great engineers. They engineered a system that was so robust that it’s still with us to day, continuously producing identical people for a machine that no longer exists. . . . [Today] the clerks are the computers. They’re there in thousands in every office. And you have people who guide those computers to do their clerical jobs. Those people don’t need to be able to write beautifully by hand. They don’t need to be able to multiply numbers in their heads. They do need to be able to read. In fact, they need to be able to read discerningly.Recordar:
"Consumer surplus compares the amount a consumer would have been willing to pay for something to the amount they actually have to pay. If you would happily pay one dollar to read the morning newspaper but instead you get it for free, then you’ve just gained one dollar of consumer surplus.Trecho retirado de "The Seconde Machine Age"
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Do we want to increase consumer surplus? Then lower prices [Moi ici: Baixar preços? Então quer dizer que todos os economistas, políticos e paineleiros que estão contra a deflação, estão contra a gasolina mais barata, a informática mais barata, a comida mais barata, o grátis na internet, a Amazon, ... estão contra o aumento do consumer surplus] or more leisure might be signs of progress, even if they result in a lower GDP. And, of course, many of our goals are nonmonetary."
"O setor metalúrgico e metalomecânico exportou, no passado mês de outubro, cerca de 1400 milhões de euros, registando assim o valor mais elevado de sempre nas exportações da indústria. Este valor representa um crescimento de 24% [Moi ici: A gente até desconfia do valor] face ao período homólogo do ano anterior!"Trecho retirado de "Setor Metalúrgico E Metalomecânico Com Melhor Resultado Mensal De Sempre Em Exportações"
"For the better part of a century, the vinyl record reigned supreme as the most popular format for listening to recorded sounds.We are all weird!!!
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A testament to their unique charms, vinyl records survived the coming of the 8-track and the cassette tape, before being put out to pasture, more-or-less, by compact discs in the 1990s.
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When it seemed clear that analog formats, of which vinyl is one, would give way to digital, some consumers rushed out to buy CDs. Others scrambled to convert their sometimes massive libraries of vinyl records to mp3s.
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But now vinyl has seemingly risen from the grave.
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With vinyl resurgent, some consumers now want to convert their digital music back into analog format. Enter a new crop of entrepreneurs looking to make a buck by helping consumers retrofit their music collections. For a price, websites like vinyl-pressing.com, edsvinyl.com, and vinylrecorder.com allow consumers to convert their mp3 files into vinyl records."
"For the past several years, business have began migrating their advertising away from Yellow Pages and into online media. What they don’t realize is that by doing so, they’re now targeting the 22-year-old living at home, rather than his home-owning, Baby Boomer parents with more disposable income.Talvez não sejam só os discos de vinil a voltar do mundo dos mortos e a adquirir uma nova vida.
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Perhaps I’m stereotyping, but it makes my point. The old media vs. new media debate is not so black-and-white. In a recent study, 45 percent of consumers cited Yellow Pages as “the source I go to first for finding local business information”—just slightly ahead of search engines at 42 percent.
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These studies make it clear that both Yellow Pages and search engines are the go-to sources consumers use to shop locally."
"Messages do not contain their own meaning, yet we cannot get at the knowledge contained in a message without knowing what it means.Uma entrevista ""Vejo hoje pessoas mais confiantes no sector"" e vários temas.
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Human communications problems begin because we are not “blank slates.” We have no trouble attaching meaning to a signal, we do it all the time and find it is almost impossible to prevent, except when we are surprised or shocked. “What was that bang?” “What did he say?” So the message sender’s problem is to ensure that a specific meaning is attached rather than some other."
"Podemos de alguma forma dizer que após esta “depuração” de 25 anos o sector que resistiu é competitivo globalmente ou a reestruturação ainda não acabou?Acredito que, concluído este processo de reestruturação (ou já numa fase muito avançada), temos hoje uma ITV muito mais robusta, capaz de competir com êxito no mercado global. Um processo desta natureza nunca se encontra concluído, mas acredito que, nesta fase, o sector se encontra depurado de quase tudo (empresas, emprego, produtos, modelos de negócio) que não tinha condições de sobrevivência nas novas condições de funcionamento do sector, à escala global.""ainda não acabou?" - O que significa esta pergunta? Qual a concepção do mundo que permite a sua formulação desta forma?
"the punctuated nature of change tricks our pattern-recognizing minds into thinking that the world is more stable than it really isOu ainda, recordar Joe Calloway em "Becoming a Category of One,
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All competitive advantage is temporary. Some advantages last longer than others, but all sources of advantage have a finite shelf life
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We discovered that there is no one best strategy; [Moi ici: Apreciar Beinhocker acerca dos modelos de Lindgren a viverem o dilema do prisioneiro] rather, the evolutionary process creates an ecosystem of strategies – an ecosystem that changes over time in Schumpeterian gales of creative destruction."
"A mere 34% of the 772 directors surveyed by McKinsey in 2013 agreed that the boards on which they served fully comprehended their companies’ strategies. Only 22% said their boards were completely aware of how their firms created value, and just 16% claimed that their boards had a strong understanding of the dynamics of their firms’ industries."A sublinhar:
"“The first question I would ask boards is whether they are spending enough time and effort assessing the organization’s long-term strategy,”Trechos retirados de "Where Boards Fall Short"
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“Strategy is the fundamental challenge of the organization, and it should engage the entire board.” That collective effort is critical to ensuring the right long-term debates and decisions."
"you get what you reward. You attract the customers that respond to the way you act. You end up with what you tolerate. You build what your audience demands.
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You might not get the customers you deserve, but you will probably end up with the customers you attract."
"Not only are the the sheer number of independent contractors increasing, but so are the companies leveraging said workers. These companies are hiring contractors at scale to serve multiple functions across multiple industries. These enterprises are realizing how valuable independent workers can be in improving the bottom-line, accelerating the pace of innovation and outperforming fiercely-competitive rivals."Sempre que um técnico desempregado me fala do problema da idade como barreira ao arranjar novo emprego, levanto sempre a hipótese-oportunidade de experimentar a ia da prestação de serviços de consultoria de marketing, de manutenção, de informática, de ... para a maioria é uma possibilidade que nunca tinham equacionado mas quando as empresas têm estas contas...
"The Internet has revolutionized countless industries, from finance to fashion. Now it’s starting to revolutionize the food industry. The biggest change has been the ability to order online.Anonimamente, muito mal distribuído, como reza a citação, o futuro já anda por aí.
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They want it to be authentic, they want to know how it was produced, and they want it to be a shared experience,
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The newest trend is cooking convenience delivered to your door. Blue Apron is one of the biggest players. You order a dish and Blue Apron delivers all the ingredients for a fresh meal with top-quality ingredients.
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Saffron Fix delivers to your doorstep all the ingredients, spices, bread and rice to cook an Indian meal at home.
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The exact model will evolve over time. And especially for the next few years, all these models will co-exist. But eventually much more food will be online.
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As companies like Blue Apron and Saffron Fix vie for customers, restaurants, will have to rethink the true value they are adding for their customers."
"If a strategy was simply a logical plan to reach a known objective, and many think of strategy of this way, communicating it would be easy. But the preceding chapters show strategizing as an ongoing process of selecting and dealing creatively with the situation’s uncertainties.A beleza da coisa está nesta incerteza, nesta variabilidade e idiossincrasia dos agentes. Se não fosse assim, o mundo podia ser tomado por robôs e arte não existiria.
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So different implementers know, say, and do different things. Second, those strategizing might try to finalize their work in all its details, treating the result as a comprehensive strategy that others should implement faithfully. As we know, strategists cannot do this without anticipating every possible possibility,"
"As petrolíferas argumentam que os supermercados vendem combustíveis 12 a 14 cêntimos mais baratos, os chamados "low cost", porque têm um modelo de negócio diferente, sem os custos de uma petrolífera (localização das bombas em zonas mais caras; desenvolvimento tecnológico; etc.)."Recordar o que escrevemos em Fevereiro de 2013 em "Mais uma asneira dos políticos":
"Os políticos que querem impor bombas low-cost são como os empresários, que refiro na apresentação, que julgam que low-cost é fazer mais desconto, que low-cost é ter menor margem. [Moi ici: E acrescento agora, ou que low-cost anda de braço dado com produto de qualidade inferior obrigatoriamente. Segundo a associação do sector petrolífero, o modelo de negócio é responsável por 8/9 cêntimos de abaixamento do preço e o produto não aditivado por 5/6 cêntimos ]
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Esta gente não percebe que por detrás do low-cost há um modelo de negócio diferente?"
"Custa a acreditar que o Salgado abriu buracos em todo o lado para salvar um grupo com dívida descontrolada que era um sorvedouro."Depois, de tarde, durante uma caminhada, ao ler "The Innovator's Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More than Good Ideas" de Michael Schrage encontro um conjunto de frases de Warren Buffett, entre elas:
"My most surprising discovery: the overwhelming importance in business of an unseen force that we might call “the institutional imperative.” … For example: (1) As if governed by Newton’s First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however, foolish, will quickly be supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation, or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated."
"the modern strategy process must be a much more forward-looking activity, because efficiency is no longer enough to deliver a decisive strategic advantage in many industries; instead, a so-called monopoly-based strategic advantage is needed."Isto, para um anónimo engenheiro da província que há anos, sozinho qual Quixote contra gigantes, proclama as virtudes da concorrência imperfeita e dos monopólios informais e a insuficiência do eficientismo na maioria dos contextos em que as PME operam, é um cumprimento!
"As contas emergem diretamente da análise de riscos do cenário macroeconómico, que acompanha o Orçamento do Estado de 2015 (OE/2015).Tudo o resto constante?! E as nossas exportações para a Rússia? E as nossas exportações para Angola? E um eventual regresso "forçado" de alguns milhares de portugueses a trabalhar em Angola?
Segundo esse modelo, economia e variáveis orçamentais reagem de determinada forma às oscilações em fatores exógenas, como preço do petróleo, taxa de juro de curto prazo e procura externa relevante.
Uma subida de 20% no custo do crude tende a agravar as condições da economia e das contas públicas. Inversamente, uma descida facilita a conjuntura nacional.
Ora, um preço do Brent na orla dos 60 dólares já se traduz numa descida de quase 40% no preço que foi tomado como hipótese de base para a construção do Orçamento: 96,7 dólares por barril.
Assumindo tudo o resto constante, uma descida do petróleo em 40% levaria a uma melhoria do crescimento da economia dos 1,5% projetados para 2,5% e o défice poderia melhorar duas décimas. Por cada 20% de descida no crude, o défice melhora 0,1 pontos percentuais."
"But the world has changed. More than half of consumers now research their retail purchases online, making purely in-store purchase decisions the shrinking minority. In many categories, e-commerce has dramatically lessened the need for physical stores. “Virtual space”—which we define as the floor space that would be required to generate the sales volume that online retail now accounts for, at a sales density equivalent to the industry average—is expanding at a staggering rate.O retalho a nível mundial, como o conhecemos, está a mudar. Lembram-se de como reagiu o comércio tradicional em Portugal à chegada dos centros comerciais?
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The effects of online migration in the retail industry are evident in every category. In the United States, apparel retailer Gap closed more than 250 stores in 2013; department-store chain Sears closed almost 200. Walmart’s new stores are about a third smaller than they were five years ago.
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In the United Kingdom, the number of vacant retail shops rose by 355 percent between 2008 and 2013,1 and in 2013 and 2014, three of the “big four” supermarkets took a combined write-down of £1.2 billion (approximately $2 billion) on the value of their undeveloped property. Perhaps the most affected category has been consumer electronics, where a 20 to 30 percent decline in physical retail space in the UK market between 2006 and 2012 was fully offset by the addition of an equivalent amount of virtual space."
"in the real world there were always at least two opposing or mutually exclusive ways of thinking about something"Porque foi mais atraente para os clientes comprar no centro comercial do que no comércio tradicional?
"But let’s be clear: the brick-and-mortar store is not dead; it just plays a different role now."Vou apenas referir os vectores de actuação propostos e, recomendo a leitura do sumo:
"Start by redefining the role of the store
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Tailor categories and formats accordingly
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Optimize the portfolio using forward-looking analytics
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Reinvent the in-store shopping experience"
"Apple owns only 18 percent of the app universe, but it banks almost 500 percent more than Google, pulling in a sweet $5.1 million in revenue each and every day. Meanwhile, Google owns 75 percent of all app downloads, but it only takes in $1.1 million per day."Não perder o excelente infográfico em "Comparing Apples and Googles: The App Store vs. Google Play"
"If you win the business at $120K, you’ve made $20K. If you win the business at $125K, a 4% price increase, you make $25K, a 25% improvement in profit. The particulars will depend on your business and the details of the proposal, but hopefully you get the idea. Small changes in price can have big impact on profit."Depois, algumas regras a considerar na feitura de um preço:
"1. Don’t price based on your cost....Trechos retirados de "4 Rules for Pricing Proposals"
2. Your price is limited by your perceived differential value— so price based on that....
Value is not something defined by your features. It is based on how you change the equation for customer. More specifically, it’s about how the customer perceives you change their situation, relative to the next best alternative. Your price is limited by your perceived differential value.
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3. Don’t lower your price to try to lower risk.
Many SMBs competing against big companies think that lower prices will help. This is true if the buyer thinks the big companies are inefficient and you can get the job done more cost-effectively. This is not true if the buyer is concerned about your ability to deliver. In this case, a lower price does nothing to help your perceived risk, and that’s if your lucky. In many cases, the lower price serves as a proxy for value and increases the perceived risk. Discounting from your initial offer certainly does not diminish the perceived risk.
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You want to be better, not cheaper.
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4. Give the buyer options"
"Debate is fine but practice is what mattersAo ler "The Innovator's Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More than Good Ideas" de Michael Schrage encontro além de "Acerca de Keynes (parte II)" mais isto:
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Thus no theory can embrace all the issues a practice engages.
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Judgment is always necessary to reasoned practice, a view theorizing tries to deny.
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strategists are always working with particulars and so have limited interest in theoretical statements
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Doubt is key - we must remain open to the possibility that things are not what they seem."
"Joseph Schumpeter. A brilliant rival to Keynes, he disagreed about the importance of ideas in making innovation happen. “Successful innovation…,” he wrote in 1928, “is a feat not of intellect but of will. Its difficulty consists in the resistance and uncertainties incident to doing what has not been done before. …”Ao ler "Sometimes Being Wrong Can Be More Valuable Than Being Right", encontro o mesmo padrão:
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For Schumpeter, commitment to overcoming resistance and managing uncertainty—not cultivation of intellectual prowess—determines innovation outcomes. Ideas aren’t irrelevant to Schumpeter, who was arguably as much an intellectual elitist as Keynes. But he recognized their inherent inferiority to action when it comes to the marketplace. Aspiring entrepreneurs shouldn’t invest too much in inferior goods. Real innovators—real leaders—know that actions speak louder than words and behave accordingly."
"While the Gödel and Turing showed that logic was no longer absolute or infallible, its flaws were manageable and the systems they created in its place made the information age possible. Out of the rubble of Aristotle’s logic, a new world was born.
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Entrepreneurs engaged in creative disruption keep the system humming along, so as long as we have innovation, there is no contradiction. We do have rent seeking, such as car dealers lobbying against Tesla, which is a problem, but not an insurmountable one.
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In the process, we learned something important. It’s not business per se that creates value, but innovation."
"nota-se uma confiança crescente dos executivos na capacidade competitiva das empresas locais.Eheheh começa a ser tão claro o sucesso da renovação empresarial que até as universidades já a reconhecem!
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as empresas portuguesas destacam como os dois principais objetivos estratégicos a melhoria da eficiência das operações e o fortalecimento dos seus processos de inovação.
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as estratégias de posicionamento de produto se baseiam em conseguir diferenciação baseada em atributos como a qualidade, o serviço e o fornecimento de soluções integradas. O posicionamento como produtor de baixo custo é essencialmente coisa do passado e fica ainda pendente o desafio de posicionar produto com recurso a marcas fortes, uma abordagem que só algumas empresas portuguesas conseguem desenvolver com sucesso nos mercados internacionais.
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Em síntese, embora a crise económico-financeira do país esteja ainda longe de estar resolvida, é percetível que a empresa portuguesa está a mudar e que a "era da troika" está a deixar um tecido empresarial mais competitivo e disposto a ganhar mercados em países que até há pouco tempo eram pouco considerados ou diretamente ignorados. Não é pouco."
"A decision validator – reducing the perceived risk of purchases by assuring buyers they’ve made a good decision.Trechos retirados de "What Retail Sales Associates Still Do Better than Websites"
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A choice navigator – improving customers’ decisions among many options.
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A needs identifier – helping customers uncover unfelt or latent needs.
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A community builder – connecting customers to each other and to the brand.
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An insights collector – gleaning customer insights for the company. As many B2B companies will attest, a sales force can be a valuable customer research tool."
"A worker collective is the obvious transition. Uber and the rest of the “sharing economy” companies will try to close the door behind them, either by putting their workers in binding contracts or by lobbying government officials to build their own set of industry protections. But a transition to workers’ owning their firms is necessary, economically smart, and one way for workers to gain power in the digital age. Because you know what worker-run firms do? Share."bem na linha do referido em "Curiosidade do dia", recorda como o impacte da democratização da produção e dos meios de pagamento:
"The unleashing of freedom and creativity in many areas of human endeavour could be unparalleled, as overhead costs, organisational inertia and regulatory barriers dissolve."pode mudar o paradigma da economia como a vimos nos últimos 100 anos.
"O orçamento não é a única solução para controlar a execução da estratégia da sua empresa, que é a razão por que falham 75% dos planos."Leio em ""O orçamento nas empresas está desacreditado"".
“Today, there is a lobby of architects and the politicians are kneeling in front of them. I don’t see why we should accept anything from them, on the pretext that we are in a futurist adventure.”Confesso que não sei como devem evoluir as cidades, penso que deve ser uma conjugação de interesses que as torne:
"O que é que lhe está a custar mais nesta nova tarefa?.O que Schrage critica na frase de Keynes, na minha interpretação, está relacionado com a preocupação acima manifestada pelo professor de ética tornado gestor. As nossas ideias, as nossas teorias, as nossas hipóteses de explicação do mundo serão sempre tentativas incompletas e imperfeitas de o descrever e de prescrever uma linha de actuação.
Sair de uma aula de Ética Médica com alunos de Medicina do 5.o ano e, nas minhas tarefas de administração, não conseguir fazer o que ensino. Está-me a custar ver que há uma grande diferença entre os pareceres, artigos, livros e congressos e o que se passa na gestão de um hospital. Sei que a gestão do hospital não se pode fazer estritamente "by the book", mas se seria bom os bioeticistas mergulharem por dois ou três meses na gestão de cuidados de saúde, quem tem responsabilidades de gestão na saúde também devia ter outra formação teórica.
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Só está a ter agora essa percepção?.
Nunca tinha estado numa administração! Fiz a carreira na ética mas era um simples médico que trabalhava numa consulta de grávidas. Fui chefe de banco, fiz urgências, mas nunca tinha tido de decidir e assinar de 15 em 15 dias a compra de 1,5 milhões em medicamentos.
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Mas sente o quê, desilusão?.
Não é desilusão, é a simples constatação de que as coisas estão distantes daquilo que tenho ensinado. Tem de haver transparência, prestação de contas, decisão informada e eu dou por mim a ver que me faltam dados. Como é que posso tomar uma decisão informada se não tenho os dados todos? Admito que os medicamentos que estou a comprar são os adequados porque confio nos meus colegas mas uma decisão eticamente responsável tem de seguir estes passos, o que exige tempo, colaboração, transparência."
"A estratégia inicial não resiste aos primeiros minutos da confusão da batalha"A realidade não só é imperfeitamente percepcionada por nós, como está em permanente convulsão, tornando verdade hoje o que ontem era mentira e vice versa. Por isso, Schrage no seu livro "The Innovator's Hypothesis" valoriza o papel da experimentação sobre o intelectual.
"As supermarkets flounder, small food and drink retailers are booming...Trechos retirados de "Boutique food shops Deli-licious"
The expansion of Keelham’s reflects the robust health of the country’s boutique food-and-drink business. There are about 4,000 such businesses today, and more are opening all the time. The National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association, which represents about 300 farm shops, says that many members have reported a 5-10% increase in turnover this year.
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Some analysts expected the burgeoning sector of small food-and-drink companies to be decimated by the financial crash of 2008. Surely tasty treats from the local deli would be the first casualties as household budgets were slashed. In fact, the reverse has happened. The sector has not only survived, but prospered, partly due to the change in shopping habits provoked by that same recession. [Moi ici: O artigo expõe o fenómeno da polarização dos mercados]
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Another essential ingredient in the success of the small producers is the increasing demand for locally sourced food. After various scandals in Britain’s food production, from “mad-cow disease” to the discovery of horse meat in some products, consumers are much more concerned to know where their food comes from, and how it was produced.
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Farm shops and delis thus stress the local content of their food in a way that supermarkets, with their central distributions systems, usually cannot. “Provenance is really important now,”"
"Now more and more of us are eschewing 9-to-5 jobs to plow our own paths, pursue our career passions, and wrest control of our daily grind. And that transformation is only accelerating. Soon, we’ll look back on the desk-jockey era as a distant memory.Trechos retirados de "2015 Forecast: You'll Never Work the Same Way Again"
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In this Gig Economy (i.e., the rising labor force of entrepreneurs) we’re increasingly independent by choice. Last year, nearly 80% of new entrepreneurs made the leap, even though they weren’t coming off unemployment. And we’re happy that we took the plunge, with eight of 10 solopreneurs saying that they’re satisfied with their work.
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Here are the trends that are fostering the independent work revolution.
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Generation Gig...
This tech-savvy, uber-connected generation thinks differently about earning a living. They care more about the content and impact of their toils than how much money they earn or status they acquire. They want to pursue the work they’re interested in while maintaining flexibility. Indeed, a recent study shows that 79% of them would consider quitting their traditional job to freelance.
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With this Generation Gig dominating the workforce, our rise into independent work is sure to reach meteoric heights.
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SaaP: Services as a Product...
The Sharing Economy Goes Mainstream...
Startup America...
The Rise of the Digital Nomads...
A Toast to the Future of Work...We’re increasingly living in a world where passion, collaboration, and technology all play an equally crucial role in the way make our livings."
"Too many businesspeople have been bullied, brainwashed, and highbrow-beaten into believing that economic value creation is rooted in intellectual breakthroughs. They’ve been persuaded - perhaps even intimidated - by the eloquent specter of John Maynard Keynes’s famous cliché: “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else . Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”
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Bold words, indeed—but, with respect, what does one expect an elitist Cambridge don with a well-deserved reputation for intellectual snobbery to say? That Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution required the collaborative energies of rigorous tinkerers like James Watt and entrepreneurial opportunists like his partner, Matthew Boulton? That the engineering prowess of Isambard Brunel, Richard Trevithick, and Charles Parsons transformed the world’s railways, sea transport, and energy production? That John D. Rockefeller’s ruthless business practices at Standard Oil altered how ambitious innovators perceived economies of scale and scope? That Henry Ford’s relentless focus on design simplicity and production efficiency redefined what manufacturing meant? That college dropouts like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and Mark Zuckerberg might one day lead multibillion-dollar ventures that turned personal computing into mass media worldwide?
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Of course not. Keynes and his intellectualizing apostles are above the practicality of all that. Yes, those innovators may have pioneered new industries, overturned establishments, and improved the quality of life for millions. But, in Keynes’s reality, they’re entrepreneurial ‘meat puppets’ in thrall to the transcendent influence of defunct economists and dead philosophers. For Keynes, ideas from economics and economists - not tools or technologies from scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs - are what really rule the world.
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Who are we kidding? The arrogance displayed here is exceeded only by its historical inaccuracy. Keynes offers little but the propaganda of his professional genius to make his point. The sweeping pomposity of his assertion recalls George Orwell’s tart observation that “some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” Indeed. This particular absurdity thrills intellectuals for an excellent reason: it makes them the heroes and aristocracy of innovation.
That’s why understanding this arrogance is important. This intellectual superiority justifies the condescension so many idealists and ideaholics bring to postindustrial innovation. Contemporary Keynesians aren’t Harvard-trained economists debating how much money governments should print to stimulate demand. Rather, they’re intellectual capital–obsessed idealogues who evangelize that good ideas are more valuable than strong currencies.
Ideas sit at the white-hot center of innovation and value creation in this economic universe. They channel their Lord’s fundamentalist ideal, both in their descriptions of how they think the world works and their prescriptions for how they think the world should work. Ideas über alles.
This describes the power struggle confronting innovators everywhere. Academics, intellectuals, and the peddlers of good ideas have declared ideas and intellect the central pillars of innovation. People who don’t appreciate the power and potential of good ideas are either idiots or apostates. They’re doomed. Pity them or damn them, but please get them out of the way."
"O sector de têxtil e vestuário em Portugal poderá perder, até 2020, cerca de 20 mil trabalhadores, mas naquele ano espera atingir um volume de exportações de cinco mil milhões de euros, igualando o valor mais elevado de sempre.Um gráfico que uso há anos é este:
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O plano estratégico aponta para que em 2020 existam em Portugal cinco mil empresas do têxtil e vestuário e 100 mil trabalhadores, com um volume de negócios de 6,5 mil milhões de euros e um valor de exportações de cinco mil milhões de euros.
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"Este deverá ser o melhor ano desde 2001", apontou Paulo Vaz, sublinhando que agora existem menos de metade das empresas e menos de metade dos trabalhadores."
"Por vezes apetece-me dar um chuto na lata e ir viver para um país com menos chulos por metro quadrado... Um amigo, há uns meses decidiu concretizar um sonho pessoal que era o de organizar um pequeno festival de jazz, no bairro onde vive (ele e mais pessoas) para poder proporcionar algo aos seus moradores. Envolveu várias pessoas que voluntáriamente o ajudaram a implementar esse seu pequeno (grande) projecto. E toda a gente, dentro das suas possibilidades se uniu para dinamizar a rua e o bairro onde vive, que muito raramente vê algo a acontecer nas suas ruas. O sonho cumpriu-se. Os vizinhos conviveram e a noite foi diferente. Não havia cobrança de bilhetes. Não foi feito em recinto fechado. Os patrocínios angariados, pouco mais serviram do que pagar as despesas inerentes à montagem do evento... Mas graças à SPA, e a um rastreio através do facebook para ir à caça de eventos "não licenciados", o sonho virou pesadelo. E a SPA veio exigir o pagamento de direitos de autor, pela organização de um evento de jazz, cujos protagonistas tocavam as suas próprias músicas. O meu amigo foi a tribunal. E para além de ter de pagar 180 euros à SPA, terá que cumprir 80 horas de trabalho comunitário (por ter cometido O CRIME de organizar um evento de música, onde a vontade de oferecer algo assim aos seus vizinhos foi superior ao conhecimento da obrigatoriedade de licenciamento, mesmo para um evento de carácter gratuito... E é assim, que neste país, as iniciativas não lucrativas, mas com carácter eminentemente humano são consideradas puníveis por parte de agentes que defendem apenas a sua lógica de lucro pessoal e quem em pouco ou nada defendem os artistas. (apenas aqueles que lhes estão associados) e aos quais também retribuem com uma côdea da parte de direitos autorais que lhes toca..."Maldita troika que devia ter deixado falir este sistema de instituições-extractivas.
"The real reason that the Kongolese did not adopt superior technology was because they lacked any incentives to do so. They faced a high risk of all their output being expropriated and taxed by the all-powerful king," [Moi ici: BTW, o modelo aqui defendido pelo Cortes]
"One interesting result from McKinsey’s survey was firms with higher profitability are “twice as likely to review strategy on an ongoing basis (as opposed to say annually or every three to five years).” If we return to the origins of strategy, what general doesn’t review his strategy on a regular basis?"Recordar "Quantas vezes por mês?"
"“But it’s in China’s interest to get out of toys and T-shirts, and that’s what they are going to do.”"E dedicado a Ferreira do Amaral, Medina Carreira et al:
"“There is a lot of work that shows exchange rates are less important than quality, marketing strategies, backup and service. If you have those, exchange rates are not unimportant, but it may take big moves in exchange rates to have an effect.” [Moi ici: Parágrafo importante, à atenção dos que querem sair do euro e voltar ao laxismo do escudo]
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Japan’s pressure on the renminbi could be little more than an irritating distraction as China focuses on the more important task of escaping the so-called middle-income trap. [Moi ici: Se a carga fiscal fosse menor e as empresas pudessem capitalizar-se mais rapidamente, talvez escapássemos a este middle-income trap de forma mais evidente]
"“Os hotéis são bem-vindos, mas tem de haver aqui um equilíbrio entre a memória da Baixa e o seu património, e as coisas novas que vão aparecendo“.Apesar de tentar todos os dias fugir à doença burguesa, ao socialismo, reconheço que têm algum fundo de verdade, embora não creia em leis para estabelecer a fronteira.
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“Fashion, gourmet, vintage. Tudo palavras estrangeiras, por acaso. Depois os turistas vêm visitar o quê? Não se podem fechar estas lojas para fazer lojas vintage. Isto é o verdadeiro vintage!”, disse Scalisi.
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A defesa da Drogaria é um símbolo de um objetivo maior: evitar que Lisboa se torne uma cidade “desumanizada, onde a história e a vida das pessoas vale tão pouco face ao lucro do turismo massificado e da especulação imobiliária”."
"O espaço centenário já foi a Antiga Casa Alvarez. Em 1964, nascia ali a S. Pereira Leão pela mão de três sócios. O negócio, onde se faziam perfumes, aromas e essências, comemorou este ano meio século. É também há 50 anos que Fernanda Silva trabalha ali...Veio-me agora à mente a metáfora de Joaquim Aguiar sobre a geração de funcionários nos partidos políticos...
“Os herdeiros têm deixado isto estar aberto, ao nosso cuidado, embora não esteja a dar muito lucro porque o negócio está todo mau. Mas as minhas colegas ainda precisam de mais alguns anos para a reforma e eles têm deixado isto aberto”, contou ao Observador Fernanda Silva, funcionária gerente da drogaria, cujos proprietários são os filhos dos primeiros donos, já falecidos.
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as três funcionárias e os três sócios aguardam por uma solução que teima em não chegar. Há seis meses, os sócios receberam uma carta que dava conta do novo projeto do proprietário do edifício: ceder o prédio a um novo hotel.
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Questionado sobre a possibilidade de a drogaria poder continuar no mesmo local, o proprietário do edifício disse apenas nunca ter chegado “a pensar nisso”, acrescentando que os sócios não tentaram continuar ali."
"as três funcionárias e os três sócios aguardam por uma solução que teima em não chegar."Ganha outra conotação.
"That the number of video stores around the world is on the decline isn’t exactly breaking news. ... But just because Blockbuster couldn’t keep its iconic blue awnings hanging doesn’t mean there aren’t some intrepid entrepreneurs (and diehard cinephiles) taking a cue from their digital counterparts and finding ways to not just survive in the age of Netflix, but thrive.Um de vários exemplos em "Not Dead Yet: How Some Video Stores Are Thriving in the Age of Netflix". Uma recordação de Clausewitz:
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Though the store measures just 375 square feet, basement storage allows Hillis - a noted film critic in his own right - to keep approximately 10,000 discs on hand. But rather than compete against the same wide-release films and television series that one can watch with the click of a button and an $8.99 streaming subscription, Hillis is curating a library of hard-to-find fare. “After the floodgates of the Internet opened, we’re now drowning in content and especially mediocrity,” Hillis says. “Video Free Brooklyn’s model is almost a no-brainer: My inventory is heavily curated, but so is my staff, all of whom work in the film industry and have extensive, nerdy knowledge about cinema. Coming into the shop is about nostalgia, the joy of discovery, and getting catered recommendations from passionate cinephiles. It’s a hangout, like the record store in High Fidelity.”"
"The key to von Clausewitz’s thinking lay in his “dialectical” method, his sense that in the real world there were always at least two opposing or mutually exclusive ways of thinking about something - perhaps two theories or heuristics. He thought of strategizing in terms of natural language and its openness to surprise and creativity rather than formal language and deterministic theory. The Clausewitzian world is one of trade-offs—matters of practice inevitably involving judgments supported by, but never dictated by, analysis."
