A amarelo as mudanças de produto na linha de produção. Uns produtos com mais produtividade física do que outros. Cada mudança de produto implica paragens para setup.
A verde a ocorrência de avarias que implicaram paragens de produção.
A azul a ocorrência de faltas de pessoal que implicaram impacte na produção: falta de pessoal para produção ou para fazer setup.
A laranja a ocorrência de faltas de matéria-prima.
Olhar para a evolução do desempenho ao longo de um período, olhar para o somatório de ocorrências. Será que faz sentido olhar para os eventos como azares que ocorrem, ou como produtos naturais, expectáveis, previsíveis, decorrentes da forma como uma empresa planeia e desenvolve a produção, compra, trata os seus trabalhadores e cuida dos seus equipamentos.
É nestas circunstâncias que falo da conspiração da realidade e me recordo de Artur Jorge:
Excelente texto do Pedro Garcias no Fugas. Com o caso particular do vinho a demonstrar como os nossos empresários confundem preço e valor e sobretudo não querem ganhar dinheiro mas sim que gostem deles. pic.twitter.com/oqBHpb2fBe
Alertado por este tweet fui em busca do artigo original, "O good value for money é agora o grande inimigo do vinho português" publicado na revista Fugas de ontem:
"Descendo à Terra: como vai o vinho português? Muito bem, medalhado como nunca, idolatrado como nunca, consumido como nunca, diverso como nunca, mas pobre como sempre, por ser bom de mais para o que custa. Mais ou menos como o país. O problema do vinho português resume-se nesta frase: good value for money, expressão inglesa para designar uma boa compra. Adoramos dizer que na relação qualidade/preço o vinho português é imbatível. Enchemos o peito de orgulho quando levamos os estrangeiros a reconhecer o mesmo e a confessar que não imaginavam que houvesse vinhos tão bons em Portugal. Mas nem nos damos conta que o good value for money é agora o nosso pior inimigo, o nosso buraco negro, aquele que nos suga para a irrelevância no mundo do vinho. A boa compra é a senha para a simples sobrevivência. Serve até que surja outra compra ainda melhor, graças a um preço ainda mais baixo. [Moi ici: A race to the bottom] Pode servir para vender a grosso, mas é insuficiente para ganhar espaço e notoriedade nos mercados maduros e entre quem gasta realmente dinheiro com o vinho, entre quem olha para o vinho não apenas como uma simples bebida alcoólica mas como algo que tem também um valor cultural e até artístico – algo que pode valer o que se pedir por ele. Fazer vinhos bons e baratos, com custos de produção elevados, nunca deu prestígio e proveito a ninguém. ... Exportar 800 milhões de euros de vinho, como aconteceu em 2018, é melhor do que nada, mas é muito pouco face aos cerca de cinco mil milhões de euros que só a região francesa de Champanhe facturou. ... Do vinho português, a percepção que existe – e só desde há poucos anos – é a de ser o tal vinho bom e barato. Quando o consumidor global com poder de compra quer adquirir um vinho caro e especial, dificilmente pensa em Portugal. Já é um avanço sermos vistos como um país que produz bons vinhos. Mas chegou a hora de centrarmos todos os esforços de promoção na ideia de que o vinho português é mais do que uma boa compra. ... Precisamos de ser mais ambiciosos e de fazer escolhas, mesmo que tenham custos elevados a curto prazo. ... Não é de um dia para o outro que se muda tudo. Mas é quando os tempos são mais favoráveis que se pode e deve começar a mudar. Um país bag in box, de produtores mal pagos e em que só umas poucas empresas conseguem realmente ter sucesso, será sempre um país sem grande futuro."
Em linha com as nossas críticas ao mundo do vinho:
"Quatro dos maiores sectores de exportação mandaram apertar o cinto de segurança. Os números do Instituto Nacional de Estatística sobre o comércio internacional de bens mostram que as vendas ao exterior da metalurgia/metalomecânica, do agro-alimentar, do têxtil/vestuário e do calçado estão a inclinar para o pior lado."
Quem acompanha este blogue sabe que o perfil de exportações há vários anos que se vem a fragilizar. Recordar, por exemplo:
O artigo não traz mais nenhuma novidade para quem lê este blogue. No entanto, saliento algo que ilustra a loucura em que andamos atolados:
"Rafael Campos Pereira salienta a importância da manutenção das taxas de juro baixas, dado que isso permite alimentar algum investimento nas grandes empresas estrangeiras que são importantes parceiros comerciais deste sector nacional."
Sempre que oiço/leio alguém defender as taxas de tudo muito baixas, recuo a Julho de 2008 e a este diagrama:
Quanto mais baixa a taxa de juro, mais baixo o risco, mais baixa a rentabilidade potencial dos projectos aprovados. Basta as taxas de juros subirem um bocado para estes projectos morrerem facilmente por incapacidade de libertarem meios para servir a dívida.
Uma outra nota a merecer comentário:
"Por outro lado, na indústria do metal pede-se que o próximo governo tome medidas fiscais que ajudem o sector a lidar com o “maior desafio de todos” que é a falta de pessoal."
Rafael Campos Pereira, da AIMMAP, já devia ter começado a preparar os associados para o desafio da subida na escala de valor. Recordo:
"Preferia uma aposta naquilo em que temos tradição, uma aposta na fábrica do futuro, para dar resposta à procura do futuro."
É sobre isto, também:
"Ultimately, their real challenge wasn’t designing garments, but rather creating a digital platform that would connect expert tailors with consumers who were used to shopping online. They spent several months searching for two factories in China and one in the United States that had good workmanship and would also be willing to partner with a startup like theirs that had an on-demand manufacturing model."
O rombo no calçado intriga-me. Sintoma de fragilidade. Mas então não se andou a investir em marcas próprias nestes últimos anos? Não se diversificaram os destinos de exportação? Preço p/par não era já o 2ª atrás de ITA? Ou essa história andava a ser mal contada?
"O rombo no calçado intriga-me. Sintoma de fragilidade. "
Não é saudável que um qualquer sector económico cresça ad eternum. Mais tarde ou mais cedo, exageros, ou alterações na oferta e/ou na procura, determinam anos de ajuste com crescimento negativo.
O calçado em Portugal cresceu durante quase 10 anos seguidos. Um desempenho notável. Aumento das exportações em número de pares, aumento das exportações em euros e em preço médio; aumento do número de empresas e de trabalhadores. Um desempenho baseado na aposta na flexibilidade, na rapidez, na proximidade.
Acontece que hoje já não estamos sozinhos nessa proposta de valor:
São capazes de oferecer essa proposta de valor com preços mais baixos.
"Mas então não se andou a investir em marcas próprias nestes últimos anos?"
Sim, investiu-se em marcas próprias. Recordar "As minhas dúvidas". Pode existir a contabilidade das marcas criadas, não existe é a contabilidade das marcas que não vingaram. Criar uma marca não é impossível, mas é caro e obriga a dominar técnicas para as quais a gestão da produção não prepara. Acredito que as marcas a criar têm de ser para complementar a produção para outros (private label). A produção no regime de private label dá o pão com manteiga e as marcas podem em alguns casos dar o complemento do fiambre. Acredito que o futuro passa mais por escolher e trabalhar para nichos do que criar marcas próprias. (Recordar: "Mudar e anichar!" E perceber que a maioria dos empresários não segue indicadores "Até dói fisicamente" e, prefere fugir de constrangimentos em vez do que correr para objectivos. Recordar: "Uma bofetada que recebo como um aviso")
" Não se diversificaram os destinos de exportação?"
Sim, diversificaram-se, mas somos order takers. A APICCAPS faz um trabalho notável de comunicação, cria uma imagem positiva nos media, mas é como a política no Twitter. O resultado das eleições é diferente da imagem que temos da política no Twitter. Ninguém mente, mas só se mostra uma parte da realidade. Ainda esta semana escutei, meio aparvalhado, como ainda existem empresas más-más-más e que estão vivas. Juro que andava há cerca de dois meses a reflectir sobre que empresas fecham primeiro quando há uma mudança da maré. E pensei nas várias empresas que nos últimos meses têm fechado apesar de não ficarem a dever nada a ninguém. Gente organizada percebe antes de todos os outros que não vale a pena enterrar dinheiro e agem em conformidade. Gente que não tem noção, vai ser empurrada pela realidade.
"Preço p/par não era já o 2ª atrás de ITA?"
Tudo isso acerca dos preços é verdade, mas... também decorre das diferenças de perfil da produção. Há anos escrevi sobre os golos ...
Por que crescem as exportações de produtos farmacêuticos?
Basta atentar neste título de jornal desta semana "Medicamentos: "nível de preços é o mais baixo na União Europeia"". Por que faltam tantos medicamentos nas farmácias? Por que se ganha mais dinheiro a exportar do que a alimentar o mercado nacional... e quem tem de pagar contas, faz escolhas racionais.
De resto, o forte crescimento das exportações ligadas à óptica, autóveis e aeronaves continua.
As exportações agrícolas continuam a crescer.
O resto ... está em retracção. Grande rombo no calçado.
The third video on our series about doing more than just complying with ISO 9001:2015.
Now, about interested parties and what can be their use in developing an aligned quality management system.
I do not say that organizations that want to be certified need to act like in this video. What I say is that organizations that look for business results should consider following an approach around what I propose.
In a world that is running away from the XXth century paradigm, based on just Quality-Cost-Delivery, and into what I metaphorically call Mongo, the planet Mongo from Flash Gordon's adventures, the number of segment of customers is exploding and the need to chose whom to serve and align the business in doing it is becoming more and more critical.
Organizations cannot expect to serve everyone, organizations cannot expect that a simple dyadic relation between customer and supplier will be enough. We are entering in a world of ecosystems.
Para um crente e praticante da concorrência imperfeita que se sente, qual João Baptista, como uma voz que clama no deserto, é um bálsamo encontrar:
"The theory of opportunity creation sets a new framework for the analysis of entrepreneurial strategic action. Opportunities are seen as a product of competitive imperfection in the industry or the market. The origin of this imperfection, in the creation theory, is in the transformation of entrepreneurial beliefs into social constructs that guide actions of entrepreneurs and other constituents in the industry or market.
... opportunities may also be created when entrepreneurs set to induce governed changes to their environment. By taking the proactive position in constructing their niches, entrepreneurs or organizations can choose or modify the relevant threats and possibilities.
...
For a long time, the theory of biological evolution has been dominated by approaches that stressed adaptation and selection as the main drivers of evolutionary processes. These approaches emphasized the unidirectional causal power of the environment—that forces evolving entities to climb fitness landscape peaks as they evolve—and implied that disruptions to the fitness landscape were exogenous. Yet, in recent years, it has been recognized that evolving entities, too, can play a remarkable role in modifying fitness landscapes, as they change their habitats.
...
the idea of niche construction may provide useful insights for the dynamics of organizational and entrepreneurial strategies. In particular, it may help to recognize how competitive imperfections can emerge within industries and markets, as a process governed by the focal organization or entrepreneur.
...
that particular organizational strategies can alter the conditions of an organizational environment. To do so, organizations may develop specific capabilities related to the task of modification and manipulation of their environments. In particular, for political environments, organizations develop dynamic capabilities that allow them to alter between these reactive and proactive strategies depending on the pace and complexity of organizational environments.
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These three approaches (coevolutionary, cognitive, and political action theories) are not mutually exclusive."
As organizações não estão condenadas a uma postura passiva, elas podem iniciar a mudança do contexto relevante em que operam. Sim, mesmo uma PME o pode iniciar.
Trechos retirados de "Niche Construction: The Process of Opportunity Creation in the Environment" de Pavel Luksha, Strat. Entrepreneurship J., 2: 269–283 (2008)
I have this theory...people that design hotel rooms don't travel. People that design kitchens don't cook. People that design classrooms don't teach. People that design living rooms don't spend time in them...and you get the idea. https://t.co/85eTLujfDf
"Your job might be a series of tasks. Tasks are work where money is traded for time and effort. You put in a fixed amount of time, expending effort along the way, and you get paid. In the end, tasks are completed and it’s up to the boss to weave those tasks together into something useful. ... The alternative is projects. . The way a project gets done is up to you. Your goal is to create an extraordinary outcome, not to perform the tasks. The work done is simply a means to an end. If you can figure out how to do less work or different work and still create project magic, that’s exactly what you should do."
Como se argumentava numa reunião ontem: o importante é a atitude.
Ontem ao fim do dia, durante uma caminhada, li "Position, Leverage and Opportunity: A Typology of Strategic Logics Linking Resources with Competitive Advantage" de Christopher B. Binghama e Kathleen M. Eisenhar, publicado por Manage. Decis. Econ. 29: 241–256 (2008)
Enquanto lia o artigo só me vinha uma frase à mente:
- Anything goes!
Cada empresa é um caso, cada contexto é único. Perante uma realidade concreta, parte-se sempre, ou quase sempre, daquilo que se tem à mão. Umas vezes faz sentido desenhar uma estratégia a partir de um certo posicionamento, outras vezes fará mais sentido trabalhar alguns factores que se crêem diferenciadores, outras vezes será trabalhar a partir de uma oportunidade. Não existe uma receita única.
E achar que os recursos são fundamentais de per se... é esquecer a realidade aumentada.
"KPIs don’t simply monitor enterprise success; they proactively drive it. This shift creates innovative opportunities for ambitious leadership. ... your KPIs are your strategy; your strategy is your KPIs. For top-tier transformers, KPIs explicitly shape the strategic leadership dialogue and debate."
Quase que dói fisicamente ler este texto, ao pensar que em muitas empresas não se trabalha com indicadores, não se faz "batota" para aprender, não se pensa em explicitar "o que não fazer".
"enterprise strategy is defined by the key performance indicators (KPIs) leaders choose to optimize. These KPIs can be customer centric or cost driven, process specific or investor oriented. These are the measures organizations use to create value, accountability, and competitive advantage. Bluntly: Leadership teams that can’t clearly identify and justify their strategic KPI portfolios have no strategy. ... Whatever the specific strategy, virtually all organizations create corresponding measures to characterize and communicate desirable strategic outcomes. Those metrics — be they KPIs, objectives and key results (OKRs), or a Balanced Scorecard — are how organizations hold humans and algorithms accountable. ... “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Once those guardrails are established, identifying and minimizing unwelcome consequences becomes as important as promoting the outcomes you want. The essential takeaway here is that prioritizing KPIs — ranking them according to what matters most and what the organization must learn the best — is essential to enterprise strategy. In an always-on big data world, your system of measurement is your strategy. . Determining the optimal “metrics mix” for key enterprise stakeholders becomes an executive imperative. ... This optimization imperative, our research suggests, demands a rigorous rethinking of the metrics chosen to define desirable (and undesirable) strategic outcomes. ... To be clear, optimization in this context does not mean maximization. On the contrary, it means computationally learning to advance toward desired strategic outcomes through carefully calculated and calibrated KPI trade-offs. Understanding trade-offs among and between competing — and complementary — KPIs is essential. Simply optimizing individual KPIs by priority or rank ignores their inherent interdependence. For any KPI portfolio, identifying and calculating how best to weight and balance individual KPIs becomes the strategic optimization challenge."
"One of Japan's big department store operators is reinventing its business model by converting prime real estate in its stores into showrooms where customers look but don't buy. . That is only half of the rethink. While Marui Group's shoppers are invited in to have their measurements taken, to test digital equipment or to trade anime collectibles, they are also hit up about applying for credit cards. ... [Moi ici: O impacte da demografia] According to a family income and expenditure survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, consumer spending on fashion has declined 40% over the past 20 years. ... Most of Japan's department stores have come to depend on foreign tourists to make up for sales being lost to internet shopping sites, or for sales that are evaporating altogether as Japan's birthrate declines and its population grays."
"Recently the discourse has developed along four trajectories. First, building on the idea of generic actors, research is increasingly focusing on actor engagement rather than customer engagement. Second, ideas related to collective or multi-actor engagement in networks illustrates how actors are connected and how these connections drive engagement behaviours. Third, informed by the realization that value creation happens in a systemic context, literature is making attempts to be liberated from a dyadic view, thus recognizing how institutional contexts influence actor engagement. ... Building on this we also argue that, to be free from the restriction of dyadic thinking, engagement needs to be de-coupled from the exchange of property rights. The paper then proceeds by explicating the role of actor engagement as a driver of value creation, which suggests an elevation of actor engagement as a managerial priority. ... the previously strict roles of producer vs. consumer, or seller vs. buyer are fleeting, as actors can have different roles. An actor-to-actor perspective effectively renders clearly specified and static actor roles useless. All actors have comparable processes of engagement and what is needed is a generic view of actor engagement. ... “actors need to be viewed not only as humans, but also as machines/technologies, or collections of humans and machines/technologies, including organizations” ... need to also understand collective engagement of multiple (individual) actors. The argument is that focusing only on engagement by individual actors may lead to ignorance about aspects that arise from the inherent social embeddedness of actors, i.e., actor engagement by one actor affects resource integration processes between the focal actor and other actors in the service ecosystem. ... However, all actor engagement happens in an institutional context, in which all actions are governed by various competing institutional arrangements. These arrangements are “interrelated sets of institutions that together constitute a relatively coherent assemblage that facilitates coordination of activity” ... we posit that the dramatic shifts that we see in the operating environment are elevating the role of actor engagement, making the management of actor engagement a strategic priority. ... it is not the attributes of resources that make them valuable, but the linkages between them. ... means that firm size is less important and firms' ability to collaborate more important, and that firms require a systemic view to be able to grasp opportunities for actor engagement with the aim to orchestrate resources in the market system for multiactor value creation. ... Value creation is related to resource integration, which resonates with Normann (2001), who argues that greater density of resources corresponds to more value. Density expresses the degree to which resources are accessible for integration in a specific actor, time, situation and space combination. ... Density relates not only to physical resources but also to the density of various forms of socio- cultural resources such as meanings, designs and/or symbols. Consequently, resource density can be improved both by exchange-based and non-exchange-based resource contributions. ... the ‘economics of connections’, i.e., increased returns through amplified density of interactions between business, people and things. As the density of connections grows, it increases the density of available resources and, thus, make increased returns possible. ... we suggest that without actor engagement (i.e., resource contributions), no resource integration happens, and no value can be created. From a managerial point of view, this indicates that it is not the connections that increase the returns for a focal actor - it is the ability to mobilize actors in the market system to engage in resource contributions that, combined with other resources, improve resource density and value creation. This creates a clear link between actor engagement and increased returns – firm that have such abilities may enjoy ‘economies of actor engagement’. As we describe later in this paper, this suggests that firms should focus on a new set of capabilities: actor engagement management. To build these capabilities firms can likely build on existing processes and practices developed in connections to the management of customer relationships, supplier relationships and stakeholder relationships. ... Recent research in strategic management and entrepreneurship suggests that markets should not be viewed as a given and deterministic context, exogenous to the firm. Firms are increasingly conceptualized as active creators of market opportunities, suggesting that markets are not precursors, but rather outcomes of strategy. Firms that have engagement management capabilities can engage in market-shaping activities to generate market innovations that improve the value creation of the market. ... Managerially this means that to identify opportunities for marketshaping, focal market-shaping actors need abilities to comprehend a larger system of actors, to understand how new resource linkages can be created within this system, to recognize the institutional arrangements that govern all actors, and to mobilize actors for exchange-based and non-exchange-based resource contributions – thus making actor engagement central to market-shaping. ... research is progressively seeing markets as networks, systems, or ecosystems... Market systems do not obey simple laws of cause and effect, and they have no center and no central control mechanism. They do, however, evolve from a combination of deliberately designed influence, and random emergence resulting from combinations of various actors' engagement patterns. This indicates a need to understand how market change happens in a balance between deliberate design efforts (and related engagement) by various market actors, and spontaneous emergent developments occurring because of the amalgamation of all actors' engagement. ... Understanding markets as systems that do not obey simple laws of cause and effect and that have no center and no central control mechanism, and which consist of generic actors that, governed by institutional arrangements, both contribute resources and create value by integrating their resources with the resources of other market actors, questions many of the traditionally dyadic and linear models of management. Instead of assumptions of control of resources and processes, management increasingly need to ‘let go’ and find new ways to manage the engagement of various intra- and inter-organizational actors."
Trechos retirados de "Actor engagement, value creation and market innovation" de Kaj Storbacka, publicado por Industrial Marketing Management 80 (2019) 4–10.
"According to the sixth annual “Freelancing in America” survey, released on October 3 by the Freelancers Union (which has 450,000 members) and Upwork, a digital platform for freelancers and their employers, for every freelancer who sees their work situation as temporary, there’s another who sees it as a long-term career path. . As more people opt for full-time freelance—28% did this year, as opposed to the 17% who did in 2014—it’s worth looking at their share of the U.S. economy. Freelance income currently makes up almost 5% of the country’s GDP, or close to $1 trillion. That’s a greater share than those of industries like construction and transportation. ... In the U.S. this year, 57 million people worked as freelancers, up from around 53 million in 2014, the first year this study was conducted. That’s about 35% of the U.S workforce. ... This year, 60% of freelancers started working that way by choice as opposed to by necessity (say, due to an unexpected layoff). The number of people who see freelancing as a long-term career option jumped from 18.5 million to 28.5 million between 2014 and 2019."
Por que me interesso por este tema aqui no blogue pelo menos desde 2011?
Em torno de 2011 trabalhei com uma empresa que operava no sector da mobilidade, e não só, para pessoas com deficiência.
Por que nutro a paixão pelos exoesqueletos há tanto tempo? Porque recordo as cenas finais do Alien I ou II em que Ripley combate o xenomorfo vestindo um exoesqueleto usado para operar num armazém. Vi aquela cena e nunca mais a esqueci:
Ontem, durante uma caminhada matinal de 7 km continuei a leitura de “Seeing Around Corners” de Rita McGrath e sublinhei este ponto:
"What Must Be True? Creating a Plan to Learn Fast
...
The techniques described here are not about making predictions and being right. They are about generating possibilities and opening your mind to what might happen, so that as evidence gets stronger, you are ready to take action. For any future state, there are many variables that can lead to one outcome or another. What is valuable in complex systems is to be able to keep multiple possible futures in mind so that if and when they unfold, the landscape is more recognizable.
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Intel, for instance, has employed science fiction writers, futurists, and students to produce creative works about aspects of the future, with the purpose not of making predictions, but of opening people’s minds to emerging possibilities. Seeing around corners is about broadening the range of possibilities you consider paying attention to. Your ability to look into the future is only as well developed as the set of possibilities you are prepared to entertain."
Por causa do tal trabalho desenvolvido em 2011 acompanhei de longe ao longo dos anos as movimentações entre as empresas grandes do sector das cadeiras de rodas... a imagem que me vem à mente agora mesmo é esta:
Empresas tão preocupadas em ganharem quota de mercado umas às outras, empresas tão absolutamente concentradas no que fazem que não vêem o contexto a mudar nem vêm o mundo pelos olhos de quem devem servir. A atenção da gestão de topo é gasta em aquisições, é pulverizada a seguir e a marcar a concorrência, qual Dastardly,
"The firm called out "the ongoing trend of holiday shopping becoming less important to key retailers." It said the holiday season accounted for almost 24% of all retailers' sales in the late 1990s, but is closer to 21% today."
Quanto mais Mongo avança, mais fácil e curto é o espaço de tempo do desenho à montra, mais o número efectivo de épocas por ano aumenta, e deixa de fazer sentido esperar tanto por mostrar uma criação aos potenciais interessados. Com a internet qualquer criador pode mostrar o que quiser e quando quiser a quem interessa, se esta estiver interessada. Depois, como também cai o número de peças a produzir por modelo, deixa de fazer sentido reservar tanto tempo para satisfazer eventuais encomendas.
Talvez as feiras possam ainda fazer sentido no futuro, mas numa outra função, satisfazendo um outro job to be done.
"A propósito de "Implante no cérebro permitiu usar 'tablets' com o pensamento", se é possível com um tablet é possível com um exoesqueleto. E se é possível com um exoesqueleto... não há limites."
Um tema que me atrai desde há largos anos (recordo este postal de 2011, por exemplo). Na parte II dei conta do começo da democratização dos exoesqueletos.
Ontem à noite para meu espanto... they got there:
"Um homem paraplégico conseguiu caminhar e fazer movimentos com os braços usando um exoesqueleto controlado pela própria mente. Um pequeno passo, que abre gigantes perspetivas para o futuro das pessoas presas a uma cama."
Se isto fosse em Portugal teríamos o começo de manifestações de fabricantes de cadeiras de rodas em 3, 2, 1 ... a pedir para que estes exoesqueletos sejam proíbidos porque lhes roubam vendas e são postos de trabalho que se perdem.
"We examined more than 1000 early-career scientists in the U.S. who had narrowly won or just missed winning a key grant, and found that, in the longer run, the near-miss researchers ended up producing higher-impact work, on average, than their narrow-win peers."
"Since the middle of the 1990s productivity growth in southern Europe has been much lower than in other developed countries. ... Some papers argue that the large capital inflows that southern Europe received during the first decade of the euro have mostly been captured by low-productivity firms, depressing aggregate productivity through a composition effect. Others claim that inefficient management practices have kept southern European firms from taking full advantage of the IT revolution ... many salient long-run features of southern European economies can be explained by a single factor: inefficient management. ... We have also analysed southern Europe's policy interventions. Subsidising IT adoption actually lowers southern productivity even further. Likewise, subsidising education has negative effects, as it is effectively becomes a transfer to the north through high-skilled migration. These surprising results are due to the fact that, in our model, low IT adoption and low education are a symptom, rather than the cause, of low productivity growth in southern Europe."
"It is widely believed that restructuring has boosted productivity by displacing low-skilled workers and creating jobs for the high skilled."Mas, e como isto é profundo:"In essence, creative destruction means that low productivity plants are displaced by high productivity plants." Por favor voltar a trás e reler esta última afirmação. . "Lovaglia’s Law: The more important the outcome of a decision, the more people will resist using evidence to make it."
"If an organisation is too stable it can ossify, but if it is too unstable it can disintegrate. Successful organisations work between these two conditions or states, in what Stacey called ‘the chaos zone’."
"If the customer doesn't care about the price, then the retailer shouldn't care about the cost," “It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required”. "Das Leben, das uns gegeben ist, ist uns nicht als etwas Fertiges gegeben, sondern wir müssen es uns gestalten, und zwar jeder sein eigenes." "Eine Regierung, die nichts wert ist, kostet am meisten." "Forget trying to persuade them; light their pants on fire." "O futuro é o que importa. O futuro é a base do significado, é de onde vem o projecto que alguém tem para si próprio" "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
"o Marketing só existe a partir do pensamento estratégico, caso contrário "não resulta"" "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" "Perder diversidade é como arrancar páginas de um livro. Quantas páginas poderemos arrancar até deixar de compreender o enredo?" The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
"By strategy, I mean a cohesive response to a challenge. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. The most important element of a strategy is a coherent viewpoint about the forces at work, not a plan."
"Un desastre està punt de succeir a Espanya. El malentès de la gravetat de la crisi costarà car als inversors, ja que tindrà profundes conseqüències per a tot el sistema bancari europeu", afirma.
Entre d'altres coses, Mauldin diu que "els inversors estan fumant crack si creuen que els bancs espanyols són entre els més forts d'Europa, ja que estan amagant les seves pèrdues".
“… there are no “sunset” industries condemned to disappear in high wage economies, although there are certainly sunset and condemned strategies, among them building a business on the advantages to be gained by cheap labor”
"o vencedor da vida, o optimista que vive em incesto com o próprio ego, é o traço mais frágil do líder"
"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish." You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race.
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
“Trust your guts. But not too much!”
"Customers will try 'low-cost providers,' because the majors have not given them any clear reason not to." "
"Natal é quando as Crianças pedem e os Pais pagam. Défices é quando os Pais pedem e as Crianças pagam."
"A imprevidência dos povos é infinita, a dos governos é legal"
"What a man sees depends both upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual-conceptual experience has taught him to see"
“The leaders first task is to be the trumpet that sounds a clear sound”
"lamented the lack of any systematic data on the scale of unfunded IOUs that care-free politicians have handed out like confetti."
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..."
O problema não é o consumo. O problema é o consumo assente em endividamento."
"There are designations, like "economist", "prostitute", or "consultant" for which additional characterization doesn't add information."
When it becomes more difficult to suffer than change, you will change"
"Hope is not a strategy and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste"
The more you can see of the present, the more you can see of the future"
Yes, You can change the future, but only changing the present"
"Entrepreneurship is 'Having aspirations greater than your resources'"
“The single biggest reason companies fail is they overinvest in what is, as opposed to what might be."
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that"
"A estabilidade é uma ilusão"
"When we create the conditions of possibility, the universe becomes our co-conspirator"
Thinking about doing is not doing. Talking about doing is not doing. Doing is doing."
"'God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another'.
...
"Each of us has a mission, each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person.
"As our Lord tells us in the Gospel we have just heard, our light must shine in the sight of all, so that, seeing our good works, they may give praise to our heavenly Father."
"The future is not there waiting for us. We create it by the power of imagination."
"confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea"
"Much consulting involves the application of models to a system, as opposed to getting involved in the system as a positive change agent""
"O Portugal que pára sem orçamento é precisamente aquele que vive dele e que há todo o interesse em parar."
"credibilidade da política financeira e dos seus executores está ao nível da credibilidade de uma barraca das farturas"
"The role of the manager is thought to be reduction of uncertainty rather than the capacity to live creatively in it"
"today an entrepreneur is closer to artists than managers"
"A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby"
"If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)"
"Storytelling isn’t just how we construct our identities, stories are our identities"
"'He who has a why to live can bear almost any how' "
"They can because they think they can"
"Se há coisa que não suporto é misturar catequese com negócios, é a incapacidade para calçar os sapatos do outro e só pensar na nossa posição de coitadinhos, pobres vítimas indefesas dos maus e que por isso precisamos do Estado todo poderoso para nos proteger e, nem percebem na volta, os juros que o Estado cobra por esse serviço mafioso de protecção que, ainda por cima não resolve nada."
"Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble."
"In victory, do not brag; in defeat, do not weep"
"Value it's a feeling not a calculation"
"An economist is someone who has had a human being described to him, but has never actually seen one."
"Don't finish first--it's not about running a rat race. Start with a better ending in mind."
"If you sit in on a poker game and don’t see a sucker, get up. You’re the sucker.”
"The 'value added' for most any company, tiny or enormous, comes from the Quality of Experience provided."
"Crediting government with the success of entrepreneurs is like crediting the guy who built Bill Gates’ garage with the success of Microsoft."
"I have found that assuming social scientists understand the difference between correlation and causality is not generally a good one."
"Promising never to raise taxes, without reaching a deal on spending, really means a high and rising commitment to future taxes."
"Some things are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them, for no ordinary man could be such a fool"
"os bancos não financiam a economia, a poupança sim"
"I do not know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody"
"Never be afraid to try, remember... Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic."
"terms such as 'experiment' and 'observation' cover complex processes containing many strands. 'Facts' come from negotiations between different parties and the final product - the published report - is influenced by physical events, dataprocessors, compromises, exhaustion, lack of money, national pride and so on."
"'science in the making' is 'the consequence of [a] settlement' of 'controversies'."
"If the state wishes to spend more, it can do so only by borrowing your savings or taxing you more. And it's no good thinking someone else will pay, that someone else is you."
"All failures of strategy are rooted in the assumption that outcomes are predictable."
"Doing things like your bigger competitors is how to get killed in the wars out there"
“Uma moeda boa e forte é como a saúde. Só lhe damos verdadeiramente valor quando não a temos.”
"Life’s tough. It’s tougher if you’re stupid"
"O homem de bem exige tudo de si próprio; o homem medíocre espera tudo dos outros"
"Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me."
"As elites foram deixando de falar das exportações à medida que se foi percebendo que o país consegue exportar sem elas"
"Your toughest competition is the little voice inside your head telling you to stop"
"Pain is just weakness leaving your body"
"Built to last" is bad economics. Built to do something great" is the better idea. Think: "Creative destruction."
"the world is an uncertain place no matter how many Greek letter equations you affix to a problem."
"You never change things by fighting existing reality. To change s.th., build a new model making the existing model obsolete"
“No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.”
"Success is not a destination. It's the trail you leave behind you."
"Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event."
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around”
"Strategy as the "smallest set of - intended or actual - choices and decisions sufficient to guide all other choices and decisions sufficient to guide all other choices and decisions."
"When something is commoditized, an adjacent market becomes valuable"
"nature evolves away from constraints, not toward goals"
"There aren't any textbooks on what to stop doing!"
"With great power comes great irresponsibility "
"Weird things happen when you take price out of the equation for consumers"
"‘It’s so damn complex. If you ever think you have the solution to this, you’re wrong and you’re dangerous.’"
"Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love."
"Increasing stuff that doesn't add value dilutes existing value."
"O federalismo não é a alternativa à troika, é a troika para sempre."
"Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs by facts"
"Stressors are information"
“If you hear a “prominent” economist using the word ‘equilibrium,’ or ‘normal distribution,’ do not argue with him; just ignore him, or try to put a rat down his shirt.”
"The advantage of experiences over things for most of us is that we can make them seem unique, which = scarce, which = value"
"Pedras no caminho?
Guardo todas, um dia vou construir um castelo"
"Without risk, faith is an impossibility."
"Não posso com quem vive a achar que os outros lhe devem sempre alguma coisa."
"In a world of increasing automation, our ability to perform tasks is not nearly as important as our ability to dream. The questions we need to ask are not ones of action, but ones of meaning"
"Me arrancam tudo a força e depois me chamam de contribuinte."
"Letting people vote for expensive programs that “somebody else” will finance is a good recipe for getting people to vote irresponsibly"
"what's fairness gotta do with pricing based in value?"
"The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird."
“Price is emotional”
"There will always be a reason why you can't pursue it, until competitors create a reason why you must."
"The most important thing to study is opening theory"
"The greater the contrast, the greater the potential"
“Customers don't care about your solution, they care about their problems.”
"Todos querem conhecer a verdade, mas o que desejam é que lhes contem uma mentira em que não sejam protagonistas."
"Execution efficiency strangles innovation in the crib, but not with malice, by default.”
"Our obsession with scalability is getting in the way of unleashing the potential of the 21st century."
"The system is optimized to mitigate risk, not create value"
"Champions are made when no one is looking"
"Don't bargain on value. Half as expensive is often twice as cheap."
"Customers care about outcomes, not effort, technology, or originality."
" I can't believe it. That is why you fail."
"You don't have to pick between 1) playing the game and 2) not playing the game. You can *change* the game."
""The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." "