"Modern management (IV)"

La siguiente cita del libro The Management Myth de Matthew Stewart (p.202)
"



A conceptual framework is a way of breaking up the landscape of experience into meaningful pieces. It is intended to help individuals engaged in a particular practice to describe and analyze the context of their actions. It is often expected to provide normative guidance on what to do.

Some chiefs will undoubtedly find the "five forces of cooking" framework supplied here useful in these ways. Student chefs in particular will be keen to master whatever secrets they imagine to be lurking in the framework. Academics, as is their work, will inevitably dispute aspects of the framework and propose amendments or alternatives - such as, perhaps, a talent-based view of cooking. Most chefs, however, will immediately sense that the whole endeavor is an atrocious waste of time. A framework, they will point out, has never fried an egg.":-) :-) :-)

***

¡Feliz 2011 para todos! ;-)

"Modern management (III)"

La siguiente cita del libro The Management Myth de Matthew Stewart (p.195)

"By making market share one of only two variables in assessing a business, the matrix is inherently biased toward an expansionist strategy... The matrix, in keeping with the fundamental thrust of the strategy planning tradition, presumes that managers can do a better job of allocating resources among business than the market can. The matrix presumes, for example, that it is better to invest the milk from cash cows in the limited portfolio of stars and questions marks available to a corporation than to send it back to shareholders." :-) :-) :-)

"Modern management (II)"

La siguiente cita del libro The Management Myth de Matthew Stewart (p.159) El Autor cita a Bruce Herderson, el fundador del Boston Consulting Group

"Can you think of anything less improbable [sic] than taking the world's most successful firms, leaders in their business, and hiring people just fresh out of school and telling them how to run their business and they are willing to pay millions of dollars for this advice?" :-) :-) :-)

T.I.M.E. de nostalgia: una de las dos playas de antes de los 12 (o sea de la niñez) :-)

Dichato (Chile)

"Modern management"

La siguiente cita del libro The Management Myth de Matthew Stewart (p.11)

“But the modern idea of management is right enough to be dangerously wrong and it has led us seriously astray. It has sent us on a mistaken quest to seek scientific answers to unscientific questions. It offers pretended technological solutions to what are, at bottom, moral and political problems. It conjures an illusion – easily exploited – about the nature and value of management expertise. It induces us to devote formative years to training in subjects that do not exist. It favors a naïve view of the sources of mismanagement, making it harder to check abuses of corporate power. Above all, it contributes to a misunderstanding about the sources of our prosperity, leading us to neglect the social, moral, and political infrastructure on which our well-being depends… The sixteenth-century English philosopher Francis Bacon defined an idol as a phantasm of the mind – sometimes founded in the limitations of our rational faculties, often furthered by the misuse of language an the sophistry of false teachers – that leads us to a pattern of misunderstanding of the world and sustain irrational practices. By that definition, the idea of management is an idol of our times. It is a fat word over a lot the thin questions marks. It is a edifice of grammatical errors, misperceptions, and superstitions that keeps in business much that should be put out of business.” :-):-):-)

T.I.M.E. de poesía: Don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas

AMOR CONSTANTE MÁS ALLÁ DE LA MUERTE

Cerrar podrá mis ojos la postrera
sombra, que me llevare el blanco día,
y podrá desatar esta alma mía
hora, a su afán ansioso lisonjera;

mas no de esotra parte en la ribera
dejará la memoria en donde ardía;
nadar sabe mi llama la agua fría,
y perder el respeto a ley severa;

Alma a quien todo un Dios prisión ha sido,
venas que humor a tanto fuego han dado,
médulas que han gloriosamente ardido,

su cuerpo dejarán, no su cuidado;
serán ceniza, mas tendrán sentido.
Polvo serán, mas polvo enamorado.


***

"nadar sabe mi llama la agua fría,
y perder el respeto a ley severa;" :-)

Innovación desde Israel

Aquí la entrada del reportaje original de Knowledge@Wharton

Extracto introductorio:

"Despite -- or possibly because of -- its small size and geopolitical isolation, Israel has developed a global reputation for its cutting-edge high-tech industry. This special report explores the drivers behind Israel's innovative impulse, drawing in part on a recent series of panel discussions sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The report also looks at the partnerships Israeli firms have forged with U.S. companies and the reasons why the Israeli venture capital business is undergoing a painful period of adjustment. An interview with Aaron Wolf, a professor of geography at Oregon State University and a trained mediator, looks at unconventional ways of solving deep-running conflicts, such as disputes over water. Also, an interview with Chaim Katzman, chairman and founder of Gazit Globe, explores the strategy behind one of the world’s top real estate investment multinationals."

Management a la "germany" (¿Innovación y/o tradición?)

Aquí la entrada completa desde The Economist

Extracto introductorio:

"Germany is the world’s largest goods exporter after China despite high labour costs and a strongish euro. It is also stuffed full of durable companies that have survived hyperinflation and two world wars. Faber-Castell, a giant among pencilmakers, boasts that Bismarck was a customer..."

Extracto de cierre:

"Theodore Levitt, one of the doyens of Harvard Business School, once observed that “sustained success is largely a matter of focusing regularly on the right things and making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements every day.” That is a lesson that the Germans learned a long time ago—and that the rest of the rich world should take to heart."

*****

Preguntas que surgen:

1. ¿Cómo es que un territorio, una población, una cultura, etc. llega a ser más competitiva (o más innovadora) que otra?

2. ¿Qué hace que ello ocurra aquí o allá, antes o después?

3. ¿Es "enseñable" todo ello: a otra población, en otro territorio?, ¿y así lo que se logra es cambiar su "cultura"?

T.I.M.E. de fotos: navidad en las casas de Colombia

¡Un abrazo de navidades a Peter Sloterdijk (a German philosopher)!...

... por haberlo expresado tan bien, tan suscintamente y con el valor que se necesita para hacerlo desde las entrañas del "monstruo" :-)

Aquí la entrada original

Y este el texto completo:

The Grasping Hand

The modern democratic state pillages its productive citizens.
To assess the unprecedented scale that the modern democratic state has attained in Europe, it is useful to recall the historical kinship between two movements that emerged at its birth: classical liberalism and anarchism. Both were motivated by the mistaken hypothesis that the world was heading toward an era of the weakening of the state. While liberalism wanted a minimal state that would guide citizens almost imperceptibly, leaving them to go about their business in peace, anarchism called for the total death of the state. Behind these two movements was a hope typical of the European nineteenth century: that man’s plunder of man would soon come to an end. In the first case, this would result from the elimination of exploitation by unproductive classes, that is, the nobility and the clergy. In the second case, the key was to reorganize traditional social classes into little groups that would consume what they produced. But the political history of the twentieth century, and not just in its totalitarian extremes, proved unkind to both classical liberalism and anarchism. The modern democratic state gradually transformed into the debtor state, within the space of a century metastasizing into a colossal monster—one that breathes and spits out money.

This metamorphosis has resulted, above all, from a prodigious enlargement of the tax base—most notably, with the introduction of the progressive income tax. This tax is the functional equivalent of socialist expropriation. It offers the remarkable advantage of being annually renewable—at least, in the case of those it has not bled dry the previous year. (To appreciate the current tolerance of well-off citizens, recall that when the very first income tax was levied in England, at the rate of 5 percent, Queen Victoria worried that it might have exceeded acceptable limits. Since that day, we have become accustomed to the fact that a handful of productive citizens provide more than half of national income-tax revenues.)

When this levy is combined with a long list of other fees and taxes, which target consumers most of all, this is the surprising result: each year, modern states claim half the economic proceeds of their productive classes and pass them on to tax collectors, and yet these productive classes do not attempt to remedy their situation with the most obvious reaction: an antitax civil rebellion. This submissiveness is a political tour de force that would have made a king’s finance minister swoon.

With these considerations in mind, we can see that the question that many European observers are asking during the current economic crisis—“Does capitalism have a future?”—is the wrong one. In fact, we do not live in a capitalist system but under a form of semi-socialism that Europeans tactfully refer to as a “social market economy.” The grasping hand of government releases its takings mainly for the ostensible public interest, funding Sisyphean tasks in the name of “social justice.”

Thus, the direct and selfish exploitation of a feudal era has been transformed in the modern age into a juridically constrained and almost disinterested state kleptocracy. Today, a finance minister is a Robin Hood who has sworn a constitutional oath. The capacity that characterizes the Treasury, to seize with a perfectly clear conscience, is justified in theory as well as in practice by the state’s undeniable utility in maintaining social peace—not to mention all the other benefits it hands out. (In all this, corruption remains a limited factor. To test this statement, it suffices to think of the situation in post-Communist Russia, where an ordinary party man like Vladimir Putin has been able, in just a few years as head of state, to amass a personal fortune of more than $20 billion.) Free-market observers of this kleptocratic monster do well to call attention to its dangers: overregulation, which impedes entrepreneurial energy; overtaxation, which punishes success; and excessive debt, the result of budgetary rigor giving way to speculative frivolity.

Free-market authors have also shown how the current situation turns the traditional meaning of exploitation upside down. In an earlier day, the rich lived at the expense of the poor, directly and unequivocally; in a modern economy, unproductive citizens increasingly live at the expense of productive ones—though in an equivocal way, since they are told, and believe, that they are disadvantaged and deserve more still. Today, in fact, a good half of the population of every modern nation is made up of people with little or no income, who are exempt from taxes and live, to a large extent, off the other half of the population, which pays taxes. If such a situation were to be radicalized, it could give rise to massive social conflict. The eminently plausible free-market thesis of exploitation by the unproductive would then have prevailed over the much less promising socialist thesis of the exploitation of labor by capital. This reversal would imply the coming of a post-democratic age.

At present, the main danger to the future of the system involves the growing indebtedness of states intoxicated by Keynesianism. Discreetly and ineluctably, we are heading toward a situation in which debtors will once again dispossess their creditors—as has so often happened in the history of taxation, from the era of the pharaohs to the monetary reforms of the twentieth century. What is new is the gargantuan scale of public debt. Mortgaging, insolvency, monetary reform, or inflation—no matter, the next great expropriations are under way. Today, the state’s grasping hand even reaches into the pockets of generations unborn. We have already written the title of the next chapter of our history: “The pillage of the future by the present.”

Peter Sloterdijk is a German philosopher; his article was translated by Alexis Cornel.

T.I.M.E. de ocurrencias

Se acaba el 2010. Momento apropiado para los balances. Se sugieren algunas preguntas para recapitular (lo):

1. Lo que no hice

2. Lo que no hice, ¡y menos mal que no lo hice!

3. Lo que no hice, porque me faltó "perrenque"

4. Lo que si hice, ¡y menos mal que a tiempo!

5. Lo que si hice, contra viento y marea, ¡y lo hice!

6. Lo que si hice, (y nadie se dió cuenta)

7. Lo que si hice, (y voy a tener que seguir haciéndolo)

8. Lo que si hice, (pero es como si no lo hubiera hecho)

9. Lo que no hice, (no se por qué)

10. Lo que no hice, (y ni me acordé... que terminando el año pasado me había propuesto hacerlo :-)

¿Se le ocurre a usted una marca-producto...?

... más universal... que despierte más la curiosidad... que refleje más un lugar de origen... que se pueda asociar más con la excelencia en la fabricación... que tenga mayor extensión y profundidad de línea... que sea más "clásica"... que todos los hombres a partir de cierta edad (pero sólo durante cierta cantidad de años) quieran tener una :-)

Aquí el sitio del fabricante

¿Tiene futuro un producto que, no obstante la excelencia técnica y artística alcanzada, cada vez se usa menos?

Aquí el sitio web del fabricante

Escribir cartas... Escribir poemas... Firmar cheques... Autografiar... Dedicar libros... Regalar tarjetas de navidad... Subrayar libros... Tomar notas en la conferencia... Apuntar (algo) en "la agenda"... Construir "libros de viaje"... Dibujar...

¿De cuántas formas se puede lograr-diseñar-presentar un reloj de lujo?

Aquí la página del fabricante

Reformulando la pregunta:

1. ¿Cuántas opciones hay de lograr un "look-and-feel" de extremo lujo?, o,

2. ¿De cuántas formas cabe variar - manteniendo la armonía - los tres o cuatro elementos de realización de un reloj?, o,

3. ¿Qué cabeza de qué diseñador aún no se ha hecho presente como para que quepa esperar nuevos diseños, nuevas armonías, nuevas realizaciones: novedosos "look-and-feel" de extremo lujo?

***

Y además:

¿Quién lo adscribió a la FORMA-BASE-ESENCIAL del círculo; y del segundo "círculo" luego, que lo tornó accesorio de uso en la"muñeca", o sea reloj de pulsera?

T.I.M.E. de música (y nostalgia :-)

Update:

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
Ooo.. see that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the Dancing Queen

Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to go
Where they play the right music, getting in the swing
You come to look for a king
Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the music's high
With a bit of rock music, everything is fine
You're in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing Queen, feel the beat, from the tambourine oh yeah
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
Ooo.. see that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the Dancing Queen

You're a teaser, you turn 'em on
Leave 'em burning and then you're gone
Looking out for another, anyone will do
You're in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine oh yaaa
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
Ooo.. see that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the Dancing Queen

Diggin the Dancing Queen

Google ebookstore

Aquí la página de entrada en la Web

Aquí los comentarios del blog GigaOM

Aquí desde el blog oficial de Google

De la presentación en el blog de Google:

"We designed Google eBooks to be open. Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. That means you can access your ebooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage."

"When Google Books first launched in 2004, we set out to make the information stored in the world’s books accessible and useful online. Since then, we’ve digitized more than 15 million books from more than 35,000 publishers, more than 40 libraries, and more than 100 countries in more than 400 languages. This deep repository of knowledge and culture will continue to be searchable through Google Books search in the research section alongside the ebookstore."

Y el video :-)

An innovator: Jason Fried

Lo conocemos hace años. Aquí el sitio Web de su exitosa compañía: 37signals

Su reciente conferencia en TED:

T.I.M.E. de ocurrencias

Lo que permite resolver el "misterio del azar" es el tiempo...

Es decir, el azar sólo es un problema para nosotros los excesivamente finitos...

(nuestro tiempo, si acaso, nos alcanza para jugar a los dados ;-)

An innovator: Julian Assange Part II

Ahora en T.E.D.

Ya lo habíamos traído a cuento aquí en febrero de 2010...

Ahora es famoso :-)



Del perfil en TED:

"Why you should listen to him:
You could say Australian-born Julian Assange has swapped his long-time interest in network security flaws for the far-more-suspect flaws of even bigger targets: governments and corporations. Since his early 20s, he has been using network technology to prod and probe the vulnerable edges of administrative systems, but though he was a computing hobbyist first (in 1991 he was the target of hacking charges after he accessed the computers of an Australian telecom), he's now taken off his "white hat" and launched a career as one of the world's most visible human-rights activists.
He calls himself "editor in chief." He travels the globe as its spokesperson. Yet Assange's part in WikiLeaks is clearly dicier than that: he's become the face of creature that, simply, many powerful organizations would rather see the world rid of. His Wikipedia entry says he is "constantly on the move," and some speculate that his role in publishing decrypted US military video has put him in personal danger. A controversial figure, pundits debate whether his work is reckless and does more harm than good. Amnesty International recognized him with an International Media Award in 2009.

Assange studied physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He wrote Strobe, the first free and open-source port scanner, and contributed to the book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier.

"WikiLeaks has had more scoops in three years than the Washington Post has had in 30."
Clay Shirky"

An innovator (a sort of): Christopher Richards - Part II

Me llamó la atención en extremo la afirmación de Mr. Richards: "I make my living in the real world by ghostwriting business books"

Esto implica:

1. Que hay "autores" de business books que no lo son al 100%

2. Que quizá he leído más de uno de esos libros (y hasta reverenciado a su "autor")

3. Que he quedado sorprendido: de mi ingenuidad e inocencia ante el funcionamiento que ahora se me revela de los negocios, y de los libros de negocios


Aquí nos explica Mr. Richards (seria y lentamente) cómo desempeña él su oficio y los gajes que trae:

"Ghostwriting Definition: A ghostwriter is paid to write books, articles, reports, speeches and other content that is credited to another person.

Will I make money from book sales?
Could your nonfiction book be another best-seller? Possibly, but that’s not the point. Being on the best-seller list is not an expectation of the people I write for. For most people, the value is increased awareness, competitive advantage, and professional stature. A book opens doors to new opportunities. And it is those new opportunities where your book pays for itself— many times over.

What should I look for in a ghostwriter?
Of course, you’ll need a person who can write. Make sure to look for someone who can understand what you want. Ask incisive questions. Listen to the answers. Ghostwriters must have the emotional maturity to put aside their own perspectives when necessary. They must write from your vantage point and for your readership.

Many ghostwriters’ work comes to them by referral. Most will have an agreement not to disclose that they had written or participated in a book. This makes showing samples difficult. However, the ghostwriter should be able to show you a variety of writing styles, and it is this flexibility of style that should give you an idea of ability. Is the writing clear? Is it to the point? Does it inform? Is it even amusing? Does it draw you in? Does it keep your attention? Is it consistent in tone?

How does ghostwriting work?
It can be as simple as you talk while the ghostwriter records your words and shapes them into an integrated narrative.

You may already have made a start on writing and find yourself stuck, or you simply don't have the time to continue. Your book is likely to emerge from a combination of discussions and existing documents.

Because a ghostwriter writes for someone else, the relationship between author and ghostwriter is of tremendous importance. For some clients, it is important for author and ghostwriter to meet face to face. For others, telephone and email work well. However, writing a book can be a significant investment of your time and money.

Make sure the relationship works. Are you, the author, and your ghostwriter on the same page? Initially, I like to set up a phone call with a prospective author to discuss the purpose of the book or article, its readership, and some idea of what the book will contain.

Should I contact several ghostwriters before making a decision?
Yes. Take your time. You will have a relationship with the person you choose for some months to come. When interviewing, allocate enough time to spend at least spend half an hour on the phone with someone you are seriously considering. Your ghostwriter must be a good verbal communicator. A significant part of the job of the ghostwriter is to interview you, and ask you questions that will stimulate your thinking and help you explain what you want to say.

Caution!
A poorly-written book with your name on it can do more damage than having no book at all. Don't cut corners when attempting to find a ghostwriter. Visit ghostwriter websites. Is the writing on that site appealing? Are there grammatical or typographical errors? Is the ghostwriter knowable? Get the feel for who they are.

Don't simply send a list of requirements and expect an estimate. Yes, this means more work on your part, but it will pay off. If price is the only determining factor, then you run the risk of a poor outcome. Choosing to work together is a personal decision.

You will probably be meeting with your ghostwriter on a regular basis by phone, video, or in-person. Most professionals are busy people, particularly those who head organizations. Nevertheless, realistic expectations of time and cost are important. If your book project is to be a success, give it the time it deserves. Working with your ghostwriter should significantly shorten your time-investment, but you will need to stay engaged in the project.

Getting started
Every project must have a beginning. And that beginning can be at a different point along a continuum. At one end, you may have vague ideas, rough notes, or an outline; at the other, a rough draft, or an almost completely revised work. However, all projects start with discussion and/or review of existing material, if any.

If you and I were to decide to work together, after an initial discussion, I would draft a letter of intent which spells out my understanding of what you want, suggesting next steps in your project.

Working together
Maybe you're not ready to commit to an entire project—yet. You can still do some initial work on your project.

I charge a prepaid hourly fee for a minimum of ten hours for new clients. This way, for a small commitment, we can take time to work together in determining the readership, the content, and scope of the project. After ten hours of consultation and/or writing, we should be in a better position create an effective working relationship and estimate the entire project.

Please contact me for fees, details, and availability.

What if you are not available?
Ghostwriters can only take on so many projects at a time. Some of us will only work on one book at a time in order to do the job right. Depending on your need, I would be happy to refer a colleague, or suggest some things you can do now to prepare for a later scheduled start date. While planning your book several months in advance in not always possible, if you can, it will give you the choice of working with an in-demand ghostwriter.

What sort of books do you write?
I specialize in nonfiction books and biography. I have written for clients in business consulting, management, psychology, organizational development, education, and non-profit organizations.

Do you ghostwrite shorter works?
Yes. At the time of writing, I've just finished an eighty-page educational guide. I also rewrite or edit shorter works.

Do you ghostwrite fiction?
No. I do not offer this service and I cannot refer you at this time.

How long will it take?
Writing your book takes time and effort. How long it will take to ghostwrite your book depends upon conceptual complexity, participant availability (that's you), timing, and my professional commitments. You should expect a turnaround time of at least several months for anything approaching book length. While each project is different, it's not unusual to spend between 400 and 700 hours to ghostwrite a 50,000-word (200 page) book.

A solid outline of your entire book will get you to your destination faster. A rough guide to allocating time is 40 percent creating the outline, 20 percent writing the first draft, and 40 percent rewriting.

The new now
With the advent of digital publishing, new structures of books are emerging for devices such as Kindle and Nook. Books are getting shorter, but this does not necessarily mean that they take less effort to write well. Writers understand that any work starts out horrible and becomes refined through revision. However, those that don't write only see finished works and are often unaware of how many revisions it took to polish a piece of writing. In other words, no first draft is publishable. Clarity matters. A writer's joke goes like this: This piece of writing is long because I didn't have time to write it shorter.

Please contact me here to set up a time to talk about your project."

An innovator (a sort of): Christopher Richards - Part I

Aquí su sitio web: Slowdown

De la introducción a si mismo:

"I make my living in the real world by ghostwriting business books.

I grew up in a sleepy village outside of Oxford in England. I went to art school in Winchester where I studied fine art and philosophy. Later I moved to New York. Today, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife Lynnette.

My interest in slow started while still an art student. It was my first visit to America and I'd come for a month-long stay in the winter of 1976. I arrived in California after a long flight from London. The fare was cheap. The aircraft was old. They say you get what you pay for. The galley door fell off and the oxygen masks popped out of the ceiling when the plane bounced down in Canada for refueling.

California was immediately captivating: stunning vistas, palm trees, sunshine. What struck me was the emptiness of the landscape. There only seemed to be Europeans visiting the national parks. Where were the Americans?

I had no idea Americans worked such long hours. Wasn’t California supposed to be laid back? It’s a common mistake to think that other cultures are like your own. Only after working in the corporate world and running a company did I understand what Josef Pieper referred to as The Total World of Work in his book, Leisure: The Basis of Culture.

It was this book that was my impulse (if impulse is not too strong a word) for writing about slow. I found the book quite by chance in a bookstore on College Avenue in Oakland. Pieper’s point is that one can become so immersed in work that nothing else matters. Total work destroys culture. Total work saps our energy. There is no time for interiority.



Leisure is a form of that stillness that is necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear.
Pieper, Josef. Leisure, the Basis of Culture. South Bend, Indiana: Translation, St. Augustine’s Press, 1998. p 31.


This led me to investigate the subject. I started to write about work-life balance, but at first found my tone to be preachy. There’s a big difference between knowing what to do, and actually doing it. Slowdownnow.org became a place to find my voice as a humorist.

Slow is a serious subject, even if its treatment isn’t. Humor opens us to being receptive. Not everything can be treated with humor. However play and humor are the elements of creativity. The world is in constant flux. Change is rapid. We don’t know what will happen next. We need to challenge our assumptions. We need wisdom to cope with change, and wisdom doesn't happen overnight.

Educational guru, Sir Ken Robinson, says, creativity is as important to us in this century as literacy was in the past. It’s a survival skill. Whether designing a life to include a personal world outside of the demands of commerce, or thinking through problems in new ways, creativity needs to emerge from a place of gestation, rest, flexibility, and balance.

I am currently writing a third children's book. My Children's book website for ages 5-9 is here."

***

Yo diría que este modo de vivir propuesto por Mr. Richards logra que lo tomemos en serio sin tener que ser serio a la manera usual, a saber, trabajando hasta, literalmente,

m o r i r
d e l,
y
e n
e l,
c a n s a n c i o

:-) :-) :-) (I like it)

Una estrategia para, sino vencerla, al menos timarla por un rato, a la muerte...

Inno-soñando: el "smartphone" que quiero

1. Estoy "jarto" de tener que escucharle las conversaciones a todo el mundo
2. Estoy "mamado" de tener que andar cambiando de timbre normal a silencio (y vuelva otra vez) cada vez que entro y salgo de los lugares en los que no quiero molestar a otros

En resumidas cuentas: el teléfono celular es muy pero muy conveniente para uno, pero al tiempo muy pero muy inconveniente para los otros que están alrededor de uno

El "smartphone" que quiero:

1. Que solo yo lo oiga cuando timbre
2. Que solo al otro lado me escuchen (y nadie alrededor) cuando hablo por él
3. Que yo sepa - antes de intentar la llamada - que al otro lado están dispuestos a contestarla (y viceversa)

¿Cierto que se va demorar unos añitos en estar listo? :-()

T.I.M.E. de imágenes

El cuidado que ya no se pone en la elaboración de una fachada :-(

The innovation came from (the author say): "liquid networks"

Aquí la entrada que comenta el libro: Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Extracto del comentario de Krisztina “Z” Holly:

"To put the social aspect of innovation in context, let’s rewind a few millennia. According to Steven Johnson, the author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, sometime between 10,000 bc and 5000 bc, humankind hit a watershed moment: People began inventing in earnest. Before that, they built on one another’s ideas so slowly that it took 30,000 years to advance from mining to metallurgy. But then a big shift happened. They cast aside their hunter-gatherer ways and settled in cities, and shortly thereafter, a giant explosion of innovation occurred. The alphabet, currency, measuring sticks, aqueducts, cement, writing, bread, and wheels — these are just a handful of the vast number of world-changing inventions that our forebears developed during this period.

Something happened when humans put down roots, Johnson argues. Ideas started bouncing between individuals, growing and improving, in a web of connections he calls liquid networks. Unlike a gas, in which molecules rarely bump into one another, or a solid, in which molecules do not move from place to place, a liquid represents a free-flowing, high-contact medium. Cities provided such an environment for human thought; ideas collided within them, people learned faster, and ideas spread more widely."

T.I.M.E. de poesía

Gonzalo Rojas

Aquí una antología suya en la Web :-)

Sermón del estallido

A lo que fue a parar la belleza madre que nos parió, ¿y la novela?
Aparentemente los personajes
han llorado, se han ido, no quieren más.
Nadie quiere más, nadie,
después del estallido.

Todo tan teatral, el funeral
del origen con pecado
y todo, la polvareda
de las estrellas, el lujo, el soplo
sobre las aguas.

Gloria a Quién ahora, ¿al Padre
que no es, al Hijo
que no vino, al Espíritu
Santo que no habló, al
ruido?

Todo tan teatral, del átomo al
universo humeante, ¿y el Logos?
Callemos, reptemos otra vez, comamos ruinas
en el Hoyo; lo ser
es lo sido.

An innovator: IdeaPaint - John Goscha, Morgen Newman and Jeff Avallon

¡Genial! :-) :-) :-)

Aquí su sitio Web

"The family needs a better place to gather than in front of the TV. IdeaPaint can turn virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving your family a place to interact, communicate and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, it can keep your family connected. Who knows, it may even help end the battle over the remote control."




"When you’re confined to the space of a typical whiteboard, your ideas are destined to be small. IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving you the space you need to collaborate, interact and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, big ideas follow."

Prosaica innovación: la "afeitada perfecta" (que sin embargo ya era "perfecta" cuando yo era chico :-)

Aquí detalles desde el sitio Web del fabricante



***

Sólo USD 251 con 50/100 en amazon.com :-)

Betting in gaming innovation: apostando sobre cada jugada, no sólo sobre el marcador final

El artículo es de Wired: Wall Street Firm Uses Algorithms to Make Sports Betting Like Stock Trading

Extracto clave 1:

"This style of on-the-fly wagering while the game unfolds, known as in-running, didn’t exist in Vegas casinos when Cantor Gaming arrived. Other big casinos in town give sports gamblers a narrow range of betting opportunities and a limited amount of time in which to bet. That appalls Lee Amaitis, formerly co-CEO of Cantor offshoot BGC Partners and now president and CEO of Cantor Gaming. “When Wall Street first opens, everybody starts trading; in this town, when a game gets going, everybody stops betting,” he says. “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. The game is the market. Why not let people bet the market?”"

Extracto clave 2:

"Casino executives neglect sports books because taking bets on athletic events seems like a risky proposition. They like guests to play craps, slots, and baccarat, games in which a favorable outcome for the house is all but guaranteed. From the point of view of casino owners, the result of a sporting event is incredibly uncertain, and they have no control over it. Experienced sports bettors, known as smart-money gamblers, can win far more steadily than someone playing roulette or pai gow poker. And a major upset can require a huge payout. For all these reasons, many casinos have decided that it’s best to minimize their risks by posting odds that stay in line with those of the other casinos in town, keeping betting limits low, and discouraging wagers by expert gamblers. “The other bookmakers in this town are afraid to take bets, and they hate us,” Amaitis says. “For me, not taking smart-money bets is like Cantor Fitzgerald not selling stock to Goldman Sachs. We do trades all day with Goldman, Deutsche, Citibank. You think those guys are stupid?”

Amaitis’ scrappiness and his willingness to use technology to open untapped markets fit right in with the ethos of Cantor Fitzgerald. It is, after all, the firm that in 1999 became the first to do fully electronic US bond market trades with customers. The swagger even survived September 11, 2001, when its New York headquarters on floors 101 through 105 of One World Trade Center was destroyed. More than two-thirds of its New York staff perished, and the company’s primary data center was decimated. But a skeleton crew of Cantor staffers was able to get back online and resume trading just 48 hours after the attack. Cantor pledged 25 percent of its profits over the next five years to the families of its 658 employees killed on 9/11. It gave the grieving families a total of $180 million, thanks in part to yet more lucrative technological advances like being the first firm to offer wireless trading on BlackBerries.

Cantor’s latest innovation is the Midas algorithm, which is constantly being refined and fed reams of new statistical data. Even with Midas, however, sporting events are too volatile for Cantor to always end up on the right side of all the wagers it takes. But that’s OK: The point isn’t to nail the outcome of every contest; that’s a sucker’s game. There’s only one sure thing in sports gambling: the standard commission, known as the vigorish, that casinos charge when they take bets. When your wins are effectively balancing out your losses, the vigorish starts to add up. In this light, Cantor’s business model begins to look more like E-Trade than a conventional sports book. “The gaming business is nothing but a transaction business where you buy and sell sports instead of making a trade on the stock exchange,” Amaitis says. “It’s all about commission; and the more volume you do, the less risk you take.”

By 2012, Amaitis predicts, his company’s revenue will be $20 million. Cantor will make that money by taking far more bets than are made at present, enough that the vigorish will dwarf the income other casinos now make with their smaller (and safer) sports books. “My competitors want to hold 6 percent on a couple million dollars,” he says. “I’m looking to hold 2 percent on a couple billion dollars. Which would you rather have?”

Vegas has never seen this level of technological firepower, but Amaitis insists that it’s just the beginning. He likens the Midas program’s abilities to Wall Street’s first foray into computerization nearly 40 years ago, before people realized how the increased speed of trading opened up many exciting—or frightening, depending on your point of view—new investment opportunities. This year, Cantor was accepting bets on the outcome of NFL games months before the season started. But Amaitis wishes he could take more granular bets before kickoff. After all, more opportunities to bet means more commissions for Cantor. He dreams of being able to offer programmed sports betting that will allow gamblers to put in bid orders, just as you would with an electronic stock purchase. Before the game begins, you’ll be able to set your account so that a bet will automatically be placed if, for example, a team is ever a six-point underdog. You’d also be able to set it up to place a bet on the other side, say, if that number drops from six to four. Once your bids are in, you won’t even have to watch the game. “I am salivating for that,” Amaitis says."

Brasil innovation: retos, logros e imposible

La columna es de The Economist

Logro:

"STAND on the observation deck in Embraer’s final-assembly hangar in São José dos Campos and you can see the case for globalisation laid out below you. Five freshly finished aircraft bear the insignia of airlines from across the world. Brazilian technicians wear T-shirts emblazoned with the word “lean” to emphasise their commitment to the principles of Japanese manufacturing. A supervisor boasts about the company’s ranking in an American guide to best places to work."

"Optimists have more than just Embraer on their side. Natura Cosméticos is emerging as a cosmetics giant by dint of clever marketing and borrowing from others. Everything about the company, from its use of recyclable materials in its packaging to its use of ordinary women rather than supermodels in its advertisements, is designed to emphasise the twin themes of naturalness and sustainability. Natura is also a master of what might be dubbed “lean innovation”. About 40% of its revenues come from products introduced in the past two years. But the company has only about 150 research and development staff compared with L’Oréal’s 2,800. Its trick is to form partnerships with foreign universities and to scour the world for products that it can license."

Reto:

"But throw in the word “innovation” and businessmen become more philosophical. Brazil spends a paltry 1.1% of its GDP on research and development compared with 1.4% in China and 3.4% in Japan. Last year Brazil fell 18 places in Insead’s annual innovation index, from 50th to 68th. Worse still, its ratio of basic-product to manufactured-product exports was the highest since 1978. These figures confront Brazilians with a troubling question. Can their country become an innovator in its own right, or is its recent growth little more than a by-product of China’s appetite for commodities?"

Imposible:

"Yet Brazil suffers from two huge blocks to growth: red tape and gaping inequality. For all its recent commitment to liberalisation the Brazilian government is still a rule-spewing, incumbent-protecting monster. Brazil comes 152nd in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings for the ease of paying taxes (it took the Bank’s hypothetical medium-sized company 2,600 hours a year to comply with the tax code) and 128th on the ease of starting a business. Mexico is business-friendly by comparison."

***

El Estado, lo mismo en Brasil que en USA o en Mozambique, es sinónimo de contra-innovación, es decir, un Estado hace todo lo que le cabe hacer para que el espíritu innovador salga huyendo allende fronteras. Si USA ha sido la nación más innovadora de todas las épocas durante los últimos 100 años lo ha sido a pesar del Estado, nunca gracias al Estado (claro, si acordamos que las armas y todo el resto de la gigantesca y aterradora parafernalia militar no son propiamente innovación, sino retardación: nos mantienen en lo mismo que venimos desde hace 25 siglos cuando Platón, siguiendo a los espartanos, propuso su "república de guardianes")

T.I.M.E. de música

Roberto Roena y la Apollo Sound (¡mucha salsa! :-)



Como Te Hago Entender
(Autor: ¿? )
(Canta: Luisito Carrión)

Como te hago entender
que a nadie extraño mas
que nada me hace falta
mas que tu presencia.

Que nada me lastima,
como lo hace tu ausencia
como te hago entender
que a nadie extraño mas.

Como te hago entender
que mi vida sin ti
es solamente tiempo
que pasa sin ti.

Como te hago entender
que me faltas, como el aire,
como el agua, para vivir.
-r-
Como te hago entender
este sabor amargo
sabor de derrota
que crece en mi boca
cuando tu no estas.

Como te hago entender
que se me rompe el alma
y no puedo evitarlo
cuando tu te marchas
cuando no se de ti.

Como te hago entender
que es mas fuerte que yo
que no quise de ti enamorarme.

Como te hago entender
que me faltas, como el aire,
como el agua, para vivir.

Como te hago entender.

Y que mas puedo hacer
para complacerte
con todo lo que te digo
no logro convencerte
te canto esta canción.

Coro:
Como te hago entender, como te hago entender...

Este sabor amargo que crece en mi boca
y se vició de ti que no puedo romper

Que estoy entregado a ti cuerpo entero
y no te logro convencer.

Porque no dejas que bese tus labios
y que mi delirio te embriague de amor.

Quiéreme y verás, que de quererme,
negrita, nunca te arreprentirás.
~
Coro:
Como quieres que te haga entender
-y como quieres, que yo te haga entender-

Si yo te doy lo que pides mi vida,
ternura, y placer, también mucho cariño

Y cuando te vas en la noches
no duermo esperando por ti.
Entra mujer a buscar tu querer. Llega.
~
Quiero saber lo que piensas de mí,
ya no puedo más.

Después que uno vive veinte desengaños
pero que importa uno más
y darse cuenta que todo es mentira

Que nada, nada, nadita es verdad
y por eso te doy mil gracias
la lección me vino al pelo.

Innovación propuesta en educación (enseñanza de las matemáticas)

La fuente es TED. El conferencista:

"Conrad Wolfram is the strategic director of Wolfram Research, where his job, in a nutshell, is understanding and finding new uses for the Mathematica technology. Wolfram is especially passionate about finding uses for Mathematica outside of pure computation, using it as a development platform for products that help communicate big ideas. The Demonstrations tool, for instance, makes a compelling case for never writing out another equation -- instead displaying data in interactive, graphical form.
Wolfram's work points up the changing nature of math in the past 30 years, as we've moved from adding machines to calculators to sophisticated math software, allowing us to achieve ever more complex computational feats. But, Wolfram says, many schools are still focused on hand-calculating; using automation, such as a piece of software, to do math is sometimes seen as cheating. This keeps schools from spending the time they need on the new tools of science and mathematics. As they gain significance for everyday living, he suggests, we need to learn to take advantage of these tools and learn to use them young.

"What he's saying is that enough time is wasted in math classes on JUST calculation, that often the underlying concept is lost anyway."
TremorX, YouTube"

Las 4 emociones básicas y la innovación

Hay Jobs-To-Be-Done funcionales, emocionales y sociales. Estos dos últimos (lo bien o mal resueltos que estén) tienen todo que ver con el estado de las relaciones consigo mismo y con los demás

Ejemplos:

1. Una MARCA que al usar los productos que cobija te hace sentir "parte del grupo" (antes estabas "fuera del grupo") (de MIEDO a CONTENTO)

2. Un elemento de diseño o confort en el artículo comprado que te hace exclamar "¡guau!" (de TRISTE a CONTENTO)

3. Un plan prefecto (hallarlo al fin) para salir a almorzar fuera el domingo... con el que todos en casa están de acuerdo y satisfechos (de IRA a CONTENTO - ¡y eventualmente todos!)

***

Los ejemplos en contrario abundan (de CONTENTO a TRISTE, o a IRANCUNDO, o a ASUSTADO), precisamente cuando la innovación está aún pendiente (el producto/servicio se encuentra resuelto - en correspondencia con los Jobs-To-Be-Done a resolver prometidos - solo a medias :-)

Les voy a decir porqué a las mujeres no les gustan los hombres con barriga :-)

Porque cuando el hombre se deja "embarrigar" es signo de que se ha rendido, de que ya no lidiará más...

Y esto es muy grave puesto que:

1. Un hombre que ya no da guerra es uno que no puede conquistar (comodidades y bienestar)

2. Y por tanto su futuro no promete nada bueno (a menos que ya haya engordado antes suficientemente la cuenta del banco)

3. Y en consecuencia será en adelante un hombre derrotado por los otros que aún dan guerra y conquistan y acumulan y tienen cómo llegar a la comodidad y el bienestar (evidentemente así mejores prospectos)

La barriga en el hombre es el comienzo del fin
La barriga en el hombre es el anuncio de la decadencia
La barriga en el hombre, sépanlos hombres, ¡es el fin! (por adelantado)

Ellas soportan la calvicie y de vez en cuando hasta la "blandura en el cariño", pero la barriga ¡Es el fin! ¡Es el fin!

***

PS Todo esto sin duda es un cuento muy femenino de cómo serían las cosas en torno a la barriga, pero ¿quién mueve al mundo sino ellas? :-/

Más innovación prosaica (que en todo caso agradeceremos): OLED technology

Aquí el sitio Web de la compañía:

"From stunning lighting innovations to huge video displays, the promise of advanced OLED technology is limited only by the imagination of product designers—and some tough manufacturing challenges.

At Kateeva, we’re working on inventive hardware, process and materials solutions to streamline production of OLEDs. Bright ideas take shape faster, at dramatically lower costs and with critical scalability."

Su fundador: Conor Madigan

"Conor Madigan, Ph.D, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Conor co-founded Kateeva in 2008.

Before Kateeva he was a post-doctoral research scientist at MIT and has worked on organic electronic device technology for more than a decade. He is the author of numerous publications on the topic and holds patents in fields spanning physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials science, and software engineering.

In 2010, he was honored as one of the TR35, the list of top young innovators in technology named annually by Technology Review magazine.

Conor earned a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a Ph.D. from MIT. Both degrees are in electrical engineering."

La MISIÓN:

"At Kateeva, we’re all about transforming the economics of manufacturing advanced flat panel display products like OLEDs. Today, the cost of producing this vastly superior display technology is prohibitive. Kateeva aims to change the equation.

From our headquarters in Silicon Valley, we’re pioneering a new class of dry, non-contact printing technology that promises to overcome the chief OLED manufacturing barrier: patterned OLED layer deposition over a large area at a low cost.

With core technology licensed from MIT and a world-class team of display and semiconductor equipment technology experts, Kateeva’s production solution offers a faster and infinitely more affordable route to market for manufacturers of new-generation OLED displays."

Prosaica innovación :-) "The all-new Cadillac CTS-V COUPE"

Aquí un review from The NYT (sept. 2010): Cadillac Meets Corvette, and Everyone Falls in Love

Aquí un review from WSJ (agosto 2010): Cadillac’s CTS-V Coupe Makes German Rivals Look Like Taxis.

Lo siguiente de un anuncio publicitario reciente:

THERE IS THE CURVE AND THEN THERE'S AHEAD OF THE CURVE

The Nürburgring in germany has 154 of the most demanding turns in the world. And each of them inspired one of the world's fastest-reacting suspension systems. We call it magnetic ride control. Through innovative magneto-rheological fluid technology it reads and adjust to the changing road conditions up to 1000 times a second. Blending car and road into one fluid motion. Curve after curve after curve.


***

Será "prosaica" pero quiero uno así :-/

An innovator: Christopher "moot" Poole

Aquí su sitio en la Web: 4chan

The case for anonymity online

¡Fascinante!
¡Alucinante!
(puedo apostar que este muchacho seguirá dando de qué hablar :-)

Mi credo (tiene todo que ver con "el otro")

No quejarse
No preguntar nunca por qué (al otro), preguntar-se siempre por qué uno
No amenazar
No jactarse

***

Los cuatro son mi camino en el camino: "simpático, paciente, astuto y despiadado"
:-)

T.I.M.E. de música

¡Maravillosa Violeta Parra! (La Jardinera)

Invención, innovación y genio

¿Quién tuvo el genio para llegar a concebir el "jugo"?



¿Quién se inventó esta tablita "mágica"?



¿Cómo es que tanto y tanto se ha logrado innovar, que el "jugo" está ahora disponible desde tantos y tantos campos del planeta, hasta tantos hogares (a precios tan cómodos, y también en "versiones" a precios para los más exigentes paladares)?

¿Qué significado en común (si alguno) tendrían todas estas MARCAS?

1. Que sólo "viven" en Internet
2. Que hace menos de 20 años no existían y hoy son mundialmente valiosas
3. Que los servicios que respaldan son gratis y los usamos casi a diario (casi todos nosotros, muchos de sus servicios)
4. Que todas son "made in USA"
5. Que todas fueron fundadas por "chinos" de menos de 25 años
6. Que sin ellas Internet "no sería ni el 10%" de lo que es
7. Que son los cuatro lados de la base de la pirámide de la virtualidad desde la cual se alza un universo de bits que no tenemos ni idea todavía qué es

***

R/ Todas las anteriores

Jobs-To-Be-Done de un curso de idiomas

Enseñanza-aprendizaje de idiomas: uno de los productos más valiosos del mundo; uno de los con más diversas realizaciones, pero uno de los más mal estructurados en cuanto a "pricing"

¿Para que aprender otro idioma, diferente de aquél que se aprendió naturalmente a medida que se crecía junto a padres y amigos?

Algunos Jobs-To-Be-Done:

1. Avanzar en la profesión, en la carrera que se está haciendo en una organización
2. Entender el mundo, otros mundos en este mismo mundo, desde nuevas palabras y sonidos
3. En potencia, poder expresar las "gracias" o decir "te amo" por ejemplo, a millones más de coetáneos
4. Hacer turismo y disfrutarlo más...
5. ...O tener que emigrar pero no tener que sufrirlo tanto
6. Poder hacer traducciones (por placer o por negocio)
7. Jactarse (o insultar) sin poder ser atrapado in fraganti
8. Hacerse el sordo, al tiempo que se mejora en extremo "hacerse el bobo"
9. Comprobar que a fin de cuentas lo humano (en lo estúpido y en lo sublime) nace y crece igual en polonés que en turco, en español que en griego, en inglés de Maine que (en inglés) de Melbourne...
10....Entender (quizá) por fin, que donde nos sentimos habitando más a gusto es - en cualquier lugar - dónde suenen las cosas en la lengua entrañable que se las oímos por primera vez a nuestros padres :-)

***

¿Cuánto vale entonces (o sea cuánto está uno dispuesto a pagar por) aprender otro idioma? R/ Todo o nada, depende de que Jobs-To-Be-Done nos acosen (o nos seduzcan) :-)

Innovation on strategy

Aquí el doc original desde HBS Work

T.I.M.E. de poesía

Pablo Neruda, comienzo del Canto General

LA LÁMPARA EN LA TIERRA
AMOR AMÉRICA (1400)

ANTES de la peluca y la casaca
fueron los ríos, ríos arteriales:
fueron las cordilleras, en cuya onda raída
el cóndor o la nieve parecían inmóviles:
fue la humedad y la espesura, el trueno
sin nombre todavía, las pampas planetarias.

El hombre tierra fue, vasija, párpado
del barro trémulo, forma de la arcilla,
fue cántaro caribe, piedra chibcha,
copa imperial o sílice araucana.
Tierno y sangriento fue, pero en la empuñadura
de su arma de cristal humedecido,
las iniciales de la tierra estaban
escritas.
Nadie pudo
recordarlas después: el viento
las olvidó, el idioma del agua
fue enterrado, las claves se perdieron
o se inundaron de silencio o sangre.

No se perdió la vida, hermanos pastorales.
Pero como una rosa salvaje
cayó una gota roja en la espesura
y se apagó una lámpara de tierra.

Yo estoy aquí para contar la historia.
Desde la paz del búfalo
hasta las azotadas arenas
de la tierra final, en las espumas
acumuladas de la luz antártica,
y por las madrigueras despeñadas
de la sombría paz venezolana,
te busqué, padre mío,
joven guerrero de tiniebla y cobre
oh tú, planta nupcial, cabellera indomable,
madre caimán, metálica paloma.

Yo, incásico del légamo,
toqué la piedra y dije:
¿Quién
me espera? Y apreté la mano
sobre un puñado de cristal vacío.
Pero anduve entre flores zapotecas
y dulce era la luz como un venado,
y era la sombra como un párpado verde.

Tierra mía sin nombre, sin América,
estambre equinoccial, lanza de púrpura,
tu aroma me trepó por las raíces
hasta la copa que bebía, hasta la más delgada
palabra aún no nacida de mi boca.