No matter the type of literature you prefer, there are some books that you feel incomplete without because they:

1. tell you more about the world we live in
2. tell you more about what is important in becoming human
3. are just beautiful books

For me there are 3: Dune, Ender’s Saga and Zanzibar – science fiction. Far from the old robots laws, these books are politic-fiction and much more.
I just read Themepunks part 1 by Cory Doctorow. In Romanian was translated “A billion chances”. Now this is something new: Business-Fiction – the opposite of the “corporations become everything” kind of stuff.

I love companies. I really do. That is why I did everything until now: to learn more about companies as organic structures. They are made of people. No matter how much I know about operations, strategy, finance, human capital, organizational behavior, project management, in the end I come back to the same thing: people.
To be functional and to evolve requires instability. That is why I love that book. It supports my conclusion: some companies move slowly, even from the start-up phase or the entry in a new market phase, no matter how much business education their entrepreneur or managers have. These companies behave like the environment is stable and they become obsolete before having a sound vision and mission statement in place. Their products become a commodity before break-even point because for big orders you have to make a big discount.

An ecosystem will always follow the rules of natural selection. That is why niche companies are thriving. Small clients and customized products give you the right to charge a premium. The money you spend on coordination of people and machines – the overhead – is at minimum. This way you are adaptable. You can not only improve but can radically change and innovate, develop a new product as soon as somebody else has start doing what you do.
Everything I say here is common knowledge: ABC (activity based costing) method tells which product has the higher margin and not that your most expensive product makes you money; differentiation; customization; low cost of coordination, cellular production structure and so on …

The companies that walk the talk make money and the others just survive. Most managers do not give a shit! They think that they will stay with a company for maximum 2 years and move on. Of course long-term planning is something they never heard of! What if they behave correctly because the learning periods are shorter and new opportunities are always around the corner? That will make the companies they leave behind future slow movers, almost losers.
The only things that I love about the future of the business world are venture capital and project management. These two areas are the ones you want to retire from when you hit 45. Venture capital companies have a cost of coordination reduced to minimum and the project managers are the only ones that will be able to speak every sub-language from IT to top management and make coordination easy.

I can not wait for the second volume!

Acest articol a fost gasit dupa urmatoarele cuvinte cheie:

business fiction