manners in business

Many years ago, back in primary school, i was told “what looks good, it is good” regardless of the fact that looking and being can be very different things.

Nevertheless in our society, this concept comes along many times and by looking at something that looks good, we feel it may actually be good – wrong!

The happenning occurred today, i got a very persistent call from an agent, asking me to do something i didnt really want to commit on doing and pushing the errand to the future, but she “politely persistent” so it was becoming really difficult and annoying to shut the conversation and move on. However at the end, i said “look, i am at work, in a meeting and i cant talk, ok?” Even there she asked when it was a better time to call. My goodness, sometimes they just to give up!

i hate to ask….

Candidates to do excercises in interviews.

Why?

Because you have to be the most gentleman and put them under stress only for you to have some results about what they say they can do.

In a way it makes most sense, otherwise if their word is weak, you risk employing someone without the right skills to do the job, which is actually not so good.

Oh well, the truth is that it is Tuesday and still we have the whole week in front! Look forward to wednesday, the its only down hill!

macro and micro… what?

Management!

There is only one letter difference between them both, but it doesnt mean that they share a whole a lot when it comes to details.

Where the A talks about the general, the vision, strategy and overall, the I is in the details, the QA, the controlling and supervising.

The reason for this post is that tentatively these two types of management are hardly feasible correctly at the same time and by the same person with good results.

If you do A, you have to rely on your staff to do I. Otherwise you risk to lose expertise and input from the guys who are doing daily the I.

I wonder how in daily business macro managers are enticed to do I when their job is to A, however I guess they were at some time micro managers and they did I, is it nostalgy?

Who knows!

ethics & business

Today i feel like speaking a bit about these two strong words.

Ethics:
- how can you define them?
If i had to pick 3 words to describe them, i would say: protocal of fairness and respect.

Business:
- a sort of activity whose main objective is to generate some sort of profitable results.

The combination of these terms and the adoption of their content practices should be ideally part of the idiosincrasy of todays companies. Notwithstanding, it doesnt have a true match with reality.

Perhaps, i am a true purist and my principles for doing business are based on other and alternsative values, but i cannot go without expressing a dislike when i see that ethics and business do not walk together – this was the case this morning.

It is like being a gentleman in the romantic sense of the word. You defend your ideals towards reaching a greater good. When business are done ethics nor code of conduct is a bit like working for the oldest profession of all times.

Think about… It just produces a feeling of desenchanment.