In the Global Creativity Index 2011 by Martin Prosperity Institute, Sweden was ranked in top. USA, Finland, Denmark and Australia was placed 2-5.

The study by the Martin Prosperity Institute ranks 82 countries on their creativity. It turns out that creativity is a driving force in the economy: the study found great correlations between creativity and economic progress, human development, and happiness, among other factors.

Each country in the study is given a Global Creativity Index (GCI), which is based on three human factors:  How technologically savvy are they? How capable is their workforce? And how open are they to new ideas?

The GCI also assesses the prospects for sustainable prosperity according to a combination of underlying economic, social, and cultural factors. The 3 Ts of economic development—Technology, Talent, and Tolerance. It also compares the GCI to a series of other metrics of competitiveness and prosperity—from conventional measures of economic growth to alternative measures of economic equality, human development, and happiness and well-being.

Report: Creativity and Prosperity: The Global Creativity Index 2011

Técnicas de negociación

La innovación en Compras

Los departamentos de Compras encaran su presente y futuro más próximo con el objetivo de aportar valor estratégico a sus empresas, más allá del ahorro de costes que durante años ha caracterizado la razón de ser de estos departamentos. En el 100% de las empresas españolas que tienen una estructura de Compras profesionalizada, innovar es una parte fundamental de la estrategia del área como vía para mejorar el posicionamiento competitivo de sus compañías, según los datos de la Asociación Española de Profesionales de Compras y Aprovisionamientos (AERCE). 

La creación de valor a través de la innovación es ya una realidad para muchas empresas. Para impulsar la innovación en este ámbito y ofrecer una guía a los compradores que quieran innovar, AERCE ha recopilado algunas de las mejores prácticas en innovación de sus asociados y ha creado una “hoja de ruta de la innovación en compras”.
 

“Innovación es evolución, y solo hay que fijarse en el panorama empresarial actual para ver que las empresas que triunfan son las que ofrecen productos y servicios singulares. Innovar en Compras, y desde Compras, consiste en implementar prácticas nuevas que impacten en la relación que una empresa tiene con su mercado”, explica Juan José Jiménez, presidente de AERCE.

Según la Asociación, antes de empezar a innovar, es necesario tener cubiertos otros aspectos básicos para el departamento: tener una estrategia clara y bien definida, en línea con las políticas corporativas de gestión de la compañía, e intentar dotar al área de los medios necesarios para su profesionalización.
 

1. Implementación de plataformas tecnológicas: El uso de nuevas tecnologías es, como en otros ámbitos de actividad, fundamental para obtener mejor rendimiento de la gestión de compras. Acciones como la compra y la facturación electrónica, la participación en pools online de compradores o la apertura de procesos de selección de proveedores utilizando las nuevas tecnologías permiten al comprador agilizar todos estos procesos y abrirse nuevas vías de negociación. 
2. Sistemas de gestión de conocimiento interno: En las empresas en las que existen varios compradores, centralizados o no en una misma sede, es necesario encontrar formas para que el conocimiento que tiene cada comprador de su trabajo esté disponible para los demás. Acceder en tiempo real las características de un determinado proveedor o mercado, así como a información sobre las gestiones que se han hecho con él, entre otros, es la única vía para no duplicar esfuerzos y obtener el máximo rendimiento de la información que tienen todos los compradores de la empresa.
3. Alianzas con proveedores estratégicos: La innovación en muchas ocasiones no solo procede de la propia empresa, sino que son los proveedores quienes pueden aportar productos o servicios nuevos que beneficien el posicionamiento de mercado de ambas compañías. El suministrador que quiere destacarse de sus competidores es habitualmente el más innovador. Alcanzar acuerdos con algunos proveedores estratégicos que permitan buscar conjuntamente la innovación puede ser la vía de crecimiento para ambas partes. 
4. Acuerdos con otras compañías: las centrales de Compras: En ocasiones los acuerdos no solo funcionan con competidores, sino con compañías de la propia competencia. Crear o participar en centrales de compras para determinados temas puede ayudar a conseguir un posicionamiento de salida para la negociación mejor que el que se tendría de forma individual. 
5. Homologación de proveedores según criterios de sostenibilidad: La concienciación en pro de la contratación de suministradores que desarrollen su actividad de forma sostenible desde un punto de vista medioambiental, ético y social, y por tanto también económico, gana peso el día a día de los compradores. Por esto se pueden desarrollar esquemas que permitan evaluar si un proveedor cumple unos requisitos básicos en su actividad en cuanto al respeto de los derechos humanos, en términos de reciclaje, derechos de los trabajadores, etc. La propia compañía puede crear los que más se ajusten a su actividad o utilizar algunos preestablecidos. 
6. Actor global con conocimiento local: La globalización de los mercados abre al comprador un mundo de posibilidades en cuanto a la selección de proveedores. Sin embargo, para aprovechar las ventajas de la globalización, el comprador debe conocer las características del mercado local en el que va adquirir sus productos. Un análisis previo a través de los propios recursos, las oficinas comerciales de organismos oficiales en el extranjero o con partners locales puede ayudar en este sentido. 
7. Predisposición hacia la innovación: Una premisa para poder innovar es estar dispuesto a hacerlo. Mantener una actitud en pro de la innovación ayudará al comprador a captar nuevas tendencias o ideas de los mercados que le permita aprovechar novedades en beneficio de la propia empresa.

Para concluir, el área de compras es un área de gran importancia, ya que gestiona un 75% del gasto total de la empresa. Según datos de AERCE, un ahorro en compras del 5% puede mejorar el beneficio de las compañías hasta en un 32,5%.

Asociación de Profesionales de Compras, Contratación y Aprovisionamientos (AERCE)

La gestión de los inventarios de IKEA

Strategy & Discipline

We have one primary objective: To earn superior investment returns on our clients', and our own, capital without taking unnecessary risks.

Our strategy is to try to understand what a rational buyer would be willing to pay for 100% of a given company. Our valuation may focus on asset values, earning power, the intangible value of a company's "franchise" in its market, or a combination of these variables. We then try to buy shares of the company's stock at a significant discount to this "private market value." It is this discount that provides the "margin of safety" that minimizes the risk of permanent loss of capital.

While the relationship between price and intrinsic value is the central focus of "value investing" as taught by Benjamin Graham, we are also very attentive to certain qualitative factors. We seek companies with the following characteristics:

• A business we can understand.
• A business having some control over its own destiny by virtue of a niche or franchise that insulates it from competition and allows it to price its products adequately.
• A business that generates more cash than it needs to conduct its operations.
• A business having honest, intelligent management who treat shareholders as partners in the business, rather than necessary evils.

If a business satisfies these criteria, AND its stock is available at a very attractive price, we are interested.

The beauty of this approach is that it depends on common sense and patience rather than special sources of information or predictions of (essentially unpredictable) future events. Applied intelligently, it reduces the chances of permanent loss of capital, and can produce good long-term returns.

Lest this process sound too simple, it is important to remember that investing is still more art than science, and we have very little control over short-term investment results. Emotions tend to determine stock prices in the short run, and our job is to take advantage of the irrational price changes that occur. Short-term declines can be great opportunities to invest capital, and periods of euphoria sometimes allow us to earn our returns sooner than expected.

We will sometimes seem to be out of sync with the Market, but the key is to be disciplined about the application of our investment criteria. When we have trouble finding stocks to buy at reasonable prices, we may hold significant cash reserves. The price of this discipline is sometimes missed opportunity, and we accept that.

Wallace R. Weitz

Founder and president of Wallace R. Weitz & Company

Los nuevos modelos de negocio en la economía creativa: Emociones y redes sociales

Creatividad, habilidad y talento individual son el sustrato de la economía creativa, que muestra un alto potencial de desarrollo económico y social basado en la propiedad intelectual. En ella se registra una ruptura de la cadena de valor tradicional y la aparición de nuevos modelos de negocio. A partir de varios estudios de caso mostramos cómo dichos modelos precisan de mercados en red social, caracterizados por articular emociones y mercancías mediante unos relatos que cohesionan a diversas comunidades de usuarios.

 

Universia Business Review

Fernando Casani, Jesús Rodríguez-Pomeda y Flor Sánchez

 

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Jack Welch: Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001

1. Lead Managers muddle - leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better.  
2. Manage Less “We are constantly amazed by how much people will do when they are not told what to do by management.” 
3. Articulate Your Vision “Leaders inspire people with clear visions of how things can be done better.” The best leader do not provide a step-by-step instruction manual for workers. 
4. Simplify Keeping things simple. “Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.“
5. Get Less Formal “You must realize now how important it is to maintain the kind of corporate informality that encourages a training class to comfortably challenge the boss’s pet ideas.“
6. Energize Others Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance. Getting employees excited about their work is the key to being a great business leader.
7. Face Reality Face reality, then act decisively. Most mistakes that leaders make arise from not being willing to face reality and then acting on it.
8. See Change as an Opportunity Change is a big part of the reality in business.
9. Get Good Ideas from Everywhere New ideas are the lifeblood of business. “The operative assumption today is that someone, somewhere, has a better idea; and the operative compulsion is to find out who has that better idea, learn it, and put it into action - fast.“
10. Follow up Follow up on everything. Follow-up is one key measure of success for a business. 
11. Get Rid of Bureaucracy The way to harness the power of your people is “to turn them loose, and get the management layers off their backs, the bureaucratic shackles off their feet and the functional barriers out of their way.” 
12. Eliminate Boundaries In order to make sure that people are free to reach for the impossible, you must remove anything that gets in their way. “Boundarylessness” describes an open organization free of bureaucracy and anything else that prevents the free flow of ideas, people, decisions, etc.
13. Put Values First Don’t focus too much on the numbers. “Numbers aren’t the vision; numbers are the products.“
14. Cultivate Leaders Cultivate leaders who have the four E’s of leadership: Energy, Energize, Edge, and Execution.
15. Create a Learning Culture “The desire, and the ability, of an organization to continuously learn from any source, anywhere - and to rapidly convert this learning into action - is its ultimate competitive advantage.“
16. Involve Everyone Business is all about capturing intellect from every person. The way to engender enthusiasm it to allow employees far more freedom and far more responsibility.
17. Make Everybody a Team Player Managers should learn to become team players. Take steps against those managers who wouldn’t learn to become team players.
18. Stretch Stretch targets energize. “We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don’t quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.“
19. Instill Confidence Self-confident people are open to good ideas regardless of their source and are willing to share them. 
20. Have Fun Fun must be a big element in your business strategy. 
21. Be Number 1 or Number 2 “When you’re number four or five in a market, when number one sneezes, you get pneumonia. When you’re number one, you control your destiny.“
22. Constantly Focus on Innovation “You have just got to constantly focus on innovation. And more competitors. You’ve got to constantly produce more for less through intellectual capital. Shun the incremental, and look for the quantum leap.” 
23. Live Speed “Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient of competitiveness.” 
24. Behave Like a Small Company Small companies have huge competitive advantages. They “are uncluttered, simple informal. They thrive on passion and ridicule bureaucracy. Small companies grow on good ideas - regardless of their source. They need everyone, involve everyone, and reward or remove people based on their contribution to winning. Small companies dream big dreams and set the bar high - increments and fractions don’t interest them.“

Marketing y medio ambiente: Una aproximación a la situación de la industria española

Este trabajo persigue aproximarse a la realidad del marketing medioambiental en la industria española, identificando, por un lado, las actividades medioambientales que gozan de una mayor aceptación en este sector y, por otro lado, el perfil de empresas más proclives a adoptarlas. Los resultados sugieren que las organizaciones que gozan de una mayor visibilidad son más intensas en el desarrollo de actividades de marketing medioambiental. Además, también se observa que el grado de implantación de modificaciones medioambientales en los procesos internos, relacionados con las actividades logísticas y el diseño del producto, es superior al de las acciones dirigidas al mercado, orientadas primordialmente a la comunicación y promoción de las decisiones medioambientales.

Universia Business Review

  Elena Fraj, Eva Martínez y Jorge Matute

 

Ken Robinson: "We are educating people out of their creativity"

Walter Schloss: Rules of Investing

1. Price is the most important factor to use in relation to value.  
2. Try to establish the value of the company. Remember that a share of stock represents a part of a business and is not just a piece of paper. 
3. Use book value as a starting point to try and establish the value of the enterprise. Be sure that debt does not equal 100% of the equity. (Capital and surplus for the common stock)
4. Have patience. Stocks don’t go up immediately.
5. Don’t buy on tips or for a quick move. Let the professionals do that, if they can. Don’t sell on bad news.
6. Don’t be afraid to be a loner but be sure that you are correct in your judgment. You can’t be 100% certain but try to look for the weaknesses in your thinking. Buy on a scale down and sell on a scale up.
7. Have the courage of your convictions once you have made a decision.
8. Have a philosophy of investment and try to follow it. The above is a way that I’ve found successful.
9. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to see. If the stock reaches a price that you think is a fair one, then you can sell but often because a stock goes up say 50%, people say sell it and button up your profit. Before selling try to reevaluate the company again and see where the stock sells in relation to its book value. Be aware of the level of the stock market. Are yields low and P-E rations high. If the stock market historically high. Are people very optimistic etc?
10. When buying a stock, I find it heldful to buy near the low of the past few years. A stock may go as high as 125 and then decline to 60 and you think it attractive. 3 yeas before the stock sold at 20 which shows that there is some vulnerability in it.
11. Try to buy assets at a discount than to buy earnings. Earning can change dramatically in a short time. Usually assets change slowly. One has to know much more about a company if one buys earnings.
12. Listen to suggestions from people you respect. This doesn’t mean you have to accept them. Remember it’s your money and generally it is harder to keep money than to make it. Once you lose a lot of money, it is hard to make it back.
13. Try not to let your emotions affect your judgment. Fear and greed are probably the worst emotions to have inconnection with purchase and sale of stocks.
14. Remember the work compounding. For example, if you can make 12% a year and reinvest the money back, you will double your money in 6 yrs, taxes excluded. Remember the rule of 72. Your rate of return into 72 will tell you the number of years to double your money.
15. Prefer stock over bonds. Bonds will limit your gains and inflation will reduce your purchasing power.
16. Be careful of leverage. It can go against you.