In the last 20 years and particularly during the most recent 5 or 10 years, more and more people within the corporate and organizational world have approached The Organization Development Institute International, Latinamerica with the purpose of guiding - and also reorienting - their lives. "In the workplace".
Particularly we have found more and more Diplomated university professionals who saw how their careers had been "temporarily" interrupted.
These university graduates found that reintegration processes within the corporate world became more difficult with the simple passage of time to the point that, in many cases, temporary reintegration forced them to "seek options even outside the profession."
These new entrepreneurs began to discover that success in their new ventures - the first of which consisted of starting and starting it - was not easy.
Based on the pioneering work of Dr. Donald W. Cole (“Professional Suicide or Organizational murder”) many of the directors, managers, executives and professionals were able to begin to understand that “what they had in their heads - metaphorically since it is in their minds - it didn't match what was going on inside the company. ” A Spanish version of this work and with implications for companies within Latin America can be found in "Professional Suicide or Organizational Murder" by Dr. Donald W. Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield - 2003.
What was happening in the context of business and that many experts noted early in the 60s of the last century (Burns & Stalker - 1961; James D. Thompson, 1967; Charles Perrow - 1969), was somehow forcing companies to develop adaptation and innovation processes to which they were not accustomed. Businesses and organizations - especially those that only survived on the basis of their own income-generating capacity - made those changes by choosing advisers / consultants to assist them in the transition.
Until approximately 1990, executives, executives and professionals working within the private corporate and organizational world survived with some success adjusting and adapting to the business transition. But financial, technological and commercial globalization produced changes that went far beyond what had happened up to that point.
Darwin has shown us for many years that mutations among humans are relatively slow and that behavioral changes can go even beyond a person's life.
Many managers and professionals began to see computer technology begin to replace one of their most important tasks: that of discretionary decision-making.
Henceforth, the new language of the planet does not have to do with languages but rather with the "digital". And discretionary decision-making, which required an education similar to that of graduate university professionals, became less important.
Decision-making is increasingly carried out by a computer that "is in the room next to the person who created it" as the great Herbert Simon said a long time ago.
It turns out, then, that university graduate professionals find it difficult to enter the corporate and organizational world and many major obstacles to growing within them. On the other hand, Universities continue to produce university graduates.
It is possible that this type of situation could have been resolved if other major transformations had not occurred.
Currently the countries within the select G7 have robots that allow automation in practically all industrial sectors. Organizations can now be run through programs as James March & Herbert Simon had pioneered many years ago.
And this also has a strong impact on the lower levels of companies and organizations, which have a level of productivity that cannot equal - nor approach - that of these equipment and machinery, which makes them replaceable. Of course, if there are fewer people at the base, fewer people are also required above.
And the professional university graduates in Latin America face an additional disadvantage since the competitive advantage they had with respect to those non-professional Latin Americans is not enough now, since each manager and professional as a result of globalization begins to compete with all other professionals in the world. As an example we can mention that the technicians in the oil industry, many of them of North American nationality or from European countries who had incomes of the order of 10,000 dollars a month, began to be replaced by technicians from China who were happy, receiving only 10 percent of the income of those.
However, these changes would not be the only ones that would take place. Other changes occurred in the context that also had a very strong impact on the lives of the Professionals. Financial globalization allowed the free movement of money in its various manifestations, from one country to another, and thus the rises and falls of both products and services and the workforce, turned out to be a product of what the world of finance. The payment of the external debt of many Latin American countries and adjustment policies, in addition to remittances abroad, dried up the square.
The volume of money and currency was reduced and this produced even greater reductions in companies. Paradoxically, Latin American countries delivered all their products for more than 70 years for the delivery of their products linked to cereals, livestock, minerals, forests, and fishing. And still they are in debt in financial matters.
Dealing within a world with actors who are able to deliver “paper money” - whose printing cost is relatively low - in exchange for all the primary resources that can sometimes take decades and centuries to cycle, is no small feat.
Just as the Latin American professional now finds that he is competing with all the professionals on the planet, what happens in economic and financial matters within a country also compares with what happens in other countries. If after investing in a country the returns are not sustained, the flight is obvious. Furthermore, it is possible that the main actors in the flight - after having contributed to drying the square - may return when the depression of several years turns that country back into an “emerging” one.
Businesses and companies are no longer incremental; they no longer grow simply because the number of the population grows. We have seen how many small businesses and companies grew during the last century as a consequence of incrementalism. Do you know many bakeries, dry cleaners, newspaper kiosks, service stations, greengrocers and greengrocers that have gone bankrupt during the second part of the last century? But they do know how many are currently bankrupt, even within the first year of operation.
It is that incrementalism is finished, much to our regret. The transformations are monumental and it seems that we see them pass, we have and become aware of them, but we do not initiate the actions that allow us to transform ourselves to confront these new situations. Today, the United States of America no longer has any real interest in having cheaper labor; If this were not so, I would not be building a wall on the border with Mexico.
And the implication of this decision goes far beyond needing this cheaper labor. The most important thing that professionals should pay attention to is that "the United States of America is also not interested in having what these people can consume within the USA."
This represents a very good proof of the death of incrementalism and of an orientation that multinational banks are very clear about: ABC1.
To make things even more difficult for professionals and managers, in recent years some leaders of communist countries have concluded that they could benefit more by focusing on marketing and the market, rather than privileging the perspective of production (the means and modes of production).
This has made a country like China by changing its perspective instead of "creating manual work" through a multitude of workers who sweep the streets with a broom "spending their time", has focused on transferring these multiple people and energies towards a manufacturing where millions and millions of standardized products are put on the market at a very low price. Leaders in China realized that they could grow their economy by applying the principles of Frederick Taylor known as the "Scientific Administration". Ultimately, the United States of America has not fared badly with the practical applications of Taylor's concepts.
So the companies in Latin America - and the professionals and managers - who work in them begin to look like a ham on the sandwich. On the one hand, they are unable to operate with sufficient creativity and innovation in the most developed countries, and on the other hand, they do not have advantages from the point of view of repetitive human production. In the two vital aspects of any company - its orientation towards creating and innovating (quality) as well as producing (quantity) - companies and their personnel in Latin America are at a disadvantage from the point of view of their global competitiveness.
In the book by Dr. Donald W. Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield cited above, a series of options are described that professionals and managers in Latin America have at their disposal. However, our practical experience in the matter shows that although they often even understand and understand what is happening, they do not always change their perspectives, beliefs and subsequent behaviors.
Professionals and managers are then overwhelmed with regard to the problem they face, even those who are successful early in their careers. Many times those successful in the process of "entering a company" do not always maintain continuity over time. A large majority of these professional graduates, even in the best universities, are outside companies from the age of 40.
From then on they do not know what steps to follow exactly and after some time of confusion and new trials and errors - which one can only do for a short time - they decide to want to become independent and autonomous professionals or entrepreneurs - entrepreneurs.
And many times the capacities, skills, knowledge and competences that they possess and that were useful to them while they belonged to the business and organizational world, now do not turn out to be sufficient to act with autonomy.
The custom of “receiving a fixed rate pay” and low-routine is not always compatible with the “at risk” actions of those who have to act independently or have to create a company; In the latter case, you must not only have the ability to create work (and also money) for yourself as an entrepreneur, but you must also put job creation and the delivery of money (at a fixed rate) to others.. When the ex-professional and ex-manager who has been accustomed to hearing the word “Human Resources” enters this stage, he begins to question internally whether the use of these two words is appropriate within the competitive business world that he is already beginning to confront.
The matrix organization began to take effect but not all the organizational participants could feel comfortable with having to answer to two or more bosses. Responding to a single boss, the goals, needs, and preferences of a single boss has never been an easy task, but starting now to do it with two or more managers is something that the organizational members have not been prepared for. The “helping” professions emerged with more vigor that focused their interest in the processes of accommodation of people to organizations (as is the case of Chris Argyris - 1961) and new key variables emerged, such as “stress”.
Latin American professionals with university degrees were enjoying the competitive advantage they had as university graduates. In the 1960s and 1970s, university graduates in careers with a strong entry into the corporate world were few and benefited as a result.
But the different factors that we mentioned in the previous day began to lessen the benefits and advantages that professionals enjoyed. The number of professionals between the 60s and 70s compared to the last decade grew enormously and possibly above the needs of the business world. It should be noted that the subsidiaries of multinationals have two key indicators on their command panel: the amount of dividends paid abroad and the “head count”. The Presidents of these multinational subsidiaries, top managers and CEOs if they were interested in continuing their careers should pay attention to these two important factors.
Technology, in turn, and in its principles, created the need for professional work, eliminating tasks and administrative personnel from lower levels, but in a very short time it was able to parameterize the decision-making that was in the hands of professionals and managers..
From the very moment that computers can make decisions to the point of competing and even defeating the chess world champion, the maximum foundation of the existence of a professional and a manager begins to be questioned. The "criteria" that were supposed to be originated and developed in universities no longer offered a sufficient competitive advantage in relation to what the computer could decide.
The language of the professionals - and the differential advantage they had - was beginning to darken as “languages” and different languages were not the only and best way to communicate: digital language had taken the podium. And more and more he is going for a more important medal.
The technological globalization of the 90s dealt a new blow to him as now Latin American professionals begin to compete with the millions of professionals from other countries, and he is harassed by more "expensive" professionals but with better and greater training and also by more professionals. “Cheap” that came from countries where economies had low local costs.
We want to share an additional fact: the number of computers and robots that are available on the market with perfect operation make more than 50% of the professionals that exist today expendable. If we add to this the growing graduation of professionals from the Universities we must find that the vast majority of them do not have to find any job and that also those few who do have to become excellent servants of those who are in the leadership for only one in 10 of them has to survive over time.
This is not good news, but it is better to share what is true than to run inaccurate versions that cause many university students to dedicate too much time, money and energy towards a goal where there is no prize. Some professionals began to visualize this situation a decade ago and many more joined that initial group in recent years.
And they began to explore other paths. That of becoming independent professionals, among them. As many executives, executives, managers and professionals had gained experiences regarding how consultants worked and what they did, some decided to go in that direction. Others added to the immense number of trainers who - when they reached very high numbers - decided to incorporate an additional option: that of facilitators.
For a time starting in these new areas as independent professionals has brought them some joys. However, very quickly they realized that working in this way what they were really doing was "exploiting themselves". To earn more money, they usually had to work longer and longer hours, which was not always possible. God did not set limits on time but humans have: there are only 24 hours a day.
As a natural next step, the alternative that arises in the heads (again they are the minds and not in the heads) of managers and executives has to do with running a small business. Ultimately they realized that just as the company they worked for benefited from their personal work, now they could create their own business as a result of the work of others. And they went in that direction.
But they were learning some important lessons along the way, regarding aspects and consequences that they themselves had not anticipated. And many of those consequences were dysfunctional, to say the least.
Firstly, the vast majority of executives and professionals who previously worked within the corporate world in Latin America did so in a multinational subsidiary. And this type of organization operates quite clearly within the motto known as "think globally but act locally."
This makes it clear that the functions within a subsidiary have more to do with executing than thinking. The thought is rooted in the metropolis, while the execution "is local." When we shared this at an executive meeting less than two months ago, one of them told us that he had not realized that in reality - regardless of the importance of his office and the position assigned to him in his company As a manager - there is not much difference between "think globally and act locally" and the outline developed by Henry Ford based on an assembly line. There, too, thought was concentrated in "one place."
Professionals and executives are learning faster and faster - as their own resources begin to dwindle - that there are also other differences between a small or medium-sized company and what he had learned in a multinational subsidiary (and also what he had been taught University). The subsidiaries of multinationals are largely oligopolistic organizations; One does not find several information technology firms dedicated to the commercialization of "hard" products, nor many that are dedicated to commercializing soft products; Automotive companies are few, as are oil companies, and so on.
Instead, trying to develop "his own company" he discovers that he sometimes has thousands of competitors, some of them attacking him on the price side, others for offering better quality, and also competitors who focus their strengths on the business lobby.
Faced with this immense multitude of concerns that begin to arise in their minds, professionals and managers wonder what they should do. And we are going to focus now on this aspect. When they worked in organizations and companies and earned a salary - pretty good overall - every month, they were convinced that based on their college degrees, "they were one notch above the providers." Therefore, now that they are out of the company, it is not easy for them to understand how these providers, many of them without university education and even with some incomplete secondary school, can earn a living and they are still not finding a way to do it..
What happens is that college graduates did not learn enough about how to earn money outside of an organization. Robert Kiyosaki in “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” gives a good example of this even through his own personal experience.
In an exemplary way Robert Kiyosaki debunks various myths that are installed in the minds of many people and especially those who were programmed - or programmed themselves - to earn money only by working within an organization.
Furthermore, it shows that working in a company of "another", even if it is a large multinational corporation, what professionals, managers, executives and managers do is learn to work for money but never learn to have money working for them.
Kiyosaki debunks the myth that a person needs a high income to become rich and that a house is an investment. It shows parents in their process of guiding their children that they should not trust the educational system to teach their children about money.
Through her personal experience, she shows that the message from parents to their children "Study intensively and achieve good grades, so you will find a well-paid job with good benefits" is a "Master Plan" that does not always achieve the expected results. Robert Kiyosaki's father was highly educated and intelligent and had obtained a doctorate. On the other hand, his best friend had a father who had not finished eighth grade and became one of the richest men in Hawaii, leaving tens of millions of dollars to his family, church, and charities while his biological father. left accounts payable. Despite the fact that both firmly believed in education, the two recommended different paths of study.
Many field and research works show the importance of the early years in the education of children. One of the reasons why the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class struggles with debt, is because money is taught in the home, not in the home. school. Which leads him to affirm: "
Most of us learn from our parents about money. And what can a poor father tell his children about money? Quite simply, "continue in school and study intensively."
The young man will be able to graduate with excellent qualifications, but with a mental scheme and poor person financial programming. ”
And he continues: “The subject of money is not taught in schools. The school focuses on professional and curricular skills, but not financial skills.
This explains why bankers, doctors, and administrators who graduated with excellent qualifications can be struggling financially throughout their lives. Our wobbly national debt is largely due to well-educated politicians and government officials, who make financial decisions with little or no training on the subject of money. ”
Argentina is a very good example of how a greater force of professionals and university graduates has not only not served to continue promoting the Nation but has brought it to the brink of bankruptcy and having the highest unemployment rate in its entire history. Without having so many professionals in government, and until the mid-1940s, Argentina was among the 10 richest countries in the world. Its inhabitants had a per capita income higher than that of the Italians and Spanish and only slightly lower than that of the Americans, despite the fact that the United States of America had had the Industrial Revolution for about 100 years.
In less than 60 years and with many professionals and university graduates in government positions, Argentina is indebted for life; Something very similar happens to Robert Kiyosaki's (poor) biological father who had died and left debts. The management of money and finances in Argentina by those who led the country for so many years has allowed it to be degraded from a privileged position to a position that is close to "terminal" in terms of development. The inefficient management of finances during all those years has allowed that despite the fact that Argentina was rich at that time and had strong sums of gold in the Central Bank, it has delivered during all those 60 years millions of cattle of all kinds., billions of tons of different types of cereals,millions of tons of fish and shellfish, thousands and thousands of tons of wood and also of precious and valuable minerals. And all this has been exchanged for "money". And today - 60 years later - he no longer has all the primary resources in the fields of livestock, agriculture, fishing, forestry and mining that he will deliver “for money”, and he still “owes money”. But the most fascinating thing is that nobody in Argentina has even asked this question.But the most fascinating thing is that nobody in Argentina has even asked this question.But the most fascinating thing is that nobody in Argentina has even asked this question.
Furthermore, to show with a simple example the importance of managing money and that money works for us and not we work to have money, this is what has happened with Argentina's debt. When Alfonsín ruled, the debt was of the order of 60 billion and was valued by the international credit organizations themselves, at.18 cents for every dollar. In other words, given the low collectability, financial institutions were willing to collect about 11 billion dollars and cancel all the debt. Today, less than a generation later, Argentina's debt is higher than it was then,we have paid much more than 11 billion in debt (only the IMF received 20 billion dollars) and we also pay interest close to 11 billion every year - year after year - when at that time the payment of a single instead of that sum it would have freed us from the total amount owed. There were some things in the inkwell that are not negligible that were also part of the payment; Argentina also "sold" many of its companies, many of them vital for the health and safety of the population. Kiyosaki would say that Argentine officials did not know much about financial intelligence.Argentina also "sold" many of its companies, many of them vital for the health and safety of the population. Kiyosaki would say that Argentine officials did not know much about financial intelligence.Argentina also "sold" many of its companies, many of them vital for the health and safety of the population. Kiyosaki would say that Argentine officials did not know much about financial intelligence.
So money management is something that everyone should have if they are interested in their own growth and security, but this has not been properly taught in universities. It seems that teaching is good enough for professionals and executives to make decisions within the corporate world, but they do not seem to be as useful outside of that area. And the majority of Argentines continue today to discuss "about the military and democracy" without realizing that the Nation is impoverished and that their children and grandchildren no longer have to live with the ease that those who benefited from the wealth they experienced. It was generated until the 1940s of the last century. In short, money management is no longer in the hands of Argentines.Argentina has recently paid the debt in full to the IMF but is still subject to the visit and review by foreign officials. Do you think that there are possibilities of growth when someone from outside reviews your finances and what you do with the money? Kiyosaki would say no.
And things are changing very quickly. It already seems that the world of "stocks" begins to give place and importance to the world of "options" within finance.
“Cheap” labor may not be as necessary as it used to be; Two walls are being built between countries to prevent the passage of people (and not money). And the implication of the decision as a result of building a wall between two countries goes far beyond the need and interest in having cheaper labor. On the one hand, it is very likely that the United States is not interested in what these migrants may consume within the USA, but the money that can leave that country to the country of origin is. We are witnessing what may be the beginning of the end of incrementalism that is manifested again in the strong initiative of the Banks towards “ABC1”.
To make things even more difficult for professionals and managers, in recent years some leaders of communist countries have concluded that they could benefit more by focusing on marketing and the market, rather than privileging the perspective of production (the means and modes of production).
This has made a country like China by changing its perspective instead of "creating manual work" through a multitude of workers who sweep the streets with a broom "spending their time", has focused on transferring these multiple people and energies towards a manufacturing where millions and millions of standardized products are put on the market at a very low price. Leaders in China realized that they could grow their economy by applying the principles of Frederick Taylor known as the "Scientific Administration".
Ultimately, the United States of America has not fared badly with the practical applications of Taylor's concepts.
So the companies in Latin America - and the professionals and managers - who work in them begin to look like a ham on the sandwich. On the one hand, they are unable to operate with sufficient creativity and innovation in the most developed countries, and on the other hand, they do not have advantages from the point of view of repetitive human production.
In the two vital aspects of any company - its orientation towards creating and innovating (quality) as well as producing (quantity) - companies and their personnel in Latin America are at a disadvantage from the point of view of their global competitiveness.
In the book by Dr. Donald W. Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield cited above, a series of options are described that professionals and managers in Latin America have at their disposal. However, our practical experience in the matter shows that although they often even understand and understand what is happening, they do not always modify their perspectives, beliefs and subsequent behaviors due to their poor financial training. Lack of skills and financial intelligence can be lethal for the development of professionals and managers, and Robert Kiyosaki gives many proofs of this.
Most professionals and managers have spent many years in schools and within the formal education system, and it is good to keep in mind what Kiyosaki says about it: “Most people never win because they are more afraid of losing.
That's why school seems silly to me. At school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them… Unfortunately, the main reason most people are not rich is because they are terrified of losing. ”
Many accountants and managers as a result of their training believe that money is real and this is what makes many professionals and executives in companies work for money instead of making money work for them. Kiyosaki highlights: “The rich earn money. The more they think the money is real, the more intensively they will have to work for it. If you can fully understand the idea that money is not real, you will get rich quicker. ” He adds: “Since 1984, I have earned millions for simply doing what the school system does not do. At school, most teachers speak. When I was a student, I hated those explanations, I was immediately bored and my mind wandered ”.
But we must make it clear that education and training are necessary and important.
The point we want to make is that although it is necessary it is not enough since the specialization “closes options” and opportunities. Management Universities teach about how companies should operate matrix-wise, but many of these same Universities do not always apply what they preach.
Financial intelligence requires knowledge of different disciplines such as accounting, investment management, marketing, knowledge of laws and the rules of the game, and keeping an open mind using different perspectives.
And there is an additional point that we want to share. Professionals and managers through the development and application of financial intelligence can earn money, a lot of money, but they must be prepared for a very arduous task: that of not losing it.
That is why there is a saying that "there is nothing better than a fool with money", as Kiyosaki points out. And all of us in time - and with a single perspective - can become fools.
What was happening at the macro level with the economy also began to impact organizations, especially through the imposition of paper money. And we have dedicated enough time to the very good work of Robert Kiyosaki to show him how the combination of the imposition of paper money and people's ignorance about how to manage themselves financially, had a strong negative impact on the lives of people (organizational members). For companies and organizations the impact has not necessarily been so negative, especially until about 10 years ago.
The survival of companies has made it necessary to carry out possibly the largest “purchase and purchase” of companies that has been seen in the history of humanity. And that has allowed new organizations to appear, although in fewer numbers than those that existed for a generation.
In an excellent work, Hannan & Freeman detail how what happens with companies and organizations closely resembles what happens with the lives of rabbits. A very fine “selection system” is needed, as well as a “species improvement” system that allows rabbits to survive. Otherwise, just as many of them "grow" and multiply in large numbers, they can also perish. Anyone who has raised a pair of rabbits knows very well how quickly rabbits grow and after a time they can learn - also quickly - how close they can be to extinction. And the authors suggest that something similar happens with the corporate world.So it is necessary to refine some aspects to “improve the race” within the organization (we can suggest training courses as one of the ways to improve it, as well as the selection processes for new personnel). But even while doing and doing things to improve it, contextual forces can take an entire organization ahead and direct it toward its demise.
Remember that within organizations we have many professionals and they are also in the context as Clients and as suppliers. So changes in the corporate world also impact on people, something that usually scholars at the macro level do not always take into account or at least do not give the full importance of it.
In part II we have worked on the important contribution of Robert Kiyosaki who shows how people (professionals, managers, executives and managers) sometimes fight for a lifetime and die leaving debts, as has been the case with Robert Kiyosaki's father. Kiyosaki concludes by pointing out that this happens because "people spend many years in schools but have not learned anything about money." And consequently "the result is that they learn to work for money… but they never learn to have money working for them."
We can say that our experience in the matter shows how it is not in any way easy to transform a "professional or manager of a company into an entrepreneur - businessman". And that this not only has to do with financial education but with other important aspects. We have found evidence that it is sometimes easier and faster to transform a high school student into an entrepreneur - entrepreneur, than a professional graduate. And many people ask us how this is possible. And we remind you that to some extent Kiyosaki's work is an example of this.
Years in college do not necessarily guarantee success. We must remember that companies operated for many years under the hierarchical pyramid scheme that favors vertical divisions.
The main functions were production, sales and finance and all of them - in one way or another - required some expert. These experts naturally had to be recruited from the universities, privileging then the faculties of engineering and administration.
But the advent of the matrix organization, clearly showed that what was “learned at the university”, although important and necessary, was not always sufficient. Intra and interpersonal skills, knowledge and competencies were not within the university curriculum. Daniel Goleman (Bantam Books - 1995) in his treatise "Emotional Intelligence" shows that success is strongly linked to emotional intelligence and that cognitive aspects represent a component that is often not as relevant in the development of careers within companies and organizations.
Financial, technological and digital globalization turned out to be one more step in the lethal for professionals and executives. Professionals were recruited to a large extent because it was assumed that their decision-making criteria provided them with advantages in relation to those who were not university-certified professionals. And indeed they enjoyed this competitive advantage. But it hasn't been for long.
In the first place, professionals no longer competed with non-professionals from their own country or community; they competed with those who were professionals around the world (we have already seen in the previous workshop that an oil engineer from China is willing to work for less than 10% of a Westerner from a developed country. But this has not been all that The professionals and executives of organizations have had to live - and suffer to some extent.
Digital globalization has made them expendable just as the Henry Ford assembly line has made those craftsmen and teachers who excelled in many of their trades expendable.
It is now a new overcrowding and this overcrowding favors the quantity of products, services, and also "responses". Now Clients receive "answers" without as many people (think about what happens when we call a company and the answer is pre-established or when we go to an ATM of a Bank).
So the discretion regarding how much a Customer can withdraw from a Bank is no longer given by “someone” from the bank branch or by the branch manager; It is the ATM that gives you the answer, and also always does so privileging the interests of the Bank. A manager could not tell the Client he could not withdraw funds because "the system had fallen" but occasionally "the machine" does say so.
And the Client accepts it as something natural. What person would be willing to tell a Client that their system has fallen and that they cannot pay for it? How many people would be as committed to the Bank to provide this service as the ATM does without making any claims for better payment?
But the difficulties of professionals and executives within the corporate and business world should not end. The combination of financial and technological globalization would prove to be too powerful a force to cope with a Profession over time.
The diplomas awarded by the best universities resemble a yogurt, milk, or a pair of oranges: they have an expiration date! Professional knowledge in its principles not only offered its holder a competitive advantage, but also gave him the opportunity to have a way of earning a living for a lifetime. The generation before the professional parents struggled to give their children property as a way to protect them for when they were gone.
The next generation of parents offered their children the opportunity to be professionals as a way to protect themselves in time for when they were not there either. It seems that between the two generations there were differences regarding protection but in reality they had a common denominator: the professional title would serve the children for about 30 years - just enough to have a pension - which is exactly the same time as A property usually tends to depreciate (at the average 3% annual rate).
The increasingly early expulsion of professionals and executives from organizations and companies is now a fact; a large majority of them cease to belong to companies at the age of 45, many at 40 and also some see their working career in the corporate world ended before the age of 35 (see "Professional Suicide or Organizational Murder", already quoted).
And this phenomenon - that we can accept or not, feel comfortable with it or not, that provides opportunities for a few and pain for many - is here to stay. There have never been as many mergers and acquisitions in the world as during the last 5 years and this type of scenario is still to grow.
What do mergers and acquisitions mean? On the one hand, greater efficiency and productivity "within" the company and also greater utility for shareholders. But on the other hand, unemployment increases. And especially of those who are within the middle levels of companies, such as professionals and executives.
Therefore, professionals, managers, and executives have to have more and more problems in having a first job, and after getting it and being recruited it is very likely that they “leave” that company within the first three years. For a time they have a good chance of reintegrating into "another" company, but from the age of 35 this becomes increasingly difficult. Many persist in the effort to reintegrate even when they are in their 40s, but at 45 they are very clear about a large number of executives and professionals, who must head towards other horizons.
They can do it? What new obstacles do professionals and executives encounter as a result of clear observations from Robert Kiyosaki? Paper money and its creation - with or without endorsement - linked to the thinking of Lord John Maynard Keynes that “removes from the face of the earth” the opposite thinking of the great German economist Joseph Schumpeter.
The latter privileges the idea of the "innovative entrepreneur" as the main engine of the economy, which of course departs completely from Keynes' thought.
The latter considers that it is productive to “make wells in the streets as long as someone fills them later”, a fact that Latin American leaders quickly adopt creating what they suggest is work, but that in fact it is non-genuine work.
This creation of money turns out to be a fiction in the sense that it moves away from all productive attempts, and we find then that - paradoxically - the most productive people are the most punished.
Robert Kiyosaki highlights that the main problem faced by productive people has to do with two main "fronts": the Banks that owe their existence and growth based on "interests" and the governments who justify their presence and the lifestyle of their rulers based on "taxes".
While professionals and executives remain within the corporate world this is not very clear, but as soon as they set foot outside it they realize this reality. And this makes their survival "outside" the corporate and business world even more difficult. They quickly learn that operating "as freelancers" or as "small entrepreneurs" is too heavy a burden. And there are many factors to consider in this regard.
At The Organization Development Institute International we have enough experience related to the process that professionals and executives live in their “transition” to become entrepreneurs / entrepreneurs. We have also learned quite a bit about it as we endeavor our own staff to become entrepreneurs / entrepreneurs. And we also have some research and field work that are of additional help to us. Let's start exploring them.
One of the most difficult steps corporate executives face in their attempts to become entrepreneurs has to do with "breaking the paradigm" of a fixed-wage job. The security and protection that they have enjoyed in companies is appreciated internally by them when they cease to belong to the company, although this is not always openly recognized with third parties.
For many years, Shakespeare has made use of security and protection as a method and means of "destruction". The witches give different instructions aimed at bringing down the enemy, including terrible and perishable evils, but Hecate as their leader sees the limitations of evil in terms of the possibility of total destruction.
To do this, put them aside and take command declaring a single instruction that ends up being a lethal weapon: "instead of the terrible evils that you are advising what we are going to do is give - to the enemy - a sense of total protection". And it is precisely this same sense of total protection that many professionals, executives, managers and executives have enjoyed in their companies that prevents them from taking the necessary leap to undertake on their own.
On the other hand, most people seem to feel relatively comfortable in a world where, after several years of formal study, they find a job where they can apply what they have "learned". Being an entrepreneur or entrepreneur implies the need to dedicate yourself to looking for new ideas to create the company or to develop an invention, and it is common for professionals to seem uncomfortable with the situation described above. On the contrary, employers have always preferred to privilege the search towards something that is not usually granted in formal education centers. These people with entrepreneurial characteristics have a first peculiarity: "They are not satisfied with the way things are until now" (Eric Gaynor Butterfield, Dublin; 2000).And this particularity is complemented by a second: "There is no word NO in his dictionary", something that Napoleon said many years ago.
Professionals and executives who work within the corporate world have limited their ability to "invent" that is absolutely essential within the private world of entrepreneurs. Precisely one of the purposes of "the Profession" is to show the benefits of a particular profession, which is often done at the expense of even "another profession". We now know that there is no particular way to learn about inventions and ideas, and it seems that formal educational systems do not help much to develop inventors.
And professionals are among the species that has possibly spent the most years of its life within a formal educational system.
When asked by a participant in a World Congress of The Organization Development Institute about what to do to complete a Doctorate in the United States, the answer was that you just have to spend very little time having a good time outside the formal system. educational and try to respond to the requirements keeping in mind the expected response of the other party.
And here we find a distinction with the inventors because it seems that this interesting group of people does not need others to "give them a note" and even less that they are really interested in the note "that others are going to give them".
Professionals and executives in corporations are subject to regular evaluations and feedback on where they are - as well as instructions on where they should go - which makes them feel comfortable with third-party approval. Inventors and the ability to invent that is required to be an entrepreneur "Can live without outside approval" (Eric Gaynor Butterfield, Dublin, 2000).
Another peculiarity of innovative entrepreneurs in terms of the German economist Joseph Schumpeter has to do with this phrase: “The mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it doesn't open. ”
The entrepreneur urgently needs to see the world from different perspectives and not as opposite poles of the same dimension. Graham Bell was not geared toward inventing the telephone, and neither was Thomas Edison seeking to invent the phonograph. The same has happened with the discovery of penicillin. And with saccharin. And with the micro-waves. Not even with the remote control of your TV.
We have also observed that in recent times "scientists" have been gradually replaced by "researchers" and many of them are on the payrolls of large multinational companies or government entities, which has given rise to a new "Species of inventors"; The inventions are no longer the property of individuals and the owners are rather multinational companies. And this represents a very strong brake on the free innovative spirit since more and more inventions are linked to the world of money both for their development and for their commercialization explosion. The corporate aspect added to the financial component means that when an inventor appears with a new solution to an old problem or with a new way of approaching a process,Very few companies are willing to take the risk unless it is "within the parameters provided by company policy."
Jacob Rabinow - one of the most prolific American inventors - points out that many of his inventions had to be moved outside the borders of the United States since they were considered "high risk"… by financiers.
Many of these financiers preferred that "others" bear the initial business risk and - if they did well - as these small businesses were going to have financial needs at some point, they, the financiers, would eventually buy the company from them.
Rabinow states that “… unfortunately most of the companies are managed by professionals and financial executives who know how to buy and sell, but know nothing about the products that their companies produce. They may not even know what those products are. ” The irony of what happens today with the innovations the Japanese develop is that they are based on the entrepreneurial spirit of Bell, Edison, and other great innovators. To some extent we can say that within the corporate world many inventions and innovations initiatives can be turned off, which does not predispose their professionals, once outside the organization, to deploy enormous entrepreneurial forces,the beautiful phrase of the brilliant James March being applicable when affirming that the organization from the communicative and informative point of view is a great garbage can ”(garbage can).
We have found an additional aspect that is linked to the difficulties that professionals have in becoming entrepreneurs. Professionals tend to think "from here" and forward. Entrepreneurs tend to build on success. They are positioned "from the achievement".
We have the personal experiences of several entrepreneurs who - acquiring a totally empty land or a totally deteriorated property - the vision they had at that time was of a business "walking", with many people buying and the cashier receiving money continuously.
Positioning yourself in success and achievement offers many advantages to the entrepreneur; on the other hand, the professional is at a disadvantage when positioning himself in the present and projecting himself into the future. In the latter case, the professional is constantly seeing and exposing himself to all the obstacles that exist to achieve success and achievements.
The professional and the executives within the corporate world are permanently linked to a process of expecting instructions from others who are at the top of the organization, usually.
The entrepreneur is the one who must generate what others must do. And "doing" is another characteristic of the entrepreneur. He does not hesitate to do things that are often not related to his function.
On the other hand, the professional and executive within the corporate world finds that the division of labor allows him to refer innumerable tasks and activities to third parties; there is always someone else who can do the homework. On the contrary, the employer cannot 100% apply the principle of division of labor as it would be too onerous. In this sense, the entrepreneur and entrepreneur has had to put matrix organization into practice before it was discovered by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton!
The professional's life is linked to writing and writing. Many instructions and communications are formalized through organization manuals, description of functions and tasks, and description of procedures. On the contrary, the entrepreneur has very few activities and processes that are fully formalized. You know very well that everything that is written can even be used occasionally against you.
Alvin Gouldner, Philip Selznick, and Robert Merton found through careful research the limits of bureaucratic organization and how written rules and regulations can have dysfunctional consequences for the company. The entrepreneur has no idea who these experts in organizational behavior are but they learned for themselves what the negative aspects of the rules are. In any case, nowadays, entrepreneurs who show interest in expanding their businesses must take into account the importance of formalizing processes, and this is one of the difficulties that arise in relation to the formal requirements of ISO standards.
It is common for the professional to have many routines as to how others reward him (rather fixed or at least possible to anticipate award rates) unlike the employer. But there is an additional component regarding prizes and rewards; the entrepreneur tends to reward himself over a variable rate.
The professional and also the executive tend to consume resources of the organization with the exception of some that are located in the generation units, unlike the entrepreneur who at all times and in all circumstances must "generate and create resources" from the point of organizational view.
Many professionals respect the predetermined limits within their company and also by the limits established by their own Profession. The Professional Associations dictate norms and establish behavioral parameters within which they must act.
We have found in many entrepreneurs a very effective orientation regarding the management of their money; Professionals and executives tend to think more of pension and retirement plans. Robert Kiyosaki highlights that the pension system is practically broken and also the possibility that a professional can retire requires that he make contributions throughout a working career that today is unusual when his corporate relationship was interrupted long before 65 years.
We have worked very hard with some professionals and executives who were trying to become entrepreneurs since “they kept trying to operate within what they learned in their profession”. And this scheme is increasingly strongly installed even within the most independent professions such as Medicine.
It is not the Doctors who run the health organizations, but rather work in these institutions that are rather financial; as Robert Kiyosaki would say - unlike what happened a generation or two ago - doctors today work for money and don't make money work for them (as shareholders of pre-paid health organizations do).
Since Burns & Stalker (1961) made the need for “change” evident, executives and managers within the corporate world have felt with increasing intensity how the context has more power over their lives.
This is something that entrepreneurs have known all their lives. And therefore, they have been immunized against the transitional and transformational processes that have been taking place.
Professionals and executives, as well as entrepreneurs, have had to learn new forms of mutation in the face of changing context, but unlike professionals, entrepreneurs have been better trained and equipped to deal with the impacts that come from outside. For the businessman, chaos and uncertainty represent a wonderful opportunity; Without them their entry as new containers would not be possible or at least not so easy.
Something that we have continually found in the process of assisting professionals to become entrepreneurs is the fact that they “have engravings on their heads” that they charge for the passage of time.
Although it seems paradoxical, it is the same scheme of those workers who perform the most repetitive and routine tasks. Most of the professional services provided are related to the time elapsed and not necessarily to the quality of the service itself. This makes it difficult for them to move to a position like that of the entrepreneur where they can only receive income as a result of the results they achieve. Furthermore, in the process and over time, the entrepreneur not only deprives himself of receiving income, but also has to incur payments and expenses to others over time.
Writing and reading are part of the world of professionals and executives and especially with what they should do and also with what they should get others to do. The businessman spends a lot of his time showing how things are done; he is convinced that word and writing are possible options but not as positive and effective as through "showing".
The vision of income and money that many executives and managers have has to do "with their own box" that is linked to the enormous investment made to achieve the profession and the university diploma. On the other hand, entrepreneurs "don't have any boxes" so that their reach is greater.
We have found that many professionals "tend to stop investing" - even within their own profession, once they graduate.
Field work carried out during 1993 shows a tendency for professionals not to incorporate computer technology equipment in the same way that small and medium entrepreneurs do.
Even today we find some accountants, engineers and doctors who keep their stories and those of their Clients on cards and forms. Even more dramatic is what happens to professionals and executives after they have finished their careers and received their university diplomas. Only a small proportion of the professionals are members of their Professional Association, and even less those who are more closely linked to them through updating programs and attendance at local congresses. And only a tiny portion of Latin American university professionals belong to the Professional Association that leads their specialty in the world. It is estimated that among the latter, less than 1 per thousand do so.
The professional more clearly divides his work from his personal interests. And especially when taking your vacation. Holidays for professionals and executives "are for resting" and not having to think about other things. The businessman takes advantage of the vacation break to learn about what happens in another place in the world, where there are other products and services, and other different ways of delivering them. The commercialization of ways that are strange to what the entrepreneur usually does, the innovations of others, the fairs and conferences where new products and services are presented, offer the entrepreneur the necessary stimulus to continue innovating within his own company.
The “risks” aspect deserves special attention. Expert David McClelland devoted much of his time and energy to studying the motivational aspect and within it considered the orientation that executives and managers have regarding risk. Managers and executives seem to take calculated risks, that is, within certain reasonable parameters that are often within the non-formal limits established by the corporation.
For entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs the scheme is different; Few can survive by daring only to new projects whose risks are calculated. Failure is something the entrepreneur can live with every day; what is really important to them is that the failure is not total (in terms of consuming all their resources) and that it allows them to get up.
Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs without having come to know the monumental work of James March & Herbert Simon (1958 - “Organizations”) edited by Wiley & Sons know that the organization is not a total monolithic unit where what is on top it has to be executed by others.
These two notable experts show that the management of incentives in relation to the contributions and contributions of the different organizational participants, at the level of individuals, groups, and intergroup relations, turns out to be a component of vital importance to achieve business effectiveness. Professionals do not always have this organizational perspective.
The language spoken by the company is often interpreted by young professionals as "what works in practice". The inspiring work of Dr. Donald W. Cole is proof that this is not necessarily always the case. The differences between "organizational charter" and what is operating are one of the main aspects that may begin to precipitate the dilemma of professional suicide in young professional executives.
Sometimes - very late - professionals and executives learn that their own vision from their specialty as university graduates is nothing more than an obstacle to the development and growth of the company as a whole. Those who, as adolescents, go towards “the commercial - financial” usually finish their secondary studies as Business Experts and then continue their studies at the Faculty of Economic Sciences. They continue to specialize more and more, and before graduating they can continue their careers as auditors at one of the world's former “Big six” audit firms. In the case that they visualize a better option, many times they install themselves in one of their ex - Clients as General Accountant and they progress to become Controller. A greater specialization leads him to the position of Treasurer,and finally reaches the zenith of his work and professional career as Chief Financial Officer. Now what are the main functions of a Financial Director? Well, books and university studies suggest that it has to do with making the best use of the financial resource they have available: money. The postponement of payments alienates him with one half of the company dedicated to purchases, acquisitions and other supplies, while the anticipation of collections makes him alienate the other half with whom his company is related: the Clients. In conflict with practically 100% of your company, your survival in it begins to be difficult!Now what are the main functions of a Financial Director? Well, books and university studies suggest that it has to do with making the best use of the financial resource they have available: money. The postponement of payments alienates him with one half of the company dedicated to purchases, acquisitions and other supplies, while the anticipation of collections makes him alienate the other half with whom his company is related: the Clients. In conflict with practically 100% of your company, your survival in it begins to be difficult!Now what are the main functions of a Financial Director? Well, books and university studies suggest that it has to do with making the best use of the financial resource they have available: money. The postponement of payments alienates him with one half of the company dedicated to purchases, acquisitions and other supplies, while the anticipation of collections makes him alienate the other half with whom his company is related: the Clients. In conflict with practically 100% of your company, your survival in it begins to be difficult!acquisitions and other supplies, while the anticipation of collections makes him antagonize the other half with whom his company is linked: the Clients. In conflict with practically 100% of your company, your survival in it begins to be difficult!acquisitions and other supplies, while the anticipation of collections makes him antagonize the other half with whom his company is linked: the Clients. In conflict with practically 100% of your company, your survival in it begins to be difficult!
The look of professionals and executives is often mainly focused on who their superior is, while the entrepreneur looks more towards his Clients, potential or real. And the professional's thinking tends to be rather one-dimensional rather than two-dimensional, judging correct or incorrect many times in light of the knowledge of his profession.
The professional graduated as a university graduate privileges the deductive method, going from the general to the particular, while the entrepreneur can usually manage himself under both methods and has a strong tendency to “inductive” (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: Congress of Business Innovation - 2002). Today we know that creativity and innovation are essential elements for those interested in running companies and that they are also more strongly linked to the skills displayed with the inductive method than with the deductive method.
We have listed some aspects related to Behavioral Sciences that show the transit that professionals, executives, executives and company managers must try to “exercise” as businessmen and entrepreneurs. Fortunately we know that recognizing what we "need" is the first - and important - step toward achieving an achievement.
How to travel that path, and move forward in the process - overcoming the various difficulties - will be explored in the next day where we will start with a Self-Assessment Questionnaire regarding the enlistment that executives and professionals need for their effective transition as entrepreneurs. Some have preferred to call said Self-Assessment Questionnaire as Test.
Robert Kiyosaki's model, which places special emphasis on learning how to make money work for you, then requires some important behavioral changes that are sometimes not easy to make, but fortunately we already know quite a bit about how to do it.
Thank you very much for your generosity in sharing.
