Enough of continuing to talk about vision and mission in cooperative companies, because Vision is what people have when they have not slept for more than three to 04 days! On the other hand, the cooperative strategy will allow us to differentiate ourselves from others. Today the business playing field is level in terms of product quality. Successes in the future will not only be provided with quality, but will have a special indefinite "emotion".
"Capital is no longer the King" are skills, knowledge of people and training. " The modern world requires a new generation of cooperative leaders, but to be a leader, you need a great willingness to learn and unlearn, the latter means rethinking, re-evaluating, re-examining and eliminating information that is usually unnecessary. A cooperative society lacking in leaders becomes a society lacking in opportunities and poor in its development.
We must awaken the power that people have within them so that they can achieve a healthy, happy, productive and successful life, applying human reengineering.
We are not in a time of change, but rather in a change of era, we need new paradigms in cooperativism, because the old ones no longer fit the current world.
80% of the Cooperatives do not have a strategy, they limit themselves to copying their competitors: Banks, Municipal Banks, Edipymes, Ong and other cooperatives, some have even had a strategy but have lost it. If all financial intermediaries, including CACs, pursue the same goal; cooperatives end up looking more and more alike; Then the partners only choose the product price as a base (lower interest rate), some leaders and managers confuse the cooperative strategy with aspirations. The strategy is what allows you to obtain a competitive advantage and achieve aspirations such as being a leader, increasing sales or gaining a market share, etc.
What is the role of finance capital in this new capitalism of knowledge?
Knowledge and information are the most competitive weapons of our time.
Never assume that you cannot do something because no one is doing it, it does not imply that it cannot be done. In the past companies tried to improve their products by reducing the amount of "things that go wrong" in the future success will be directly proportional to the number of "things that go well". This type of product or service can only be created by "curious" companies that use their imagination that can add "value" to the new products or services of the Cooperatives.
It is no longer enough to conduct surveys and focus groups (Focus Groups) to the members, it is necessary to "involve" them in the corporate process (Associative life and democratic participation), because the link between the member's experience and his return to the cooperative in the future is "Emotional", because if not: someone will first take away your partners, then they will take away your employees and finally they will take away your assets.
These new experiences of solidarity are breaking down the old business models to build new cooperatives, where their motto is "If it's not broken, break it". These new executives at the service of cooperativism are breaking the rules or molds that will allow ending internal incompetence and not with the competition that is necessary for your best strategy is "Co-opetencia" (Cluster).
Cooperatives should not try to be the best but rather be "Singular" (allocate resources to innovate and discover new needs of the members that they can meet better than anyone else). Because the "Personality" of companies has emerged, with its exclusive name, its special packaging and its advertising (business awareness of the public-police or private sector).
What is the cause of business blindness?
The main reason is the inability or unwillingness to look beyond; outside of current experiences Why? Because they all attend the same seminars, conventions, read the same industry publications, speak with the same consultants, supervisors, and change or exchange managers. Much of his time is focused on others, seeing what the Banks, Municipal Savings Banks, Edipymes, NGOs, etc. do.). Instead of refining your own vision of the business world, you have to apply: Networks, associativity, transformations, mergers and consortia with cooperatives, SA and civil society all this inevitably and leads to compete only in prices (interest rates).
What is the measure of cooperative success; maximize profit or make the company work for the long term in favor of the partners?
The profit (Remnants) is important, but not the priority. For cooperatives, profits are like oxygen for humans: «We need oxygen to live; but we do not live to breathe.
Cooperatives tend to die little by little, because their leaders and executives focus on production and profit; they forget that cooperatives are institutions, "a community of human beings" united by values and principles of solidarity whose main characteristics are:
- Environmental sensitivity Strong sense of cooperative identity Tolerance and governance (participation) Conservative business policy (Financial).
What is the effect if a company and its competitors have the same strategy?
The biggest disease in the business world today is imitation, convergence, companies imitate what their competitors do in a way that nobody represents anything. "The kingdom of Bits" will allow cooperatives to deliver products and services in the form of Bits, this allows them to have a competitive advantage, and the secret of such advantage lies in the added value to those Bits. This investment in technology will accomplish the following:
a) Give a voice to those who do not have a voice (www.coopnetaldia.org, www.mercosur.org.uy, www.colac.com, www.woccu.com, www.alianzaaci.com, cr-www.ongconacoop. da.ru, etc)
b) Decentralize control.
c) The importance of geographic borders (distance) decreases.
Cooperatives can offer products and services, but what consumer members buy or acquire "are concepts": The "cooperative brand" as experience. The symbol of cooperativism is universal in nature, because it was approved by the International Cooperative Alliance - ICA in a World Congress and cannot be deformed by each cooperative, because its identity would be lost; What they can do is have new icons, logos, which is not cooperativism but graphic design, a mania of what is advertising, of which there is already a lot, we need viable actions and social leaders; Example:
IBM - does not sell computers, but business "Solutions".
Swatch - It is not concerned with watches, but with the idea of time.
The Peruvian Cooperativism should not build the brands (Local - Regional) on the basis of financial products but on the reputation of the solidarity model in the country. (Trust, justice, equity) especially in the provinces, highlighting the cultural heritage of each region where the cooperative headquarters operates, they must exploit cooperative values and principles as business force ideas or "slogans" that distinguish each of them with those of other entities that offer the same.
We have to open schools and universities to cooperative education not as advertising but as a source of change in values and an attitude of solidarity.
Machines wear out, cars break down, people die, but cooperative brands will remain (Soul of cooperation); That of the cooperative vertical integration belongs to the past, today the challenge is the «business associativity» (Sectorial Networks - Health - Banking - Work - Gender - Education - Consumption - Housing - Ecology, Human Resources and Civil Society) Local - Regional - National and World
Organizational and leadership entropy must be avoided in Peruvian Cooperativism. In this challenge, the training and information actions of the Education Committee will give life to the "Golden Rule" (Cooperative Education), to achieve the much desired human development ".
