Ubuntu a competetive advantage

Before start talking about the benefits that this theory can give to managers, I think it’s important for you to know what it is.

Ubuntu is a theory created in South Africa, which argues that when a manager takes into account how people think and behave between each other, will have a competitive advantage and will avoid many problems that have relationship to employees like strikes, low production, attitude of the workers and others.

image taken from http://www.globaltrainingsystems.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ArticleList&SectionID=164

Unbuntu theory tries to understand the culture, values, norms, and beliefs held by the largest segment of the population, the philosophical thought system itself is a product of various factors including history, folklore, mythology, culture, norms, values, and religious beliefs, and this way know how to manage the employees.

I think the benefits of this theory can be huge for a company because when you understand the culture of your employees, you would be able to know in what situations they feel comfortable in which not, what to do to make them work harder, what to do to avoid conflicts in the organization, how to improve the efficiency etc.

Here I will put some of the competitive advantages that ubuntu theory can give in the different areas of the company:

- Relationships with others: People are intrinsically motivated to contribute more when they are valued

- Language and communication: Shared understanding of deeper meaning supports complex consensus. Ubuntu communication means concerted action that is adaptable.

- Time: Punctuality is a virtue, but time's healing dimension is a hidden competitive advantage for ubuntu.

- Productivity: Sustainable competitive advantage comes from strong loyalty to group goals in ubuntu.

Reeferences:

document Building competitive advantage from ubuntu: Management lessons from South Africa

San Jacinto Hammocks

Image taken form http://www.absolut-colombia.com/hamacas-de-san-jacinto-tradicion-de-la-costa-caribe/

Using a metaphor to attract new clients is one of the most efficient strategies that a manager can use, because by mixing different things you would have more impact in the client.

My idea is to sell hammocks from San Jacinto Colombia in United States , the metaphor I will use in this case would be telling the buyers the tradition that this product has in Colombia and of course the uses that the product has. The idea is to design a special package with pictures from San Jacinto, and a text that tells about the tradition of the hammocks in Colombia, it would say something like:

“San Jacinto hammocks are made from a web of interweaved threads and they come in various colors. The most curious thing is that you can see them in homes located in every corner of Colombia, especially near the Caribbean Coast and in other regions with warm weather.
These hammocks are ideal for outdoor areas, because they can be used as a bed, a sofa and even as a swing.
The origin of these hammocks can be found in the Indian civilizations, where they were called “INI”. When Christopher Columbus saw one for the first time, he was surprised and then took some of them to be used by the sailors, which helped reduce the space used for beds on the boats and kept the marines fresh during their resting hours.
Right now the hammocks are produced in a small town called San Jacinto, therefore the name of San Jacinto Hammocks.”
The images of San Jacinto will be important too to get the attention of the people, these will be the images:



Images taken from:
http://www.eluniversal.com.co/v2/%C2%A1que-suene-la-gaita
http://colombia.acambiode.com/producto_5654254566668655652532600303225.html
http://www.colombia.travel/es/turista-internacional/actividad/historia-y-tradicion/artesanias/tejidos-colombianos


This product is really original and will be exhibit in the malls of United States; it will help the Colombian companies that to be more recognized and to have amazing sells.

References
http://www.absolut-colombia.com/hamacas-de-san-jacinto-tradicion-de-la-costa-caribe/

The pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect or most known as the Rosenthal effect says that “one's expectations about a person can eventually lead that person to behave and achieve in ways that confirm those expectations”

taken from http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw/edp603_group2-f00.html

The Pygmalion is one of the key elements that a manager should take into account when managing consumers, employees, potential clients, bosses etc. because this way the expectations that this entire people have about you or the expectations that you have about them would have a very big chance to become truth. For example if I am the owner of a company and I talk to my employees in a certain way that make them think that I expect a lot from them, they will work harder and better, because they may think “my boss expects a lot from me I have to give everything in my work”. If you havent undestand yet how to create expectations in the other people and how the pygmalion effect works, i recomend you to see the movie pursuit of happyness with will smith, here i put a part of the movie that really teach me how to create expectatives. I think this movie is a pretty good example of the pygmalion effect because at the end all the expectatives that this guy has become truth.

I think that it is really important for you to take into account this statement not just for work but also for life , because it makes you see how important are emotions in humans, and that if you know how to manage this emotions, you will have more chances to succeed in your life

Business vs. cultures

After being on a very interesting conference given by Nick B Meyer in Universidad EAFIT about cultural dimensions all over the world, I realized the importance of this topic when doing business with different cultures around the world, and the importance of studying the person with the one you are going to do the business, for example is not the same thing to do a business with a Colombian guy (which have my same culture) than with a Chinese guy (has different culture), off course if you have a meeting with the colombian guy and you be late for 15 minutes it won’t be a big problem, but if you be late with the Chinese the business would be in risk.

In the conference Meyer talked about different cultural dimensions, but there was one that caught my attention because of the importance it has in today’s world:

- Masculinity vs. Femininity: It talks about the role of the genders in every culture, after doing a research studies found that female roles tend to be similar in the different cultures they tend to be modest and care. In the other hand masculine gender tend to be different, but with similarities like competitiveness and hungry for success.

For example Japanese people (Masculinity 95 on the scale of Hofstede) may be different than the Chilean people (Masculinity 16 on the scale of Hofstede), in this case Japanese people tend to be more competitive and ambitious than the Chilean people.

(stadistics taken from http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/masculinity/)

For concluding my intervention I would talk a little about the role that the manager of a company has to take when dealing with other cultures. I found in the interenet a very interesting paragraph that describes how fro me a manager should think when doing business that says “For those who work in international business, it is sometimes amazing how different people in other cultures behave. We tend to have a human instinct that 'deep inside' all people are the same - but they are not. Therefore, if we go into another country and make decisions based on how we operate in our own home country - the chances are we'll make some very bad decisions” (Taken from Geert Hofstede cultural dimesnions, URL: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/).

I think that is important that comapanies develop cultuaral skills in their employees (sepcially the ones who negotiate) because this way there will be more possibilities of succes .