Rework

Me salgo un poco de la temática habitual de este blog para dejar apuntadas un par de citas (en inglés) de Rework, un libro que acabo de terminar de leer y que trata de manera extramadamente sencilla, clara y concisa diferentes aspectos relacionados con la dirección de empresas, especialmente startups y empresas de moderato tamaño, así como con la organización y enfoque del trabajo individual y en equipos para una optimización del mismo.


El libro en cuestión está escrito por los creadores de 37signals, Jason Fried y David Heinemeier, los cuales han creado, entre otros, productos mundialmente conocidos como Basecamp o Ruby on Rails.

Acerca de los planes de negocio y cómo éstos suelen estar bastante alejados de la realidad:

"Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier"

Acerca del Workaholism:

"Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn't sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes - and it will - it'll hit that much harder. Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This result in inelegant solutions. They even create crises. They don't look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more"  

Acerca de la toma de decisiones respecto a tu oferta de productos y servicios:

"When you build a product or service, you make the call on hundreds of tiny decisions each day. If you're solving someone else's problem, you're constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve your own problem, the light comes on. You know exactly what the right answer is"

Acerca de las ideas:

"Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small part of a business that it's almost negligible. The real question is how well you execute"

.. y de las nuevas ideas:

"Coming up with a great idea gives you a rush. You start imagining the possibilities and the benefits. And of course, you want all that right away. So you drop everything else you’re working on and begin pursuing your latest, greatest idea. Bad move. The enthusiasm you have for a new idea is not an accurate indicator of its true worth. What seems like a sure-fire hit right now often gets downgraded to just a “nice to have” by morning. And “nice to have” isn’t worth putting everything else on hold"

No hay por qué ofrecer más que la competencia:

"Don't shy away from the fact that your product or service does less. Highlight it. Be proud of it. Sell it as aggressively as competitors sell their extensive feature lists" 

Termino este post con una frase que también aparece en el libro pero que se atribuye a Henry Ford, acerca de aplicar aquellas ideas o deseos que los clientes comunican a nuestros productos:

"If I'd listened to customers, I'd have given them a faster horse"