Um verdadeiro dirigente de empresa deveria assumir as suas responsabilidades...mas isso nem sempre é o caso! FT.com / Comment & analysis / FT Columnists - Real bosses know when to take a beating
posted by Carlos A. Páscoa Machado @ 6:22 PM
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When good bosses go bad (and vice versa) - FORTUNE Features - Fortune on CNNMoney.com
posted by Carlos A. Páscoa Machado @ 12:04 PM
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The business model of Nespress and followers...Pod of Gold
posted by Carlos A. Páscoa Machado @ 5:03 PM
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Starting 1924 as a drugstore/pharmacy in Porto, the second largest town of Portugal, BIAL evolved to become the biggest Portuguese pharma independent firm, the only one among the top 10 largest pharmaceutical firms with facilities and sales in Portugal. Bial has recently brought to market the first ever medicine fully developed and patented in Portugal, even if its manufacture has been outsourced to a company in Canada, after a reported dedicated investment of ca. €300 million over a period of 15 years.
This anti-epileptic drug is currently being sold under a partnership with a Japanese firm in 12 different European countries, after being approved by the European Medicines Agency. (http://www.bial.com/pt/noticias_e_eventos.12/bial_lanca_antiepiletico_em_espanha.a168.html )
U.S. Food and Drugs Administration’s approval is still outstanding, even though the US and Canadian markets are in the crosshairs of BIAL’s marketing strategists.
In order to arrive here BIAL had to go through a long learning process which included the sale in Portugal under license by foreign multinational pharma companies of 16 different drugs.
Bial and its Foundation have been awarding every second year since 1984 several prizes the most valuable of which, the Bial Merit Award for Medical Sciences, bears presently the value of €200,000, and the Bial Award for Clinical Medicine in the amount of €100,000. The Bial Foundation also supports research in different countries. (http://www.bial.com/pt/fundacao_bial.11/premio_bial.17/premio_bial.a37.html )
Bial has a subsidiary in Spain, distribution outlets in Italy, Switzerland, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast and Panama, and sells its products in over 40 different national markets worldwide. However, the domestic market is still responsible for 63% of Bial’s total sales.
90 to 95% of its new medicine retail price is covered by the Portuguese public health department, apparently in line with similar drugs. Public restrictions on drug retail prices and incentives to the consumption of generic drugs are seen as the main obstacles in recent years.
Bial employs 770 people, 107 from 8 different nationalities in R&D activities alone, and collaborates with a network of some 90 research institutions world-wide. It invests 22% of sales (currently around €200 million per year, up from €90 million in 2005) in R&D activities.
They are now facing the challenge of funding the development of two more new drugs for which they need around one billion dollars.
In a nutshell, Bial, under the leadership of Luis Portela, was able to pursue long term ambitious objectives and to get its own medicine to the international market, using a network of relationships vital to the thrive in this kind of business. Through various means, Luis Portela and his team, which includes two sons sitting on the board, has created the necessary goodwill among Portugal’s political and business elite (Portugal’s head of state presides Bial’s Foundation award ceremonies and Bial is praised in the media as an exemplary innovative firm). Luis Portela also presides the so-called Health Cluster Portugal, where most companies and other health related institutions come together. The biggest challenges ahead seem to lay with the bet on further blockbuster medicines and inherent necessary funding (2 are in the pipeline for which 1 billion euros seem to be needed) and with the succession at the helm of Bial (the elder son has very recently been called to takeover as Bial’s CEO and Luis Portela will be holding the non-executive job of chairman). Bial is still very much a family business not listed/traded in the stock exchange with all inherent pros and cons and the risks in going for blockbuster drugs are enormous.
posted by Carlos A. Páscoa Machado @ 11:00 AM
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Apesar de estar de baixa médica, Steve Jobs continuava a trabalhar, a participar em reuniões por vídeo-conferência e esporadicamente era avistado em público na companhia de executivos da Apple e na própria sede da empresa, em Cupertino, na Califórnia. Surpreendentemente abrilhantou o mais recente lançamento da sua empresa. A confiança dos investidores parece ser tanta que o preço das acções da Apple aumentou de 1,7% em menos dum mês a seguir ao anúncio da baixa de Jobs.
Apple & Steve Jobs, Sonae & Belmiro Azevedo, Bill Gates & Microsoft, Luís Portela & Bial, Mark Zuckerberg & Facebook, Américo Amorim & Grupo Amorim, Carlos Oliveira & MobiComp, Soares dos Santos & Jerónimo Martins, Pedro Teixeira Duarte & Teixeira Duarte, António Mota & Mota Engil, estes são outros tantos duos que associamos de imediato e que revelam só por si a importância que certas personalidades assumiram na vida de muitas empresas de sucesso.
Claro que para estes exemplos de sucesso podemos encontrar outros tantos ou mais casos que deram para o torto: Enron & Kenneth Lay, Worldcom & Bernard Ebbers, Calisto Tanzi & Parmalat, BPN & Oliveira Costa, João Rendeiro & BPP.
Estas são outras tantas ilustrações da importância dos líderes – frequentemente fundadores – para o bem e para o mal de muitas – talvez a maioria – das empresas.
Claro que também se podem identificar outros líderes empresariais ainda na corda bamba: líderes que ainda não confirmaram a bondade dos seus movimentos estratégicos. O director geral da Nokia, Stephen Elop, recrutado à Microsoft e detentor dum bom pacote de acções desta empresa, anunciou muito recentemente uma aliança com a Microsoft, de quem vai adoptar o sistema operativo para os seus telemóveis. E não sei lá porquê, mas cheira-me mais a enviesamento estratégico e a fracasso do que a outra coisa qualquer. Parece que o mesmo cheiro terá chegado às narinas dos investidores, já que no próprio dia do anúncio as acções da Nokia caíram mais de 10% na bolsa e mais de 26% no mês, e às dos sindicatos, que alegam que 6000 postos na Finlândia de trabalho estão em perigo. Alvitram alguns que talvez fosse de ponderar a sugestão de muito simplesmente mudar toda ou parte da Nokia da Finlândia para o Vale do Silício na Califórnia...
Mas a grande diferença, que muitos dos leitores entretanto já identificaram, é que, no caso das empresas nacionais mencionadas, se trata fundamentalmente de empresas familiares - por maiores que elas sejam - de grandes empresários certamente muito meritórios, mas que ao invés dos seus congéneres estrangeiros, se entregam à velha pecha nacional de colocarem os destinos das suas empresas nas mãos dos seus filhos ou de investidores estrangeiros. A Mobicomp é um exemplo a ponderar: vendida à Microsoft há alguns anos atrás está em risco de encerrar, já que os seus engenheiros foram convidados a emigrar para a sede nos EUA. Aparente motivo: Estão no fuso horário errado!
posted by Carlos A. Páscoa Machado @ 8:54 AM
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