It has recently come to my attention the phrase “think long term benefit”. I’ve heard it lots of times throughout my life but I have never put a lot thought to its meanings and implications. But now, through some great anecdotes of my father I have been able to understand its implications in a personal scale and in a company scale. When you think of long term benefit, you are investing/sacrificing something in your current moment that will give you an even greater reward in the future. This might sound very easy to do, but the problem is that we tend to act based on our current emotions to have instant satisfaction, therefore we almost always (even unconsciously) think of short term benefit. It's just like leaving a homework for later just so you could play right now. But you have already heard of procrastination and there is nothing new about it, therefore I would like to share two great examples of long term thinking in a company scale, where there are much more people in play than just yourself. Both examples will be of Tottus hypermarket because I used my father as a primary source. The first scenario took place about 9 months ago during the Copa America soccer championship. The Copa America is the biggest soccer championship in South America that started back in 1916 and takes place every four years. Soccer is the number one sport in South America, therefore this championship is HUGE for latinos. What does Tottus have to do with this? Well, right before the championship started, Tottus made an offer. The offer said that if you buy a television in Tottus within a specific date and Peru wins the championship, then the TV you bought is completely free. Sounds like a great offer right? Well, people didn't take it that way. Instead of thinking that Tottus wanted the best for its clients, people took it offensively. Like in every bet, there is a bigger reward if the probability of an event happening is lower. For example, Tottus was not going to bet for Argentina to win the championship because there is a much higher probability that Argentina wins. In other words, people inferred that Tottus thought that Peru’s team was so bad that there was no chance for it to win the championship. There was A LOT of hate towards Tottus and it’s image suddenly started to break. After Chile won the tournament, people started to say that is was all “part of their evil plan” and social media pages of anti Tottus started to emerge. So, the company could either continue its way with the money they made with the sold TV’s (short term benefit) or it could fix its almost broken image (long term benefit). Tottus decided to fix its reputation by giving back the money to the people who bought TV’s even though Peru didn’t win. It was about 1 million soles worth of TV’s. The image that shared this big news got more than 50 thousand likes and made the company’s reputation better than ever. The second scenario took place last week when a violent 10 day long protest in Pucallpa created a mini inflation in the city. Things were so dangerous that small markets couldn't supply themselves with more food and the demand for such basic needs were kept the same, therefore the price of food became very high. There is a Tottus store in Pucallpa going through the same problems as all the other markets, but they have tackled the problem differently. Instead of rising the price for most products, they decided to freeze the prices. Nothing goes higher, nothing goes lower. But now there is another problem. How are they going to keep up the supply if the supply was already low? For the first time ever Tottus is sending their products by airplane to Pucallpa to quickly supply the store with fresh food. It is now the only store in Pucallpa to offer fresh food at the same price as before; all so that people could still access their basic needs. Of course Tottus is losing lots of money doing this, but it is a long term investment. As a funny side note I just realized I sound like I am getting paid to promote my dad's company, but please believe me I’m not. I just thought these scenarios were worth sharing because I’m sure that the takeaway is clear and self explanatory. Remember to think long term benefit, but try not to get too caught up with the future; after all it is the current moment the thing we should enjoy the most.
2 Comments
*Less of a theoretical/takeaway and more of an analytical blog*
Let's take a time to consider the presidential candidates for Peru’s 2016 elections. It’s March already and elections are on April through June so politics is in everyone's minds right now. Though I’m still under age and can’t vote I still like to somewhat follow peruvian politics (especially in these times) just to be aware of everything that’s going on and to more importantly understand how the world of politics works. Apparently, this year is as messed up as all the other previous election years. So lets start and take a very brief look at the top candidates right now. First we have Keiko Fujimori, you either hate her or you love her. Though she does have a good educational background, people really just love her because of what her father (Alberto Fujimori) did, which was stop the terrorism in Peru. The other lot that hates her, feels that way mostly because of what his father did to stop terrorism, which was becoming almost a dictator and use death squads to kill terrorists, and amongst them, thousands of innocent people. Next candidate is a newcomer, Julio Guzman. This person’s communication and emotional skills are so on point that he managed to gain 16.6% of votes in just 6 months of his first presidential run. A very smart person at first glance, but after after a while you realize he is no more than a contradicting insecure and unclear of himself. Lastly, I definitely want to mention Cesar Acuña, the greatest failure this world has ever produced. He plagiarized his entire master's degree thesis and plagiarized the entire book he wrote on education. Apart from offering “plata como cancha” (money like popcorn) to all his congressmen, it seems that this chemical engineer doesn't even know what being a chemical engineer actually means. After being asked in an interview what a chemical engineer is, he responded with this brilliant answer: “Ingeniería química es todo lo que significa como profesional como productos naturales con la cuestión de insumos en temas de todo lo que es” which translates to: Chemical engineering is everything that means, as a professional, like natural products in terms of things of everything that is. It’s amazing how a presidential candidate can be more ignorant than a chihuahua. Our best hopes lie in PPK (Pedro Pablo Kuczynski), the only decent candidate there is, but people don’t vote for him because he is both too white and too old. People prefer to vote for candidates that they can relate to for their skin color and culture, such as Acuña, rather than someone that will actually help Peru, such as PPK. Now, I’m not trying to make this blog an information article, it’s not, you see when I was in this mixture of several thoughts I started to think about things that would make a great government and I remembered about the peruvian aristocratic republic of 1895-1919. A time governed by a wealthy and well educated oligarchic group that produced a time of economic prosper and commercial growth in Peru, but there was something very controversial about it, that only people that could read and write could vote. Is that the solution? Should only people with education vote in 2016? This would indeed increase the probability of a great president being elected, but it’s simply not fair. It was right here where I simply had to connect this concept, once again, to the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Only a few concepts are needed to make a great government. Imagine a government with a level 5 president, someone who Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. First who, then what; imagine having the right people in the bus, a great minister, vice president and congressmen, all powered by their own professional will. Confronting the brutal facts; a government that accepts the conditions of their current reality and acts towards them in a realistic way. Hedgehog concept; simplicity behind the three circles of your economic engine, what you can be the best in the world at and what you are passionate about. Apply these concepts and you will make a great government. We have got to stop relying in mediocre and corrupt presidents. Peru is in an everlasting fight to pick itself up from the ashes of the Pacific War and terrorism, yet it is still failing miserably because it is blinded by the misery of ignorance and abominable corruption. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” -Martin Luther King. |
Archives
May 2016
Categories |