In each country, companies have their way of managing businesses, defining their strategies, and tracking them. In North America, especially in the United States and Canada, the management in organizations is usually different from the management carried out in Brazil, starting with the strategic planning. However, a change in perspective is observed, where Brazilians can learn from North Americans and Canadians, and vice versa.
According to Riberto Araújo, a consulting partner at PRIMVS, specialists in National and Organizational Culture affirm that administration, although an objective science, is culturally conditioned. Thus, the context in which business management is exercised is influenced by the environment, attributing different meanings to the interpretation of opportunities, threats, the use of management methodologies and tools, and shared decision-making.
Guilherme Barbassa, director of Stratec, says that in the US companies work with a strategic planning reflected mainly in the budget. In Brazil, however, medium-sized companies do not work with a highly structured budget, relying more on performance results. “Of course, this is a trend, and these things are not mutually exclusive. There are companies that work with both methods, even in an integrated way,” the director emphasizes.
Araújo draws attention to the fact that “Brazilian managers need to learn from these countries to value planning and decision-making based on facts and data, rather than on ‘hunches’ or market research, for example, regarding both demand and supply.” According to him, it is necessary to rely less on a very short-term view and think about business in sustainable terms. “Another important factor relates to tolerance for uncertainty and the immediacy of decisions, constancy of purpose. In Brazil, we tend to have a short-term view and to elect an organizational hero, the firefighter, to the detriment of the professional who prevents fires and plans,” comments Araújo.
However, in the consultant's view, Brazilians can teach North American and Canadian businesspeople to be more flexible in peer relationships and, regarding management practices, to incorporate and manage changes more agilely.
Barbassa reports that he has noticed a change in the organizational culture of North American and Canadian companies over the last 15 years. “These companies have been working more with monitoring strategy execution and not just with the budget. And because of this, both countries are in Stratec's sights for new international expansion. “Building on this change, the software will fulfill the demand of companies that also seek to monitor strategy execution beyond the budget,” he says. According to Barbassa, there are other companies that already offer this service in North America, but from a different perspective. “We haven't found a software with the same proposal as ours in this market. Therefore, our expectation is that sales in the US will quickly surpass our sales in Brazil,” he says excitedly. According to Barbassa, the plan is to start operating in North America in 2015.
And the surveys reiterate the optimistic predictions. According to a study by Gartner Group, in the United States and Europe, companies invest, on average, 4% of their revenue in IT annually, meaning they invest in technologies that can facilitate daily corporate life. In Brazil, in 2003, the average investment was 4.9% of net revenue, compared to 1.3% registered in 1988, according to research by FGV-EASP.
Sources:
CARVALHO, T. C. M. B., Falta a chamada governança de TI, Disponível em: http://www.itweb.com.br/noticias/artigo.asp?id=50613. Publicado em: 28/06/2004. Acesso em 21/02/2014.
