Herói ontem, vilão hoje

Atempada reflexão de John Kay no FT de hoje sobre a contemporânea obsessão com a redução de custos:

"Safety is not the only area in which managers are required to balance incompatible and incommensurable factors. Any business whose long-run viability depends on its reputation faces a similar dilemma – the damage to BP’s reputation may well exceed the direct cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill. Has a bank, or a retailer, sacrificed the trust of its customers for short-term profitability? Have pharmaceutical companies neglected their pipeline of new drugs in favour of cost-cutting and marketing? Only time will tell, and perhaps we won’t know even then. As the Greek philosopher Solon put it: “We don’t consider any man successful until he has died well.” But ancient philosophers were subject only to the verdict of posterity. Today’s managers are victims of the tyranny of the quarterly earnings report. And that is why yesterday’s cost-savings are so often today’s corporate crisis."