As you can see, I haven’t been very active in what regards posting on my blog. My time as been split apart between work and a new challenge that I’m taking. My free time has been dedicated to the remote diploma in the University of Oxford that I mentioned previously.
The diploma in “New economic Powers” has been a very nice experience. The course consists in studying the macro-economy and the decisions taken by several countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) that allowed them to grow at a higher rate then developed countries and the expectations raised that they will be the “new economic powers” of the XXI century.
The course itself consists in weekly lessons where you are given a few papers to read. Each week we have to write a few blog posts about the subject in hands and do public posts on the forum about questions that are made. We should also contribute to the discussion by commenting on other posts and raise questions. By the end of the course we will have two longer essays that we need to submit for appreciation by the professor.
Unfortunately I’ve been stuck at work and studying “New Economic Powers” at University of Oxford (UK) and I haven’t post as often as I would like. I will soon correct that and post about my experience of studying a diploma remotely. Today a fun song is in order. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did…
A friend emailed me a great slideshow with pictures from Lisbon in the 1950’s. A lot has changed but the charm and the genuine heart of the city are here well represented. Unfortunately I don’t know who’s the author but he/she did an amazing job with this images.
The pics also have some comments there but they are only useful if you understand Portuguese
I recently read “What is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter (Harvard Business Review) and that gave me the idea to write a post mentioning briefly the concepts discussed in that document. Some people might claim that the article is outdated after more than 10 years but I really enjoy it and believe that it is still very much up to date.
From the article is it’s clear that the author separates both concepts but both are essential for a company if they want to achieve superior performance.
Operational Effectiveness, in theory, is no more than performing similar activities better than your rivals. They can easily be copied but that should not dissuade companies from doing so. Constant improvement ensures superior profitability.
Strategy on the other hand is more about performing different activities or, similar activities in different ways. “Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities”. This can hardly be imitated .
Continue to read if you want to know why and are interested in the concepts of “Strategic positioning”, Trade-offs” and “Fit“.
Some of you that read my blog often have noticed that I link to a online game called Hattrick. I play this game since February 2004 (more than5 years!). Not always I was into the game and there were periods of time that I was just logging in not to loose my team. This week my team (TeamID=89440 if you play the game) reached the number 45th of ranking of a total of 84 648 teams and 46 851 active users in Portugal. I’m leading one of several division III but hardly I will go up.
My main tips are:
Plan ahead, choose a training and stick with it for a while.
Train young players (less than 21 years old) and choose the ones that are almost skilling up (compare TSI and salaries of similar players)
Disregard the form when you buy a player and. ‘Never’ train general to improve it. If possible buy players with HEAD and QUICK. Do not buy a ‘unpredictible’ player for defense
Avoid playing in MOTS and no matter what people say.. 90% of the games you should play in 352 as midfield and ball possession are crucial to win
Patience is a virtue… You will randomly loose important games that you deserve to win and it will ruin your season. Don’t give up!
Hello! My name is João Rufino. I'm a Portuguese citizen working in the IT sector in Ireland. Hope you enjoy my blog as I'll share some ideas about several subjects and bit more about myself. If you're interested to learn more about me feel free to visit My Online Biography section. ;)
Disclaimer
This is my personal blog. The views and posts expressed across this domain are mine alone and not those of my employer.
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