I spent several days thinking about the subject of my final job of the graduate. I was asked to select a specific topic from my area of expertise, but it was not easy to decide and concentrate on something technical or theoretical because it hurts a lot what is happening in my country and see people dying on one side and the other, to see that from any point of view things could be better. I believe that we cannot be complete professionals if we simply devote ourselves to thinking about our responsibilities and knowledge without taking into account our environment, our community and their needs. We cannot continue to be robots that go from house to work trying to do things for us and our family group without thinking about really improving our society. Venezuela must evolve and I have faith that it will soon and will become a fully developed country. To achieve this we must all change our selfish way of thinking, teamwork and a better quality of life for all should be our north. Our principles should be based on respect, tolerance, human quality and personal and collective productivity.
When touching on the subject of productivity I must talk about our companies and entrepreneurs. A part of them of foreign origin in Venezuela. Many of them have learned over the years to want and recognize Venezuela as a great country, for our people, customs and especially for the human quality of our people, however there are elements that I believe companies should and can improve in our country. I have always thought that in highly inflationary economies like Venezuela's wages, work letters, employment pages and all information related to wages of Venezuelan workers should be measured in "minimum wage quantity", not in the local currency.
I put as an example of what I consider mismanagement of the term and its use the following: Imagine that a person seeks work and his last job was 6 months ago. Many companies assign the salary to a new worker based on their last salary measured in Bs, which I consider a big mistake of the companies and their departments of human resources. It has always hurt Venezuelan workers to express income in monetary units. I believe that Venezuelan companies should allocate wages on a basic principle as follows: "If you earned 4.67 minimum wages for 6 months at that date, we as a company offer you 5.5 minimum wages to You aspirant to the position work with us ... ". In this way, it would be guaranteed that Venezuelan employees can more or less maintain a certain quality of life and improve it over time, for example a letter of work with an amount in Bs. 6 months ago (last salary) means nothing For inflationary economies like ours, only means the continuation of a lousy salary for the aspirants to the positions. On the other hand Is it that a person with 10 years of service for a company does not deserve to earn at least 10 minimum wages at present ?. Or one with 20 years of service does not deserve 20 minimum wages today? (Take accounts). I do not say that salary must be established by length of service, but it should be a minimum obligatory basis for workers. Let's divide our salary from 5 years ago between the minimum wage 5 years ago and compare the result with the same operation to the current date. You will see that they earn less than 5 years ago.
If we graph it in time we will see that our salary is a downward curve and that is understood by few people, if they perceive it, they feel it when going to the market but they do not know it in technical and statistical terms. My thesis is not very convenient for many entrepreneurs but there will always be positive ways to execute proposals taking advantage of their benefits for all. They could create certain rules and laws that make my proposal fair to all. Of course there are many aspects to value in order to implement a policy like the one I propose.
Venezuelans, we can also improve as people working as a team in favor of projects that may be their beginnings do not provide greater economic benefits. Many times we do not try to start because we simply do not see money instantly, because we do not have the time or because our money is currently very limited, however many have achieved and have achieved financial freedom with few resources. Others know how to do it but they do not get with who to make society ... by our generalized mentality of not working in team if there is something safe and fast economically speaking or an academic note that forces us to share. On the other hand we cannot pretend to be entrepreneurs out of nothing or in an unscrupulous way, everything has its sacrifice and the sacrifice, effort and reward must always be well rewarded and shared with our surroundings.
Although we Venezuelans are very kind, cordial and hospitable, there are many things that we can improve on ourselves. Part of our problems as a nation are a consequence of this behavior little handled by immigrant entrepreneurs, that is to say they do it differently generally. If we observe and investigate, many foreign families in Venezuela differ in this aspect, possibly out of necessity, culture or for whatever reason, they make very elaborate plans of teamwork in order to create, found and maintain successful organizations in our territory. For example the Chinese, Portuguese and Italians.
The situation of deterioration in Venezuela at the moment is general. Companies of all kinds have broken or deteriorated their financial situation. No exception are telecommunications companies which, although they are a little better than other items, have serious budget deficiencies and limitations on the importation of equipment and materials.
One of the most affected business sectors in the country are the food companies which have been strictly supervised. They have had constant and demanding visits of officials to control the inventories and commercialization of their products. These companies have been dealing, among other things, with problems: financial, political instability, fair prices and prices, frequent changes in the rules of the game, control of commodity prices, tensions in labor relations, fear of expropriation , Speed of change in the interests of consumers, acquisition of spare parts and raw materials in the domestic market, obtaining foreign exchange for the importation of products and payment of international suppliers, if it were not enough in many of these companies remain and overnight external officials who Are responsible for monitoring the entire production process. Irregular groups have also been allowed to take some companies and quickly destroy their production processes. Who can produce this way ...? Some manage to stay, most do not.
In spite of this in Venezuela the entrepreneurs in general have demonstrated in the present that they can get ahead before the most painful difficulties. Being an entrepreneur and Venezuelan requires all the necessary training to occupy positions of leadership and responsibility. The Venezuelan manager, although he is not 100% trained in his academic knowledge, is currently well qualified to adapt to new situations and face challenges such as those that are handled day by day. Investing in Venezuela and developing projects in our country has become synonymous with admiration on the part of businessmen from different countries.
In Venezuela there are many companies in which their own owners manage their businesses being present daily in the organization. This provides an additional boost to the business and the quality it seeks and requires the entrepreneur to become an important part of management, employees and customers. I do not want to express with this that other companies are given less importance to quality but in the companies where the owners are present, they give a great value to the quality since they know that the survival of the business, in part, Depends on it.
Every Venezuelan regardless of his position must put his sacrificial grain with a sense of belonging. From the strict economic point of view what is really important for the company, the business and the country is to improve that productive capacity to continue generating sources of employment and improve the standard of living of the inhabitants.
It is impossible to disconnect the productivity of a nation from the productivity of companies in that country. It is impossible to talk about the productivity of a country and its organizations, not to mention those who run that country, since they must be the greatest managers and facilitators of external financial resources that allow organizations to increase their productivity. Although politics is not the central theme of this essay we already know that there are also many things to improve and change for the benefit of the entire population.
A super important aspect of the productivity of the companies are the TICs. Today, companies and organizations rely heavily on Information Technology and Communications personnel so that most of their processes associated with information management and control are more efficient, contributing greatly to the improvement of quality, agility and ability to Response to customers, users and suppliers. In this way, modern organizations integrate in their structures units dedicated to the generation, processing and systematization of the information that is handled in their internal processes and operations, which must be supported in a robust communication structure capable of providing timely and Efficiently the computer processes required for the overall operation of the organization.
Computer systems aimed at supporting the management of business activities in the administrative, financial, operational and logistical areas are an inescapable part of modern organizations. These systems, also known as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), also called resource planning systems or management information systems, are the basis for the operation of today's business. Starting from Ogalla (2010), "a company grows in maturity as it consolidates a management system that allows it to align all the efforts in the same direction" (p.3).
The purpose of these types of systems is to provide greater efficiency in the processes and offer solutions at the accounting, mercantile and tax levels, providing support for timely decision making and lowering a company's total operating costs.
An ERP software plans and automates many of the processes with the goal of integrating information throughout the company and eliminating complex links between systems in different business areas regardless of the activity of the same. These systems have demonstrated and allow improved productivity. Nowadays some ERPs besides transactional are analytical-predictive. They allow generating and manipulating indicators that support managers, managers and coordinators in decision making.
Companies in Venezuela and information technology definitely play a very important role within the national economy and must be driven to improve the economy. Our country needs productive private enterprises to generate jobs and help development. The state, regardless of the government that is on duty, should avoid taking control of private companies, because this in addition to affect negatively the workers, also affects the country.
It is said that small and medium-sized enterprises represent more than 50% of total companies in Venezuela. These are the ones that have the most problems, the least support, the inability to access credits or advice. Governments play an important role in strengthening the capacities of SMEs to access technology and innovation. Also, the role of the State is to put into operation ample economic and institutional structures that create a conducive climate for entrepreneurship. Throughout history you can see how technological innovation and private companies change everything and have been linked to the evolution of society.
I cannot stop touching the subject of the media in Venezuela and the world. So far our media have been very censored. This aspect has a new origin linked to the information technologies because those means use the radio electric spectrum of which the Venezuelan state thinks itself proprietary. TV channels, cable and radio stations have been closed. People have been imprisoned for simply posting on social networks information contrary to the communist policies of the Venezuelan government. Data connections and access to international calls from many companies and individuals have been manipulated, punched and filtered. In my particular case for being a Network and Telecommunications administrator for several companies I can assure you that this is totally true.
Our young people are fighting for a better country, they are giving the battle because they want a better future for Venezuela. We cannot stop supporting them and always encourage their positive actions, desire to study, undertakings and desires to overcome.
In spite of the situation that our Venezuelan country is going through, we are convinced that we are in a beautiful country and that the performance of the managers, leaders, entrepreneurs and the general population of Venezuela must be improved: teamwork, Productivity and well-being of individuals collectively. Our country also requires much support from the region given the current situation that Venezuelan citizens live in.
Andrés Monteverde