Esto es algo que me consegui hace poco por el internet, que vale la pena compartir. A continuación comparto con ustedes un post acerca de los orígenes de algunos vocablos populares y expresiones criollas, que caracterizan el código lingüístico del pueblo venezolano y, en especial, el del gentilicio zuliano. Zulia, tercer, estado en importancia política y primer productor de crudo de Venezuela. Ubicado en el occidente del país, hace parte de la frontera con Colombía.
Colita: Proviene de la época de la independencia. En las batallas, no habían tantas bestias (caballos, mulas, etc.) como soldados, no pudiéndose satisfacer a las demandas de toda la tropa. Así que gran parte de la milicia estaba obligada a cubrir grandes distancias a pie. Por eso, cuando les tocaba subir una pendiente, le indicaban al soldado que iba encima de una bestia: "¡Dame una colita!". En otras palabras, dame permiso para agarrarme de la cola del animal para subir con menos esfuerzo la pendiente.
Corotos: Antonio Guzmán Blanco, tres veces Presidente de Venezuela, gran antizuliano, por cierto, vivió en Francia y quedó muy influenciado por los modos y costumbres de la cultura y civilización gala. Siendo diplomático acreditado en ese país, su mujer se aficionó a las pinturas de un pintor francés, llamado Corots. Luego de terminada su misión, regresaron a Venezuela y se establecieron en la ciudad de Caracas. No obstante, se mudaban con mucha frecuencia y Doña Ana Teresa le indicaba nerviosamente a los obreros que embalaban los enseres: "¡Ciudado con los Corots!". Es decir, con las pinturas de aquel pintor francés. Los obreros fueron deshilachando la palabra y la derivaron en el vocablo que hoy conocemos como Corotos.
Espitao: Esmollejao. Corriendo fuerte. Reemplaza a la palabra inglesa: Speed Out. Ej.: ¡Vergación, salí espitao!.
Gatico: En tiempos de inicio de las actividade petroleras, los comisariatos eran casas de abasto, destinadas a satisfacer a la demanda de los expatriado(a)s. Al lado estaban las puertas gigantescas por donde entraba la mercancía, siendo identificadas con la palabra inglesa: Gates. Los venezolanos y venezolanas instalaron al lado o en los alrededores sus tarantines o abastos y le pusieron "Gaticos" (abasto pequeño). Es común escucharlo en Cabimas, La Cañada, La Rita y Maracaibo. Ej.: ¡Voy a comprar azúcar al gatico!.
Guachimanera: Vehículo tipo camioneta, dónde anda "El Guachimán" (Watchman: Vigilante en inglés). Propio de la industria petrolera. Era común en Lagunillas, cuando se hacía una travesura escuchar el grito: ¡Ahí viene la guachimanera!".
Hijo de la panadera: En abril de 1769, la Corona Española del territorio colonizado, hoy Venezuela, recibió una inusual protesta: No estaban de acuerdo con el nombramiento de un joven blanco como Oficial de las Milicias, esgrimiendo como argumento la dudosa reputación de éste porque su madre ejercía el oficio de panadera en Caracas. De allí se ha quedado el proverbio o refrán. Ej.: "A mí no me dieron nada porque soy el hijo de la panadera".
Macundales: Para abrir picas, en el proceso de exploración de la industria de los hidrocarburos en Venezuela, se utilizaron unos machetes ingleses de marca Mc and Dale. Los trabajadores, le dieron el nombre de "macundales" y luego a la hora de terminar la faena, decían: "¡Llegó la hora de recoger los macundales!" y así se ha quedado con el pasar del tiempo.
Pichón: Identifica al venezolano que es diligente o cuando se le pide un esfuerzo ( ¡échale pichón! ). Cuando no había acueductos o no había sistemas de distribución del agua, ésta se extraía con bombas manuales que decían en la palanca: "Push On". Esa palabra derivó en pichón y quería decir: "¡Dale a la bomba!".
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
On The Importance of Being Customer Centric, a Conversation with the VP of Best Buy
As part of my summer at Google, I've had the opportunity to meet countless people that are reshaping and influencing corporate America this decade.
Bill Thompson, the vice president and territory general manager of Best Buy, came to speak to a small group at Google on the focus on customer centricity. The term refers to the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviors of its customers, rather than internal drivers (such as the quest for short term profit). The Best Buy executive led us through an invigorating presentation that presented the company's key Standard Operating Practices (SOPs), values and vision.
"Stack it high and watch it fly" was one of the key phrases that sparked from Thompson's presentation. Best Buy seeks to have it all, and let customers do the rest. "The business was getting far more complicated than we were able to convey to our client," said the Vice President when describing the business model and complexity.
In the early 2000's Best Buy turned massive wheels to focus their main powers on the "customer centricity" model. It's literally all about serving the customer right, customer service- how well are you listening to the customer, and then meeting his needs.
70% of what a store will do is based on SOPs: stores must connect to communities. A great example for Best Buy was the Tech Tax repeal through the "Geek Squad Rally" and their having joined forces with the local people to seek support. Bill Thompson assures that their strategy is centered on grassroots initiatives, benefiting communities.
Customer Centricity's Goals
Donna Fluss puts it best. A major impediment to building a customer-centric organization is the conflicting goals of the primary customer-facing departments: sales, marketing and service. Somehow, in the drive to achieve goals, each department loses sight of customers as people and sees them only as "objects" that need to be optimized. (See Figure above) Clearly, the obvious answer is to shift the focus back to customers and to align corporate goals. The problem is that when some companies have tried to standardize goals, their revenues decreased, customer satisfaction fell and loyalty dropped off, because the three primary customer-facing groups failed to cooperate.
Best Buy encourages its employees to be innovative and eager to bring about ideas through the "Idea Development Summit" every year. Best Buy gives its employees the freedom to make decisions and take action at the local level. One whole market is dedicated to selling Korean fridges in the branches because their community members in those cities happen to be Korean, and one employee was intuitive enough to identify that opportunity and divert from the SOP. Wait till you hear about the branch manager in California who hired 8 full time sign language proficient employees to target the population attending the 70 sign language schools in the area- revenue increased by 27 percent! Finally, Target's "You Spoke, We Listened" campaign surveyed students on what features they needed and Best Buy ordered the computers on those provisions.
It's all about local growth plans, about developing the communities where they're based and adopting those practices on the national level.
He ended the conversation on this note: "Try to satisfy their needs, selling will happen by on its own".
The Model
Promise Phelon wrote a very interesting article on Inc. magazine, titled "Are you really customer centric?"
Bill Thompson, the vice president and territory general manager of Best Buy, came to speak to a small group at Google on the focus on customer centricity. The term refers to the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviors of its customers, rather than internal drivers (such as the quest for short term profit). The Best Buy executive led us through an invigorating presentation that presented the company's key Standard Operating Practices (SOPs), values and vision.
"Stack it high and watch it fly" was one of the key phrases that sparked from Thompson's presentation. Best Buy seeks to have it all, and let customers do the rest. "The business was getting far more complicated than we were able to convey to our client," said the Vice President when describing the business model and complexity.
In the early 2000's Best Buy turned massive wheels to focus their main powers on the "customer centricity" model. It's literally all about serving the customer right, customer service- how well are you listening to the customer, and then meeting his needs.
70% of what a store will do is based on SOPs: stores must connect to communities. A great example for Best Buy was the Tech Tax repeal through the "Geek Squad Rally" and their having joined forces with the local people to seek support. Bill Thompson assures that their strategy is centered on grassroots initiatives, benefiting communities.
Customer Centricity's GoalsDonna Fluss puts it best. A major impediment to building a customer-centric organization is the conflicting goals of the primary customer-facing departments: sales, marketing and service. Somehow, in the drive to achieve goals, each department loses sight of customers as people and sees them only as "objects" that need to be optimized. (See Figure above) Clearly, the obvious answer is to shift the focus back to customers and to align corporate goals. The problem is that when some companies have tried to standardize goals, their revenues decreased, customer satisfaction fell and loyalty dropped off, because the three primary customer-facing groups failed to cooperate.
Best Buy encourages its employees to be innovative and eager to bring about ideas through the "Idea Development Summit" every year. Best Buy gives its employees the freedom to make decisions and take action at the local level. One whole market is dedicated to selling Korean fridges in the branches because their community members in those cities happen to be Korean, and one employee was intuitive enough to identify that opportunity and divert from the SOP. Wait till you hear about the branch manager in California who hired 8 full time sign language proficient employees to target the population attending the 70 sign language schools in the area- revenue increased by 27 percent! Finally, Target's "You Spoke, We Listened" campaign surveyed students on what features they needed and Best Buy ordered the computers on those provisions.
It's all about local growth plans, about developing the communities where they're based and adopting those practices on the national level.
He ended the conversation on this note: "Try to satisfy their needs, selling will happen by on its own".
The Model Promise Phelon wrote a very interesting article on Inc. magazine, titled "Are you really customer centric?"
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