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THE STOCKDALE PARADOX

Por Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com February 12th,  2020


The first time I heard about the Stockdale paradox was when I discovered the concept while reading one of the chapters of the book Good to Great (2001) masterfully written by the American author Jim Collins. The concept immediately captured my attention because its origin came from James Stockdale´s thoughts, a decorated prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than seven years.
However, in order to understand Stockale's paradox in its semantic fullness, we must define paradox and get to know Vice Admiral Stockdale a little. The term paradox can be defined as those expressions or phrases that contain an apparent contradiction among themselves, having an almost magical use in certain pieces of literature. Now, people who use paradoxes have a particular ability to deal effectively with ambiguity, making them more adaptable to change, less fearful of risk and with a certain inclination to focused action. On the ot…
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LA PARADOJA DE STOCKDALE

Por Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com Febrero 12, 2020


La primera vez que escuché sobre la paradoja de Stockdale fue cuando descubrí el concepto en la lecturade uno de los capítulos del libro Good to Great (2001)escrito magistralmente por el autor norteamericano Jim Collins. El concepto capturó de inmediato mi atención porque su origen provenía del pensamiento de James Stockdale , un condecorado prisionero de guerra de Vietnam por más de siete años. Sin embargo para poder entender la paradoja de Stockale en su plenitud semántica, debemos definir paradoja y conocer un poco al vicealmirante Stockdale. El termino paradoja puede definirse como aquellas expresiones o frases que encierran una aparente contradicción entre sí, teniendo un uso casi mágico en ciertas piezas de literatura. Ahora bien, las personas que usan paradojas tienen una particular destreza para lidiar de manera efectiva con la ambigüedad, volviéndolos más adaptables al cambio, menos temerosos al riesgo y …
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WHAT CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN TAUGHT ME

By Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com January 29th, 2020

Clayton Magleby Christensen was a distinguished American academic and consultant who died a week ago at the age of 67 from cancer complications. I never had the opportunity to meet him personally, which is a real shame because I think I would have enjoyed receiving a class with him. However, I met him through his books and his lectures, his interviews and his writings. Christensen was that kind of intellectual who has all the qualities of a good human being. His diaphanous clarity and intellectual superiority reached the reader with a real and human sense. His lines were always written to serve the student, reader or manager who read them. His tenure as professor of the Kim B. Clark class of the Harvard Business School was obtained due, among other things, to a highlevel intellectual background: Bachelor of Economics at Brigham Young University where he won the summa cum laude award , a master's degree in ec…
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LO QUE ME ENSEÑÓ CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

Por Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com Enero 29, 2020
Clayton Magleby Christensen fúe un distinguido académico y consultor norteamericano que falleció haceuna semana a la edad de 67 años por complicaciones de cáncer. Nunca tuve la oportunidad de conocerle personalmente, lo cual es una verdadera lástima porque creo que hubiera disfrutado enormemente recibir una clase con él. Sin embargo, lo conocí a través de sus libros y sus conferencias, de sus entrevistas y de sus escritos. Christensen era ese tipo de intelectual que tiene todas las cualidades de un buen ser humano. Su diáfana claridad y superioridad intelectual llegaba al lector conun sentido humano y real.Sus líneas siempre eran escritas para servir al estudiante, lector o gerente que las leyera. Su titularidad como el profesor de la cátedra Kim B. Clark de la Escuela de Negocios de Harvard fue obtenida debido, entre otras cosas, a una formación intelectual de primer nivel: Licenciatura en economía en la Universid…
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THE PROFITABILITY OF A MISTAKE

By Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com January 15th, 2020



Profitability is a financial vocabulary word that the Royal Spanish Academy of Language (RAE) defines as the ability to generate profit  or benefit. Therefore I will, in these brief lines, dare to extrapolate (to apply it to another level to conclude something) the word profitability to the issue of human error. One of the stories that most impressed me about the extraordinary professional career of Jack Welch (Executive Director of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, considered one of the most outstanding business leaders of all time) was when I read his book Straight from the Gut in 2002.In the book he explains what had happened to him when a chemical plant, ran by him, accidentally blew up in 1963. Fortunately no one died in the incident nor was there any human damage. Jack Welch was convinced that he was going to be fired for what happened. The magnitude of the mistake made was such that he imagined nothing d…
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LA RENTABILIDAD DE UN ERROR

Por Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com Enero 15, 2020


Rentabilidad es un término del vocabulario financiero que la Real Academia Española de la Lengua (RAE) define como capacidad de generar beneficio, provecho o utilidad. Lo anterior me lleva a que en estas breves líneas me atreva a extrapolar (aplicarla a otro plano para concluir algo) la palabra rentabilidad al tema del error humano. Uno de las historias que más me han impresionado sobre la extraordinaria carrera profesional de Jack Welch (Director Ejecutivo de General Electric de 1981 a 2001, considerado uno de los más sobresalientes líderes empresariales de todos los tiempos) fue cuando leí su libro Straight from the Gut (Hablando Claro en la versión en español) en el año 2002 y en un pasaje explicaba lo que le había pasado a Welch cuando accidentalmente explotó una planta química en 1963. Afortunadamente nadie falleció en el incidente ni hubo daños humanos. Jack Welch estaba convencido que lo iban a despedir por l…
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1:59:40 A NEW WORLD RECORD

By Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com October 15th, 2019

Last Saturday, October 12th, the entire world witnessed the writing of a new page in the history of world sport. On a misty morning in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria, the long-distance professional runner, Eliud Kipchoge, born in Kenya on November 5th, 1984, broke one of the "impossible" records in long-distance sports, for many years. His spectacular performance led him to run the distance of 42,195 k (26.22 miles) at 1:59:40, a record that although will not be considered as a new official brand (basically due to standards of competition rules in terms of pacers and fluids offered to the runner), has already been recognized by the Guinness World of Records as the first marathon distance run by a human being in history, in less than 2 hours.
This athletic feat of epic dimensions, only brings to my mind the achievement of Roger Bannister, who on May 6th, 1954, managed to run the mile in 3 minutes …
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