In Portugal, the practice observed regarding the financial management of companies continues to be marked, in my opinion, by questionable principles that largely justify why we can’t see the great professional talent that, I believe, Portugal really has, reflected in the quality and sustainability of companies more often. Highlight the most blatant problems, I can […]
Do you Know The Difference Between a Business Plan & Wishful Thinking?
A former boss of mine often repeated a very interesting expression: “informed guess” or as the Anglo-Saxons say, and you have certainly heard: “educated guess”. In the context of Valuation Business Modelling, whether to determine the value of an asset or company, or to carry out a Business Plan for a new Project, we are […]
Business Plan – a Real Tool or an Excel Chart that accepts everything?
Periodically, over the years, I went through the difficult path inherent to the cycle of adjustments and simulations of a Business Plan. The common tendency for a decision maker with an emotional attachment to a project is to force a financial model that demonstrates the project’s viability. That is, as if the financial model was […]
The Noise Regulation – in Life and Finance
One thing that never ceases to surprise us is that, in general, spaces linked to hospitality, even some with a high positioning and price, pay very little attention to the noise and degradation of the environment they generate. I’m talking about the background music that suddenly turns into a concert, making any conversation seem impossible. […]
Finances, War, the Cicada and the Ant by Jean de La Fontaine.
On a business context, we learned long ago that it is important to live below our capabilities. Use times of peace to prepare for times of war. Create alternatives for less good times. Belmiro de Azevedo used to say that “there were no defeats or definitive victories”. Good days are ephemeral. This serves to say […]
Time is Money and a Priority in This New Year
Relying on our vast experience in negotiating with the financial system, we have the idea that the banking sector has two very different ways of working with companies: • On the one hand, a more classic approach to functioning, where everything takes a long time – 3 or 4 months is not too long to […]
On the Integrity of the Banks and What We Need to Know to Talk to Them.
We have been working with banking in Portugal for many years. Enough time to know that the relationship with a bank can be good or bad depending on the people who are following our case: They must have senior, so that they don’t try to teach us how to manage our own businesses. A part […]
The importance of having a structure.
In football, we are used to hear that structure don’t win matches, they win championships. In companies and hotels, it is quite similar. Those who think they can win without being professionally supported are experiencing ephemeral days of illusion. Entrepreneurs certainly have their creative, visionary, and motivating role. But it is necessary to rely on […]
Bill Gates and the Banks
Bill Gates said a few days ago that banking is one of the activities that will disappear in the next 10 to 15 years. Personally, I normally get kind of annoyed at this type of statement because the crystal ball holders and other fortune tellers rarely appear to explain when their prediction has gone wrong. […]
Quantity VS Sustainability
The context of rebound that we are living today and that we managed to envision, with the return of Tourism and the gradual lifting of restrictions, leads me to address, once more, a topic that is dear to my heart (from the sentimental point of view), but also that we have been paying dearly (from […]