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Acerca da necessidade de repensar as estratégias das empresas, li um artigo que vai directo ao assunto.
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Um artigo que devia ser lido por muita boa gente, sobretudo por quem grita a plenos pulmões que os bancos têm de emprestar dinheiro às empresas, às cegas.
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Ler e estudar este artigo é um must “Rethink Your Strategy: An Urgent Memo to the CEO” da autoria de Paul Branstad, Bill Jackson e Shumeet Banerji.
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“the events of October 2008 should cause you to rethink the strategy for your business. The purpose of this article is to explain why this is so important and what to do next.
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But the speculative bubbles have burst, and now, the most critical thing is to see the dynamics clearly—not as an investor, but as a decision maker with a company to steer.
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Given the potential for discontinuous changes in the structure of your industry, playing your hand well means changing your stance. It also means preparing your company to move aggressively to seize strategic opportunities. These opportunities will likely present themselves sooner rather than later. That’s why the preparation cannot be postponed. The prescriptions for the weak are different from those for the strong.“
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Neste blogue tenho escrito sobre o tema da “Migração de valor” (por exemplo: Migração de valor (parte XII) ou Ersatz (parte III), da frugalidade (Frugalidade e ilusionismo) e da poupança (A Via Espartana).
Os autores do artigo ilustram as mudanças no padrão de consumo dos consumidores da seguinte forma:
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Depois, à boa maneira anglo-saxónica, os autores entram a matar:
“If your company is not well positioned right now, it is time to face the facts. (e se uma empresa que não está bem posicionada pede dinheiro emprestado a um banco, para arranjar tempo para suster a respiração, sem estudar previamente o que tem a fazer) You are probably going to be up against the wall—or, at best, your business will be much reduced. It doesn’t matter how you rationalize the circumstances that brought you here. The important thing is to prepare to take bold action to save as much value as you can. Denial will not add value.
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The most precious thing you have is time—and you may not have much. Do not waste it as some others recently have, notably at The Bear Stearns Companies and Lehman Brothers Holdings. Instead, look dispassionately at your business.
Judge its relative position honestly, by answering a few tough, value-testing questions:”
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Depois, continuam no mesmo estilo “If you honestly conclude you are weak, time is of the essence. Figure out how to best position your assets and your people and take the right steps to give every piece of your company its best chance to succeed, even if under different ownership.
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Para as empresas que não estão encostadas à parede os autores propõem:
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“For everyone else—all those companies that aren’t up against the wall— the first objective is to become as strong as possible, as fast as possible. We are entering a period in which it will be enormously valuable to be able to act decisively from a position of strength and in a long-term, genuinely strategic manner.”
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Em cima da mesa estão 5 jogadas estratégicas possíveis neste ambiente de turbulência.
Já à muito que escrevo e prego a máxima “concentrar uma organização no que é essencial”. Deitar fora, eliminar, vender tudo o que não é essencial para chegar ao futuro desejado.
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“First, reexamine your portfolio of businesses and shed the marginal ones.“
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“For each business, ask: Is it core to your company’s future value? Can you envision it as the basis for a sustaining stream of attractive rowth opportunities? Does it offer a path to building financial performance that is greater than what investors can earn elsewhere in their equity portfolios?
Concentrate your corporate strategy on the businesses for which you can answer “yes” to all three questions— and monetize the rest. There will be too many good opportunities for you to build on this core to bother with anything else.“
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Como Portugal vive em crise há oito anos, as receitas que tenho pregado neste blogue e junto das empresas são as mesmas que os autores propõem agora para as empresas neste ambiente de crise global. Reparem bem na linguagem…
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“Also answer this question: Who are your most important customers? Focusing on your most valuable customers will be just as important as focusing on your most valuable businesses.
On the demand side, these are the customers whose missions will grow the fastest and who reward you with loyalty and respect. If you are a business-to-business producer, seek out customers who recognize your product or service as the one that delivers the greatest surplus value relative to their next best alternative—regardless of its price or your profits.
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On the supply side, your most valuable customers are those with critical needs for the products that offer you the greatest ability to compete not just on price but on value. Forget about your also-ran, me-too offerings.
Bet your business on the products and services in which you have a competitive advantage through your capabilities: your technology, your cost position, your design and manufacturing skills, and your ability to reach and serve customers effectively.
If you are strong, you will always see opportunities to better serve your most valuable customers and to gain more market share. You only have to be willing to challenge yourself to look. Spare extra cash for the customers that matter. Stay focused on your best businesses, your best products, and your best customers.”
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Convém analisar as outras 4 propostas de acção.
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“Prepare to Weather the Storm”: “We are and will continue to be in a recession. Consumer demand is not coming back to superheated levels anytime soon, and pressure on prices and margins will only increase (Não tenham ilusões!!! Não vão voltar!!!). So don’t wait. Reduce your breakeven now—by a lot. (E os bancos não têm razão ao serem prudentes sobre emprestar dinheiro neste momento?)
If at all possible, you should make your company profitable even in the worst-case scenario, if for no other reason than to demonstrate its staying power. This means lowering your break-even volume, your break-even volume as a percentage of capacity, and your capacity, all at the same time.”
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“Anticipate the Future Industry Structure”: (Esta proposta devia ser enviada a muito boa gente. Gente que fala muito e reflecte pouco ou, apesar da pouca experiência que tem no terreno, não se coíbe de mandar postas-de-pescada). “do your economic homework and decide how your industry should be structured as it moves into recovery.
Anticipate that major changes may now be possible whereas before you may only have thought incrementally.
This downturn is a once-in-a-century opportunity to redefine your competitive position.
(Atenção a este pormaior) “Voices arguing for simple, rapid solutions should be suppressed. The situation you are in is unique and you probably do not yet know enough. Most likely, you do not already have an established process within your business for rigorously constructing fact-based industry perspectives. You need to direct your company to create such a process.” (Pois, recorrer a empréstimos sem qualquer reflexão estratégica, para suster a respiração debaixo de água faz-me lembrar esta estória, infelizmente verdadeira À espera da retoma).
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“Resolve Your Game Plan”: “The key for these expenditures is prioritization. In good times, companies are known to become sloppy with some investments. R&D, new product development, and capital expenditures are the places where your priorities should play out most clearly.
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Within your core businesses, you will want to be strategically aggressive— to fight for increased market share and the conversion to your brands of the most valuable product and customer segments. But avoid using pricing to secure the volume you need to cover fixed costs you shouldn’t have in the first place. Maintaining both the value you deliver to customers and your ability to get customers to recognize and pay for that value will be particularly critical in the quarters ahead. Required rates of return have gone up (Está escrito nas estrelas… crédito mais caro implica que o dinheiro investido no negócio tem de render mais do que era o padrão no universo económico anterior onde vivíamos). Market demand is going down.
Quanto às conclusões:
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“… Understand and plan for the worst-case scenario (atenção spin-doctors estão a seguir a opção errada nesta estórias da gestão das expectivas), and manage your balance sheet tightly.
• Concentrate on your core businesses and on your most strategically valuable customers. These are your only priorities. (Agora ainda mais importante do que nunca)
• Rethink your growth and investment strategy for those core businesses, anticipating the opportunities that will come to you. Seek out opportunities to restructure the industries around these businesses.”
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Se um banco pedir evidências deste tipo de reflexão estratégica a uma empresa que lhe peça dinheiro emprestado o que é que vai receber?
Por tudo isto não creio que este seja um bom título, ou um bom tema "Conferência “Como Crescer em Tempo de Crise”".
Adenda das 08:08 - "Fresh credit strains in Europe as Deutsche Bank shocks markets"
"Standard & Poor's warned that a fifth of all lower-rated companies in Western Europe and the UK are likely to default over the next two years, greatly exceeding the scale of bankruptcies after the dotcom bust." ...
"The European Central Bank warned in its Financial Stability Report this week that lenders are at risk from a deeper slowdown than expected. "Banks need to be especially vigilant in ensuring that they have adequate capital and liquidity buffers to cushion the risks that lie ahead," it said."
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