Parte II - Concentração e aposta no lado errado

Continuado da parte I.

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O texto do semanário Vida Económica "Pequenos empresários melhoram eficiência das suas empresas" é um texto que aponta e a ajuda as empresas e os empresários a concentrarem-se no lado errado.

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Ronald Baker no seu livro "MEASURE WHAT MATTERS TO CUSTOMERS USING KEY PREDICTIVE INDICATORS" é muito mais eloquente do que eu nesta minha batalha para mudar o modelo mental dominante neste país.

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"When you think about the traditional theory of an enterprise, you would no doubt construct a model similar to this:

Revenue = Capacity X Efficiency X Cost-Plus Price

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Efficiency is a word that can be said with perfect impunity, since no one in their right mind would dispute the goal of operating efficiently. In fact, it is well known that in free market economies, efficiency is critical, as it ensures a society’s resources are not going to waste. It is also well established that different levels of productivity largely explain differences in wages across countries. An American farmer will earn more plowing with a tractor than a Cuban farmer with an ox and hand plow; the American farmer is more productive, hence higher wages and more profits.

There is no doubt that increasing efficiency—or at least not sliding into inefficiency—is important. But the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of efficiency over everything else. It seems innovation, dynamism, customer service, investments in human capital, and effectiveness have all been sacrificed on the altar of efficiency. It is critical to bear in mind that a business does not exist to be efficient; rather, it exists to create wealth for its customers. This wealth creation function can be thought of as the difference between the maximum price a customer would be willing to pay minus the opportunity costs of the activities necessary to bring to market the product or service.

Peter Drucker was fond of pointing out that the last buggy-whip manufacturers were models of efficiency. So what? What happens if you are efficient at doing the wrong things? That cannot be labeled progress. In fact, one indicator an industry is in the mature or decline stage of the product/service life cycle is when it is at the apogee of its theoretical level of efficiency.

The point is this: In industry after industry, the history of economic progress has not been to wring out the last 5 to 10 percent of efficiency, but rather to change the model to more effectively create wealth."

Continua.