Alinhamento das operações com a estratégia

Uma das revistas que ao longo dos anos vai crescendo na minha escala de apreciação é a Strategic Management Journal, infelizmente só a posso consultar quando vou à Universidade.
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Um dos últimos artigos a que cheguei, através do cirandar gerado pela atenção que dedico à bibliografia citada por outros artigos, foi "Efficiency. Flexibility, or Both? Evidence Linking Strategy to Performance in Small Firms" de Jay Ebben e Alec Johnson (Strat. Mgmt. J., 26: 1249–1259 (2005)).
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"One aspect of small firm strategy that has not received much attention is how product offering relates to operational strategy and firm performance.
This paper examines this concept with regard to three choices firms can make: to offer only standard products, to offer only made-to-order products, or to offer both standard and made-to-order products. Previous literature has proposed that these choices dictate operational strategy, as firms that offer only standard products must compete on organizational efficiency, firms that offer only made-to-order products must compete on their flexibility to meet individual customer needs, and firms that offer both must attempt to be both efficient and flexible. It has also been proposed that the technology, labor, control system, and organizational structure requirements to achieve efficiency conflict with those required to achieve flexibility, and it is therefore difficult for firms to achieve both efficiency and flexibility" (Moi ici: Nada de novo neste blogue, é a base para o desenho de mosaicos competitivos - alinhamento, alinhamento, alinhamento entre estratégia e operações!!!)
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Quais são as hipóteses testadas?
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"Hypothesis 1: Small firms that follow an efficiency strategy and small firms that follow a flexibility strategy will outperform small firms that mix these strategies.
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Hypothesis 2a: Small firms that utilize a flexibility strategy will outperform small firms that utilize an efficiency strategy.
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Hypothesis 2b: Small firms that utilize an efficiency strategy will outperform small firms that utilize a flexibility strategy"
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Que resultados foram obtidos?
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"Two sets of analyses provide evidence of support for Hypothesis 1 but no evidence of support for Hypothesis 2a or 2b.
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No significant differences in the performance of firms classified as efficiency and those classified as flexibility were found in this sample. (Moi ici: Mais uma vez, nada de novo neste blogue. O alinhamento é fundamental! Pode-se ter sucesso a vender carne ou a vender peixe, o problema está em não se definir, em tentar agradar a todos ao mesmo tempo e falhar. Não se pode vender carne e peixe ao mesmo tempo.)
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This validation is important because it provides evidence that meaningful differences exist between small firms in terms of standard and made-to-order product offerings. Most importantly, the strong support for Hypothesis 1 along with the lack of support for Hypotheses 2a and 2b suggests that what matters most in regard to efficiency and flexibility strategies is not which one a small firm pursues, but that a small firm does not attempt to pursue both.
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This does not coincide with the conventional wisdom that small firms can better compete by providing unique or made-to-order products; instead, it supports configuration theory in that the strategy chosen is not as important as whether it allows for consistency in operations. (Moi ici: Este trecho é um daqueles que só se explica com o facto dos investigadores não serem como um Wickam Skinner, e por isso, não terem experiência prévia de viver a vida das empresas. Há estratégias de eficiência em que a escala é tudo. E estratégias de eficiência onde a escala não pode ser utilizada livremente. Por isso, há PMEs que podem muito bem jogar a cartada da eficiência sem precisarem de ser muito grandes) The surveys provide some evidence of this, as it appears that firms offering only standard products configure in a manner related to efficiency, firms offering only made-toorder products configure in a manner related to flexibility, and firms offering standard and made-to-order products are somewhere in between."
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 (Moi ici: Segue-se um trecho muito importante para as PMEs, um tópico muito difícil de passar, por causa do argumento de diluir os custos fixos...)
"In terms of practical application, the findings of this study have the potential to be significant for entrepreneurship education. Anecdotal evidence suggests that small firms mix strategies as a response to customer demand or in an attempt to increase sales volume by offering greater variety.
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For example, efficiency firms may begin mixing strategies if sales reps are repeatedly asked whether ‘special’ sizes or versions of products are possible.
While this may seem like a good way to expand sales and grow, or as a strategic response to faltering sales, the evidence from this study suggests that this may actually be counterproductive in terms of the long-term health of the organization. If entrepreneurs are taught to determine what operational strategy their firm should rely on (efficiency or flexibility), they can then organize accordingly and avoid mixing strategies."
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Ou seja, mais um reforço para a mensagem da importância da sinergia que o alinhamento das operações com a estratégia gera.