E a sua empresa, para onde vai?

Excelente reflexão em "Riding a Bike In Tuscany Taught Me Why People Don't Set Goals":

"That's when I figured out why people [Moi ici: PME] don't set goals. Because they answer the question the way I did--"I'm not lost, I just don't know where I am." On that same late stretch today where I was now trying to hone in on the villa, I realized that I actually do get lost, and I do it once on every ride; when I'm trying to get home; when I finally have a goal.
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When I have nowhere I need to be, I'm simply on a glorious adventure with no constraints, no rules, no timelines, and no pressure to perform. Nothing to measure in the long run. I truly am not lost, I just don't know where I am. But that's okay, because I have nowhere I need to be.
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But as soon as I ask, "Where is home?", I'm immediately lost, because now I have somewhere I need to be, and at first I don't know how to get there.
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We can live reactively and any road will do, or we can live on purpose, design our future, and become intentional about getting somewhere. We get what we intend, not what we hope for."

A falta de procura

"Small businesses, defined as companies with fewer than 500 employees (Moi ici: Critério norte-americano que Chuck Blakeman tanto critica), account for almost two-thirds of all net new job creation. They also contribute disproportionately to innovation, generating 13 times as many patents, per employee, as large companies do."

Trecho retirado do interessante artigo "Restarting the US small-business growth engine". Aprecio esta clareza e sinceridade:

"Myth #4. Taxes and regulation are small business’s primary constraint."

O que dizem os líderes associativos, é do que podem fazer a nível geral, uma espécie de minimo múltiplo comum. Na verdade, temos:

"Many business leaders will tell you that taxes and regulation are the biggest barriers to starting up and enlarging small businesses. It’s true that some regulations and laws have inhibited the growth of small businesses; the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, for instance, had the unexpected consequence of discouraging some companies from making initial public offerings, a step typically followed by a burst of hiring. But taxes and government oversight are not the primary barriers to stimulating the growth of small businesses. In the latest recession, their owners pointed to a lack of market demand as the primary problem, as well as an inability to obtain financing."

Eficácia versus eficiência

Há anos que escrevo sobre a eficácia e a eficiência e sobre a vantagem da primeira sobre a segunda, basta pesquisar nos marcadores.
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Assim, é com gosto que recomendo a leitura deste artigo de Chuck Blakeman "How to make more money down the road. Stop trying to be efficient."

Cada WHY é uma hipótese diferente de abordar a realidade

Uma primeira transposição deste interessante artigo "People who ask HOW work for people who ask WHY" para o canvas criado por Osterwalder.

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Na minha leitura, a primeira pergunta, o WHY não aparece no canvas. O WHY é a hipótese subjacente, é a cola que une todo o edifício.

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Talvez por isso, por não estar descrito no canvas, é que se fala na necessidade de testar vários modelos de negócio, cada modelo de negócio é colado por um WHY diferente. Cada WHY é uma resposta, uma hipótese diferente de enfrentar, de perceber, de explicar a realidade.

Cuidado com as generalizações nacionais

Chuck Blakeman, no seu livro "Making Money Is Killing Your Business" faz o retrato de 3 tipos de proprietários de empresas. Um que me chamou logo a atenção foi o daqueles empresários focados no seu produto ou serviço.

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Há o costume de dizer que os empresários portugueses são maus, são os piores do mundo... afirmações feitas por quem está longe de lidar com eles e, mais ainda, de lidar com os outros. Este texto que se segue, foi escrito com base na experiência do autor ao trabalhar com empresários americanos.

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"Product-Focused Owner: The Craftperson

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… lives in a world of urgency and “today” and never has time to look back or forward because today is so pressing. (Moi ici: Assim, talvez Arroja exagere ao generalizar, com base em certas personagens que conhece, que todos os portugueses sejam escravos do agora, por serem portugueses ou por serem produtos de uma cultura católica) The Tyranny of the Urgent defines her lifestyle, and she has no time for the Priority of the Important because she can’t see how it will help her make any money today.

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Business Owners who are Product Focused are passionate (Moi ici: Adoptei uma máxima que descobri há poucos meses: a paixão numa empresa é inversamente proporcional à sua dimensão) about the product or service they provide because they are experts, professionals, craftspeople, artist and artisans; implementers, producers, doers, and finishers. They like being tactical, on the ground, and getting things done. They take great pride in the product or service they offer.

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Passion for their craft is what drives them to build their business. Their creative juices are focused on developing their expertise or constantly improving their product. They are focused on the present, what needs to be done today, and on perfecting their craft. Product Focused owners love to get personally involved in the system and have difficulty giving production over to employees who, in the craftsperson’s opinion, might lower the quality. They are much more passionate about their product or service than about what the market wants: “I make a great chair, somebody ought to buy it.” Customers can get in the way because they want to modify the product or service.

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The Product Focused owner can’t see the need to waste time thinking about the future or the past. They act on what needs to be done today. Spending time building good processes that others could follow is a waste of time. The Product Focused owner acts quickly on tactical things without needing a lot of information or planning. They don’t expend much energy on “strategic” planning or action. This is a great asset in getting things done on a day-to-day basis, but doesn’t set them up for future success.

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“The product or service itself is so great that customers will simply flock to my door.” This staunch product focus keeps them receiving good feedback from customers about how to make it more sellable. This focus would feel too compromising to the Product Focused owner. Therefore, if they do any marketing at all, it is Product Focused instead of Market Focused.

And they make the fatal flaw of wanting to focus on how great their chair-making abilities are instead of the result it brings the customer.

The product focus can also keep them from planning appropriately for the future, for downturns or growth, or for obsolescence.

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It’s no surprise that the overwhelming majority of all businesses are started, grown, and run by Product Focused owners. They have fewer failures than Market Focused or Systems Focused owners because they get production up and running quickly. But in the long run, they have more failures down the road than System Focused owners because they don’t get good processes in place to support growth.”
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Isto faz-me lembrar um resultado, muito divulgado por Kaplan e Norton, sobre o desempenho das equipas de gestão norte-americanas: mais de 85% das equipas directivas gasta menos de uma hora por mês a discutir a estratégia da empresa.

O poder do "porquê?"

"As responsible business owners, we invest a lot of time answering the “what” question. What will I sell? What should my price be? What kind of marketing should I do?
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We find “how” intriguing as well – How will I find clients? How will I make ends meet this month? And we’re even okay with “who” (who is my ideal client) or “where” (where do I locate, advertise, network, etc.?).
All of these questions – who, what, where and how can be just plain fun to play around with. Why? (hint – this is a pretty important question) – Because they are largely theoretical questions. I can answer ALL of them brilliantly and do absolutely nothing – frozen in my tracks but feeling as if I’ve made great progress. But we’re really just playing office again. Merely doing complex (but easy) things that make us feel important and impress others.
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The 2nd most important question in business (see last week’s post) is “when”. We avoid it like the plague because when we attach it to all the other questions (who, what, where, and how), we suddenly lose control of our future. Instead of managing our plans, we are now managed by our Plan, required to take action and move forward when we’d rather think about it and play office some more.
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But the biggest, most important question in business is avoided even more then “when”. And it’s the most important question for determining our success.

Why?"
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Texto de Chuck Blakeman retirado de "Making Money is Killing Your Business"

Focar, concentrar, alinhar

Excelentes conselhos de Chuk Blakeman, autor do próximo livro na minha lista de leitura.
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"1. Resist the temptation to be everything to everyone. The narrower you identity yourself the better. … I dare you to go narrow – you’ll make a lot more money in a lot less time. (Moi ici: Uma constante deste blogue, a necessidade de concentrar, focar, alinhar paranoicamente no serviço aos clientes-alvo)
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2. Don’t talk about what you do. Nobody cares. Talk about the OUTCOME for your customer – the result expressed emotionally. If they like the outcome, they’ll ask you what you do to get them that outcome. (Moi ici: Pessoalmente tenho de me esforçar muito mais neste desafio. Os clientes querem resultados, querem consequências, querem finalidades. Tudo o que se faz é instrumental, só interessa na medida em que nos encaminha para o porto desejado.)
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3. Say it simply. Stop using business words. They’re boring and pretentious. Talk to me like a human being. People don’t buy from companies, they buy from people.
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4. Say it in a very few words.
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5. Make it so graphic and clear that anybody can easily remember it and pass it on. If you’re the only one who can explain what you do, you’re dead in the water. Movements are created by simple, viral messages that everyone can carry to the next person. Business “gurus” will have you running in circles creating a complex and incredibly impressive offering. And nobody will buy it.
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6. Ask your customers, “What are you buying that you don’t even think I know I’m selling?” The answer will reduce your blabbing."

Abraçar a MUDANÇA em vez de lhe resistir

Quando lido com uma PME sou um outsider que não conhece a história da empresa, que não conhece o modelo mental do seu gerente, mas sou alguém que está atento ao mundo exterior e que faz as suas observações e tira as suas conclusões muito pessoais.
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Quando vejo uma PME a contorcer-se muito para fazer face a uma mudança, por exemplo: uma alteração imposta pelo mercado ou por um cliente importante. Normalmente encontro muita resistência a essa mudança.
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Costumo perguntar:
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- Esta mudança é pontual, é transitória, ou é sinal de MUDANÇA a sério?
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Se é passageira, tem de ser tratada como um inconveniente passageiro que temos de acomodar. No entanto, se é sinal de MUDANÇA a sério, de MUDANÇA que veio para ficar, então, em vez de resistir, devemos abraçá-la e correr para a incorporar nas nossas práticas correntes. Dessa forma, de inconveniente passa a vantagem competitiva.
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Escrevo isto na sequência desta leitura:
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"We’re taught to avoid struggle of any kind, which is a really bad idea. Struggle helps us run a four minute mile, write a symphony, build a road and learn our ABCs. People who expend all their energy planning to avoid struggle miss all the opportunities to grow personally or build a great business.

Don’t go looking for beaver dams but don’t avoid them when you run into them. Embrace them, learn from them, figure out whether you have to go left, right, over, under or through them and use them to get to your ocean.

Expend all your energy avoiding them and you’ll hate them because they stood in the way of your great plan. Learn from them and they’ll be fond memories in the rear view mirror that pushed you in the right direction.

Embrace the beaver dams. Struggle is good if you use it to get where you want to go. It’s your choice."
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Trecho retirado de "Business is Full of Beaver Dams"