Strategy is about strengths and trade-offs

"Unfortunately, we are more sensitive to our weaknesses than our strengths.
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if a business tries to increase its “average score,” it may end up having little or no uniqueness. [Moi ici: Como não recordar Youngme Moon e "Different"] Not many people want to go to a restaurant that is all Bs, no Cs but no As. To gain customers, a company has to be distinct. As long as it provides a distinct value, there will always be customers who will like it.
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Somehow, in school, we appreciate students who are “balanced.” As a result, we tend to emphasize fixing weaknesses rather than developing strengths further. This idea is poor from a strategy perspective. Strategy is about strengths and trade-offs.
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Unless the allocation of resources is biased toward strengths, a company will lose its distinctiveness and will end up getting unnoticed as one of many similar companies.
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How Can We Identify, Develop, and Use Strengths for Strategy?
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One may wonder if there is any strength on which strategy can be built, particularly when you are much smaller than competitors. How can we find our strengths? Compared with large rivals with abundant resources and skilled people, it may seem like we do not have any strength! Let me repeat. We are trained and educated to be sensitive to our weaknesses. Thus, it is not surprising that we have a hard time articulating strengths. However, identifying strengths is one of the first steps to take in formulating a strategy. In doing so, the following three points are helpful:

• Point 1: Strengths and weaknesses are relative terms. Even if you think you are not particularly good at one thing, if your competitors are even worse, that may be your strength.

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• Point 2: When you examine one by one, it might seem like you do not have any uniqueness. However, you may be able to develop a strong business model by combining those parts more consistently than your competitors.

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Again, strategy is built on strengths. Given the limited resources within a company, resources should be used to further develop strengths, not to fix weakness. By developing strengths, a company becomes distinct. By fixing weaknesses, a company becomes average. Who wants “average” that has no uniqueness? Strengths do not have to be big or obvious. The strength may be subtle and small, which is perfectly fine. All a company needs to do is to understand its strengths (and weaknesses) well, and formulate a strategy that uses the strengths so that competitors cannot easily imitate it. [Moi ici: Esta frase para mim, hoje, é um bocado difícil de aceitar. A estratégia tem de se basear nas forças. Contudo, forças e fraquezas não são uma verdade absoluta, são classificações subjectivas. Recordar as vinhas velhas do Douro e os que partem já derrotados. Se a estratégia for eficiência as vinhas velhas são um estorvo, uma fraqueza, se a estratégia for qualidade/distinção as vinhas velhas são um ponto forte. O conselho? Partir da base da effectuation (Bird in Hand Principle – Start with your means - Entrepreneurs start with what they have), uma PME não tem dinheiro para mudar o mundo. Tem antes de pensar: com o que tenho e com os recursos a que posso aceder, como posso partir de pontos fortes? ]
Peter Drucker once said, “Thinking is very hard work. And the management fashions are a wonderful substitute for thinking.”

• Point 3: Strengths and weaknesses depend on what game (or war) is played. If you are really macho, you may be good at wrestling or weightlifting, but probably not at high jump. When the game changes your weaknesses may become your strengths and vice versa."

Trechos retirados de "The cores of strategic management" de Katsuhiko Shimizu.

Isto é tão instrutivo!!!

"Ten years ago, the tourist board of Zell am See in Austria made a terrific call. According to the Qur’an, paradise looks like a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains – so they started promoting their village to travel agencies in the Middle East. Now, the area receives 70,000 visitors from the Gulf States every year. Photographer Marieke van der Velden joins the tourists"

Racional típico de empreendedor, tão bem descrito pela effectuation.

"entrepreneurs are indeed Effectual thinkers who start with a given set of Means and find new and different Ends, which are not necessarily pre-determined. Entrepreneurs in her studies follow the adage “If I can control the future, I do not need to predict it”."

Trecho retirado de "The Austrian village that's a Muslim holiday hotspot – in pictures"

"analisamos os meios que temos e imaginamos futuros possíveis" (parte II)

Parte I.

"So, if we can't predict the future should you do?
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Create it.
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Instead of spending a lot of time thinking about what might happen in the face of uncertainty, entrepreneurs plunge in and see. In other words, instead of trying to predict the future, they create it.
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Act your way into a new way of thinking, instead of thinking your way into action."[Moi ici: Isto é "Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader" de Herminia Ibarra mas também "effectuation"]

Acerca da effectuation, li, recentemente, "Effectuation – The best theory of entrepreneurship you actually follow, whether you’ve heard of it or not":

"Effectuation is generally defined as a form of reasoning or problem solving which assumes the future is largely unpredictable, but that it can be controlled through human action. This is in stark contrast to another form of reasoning, Causality, which assumes the future is theoretically predictable based on prior events.
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entrepreneurs are indeed Effectual thinkers who start with a given set of Means and find new and different Ends, which are not necessarily pre-determined. Entrepreneurs in her studies follow the adage “If I can control the future, I do not need to predict it”.
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Bird in Hand Principle – Start with your means Entrepreneurs start with what they have: [Moi ici: Voltar à parte I!!!] Who they are, what they know and who they know
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Affordable Loss Principle – Set affordable loss...
entrepreneurs are more concerned with analyzing the down-side of their actions to manage their risk, which can often be accurately calculated – If they can afford the cost (of an experiment), they jump into the venture and if they can’t, they choose something else they can afford.
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Lemonade Principle – Leverage contingencies...
entrepreneurs must be flexible above all else, not recalcitrant – that entrepreneurs must expect to exploit the unexpected, not existing knowledge.
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Crazy-Quilt Principle – Form partnerships...
This principle basically encourages entrepreneurs to be networking machines – period.
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Just start with what you have, risk what you can afford, be open to pleasant surprises, and seek relationships with others"

E sim, também algo de Malcolm Gladwell em "David & Goliath":

"David’s opportunities: the occasions in which difficulties, paradoxically, turn out to be desirable. The lesson of the trickster tales is the third desirable difficulty: the unexpected freedom that comes from having nothing to lose. The trickster gets to break the rules.
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You see the giant and the shepherd in the Valley of Elah and your eye is drawn to the man with the sword and shield and the glittering armor. But so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine."

Nunca esquecerei o relato que Gladwell fez da luta dos Impressionistas. Lutaram, lutaram e lutaram, para fazer parte do mainstream da pintura francesa (legislada e tutelada pelo governo de França). Então, perceberam que não precisavam de fazer parte desse mundo, podiam criar o seu próprio mundo, com as suas próprias regras.

Trecho inicial retirado de "The Best Way to Predict the Future Is to Create It"

"analisamos os meios que temos e imaginamos futuros possíveis"

Depois da sequência de leitura referida em "Gente que viu a Luz!" fui ao Twitter e escrevi:

UAU! A Páscoa ainda só foi ontem e... acabo de ter uma epifania!
— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) April 6, 2015

Quando trabalho estratégia com uma PME, o que fazemos?
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Pensamos em mudar o mundo? Não!
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Pensamos em investimentos de grande porte? Não!
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Como naquele jogo em que os náufragos têm de escolher um número limitado de itens que podem salvar consigo, perguntámos: o que é que esta empresa tem? Qual é a sua história? Qual é a sua experiência? Em que é que se pode diferenciar com base naquilo que é, ou tem sido? Procurem nos bolsos qualquer coisa, mas que pareça não ter valor, talvez possa ser a base para algo.
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Reparem no exemplo das frutas e legumes referidas na hiperligação lá em cima. Como é o mercado?
Podemos competir pelo preço?
Podemos competir com o Mar del Plastico"?
Podemos oferecer grandes produções?
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O que faço com as PME é o mesmo que os agricultores fizeram.
Em vez de pensar num objectivo e obter os meios para o atingir, analisamos os meios que temos e imaginamos futuros possíveis, objectivos possíveis de atingir com eles.
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Como não recordar MacGyver, perante um problema, procurar nas imediação, à mão, as ferramentas que poderão ser usadas para fazer um truque.
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Continua.

Criar e desenvolver procura

"Isely was so convinced of the health benefits of natural eating that she and her husband, Philip, started going door to door lending out nutrition books and taking orders for supplements. A business was born." 

1955, ninguém fala da alimentação. A alimentação não é problema, não é assunto. A fast-food a sério ainda está por aparecer.
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Alguém, por causa do seu caso pessoal, acredita. Ponto essencial, alguém acredita, alguém está convencido da sua missão.
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Como não pretende impingir, tem de criar a procura. Por isso, empresta livros sobre o tema, para aumentar o grau de conhecimento e alerta dos potenciais clientes. Quantas empresas falham neste ponto, quantas descuram a criação do seu mercado?
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Hoje:

"There's a staff nutrition coach and an educational book section in most stores, which do not sell any nonorganic produce or anything containing artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, or preservatives. (The company maintains a long manifesto on what it won't sell and why on its website.) Those principles have sometimes hurt its sales: Recently, Natural Grocers decided to stop selling "confinement dairy products," such as milk from cows that aren't allowed to graze. That meant yanking Noosa, a best-selling yogurt brand. "You can't compromise your standards just to generate sales,""

60 anos depois, continua a aposta em aumentar o conhecimento, a informação dos clientes. Continua a adesão a valores que reforçam a identidade de uma tribo e transmitem confiança.
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Quantas empresas precisam de trabalhar esta disciplina de criar e desenvolver procura?
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A maioria dos produtores leiteiros aqui da minha zona, apesar de pequenos a nível europeu e americano, não poderiam vender leite nem produtos lácteos para esta, hoje, cadeia de lojas. As suas vacas também não pastam, passam o dia fechadas em compartimentos onde lhes chegam a ração.
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Foi ao ler esta pequena frase:

"decided to stop selling "confinement dairy products," such as milk from cows that aren't allowed to graze."

Que tive uma epifania sobre a agricultura portuguesa com futuro, como uma startup. Ideia que tenho de trabalhar melhor.

Trechos retirados de "How This Family-Run Organic Grocer Is Taking on Whole Foods"

"Effectuation" e a economia real

Ler "Jovem engenheiro cria rebanho para produzir leite de cabra":

""Era o mais lógico a seguir, porque não havendo emprego, não havendo oportunidades, acho que apostar naquilo que já tinha, nos terrenos que eram dos meus avós e não deixar as coisas ao abandono é uma boa perspectiva de vida", disse José Gonçalves à agência Lusa.[Moi ici: The Bird in Hand Principle. Entrepreneurs start with what they have.]
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conseguiu obter o apoio da família, que vinca ser um alicerce vital do projeto [Moi ici: The Crazy Quilt Principle. Entrepreneurs cooperate with parties they can trust. These parties can limit the affordable loss by giving pre-commitment..]"

É recordar e ver aplicados alguns dos princípios da "effectuation".
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Claro que é também interessante a manifestação do padrão, do regresso à terra, da criação de valor num nicho...

O Vietname da Europa

Um empresário é um ser humano.
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Por norma, um ser humano é um satisficer, não um maximizer. E, tendo em conta os princípios da Effectuation, não me custa acreditar que, desta vez, Daniel Bessa tem razão, "Sair do euro faz de Portugal o Vietname da Europa".

Quem somos?

Tenho escrito nos últimos dias alguns postais em que reflicto sobre a importância para as organizações, que iniciam processos de transformação, de começarem por responder às perguntas:

Quem somos?Para que existimos?

A teoria da efectuação, que tenta modelar o comportamento dos empreendedores, gente que efectua transformações, também propõe que o aspirante a empreendedor começa com perguntas:

Quem somos?Que meios temos disponíveis?Quem conhecemos?

Interessante que o começo de um caminho de transformação comece pela pergunta "Quem somos?", comece pela definição de uma identidade.
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Sócrates (o grego) aconselhava:

Conhece-te a ti mesmo.

Entretanto, encontrei esta reflexão:

"I love paradox. Here’s an example: the best way to prepare for change is to decide what isn’t going to change."

É como se no início de uma caminhada que nos vai transformar, um elemento de estabilidade, a nossa identidade, nos ajude a manter o controlo da transformação, nos ajude a definir fronteiras para essa transformação.
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Numa empresa isto traduz-se numa definição de missão, não conversa da treta de consultor mas num esforço de pesquisa interior, de desbaste do acessório e de concentração no essencial.
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O essencial nunca é o que a empresa produz mas a relação que o que a empresa produz permite desenvolver com os clientes.
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Contudo, a caminhada não se faz impunemente... tal como o Argos, a caminhada altera-nos e vai construindo novas camadas sobre a nossa identidade... mas essa é uma outra história.

On the marketness of markets

Penso que "On the marketness of markets" de Kaj Storbacka e Suvi Nenonen é o último artigo publicado por esta dupla, haverá mais um ou dois já anunciados mas por publicar ainda.
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Alguns recortes de mais um suculento artigo:
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"A firm can radically improve value co-creation by promoting the development of market practices that increase the marketness of the firm‟s market configuration.
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markets are always in the making, they are perpetually shaped by market practices. ... the implication of viewing markets as socially constructed is that markets in the objective sense do not exist; i.e. there is no objectively given market. Markets are what actors make them to be. There are no given structures „out there‟ in which actors compete for positions. Markets are not – they become. (Moi ici: Ou se fica a tremer com receio de se perder o que se tem... ou se sonha em ir mais além. Nenhuma empresa está condenada... há sempre uma alternativa que precisa de ser co-construída... que precisa de efectuação (effectuation))
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markets are always in the making. Even the most stable markets can re-invent themselves through technological disruption (photography and associated services due to digitalization), or innovative value propositions (Starbucks and the coffee experience). Many firms apply deliberate market-driving strategies, with the aim to disrupt existing patterns and offer new value propositions.
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Market configurations are - depending on how they have evolved – „more or less markets‟ in terms of their maturity, stability of norms, how established the product definitions are, the acceptance of price formation mechanisms etc. In a high marketness situation the market configuration is established and acknowledged, the market practices reinforce each other, and resource integration is effective.
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in a state of low marketness, the exchange practices require a long time and various iteration rounds before market actors can agree upon the unit of exchange, their value propositions and market boundaries ... normalizing practices in low marketness market configurations are characterized with competing viewpoints and lack of commonly accepted norms and rules. Finally, representational practices in low marketness situations concentrate on making the market actors and the unit of exchange visible through symbolic representations.
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we argue that if you want to understand a market, the best thing to do is try to change it. The networked, dynamic, and inter-subjective nature of markets is probably best visible through the processes aimed at changing them.
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As market actors participate in market practices, they can also influence and change the market practices according to their subjective objectives. However, as markets usually encompass multiple and often conflicting efforts to shape them by various market actors, the actions of a single market actor seldom have a complete, Austinian performativity towards the market practices. Instead, the extent to which a market actor can influence a market practice is, for instance, dependent on the actor‟s performative power or clout ... the performative power of any market actor is dependent on the actor‟s network position, the relative strength of the actor‟s business model, and the actor‟s ability to author compelling meanings related to the market.
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... we propose that focal actors should adopt different market design roles depending on their clout and the market configuration‟s marketness. In high marketness situations the focal firm aims to promote its own relevance by „market shaping‟; by re-defining its network to improve its position against other actors, and moulding its business model to influence market practices so that the market changes in a way that enables increased value creation for all market actors.
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Low marketness situations relate to „market making‟ or market creation, where the focal actor is involved simultaneously in developing market practices and promoting its subjective market view by proving to market actors that the market configuration entails opportunities for value co-creation. When the marketness aspect is integrated with the focal actor‟s clout, five types of market design roles emerge: market maker, market activist, market consolidator, market shaper, and market specialist. There market design roles are illustrated in Figure"

Market maker is a market design role available for those focal actors with high clout seeking to influence a low marketness market. The main objective of the market maker is to establish the new emerging market and the actor‟s position within that market. In order to do this, successful market makers involve other market actors in collective sense-making and mental model co-creation. Market makers usually start discussions and trials with a few trusted customers early on – even before they have pilot products or marketing materials to show. They seek to initiate iterative offering development process together with the pilot customers and in so doing they are willing to re-define the product and the target market based on the customer response. Additionally, market makers also seek to utilize their strong clout to fasten the market creation process. In particular, they look for ways to utilize their existing business ecosystems of suppliers, channel partners and providers of complementary products and services also within the new, emerging market.
The market activist is faced with the same challenge as the market maker: they both need to co-create mental models in order to support the evolution of a low marketness market. However, the market activist cannot leverage the same strong clout as the market maker. Thus, market activists should adopt for even more cooperative market design role: they should pay special attention to creating educated competition and enthusiastic lead customers.
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After a market reaches a state of high marketness, the opportunities for market design are not over. Quite the contrary, there are several examples in which incumbent players have succeeded in transforming a high marketness market by adopting a market shaper role. For example, many B2B firms have expressed their keen interest in moving forward in the value chain, transferring themselves from equipment or raw material providers into solution providers  – and thus changing the entire market in which they operate. The market design efforts of market shapers are supported by their strong clout. However, strong clout in itself is not enough: successful market shapers are usually highly skilled in mental model communication, creating compelling market shaping stories that communicate effectively how their new market vision improves the value creation for all parties involved.
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(Moi ici: Segue-se aquele que é o papel mais adequado a uma PME portuguesa interessada em competir num mundo global cheio de tubarões. Não, não é o campeonato do preço mais baixo como devem imaginar, apesar de ser o única que a academia e os políticos conhecem) Also focal actors with low clout can design high marketness markets by adopting a market specialist role. Like market shapers, market specialists engage in mental model communication, but with different approach: they understand that communicating mental models that are contradictory with stronger firms‟ mental models is unlikely to be successful. Therefore the market specialists seek to leverage the positions of the dominant players: they aim at becoming either complementary (leveraging the main players‟ strengths) or truly alternative providers (leveraging the main players‟ weaknesses) in the existing market set-up."

Sarasvathy (parte II)

Continuado daqui.
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Há um mês escrevi "Para PMEs tem de ser uma abordagem híbrida?":
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"Começamos por olhar para fora, para o mercado para identificar os diferentes grupos homogéneos de clientes ou potenciais clientes, e escolher os grupos mais interessantes em termos de rentabilidade e de sustentabilidade da relação.
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No entanto, não é só uma questão de querer... é também uma questão de poder. Como os recursos são escassos, há que conjugar a primeira questão com a dura realidade, quem é que podemos servir com vantagem tendo em conta a história, o cadastro, as capacidades que adquiridas e experimentadas?"
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Agora, descubro Sarasvathy:
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"Expert entrepreneurs begin with who they are, what they know and whom they know, and immediately start taking action and interacting with other people.

• They focus on what they can do and do it, (Moi ici: "Get out of the building" "Ship then test" "Think beta not best") without worrying much about what they ought to do.
• Some of the people they interact with self-select into the process by making commitments to the venture.
• Each commitment results in new means and new goals for the venture.
• As resources accumulate in the growing network, constraints begin to accrete. The constraints reduce possible changes in future goals and restrict who may or may not be admitted into the stakeholder network. (Moi ici: Espaço de Minkowsky)
• Assuming the stakeholder accumulation process does not prematurely abort, goals and network concurrently converge into a new market and a new firm.

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The bird-in-hand principle
This is a principle of means-driven (as opposed to goal-driven) action. The emphasis here is on creating something new with existing means rather than discovering new ways to achieve given goals
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Effectuation is the inverse of causation. Causal models begin with an effect to be created. They seek either to select between means to achieve those effects or to create new means to achieve preselected ends. Effectual models, in contrast, begin with given means and seek to create new ends using non-predictive strategies.(Moi ici: Consultor, em empresas estabelecidas que precisam de uma segunda vida, tem de conjugar oportunidades que se podem criar olhando para o mercado, olhando para a sua configuração, olhando para as hipotéticas cadeias da procura existentes ou a construir, com as suas capacidades, com as suas experiências, com o seu cadastro, com os seus recursos. Não adianta fazer castelos no ar... não há dinheiro e não há tempo! As empresas já existem e têm de resultar, portanto, a restrição do que se é, do que se sabe e do que se tem é importante mas há causalidade. Com o que se tem, como dar a volta?)
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• Effectuators see the world as open, still in-the-making. They see a genuine role for human action. In fact, they see both firms and markets as human-made artifacts. In this sense, effectual entrepreneurship is not a social science. It is a science of the artificial (Moi ici: Muito bom... Herbert Simon. Take that bento-lovers).
• Effectuators very rarely see opportunities as given or outside of their control. For the most part, they work to fabricate, as well as recognize and discover opportunities (Moi ici: Muito bom... Sarasvathy et al., 2003). 
• (Moi ici: Atenção ao que se segue e comparar com os que promovem a impressão de bentos para tornar as empresas mais competitivas) Effectuators often have an instrumental view of firms and markets. They do not act as though they were the agents of the firm or as suppliers catering to demand – firms are a way for them to create valuable novelty for themselves and/or for the world; markets are more likely made than found; and a variety of stakeholders including customers are partners in an adventure of their own making. 
• Effectuators do not seek to avoid failure; they seek to make success happen. This entails a recognition that failing is an integral part of venturing well. Through their willingness to fail, effectuators create temporal portfolios of ventures whose successes and failures they manage – learning to outlive failures by keeping them small and killing them young, and cumulating successes through continual leveraging."

Continua.

Sarasvathy (parte I)

Interrompi a leitura do artigo "Markets as configurations" de Kaj Storbacka e Suvi Nenonen, publicado pelo European Journal of Marketing Vol. 45 No. 172, 2011, pp. 221-258, por causa das referências a um nome, Sarasvathy, e a um tema: o empreendedorismo.
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Primeiro uma pesquisa na net deu origem a este interessante artigo "MBAs vs. Entrepreneurs":
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"Causal reasoning, she explains, "begins with a pre-determined goal and a given set of means, and seeks to identify the optimal—fastest, cheapest, most efficient, etc.—alternative to achieve that goal." This is the world of exhaustive business plans, microscopic ROI calculations, and portfolio diversification.

Effectual reasoning, on the other hand, "does not begin with a specific goal. Instead, it begins with a given set of means and allows goals to emerge contingently over time from the varied imagination and diverse aspirations of the founders and the people they interact with." This is the world of bootstrapping, rapid prototyping, and guerilla marketing. (Moi ici: E o que é preciso para prosperar em Mongo? O mundo das produção em série e da escala não é para nós, nem que seja pelo temperamento. Além disso, vai ter cada vez menos peso e atracção)

The more Sarasvathy explains the differences in the two styles of thinking, the more obvious it becomes which style matches the times. Causal reasoning is about how much you expect to gain; effectual reasoning is about how much you can afford to lose. Causal reasoning revolves around competitive analysis and zero-sum logic; effectual reasoning embraces networks and partnerships. (Moi ici: Cath stuff, diria Arroja) Causal reasoning "urges the exploitation of pre-existing knowledge"; effectual reasoning stresses the inevitability of surprises and the leveraging of options.

The difference in mindset, Sarasvathy concludes, boils down to a different take on the future. "Causal reasoning is based on the logic, To the extent that we can predict the future, we can control it," she writes. That's why MBAs and big companies spend so much time on focus groups, market research, and statistical models. "Effectual reasoning, however, is based on the logic, To the extent that we can control the future, we do not need to predict it." How do you control the future? By inventing it yourself (Moi ici: YES!!! Aprendi isso com Drucker, a melhor forma de prever o futuro é criá-lo) — marshalling scarce resources, understanding that surprises are to be expected rather than avoided, reacting to them fast."
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E encontrei a referência mencionada no artigo, um livro chamado "Effectuation - Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise".
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Continua.