"Deciding where to focus companies' scarce resources"

"most companies have very similar strategies and business objectives (e.g.,  growth, expansion, product innovation, market leadership) but just a few succeed in achieving them. What do these successful companies do differently?
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Up to the late 1970s, an organization's main focus was on core activities reflected in the traditional value chain described by Michael Porter
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Deciding where to focus companies' scarce resources is one of top management's most important challenges.
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Improving operations is easier than improving projects. Often, operational processes can be mapped, analysed and finally improved by automating or simply removing the inefficient parts. This is not possible with projects: mapping them is very complex, and they are very difficult to improve m most of the time they are one-off.
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although very few companies succeed in implementing their strategies, there are a few whose strategy execution is successful.
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To my surprise, some of these successful organizations were not just reaching but were also exceeding their strategic objectives. While their formula included great leadership and maturity, what made all the difference in their ability to exceed their expectations was the fact that they were highly FOCUSED.
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What I realized is that in todays world most companies and many employees are highly unfocused. As a result, top management has difficulty setting a dear strategy and communicating a ranked list of priorities; and most staff members end up deciding on their own where to concentrate their efforts; most likely on easy and irrelevant task, This lack of focus results in much wasted money and resources, the inability to execute the strategy, project failures, and unhappy and uncommitted employees. Successful individuals are highly focused, and the same applies lo organizations. In fact, every business is focused when it is just starting up but only those companies that manage to stay focused will likely succeed and remain in business."

Trechos retirados de "The Focused Organization - How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution" de Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

Animador

"A study by PwC that reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries and across various industries found that only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects.
McKinsey & Company studied over 5,000 projects and found that 56% delivered less value than expected, 45% were over budget and 17% unfolded so badly that they threatened the company's very survival.
According to Gartner, 85% of big data projects fail to move past preliminary stages." .
A study published by the Association of Spanish Geographers estimates that between 1995 and 2016 Spanish government agencies spent more than €8I billion on "infrastructure that was unnecessary, abandoned, underutilized or poorly programmed". And this figure could surpass €97 billion in the near future, factoring in the amounts that have already been pledged. The report says: "All of it was done without a proper cost/benefit analysis, and often on the basis of estimates of future users or earnings supported by a scenario of economic euphoria that was as evident as it was fleeting." 

Não, não é primeiro de Abril.

Trecho retirado de "The Project Revolution" de Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

"selling projects rather than products"

Outro texto delicioso e em sintonia com Mongo, "Selling Products Is Good. Selling Projects Can Be Even Better":

"In the beginning companies sold products. And then they sold services. In recent years, the fashionable suggestion has been that companies sell experiences and solutions, solving the needs and aspirations of customers.
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Companies, indeed, do all of these things. But increasingly, what companies sell are projects. To understand the difference, think of an athletic shoe company, such as Nike or Adidas. A focus on products means a focus on selling running shoes. A focus on experiences might mean they sell you a membership to a local running club. A focus on solutions might mean they figure out how to help you reach your goal weight. While these clearly offer more value than simply selling you a pair of shoes, they also have limitations. Selling products limits the revenues you can make from clients: Unless you are innovating and continually updating your product offering, customer attrition tends to be high, and incentivizing repurchases can be hard. Selling experiences provides intangible benefits that are hard to quantify and measure, often focusing on meeting the needs of one single customer, preventing any mass production. Selling solutions became popular in the early 2000s when customers didn’t know how to solve their problems. But today, in the internet age, people can do their own research and define the solutions for themselves.
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A focus on selling projects would mean helping someone do something more specific, such as running the Boston Marathon.
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The project would have a clear goal (finish the marathon) and a clear start and end date.
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And that is just one type of project. More so than products, the possibilities with projects are endless. [Moi ici: Como não recordar - as pessoas e as empresas não compram o que compram, mas o que vão conseguir, processando o que compraram]
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Soon after launch, products are copied by the competition, which means they must be priced more cheaply. Soon, they become a commodity. This removes any opportunity for steady, high margins over the long term. Philips has experienced this even with its high-end health care products. Shifting its emphasis to selling projects rather than products was a strategic response to this problem.
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For example, Philips sells high-tech medical devices. In the past it sold them simply as products (and it still does). But now Philips seeks out the projects in which its products will be used. If a new health care center is being considered, Philips will seek to become a partner from the very beginning of the project, including the running and the maintenance of the new center."

Há tempos a trabalhar num projecto de reflexão estratégica para exactamente fazer esta transição de empresa de produtos para empresa de projectos, fui surpreendido no inicio pelo pedido para fazer uma análise Value Stream Mapping ao seu ciclo produtivo. Entretanto, com o andar do projecto passei a mensagem que se quisessem aplicar a análise Value Stream Mapping o fizessem à utilização do produto durante o ciclo de vida do utilizador final, como naquele "running and the maintenance of the new center".

Continua.

BTW, confesso que me estou a tornar num fan de Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez.

Project Based Organisation

Mongo também passa por isto:

"The number and importance of projects are increasing steadily. Projects are being used to deliver innovative products and services, to perform change and transformation and – in general – get things done in organisations.
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A project based organisation (PBO) is ... one in which the project is the primary unit for performing certain tasks.
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Processes in a PBO are organised from the client to the client, a value stream of activities, orchestrated by a project manager, using agile or traditional methods, tools and techniques. The culture of a PBO is clearly project-friendly, client-centric and oriented towards “doing the right things right”, which means combining effectiveness and efficiency.
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A PBO may comprise several firms, for example a project consortium or network organisation, and thus is temporarily organised, flexible and adaptable to the specific circumstances of the project, its context and partners.
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The more we see a change from products to services, from mass production to individualisation, from single organisations performing projects to a co-creative network of partners, the more we´ll see PBO as a role model. So PBOs are a trend which will change the way of organising, and the transformation of many organisations prove that this process is already taking place. We need to see this from an economic perspective, identify the drivers for this change and the impact it may have for traditional organisations."

Trechos retirados de "Will project-based organisations be the new normal?"

Estratégia executada por um portfolio de projectos

Esta ideia:

"What makes the strategic journey unique is that it’s perpetual – you never actually reach your destination. It is a highly uncertain journey where the terrain is constantly shifting and there are more things outside of your control than within them. It is much more like an explorer’s journey through the wilderness than it is a highway trip. More and more it is a journey where following the familiar, well-trodden path can get you hopelessly lost before you even realise that you are off course.
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Projects are the perfect vehicle for today’s strategic journey
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In the Tao Te Ching, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. When talking about a strategic journey, strategic improvement projects are the most effective way to take those steps. Through these projects, and a project-mindset, we can take decisive action toward our strategic goals… one step at a time.
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Most importantly, they are short-duration, hard-hitting activities that can be carried out by a relatively small cross-functional team. They should be targeted on a single specific outcome that delivers strategic value – either on its own or as one phase in a longer program – rather than on low-value activities."

É seguida por mim há vários anos:

"Quando falo de sistemas de gestão tento passar a ideia de que o sistema de gestão ideal traduz-se num portfolio de iniciativas, num portfolio de projectos, alinhados por uma estratégia. Tudo o resto é treta de consultor e de auditor, para justificar honorários.
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Só as iniciativas, quando implementadas, quando executadas, mudam uma organização. Tudo o resto, estratégia, mapa da estratégia, balanced scorecard, indicadores, metas,... não passa de conversa de café, enquanto não começarmos a mudar a realidade!!!" (Junho de 2007)

E:

"Um sistema de gestão concebido desta forma, é na essência uma estrutura móvel, um portfolio de projectos de melhoria," (Fevereiro de 2007)

Trechos retirados de "Why projects are the key to bringing your strategy to life"

Para reflexão

""In the same report," I don't give up, "it's indicated that they chose the cheap vendors over the more reliable ones. How much do you think they saved?"
"How do I know? Maybe five percent. Can't be much more."
"You can also see," I continue, "that delays in getting the machines from those vendors was the prime reason for the delay in completing the project."
"I see what you mean." He picks up Fred's report again and looks at it intently. Finally, he says, "So they saved about five percent on the machines, which is, probably, less than three percent of the total investment in the project." Very slowly he continues, "And this savings caused them to turn a three-year payback project into…" He stops.
"Saving a miserable three percent caused them to turn a very good project into a loser," I summarize.
"Rick, calm down. We have made a lot of assumptions. It's not so simple."
I don't know what he is talking about. The effect is clear. Companies are so immersed in the mentality of saving money that they forget that the whole intention of a project is not to save money nut to make money.
Out loud I say, "It's a simple fact that they try to cut the budget by a few percent and cause the payback period to double."
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Para reflexão séria.
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BTW, acham mesmo que um Observatório vai melhorar a qualidade dos projectos de obras públicas?
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Trecho retirado de "Critical Chain" de Eliyahu Goldratt

Gestão de iniciativas estratégicas

Da próxima vez que facilitar o trabalho de equipas que tenham de desenhar, de estabelecer, de implementar e monitorizar iniciativas estratégicas, no âmbito de transformações estratégicas puras e duras, ou no âmbito do desenvolvimento de sistemas de gestão ambiental, espero ter à mão esta lista de verificação:

Retirada de "Information Systems Project Management: How to Deliver Function and Value in Information Technology Projects " de Jolyon Hallows.

"Managing for Breakthroughs in Productivity" parte II

Nem de propósito, o artigo "Managing for Breakthroughs in Productivity" de Allan Scherr, sobre o qual começamos a escrever ontem, refere:

"Successful organizations often give high priority to the minimization of risk and maximization of predictability. This is done to encourage what is seen as the source of past successes and to discourage what is seen as the cause of past failures. This priority is inappropriate, however, if unprecedented, extraordinary results are sought. Nevertheless, the management systems established in most large organizations have an implicit and largely unexamined bias against creating the kind of projects described in this article."

Hoje, descubro no artigo "Is It Real? Can We Win? Is It Worth Doing?: Managing Risk and Reward in an Innovation Portfolio" de George S. Day, na revista Harvard Business Review deste mês.

"Minor innovations make up 85% to 90% of companies’ development portfolios, on average, but they rarely generate the growth companies seek. At a time when companies should be taking bigger—but smart—innovation risks, their bias is in the other direction. From 1990 to 2004 the percentage of major innovations in development portfolios dropped from 20.4 to 11.5—even as the number of growth initiatives rose. The result is internal traffic jams of safe, incremental innovations that delay all projects, stress organizations, and fail to achieve revenue goals."
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"According to one study, only 14% of new-product launches were substantial innovations, but they accounted for 61% of all profit from innovations among the companies examined.

The aversion to Big I projects stems from a belief that they are too risky and their rewards (if any) will accrue too far in the future. Certainly the probability of failure rises sharply when a company ventures beyond incremental initiatives within familiar markets. But avoiding risky projects altogether can strangle growth."
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Ontem, almocei com o gerente de uma empresa que já está "infectado"!!!

A uma empresa com contabilidade analítica, e com gente, internamente, que analisa os números, bastou um ano.
Bastou um ano, para ficarem "viciados"!!!

O lançamento de um novo produto, num mercado tradicional (Oh meu Deus, e como é tradicional!), permitiu ganhos de rentabilidade invejáveis.

"Para o próximo ano, queremos mais do mesmo. Temos de colocar no mercado mais produtos novos!!!"

Alguém sabe quais são as características de um produto novo bem sucedido?
Só o mercado!

Assim, há que arriscar. Ou como diz Tom Peters:

""The whole damn purpose is to test stuff, try stuff," Peters said.
"And whether you're shooting pool, playing golf or playing violin, the only way you learn is if you're screwing up.
My major argument in the world of business is there's too much planning and too much talking, and not enough doing. The only way you grow, for God's sake, is go out and do it, and then correct quick."

So Peters endorses failure, calling it "not only normal but good," so long as that failure is achieved by trying something "with incredible vigor" and not through laziness." Se enquadrarmos bem as coisas, nós, humanos, somos o resultado de mais de 2 milhões de anos de falhas... corrigo, somos o resultado de 4,5 bilhões de anos de falhas, de falhas espectaculares. After all: "The only way you grow, for God's sake, is go out and do it, and then correct quick."

Mas haviam de ter visto o brilho dos olhos do gerente, quando dizia que apesar de terem aumentado os custos com pessoal, o peso dos custos com o pessoal diluíu-se, face ao aumento das margens.

"Managing for Breakthroughs in Productivity"

Este artigo "Managing for Breakthroughs in Productivity" de Allan Scherr está recheado de pequenos tesouros:

"we focused on the question of how to deliberately create projects that would have this quality for people and would predictably produce extraordinary, unprecedented results."

"There appears to be a pattern to the occurrence of breakthroughs. They arise predictably around particular events we call breakdowns." ... "A breakdown occurs whenever there is a gap between a committed result and the predictable outcome given the current circumstances."

...

"While it is obvious that unprecedented, extraordinary results will never be produced by simply executing the predictable recipes from the past, most people’s actions in the midst of a breakdown situation are not consistent with this obvious fact."

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"A breakdown, then, creates a demand for extraordinary action." ... "The occurrence of a breakdown causes people to shift their attention and to see things differently. This perceptual change is often the opening that enables people to see opportunities for previously unconsidered actions."

O "breakdown" gera a rotura, quebra as barreiras, estilhaça as regras impostas pelo lado esquerdo do cérebro e, assim, abre uma brecha, para que o lado direito do cérebro, com uma postura mais holistica, desencante uma saída ardilosa, memorável e bem sucedida.

"The traditional emphasis in project management is on avoiding breakdowns. The breakthrough framework reveals that the most effective strategy for avoiding breakdowns is to design one’s commitments to be as safe as possible or, even better, to avoid commitments altogether. Examples include being committed to “doing you best,” “trying hard,” or to following a process rather than to producing a specific result. The latter often appears among technical or science professionals who embrace a particular process for conducting research, doing creative work, or developing a product as the end rather than the means. This approach provides safety because, if the desired result is not produced, at least the work was done in the correct manner."

"to following a process rather than to producing a specific result" Esta é, para mim, IMHO, uma das "defesas" mais espalhadas pelo mundo. Basta recordar o plano nacional de combate à violência doméstica, sobre o qual escrevemos aqui e, aqui também, sobre o indicador´"número de reuniões".

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"the strength of small companies in the face of a breakdown as interpreted here is their lack of flexibility rather than the additional degrees of freedom often ascribed to them."

Sei muito bem do que é que o homem está a falar. Uma pequena empresa não pode falhar, não tem alternativa, não tem pulmão. Esse ter de resultar, faz das tripas coração e gera níveis de desempenho excepcionais. Mais uma vez, a necessidade aguça o engenho!

...

"Successful organizations often give high priority to the minimization of risk and maximization of predictability. This is done to encourage what is seen as the source of past successes and to discourage what is seen as the cause of past failures. This priority is inappropriate, however, if unprecedented, extraordinary results are sought. Nevertheless, the management systems established in most large organizations have an implicit and largely unexamined bias against creating the kind of projects described in this article."

Isto faz-me lembrar um livro que li há mais de dez anos, "THE BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY: USING SHORT-TERM SUCCESSES TO BUILD THE HIGH PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION" de Robert Schaffer, by the way, no mesmo número da Harvard Business Review de Janeiro de 92 em que Kaplan e Norton escreveram o artigo inicial sobre o Balanced Scorecard, Schaffer escreveu também um artigo onde falava da "rain dance". No livro, o autor falava do "zest factor", para energizar as equipas de projecto.

...

"The more precise and specific the statement of the required results and timeframe is, the more likely the project will succeed."

Será que tem algo relacionado com a visualização do futuro? Com a comunhão de interpretações?

(continua)