Não é armadilhar, é perceber os clientes dos clientes

Na sequência de:

• "Não é armadilhar, é educar"
• "Não é armadilhar, é arte"
• "Não é armadilhar, é criar harmonia, é construir uma sinfonia..."

“In more complex B2B deals, it is not a single person selling to a single person. Both the customer and the supplier are many-headed, meaning that one network meets another.”
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“In B2B, customers are using received deliveries as input to deliveries to their customers.
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Every supplier has a relationship to the customer’s customer. It is there even if it is indirect and not recognized. Many products pass through several stages before they reach the user.
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Who is the customer and whose needs and specifications should be satisfied?
The dilemma has been expressed in the following way: ‘It is also possible that the properties sought by the customer may not be the same, or may even be at odds with those properties required by the user further downstream. In this respect the injunction to match the product not only to the needs of the immediate client, but also to those of the user further downstream is worth recording even if this is difficult to achieve in practice.
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Sometimes a new product may be neutral to the intermediary, but of special value to the user. Should a supplier then turn directly to the user? This may seem rational but at the same time it means a disturbance in the relationships to the middlemen, who feel that their positions are threatened. The intermediaries in turn may protect their business by withholding information and blocking personal contact between the manufacturer and the user.
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The suppliers can choose their mission to be ‘helping customers to do business with their customers’. They must then understand the customer’s customer.”
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Trechos recortados da leitura de "Total Relationship Marketing" de Evert Gummesson

Hoje, em 216 a.c.

"Naquele 2 de Agosto de 216 a.C., os exércitos encontraram-se ao lado do rio Aufidus, perto da cidade de Canas. O romano, confiando na sua superioridade numérica, (Moi ici: O erro de quem acredita que o dinheiro ou a escala resolvem tudo) avançou sobre as linhas inimigas, ignorando as manobras tácticas cartaginesas. Agiu apenas com a força da infantaria, ao tentar derrubar, sem inteligência ou imaginação, (Moi ici: A incapacidade de calçar os sapatos do outro e ver o mundo pelo seu prisma é terrível) um adversário muito mais esperto e ágil. (Moi ici: A vantagem dos pequenos, o exemplo da Al Qaeda e do Hamas, flexibilidade e agilidade)

Na sua pior derrota até então, as tropas romanas foram massacradas. Segundo o historiador romano Tito Lívio, 50 mil soldados tombaram no campo de batalha, 19 mil foram feitos prisioneiros e 15 mil conseguiram fugir. O cônsul Lucius Aemilius Paulus e os ex-cônsules Marcus Atilius e Gnalus Servilius renderam-se e morreram, enquanto Caius Terentius Varro fugiu para Roma.

O destaque desta campanha vai para a genialidade de Aníbal que transformou a batalha de Canas numa obra-prima das tácticas de guerra. Obrigou o adversário a lutar simultaneamente em várias frentes e usou inteligentemente a sua cavalaria. A partir daí, a visão apenas frontal de um conflito armado caiu gradualmente em desuso (Moi ici: Quase como pensar na clássica relação de cliente-fornecedor e compará-la na visão de um mercado como uma configuração, como uma rede, como uma cadeia da procura... ) e a tropa montada ganhou mais importância."
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Basta recordar "Para quem se queixa da China... (parte III)" e pesquisar Canas neste blogue para perceber a importância desta batalha no meu imaginário, na minha visão do mundo.
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Trecho retirado daqui.

Não é armadilhar, é criar harmonia, é construir uma sinfonia...

Ao identificar os intervenientes num potencial mercado que queremos criar, temos de pensar na proposta de valor para os clientes directos, os distribuidores na figura...

também temos de pensar numa proposta de valor para os compradores (clientes dos clientes), numa proposta de valor para os utilizadores e outra, ainda, para os influenciadores.
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Ou seja, temos de criar um alinhamento, uma sinfonia de propostas de valor que crie um mercado em que todos tenham algo a ganhar. A esse conjunto de propostas de valor podemos chamar de... proposta de mercado para criar uma nova configuração do mercado.
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Pois é essa a proposta de Storbacka e Nenonen em "Scripting markets: From value propositions to market propositions" publicado por Industrial Marketing Management Volume 40, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 255-266. Um excelente artigo:
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"markets are socially constructed, subjective realities that can be altered by different actors in the market.
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economic action is embedded in networks of social relationships and that markets are socially constructed
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This paper builds on the foundational propositions of the S-D logic and takes as its starting point the following assumptions: (1) markets consist of networks of market actors, (2) markets are social constructions co-created by market actors, and (3) markets are resource integrators aiming at the co-creation of value.
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organizations “produce” the environments to which they respond, through their actions and selective attention, Brooks (1995) claim that “enacted markets” are outcomes of prior transactions between actors. Thus, the market is defined by the already established relationships and this “structure” form mental barriers against other perceptions of the market. (Moi ici: Esta a maior barreira que se pode enfrentar. A barreira criada pelo nosso próprio cérebro.)
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Market practices are defined as the interactions between market actors within a market configuration
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markets cannot be seen as given constructions where actors compete for positions. The focal actor can, hence, make subjective market definitions and attempt to influence other to share this definition (create a “shared social construction”), i.e. the actor engages in market making.
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Scripting markets – making market propositions
Market scripting can be defined as the conscious activities conducted by a market actor in order to alter the current market configuration in its favour. Central to market scripting is the subjective motive of the focal actor to align the mental models and business models of other market actors so that they reinforce the mental and business models of the scripting actor, and increase marketness. (Moi ici: Aqui entra a capacidade de calçar os sapatos do outro... algo de muito pouco português. É preciso ir para além do momento da troca entre cliente e fornecedor e visualizar a vida do cliente, e visualizar as experiências  que se podem influenciar nessa vida... é preciso pensar em Brandenburger e Nalebuff e nas relações ganhar-ganhar que se podem criar. Como criar um mercado em que todos os actores estão em sintonia com a nossa empresa?)
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The concept of market scripting asks for an enlargement of the idea proposed by Vargo and Lusch (2004), re-phrased as “the enterprise cannot deliver value, but only offer value propositions” in Vargo and Lusch (2008). As value is increasingly co-created in networks, in market practices participated by several actors, the argument could be that “the firm offers market propositions”, signifying that successful firms need to offer their view on how the market should be configured and engage actors in collective sensemaking activities aimed at creating a shared market view. (Moi ici: Isto é poesia... pura poesia)
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We define market propositions as resource integration promises: the scripting actor promises to enhance value creation for participating actors by creating a market configuration that makes increased density of resources and capabilities, and value co-creation possible.
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A key objective of configurations is to create harmony, consonance, or fit between configurative elements. Elements of a configuration interact if the value of one element depends on the presence of the other element; reinforce each other if the value of each element is increased by the presence of the other element; and are independent if the value of an element is independent of the presence of another element.
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Several different market configurations may be effective, as long as the elements reinforce each other in order to achieve a high degree of configurational fit, achieved when the resource and capability density maximizes the network’s aggregated value creation.
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markets develop and change by influencing market configurations
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firms are increasingly engaged in complex market configurations where the alignment of market views becomes central for success. Firms, hence, need to offer market propositions: offer their view on how the market should be configured and engage actors in activities aimed at creating a shared market view. Market propositions are in essence resource integration promises: the focal actor promises to enhance value creation for participating actors by creating a market configuration that makes increased density of resources and capabilities, and value co-creation possible. (Moi ici: Isto é jogar o jogo num novo nível... and I love this game)
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We labelled the practice of making market propositions market scripting, and defined it as the scripting actor’s activities aimed a altering an extant market configuration: to align the mental models and business models of other market actors so that they reinforce the mental and business models of the scripting actor, and increase marketness. Market scripting mechanisms are based on the performativity of all the configurative elements."
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É mesmo isto!!!
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Claro que nem todos os clientes, ou intervenientes a jusante poderão fazer parte do jogo, só os que estiverem preparados para alinhar porque vão ganhar.

Os mercados como configurações (parte IV)

Gerosky em "Thinking creatively about markets", publicado por International Journal of Industrial Organization 16 (1998) 677–695 (um artigo escrito em 1998 e... que continua actual).
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Um mercado não é algo inerente à natureza, não é algo intrínseco, é uma criação intelectual, é uma organização mental da actividade económica. Quando uma empresa define a natureza do seu mercado, influencia de forma poderosa a sua identidade, as suas capacidades o seu know-how. Por sua vez, a identidade de uma empresa, ajuda a focar as energias e recursos dos seus elementos proporcionando um sentido comum de propósito.
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Quando uma empresa dá o salto mental de "criar" o seu mercado, em vez de se posicionar num mercado que já existe, criado por outros (qual Bill Russell), pode criar as condições para destapar oportunidades de inovação estratégica.
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A redefinição de um mercado é, muitas vezes, a única forma de engenheirar com sucesso a entrada numa actividade bem protegida por barreiras à entrada ou à mobilidade.
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"The notion that there is a well-defined ‘market’ for any good or service is an artefact of the collective imagination of those interested in the buying and selling of that good or service. A market exists whenever someone can dream up a set of needs that can be profitably served through production and trade, and that means that markets exist only in the eyes of their beholders. Market boundaries are imaginary lines which we impose on reality, and we draw them to isolate certain kinds of activities from others in order to make sense and think creatively about what we observe. Where we draw the boundaries depends on why we are interested in doing so, and the first point that I have tried to make is that different users are almost certainly likely to draw different boundaries.
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that markets are places where economic activity occurs, and this means that identifying a market is about identifying a viable activity."
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"firms might try to identify a strategic market, defined as ‘ . . . the smallest area within which it is possible to be a viable competitor’. The two key features of this definition are ‘smallest’ and ‘viable’, and a useful way to see the power of the concept is to apply it to the vexed question of whether any particular market truly is global or not.
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‘Viable’ refers to profitability, and this means that it reflects both supply side factors and demand side influences. (Moi ici: Em especial para os jotinhas) On the one hand, a strictly national producer of a commodity whose production is subject to substantial economies of scale is always at risk of being undercut by a large sized foreign based competitor, and, therefore, it is unlikely that operating at a strictly national (or even at a subnational) scale will be viable. On the other hand, if the product is capable of being differentiated and niches of consumers who value certain variants of the product very highly exist, then a firm that serves these niches well can sacrifice the cost advantages of large scale operation without threatening its viability. In this case, it would be incorrect to assert that the ‘market’ in question was global, even if it were populated by global players. More generally, viability means that a strategic market must be built up around products or services which perform valued functions. This means matching technological capability to important user needs, and assembling a long enough list of people who have these needs to make serving them profitable.
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‘Smallest’ is important because it enables one to draw a strong line between strategic necessity and strategic options. When small, economically viable niches exist in a market otherwise characterized by substantial economies of scale and homogeneous demand, firms have a choice: they can occupy one of these niches or they can operate globally. The strategic market is not, in this case, the global market, since a viable smaller alternative exists. That is, a firm may choose to go global, but it need not necessarily do so." (Moi ici: E onde é que uma empresa portuguesa com cultura portuguesa pode dar cartas, sendo global e apostando na escala, ou sendo uma ocupante de nichos?)

Os mercados como configurações (parte III)

Continuado daqui.
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"Value sensing
As discussed previously, firms need an ability to generate a deeper understanding of the value creation potential in a selected market configuration; we call this value sensing. The value sensing capability can be seen as a representational practice: it is performative as it can be used to influence how other actors view the market and how they discuss the development and potential value of a particular market configuration.
Further research is needed in order to operationalize the different elements of value sensing. Flint et al. (2002) have investigated “customers” desired value changes’ and argue that firms may take a reactive (respond to changes as they occur) or proactive (influence customers by helping them to understand changes in the market) approach. They conclude: that “both positions require collection and analysis of data on changes in desired value with each influential member of the customer organizations” (p. 115).
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"Market scripting
Focal firms may need to develop capabilities for market scripting which can be defined as conscious activities conducted by a single market actor in order to alter the current market configuration. In practice, market actors can conduct market scripting by consciously changing their mental models and/or business models. Andersson et al. (2008) define scripting as processes through which a programme of action (or script) is devised for some entity in some envisaged situation (see Akrich and Latour, 1992). The concept of scripting bears similarities to structuration theory (Giddens, 1984), which suggests that active agents have the capacity to transform their setting through action. Thus, markets can said to be the result of both unguided performativity and conscious structuration.
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Central to market scripting is the subjective motive of the focal actor to align the mental models and business models of other market actors so that they support the mental and business models of the scripting actor. Actors need to offer their view on how the market should be configured (make “market propositions”), and engage actors in collective sensemaking activities aimed at creating a shared market view."
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"Defining markets as configurations influences the strategizing of actors. Strategy cannot be defined as a description of efforts of one actor to utilize the opportunities in its environment. Instead it should be viewed as the firm’s effort to influence the market configuration. The aim of strategy is not “winning” a zero-sum game, defined as a product market. Nor should the focus be on “competing”, but rather on how the firm can engage in “co-opetition” with other market actors (suppliers, customers, and partners) in order to improve the resource density of the market configuration and, hence, improve firm performance for several actors at the same time."
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Um excelente artigo ("Market as configurations") que sistematiza muita reflexão feita ao longo dos anos sobre a capacidade, ou a possibilidade de uma empresa criar o seu mercado, desenhar a sua cadeia da procura.
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Claro que isto é difícil... porque a maioria das empresas pensa na satisfação dos seus clientes e, por isso, são market-driven. Fora do comum é uma empresa equacionar toda a cadeia da procura... pensar nos seus clientes sim, mas também pensar nos clientes dos seus clientes até ao elo-final. E também pensar nos influenciadores. E criar uma melodia, um argumento, um somatório de propostas de valor que alinhe e sintonize todos. Ou seja, ser market driving!

Os mercados como configurações (parte II)

Continuado daqui.

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Trechos retirados de "Markets as configurations" de Kaj Storbacka e Suvi Nenonen, publicado pelo European Journal of Marketing Vol. 45 No. 172, 2011, pp. 221-258.

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Trechos que reforçam o ponto de vista de que o futuro pode ser construído, de que os mercados podem ser alterados.

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"Bounded by their rationality, organizations “produce” (Weick, 1995) or “fabricate” (Sarasvathy, 2008) the environments to which they respond through their actions and selective interest. Markets will be results of the managers’ learning based on their observation of the outcomes of their past market actions. Brooks (1995) claims that “enacted markets” are outcomes of prior transactions and interactions between the actors in the network. As markets are defined by the already established relationships, this “structure” forms mental barriers against other perceptions of the market. (Moi ici: Estas barreiras mentais, estes modelos mentais tanto existem nos que desesperam e não vêem alternativas, como nos académicos e políticos que aconselham "Imprimam-se bentos!") Mental models tend to constrict individuals from looking “outside the box”. Individuals (and as a consequence, market actors) become myopic: they do not see – nor accept – things outside the boundaries of their mental model.

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Performativity emerges as a central concept in illustrating how socially constructed market configurations are formed. The notion of performativity, i.e. that the expressed views (theories, social structures, etc.) of actors influence reality, ...

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The performativity of market actors’ mental models means that markets are performed when market actors introduce theories about the market and new boundary definitions. Focal actors need to influence other market actors in such a way that their subjective definition of a market configuration becomes a shared definition. (Moi ici: Uma das minhas funções é esta de facilitar a actuação dos "focal actors": como mudar a configuração de um mercado) A shared market definition is achieved through an oscillating process of interaction and dialogue between individuals – within and between the market actors.

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The market view proposed in this paper suggests that opportunities are not precursors of strategy; rather they are outcomes of deliberate efforts to influence market configurations (Sarasvathy, 2008). (Moi ici: As oportunidades não caem do céu, são criadas pelos "focal actors". Escrevo isto e recordo as palavras de um empresário que, perante uma análise SOWT, se interrogava sobre o que eram oportunidades e o que eram ameaças. Segundo ele, em função de um caminho ou outro que decidisse tomar, o mesmo factor podia nuns casos ser visto como uma oportunidade e noutros casos como uma ameaça.) As actors engage in activities to influence the market configuration, opportunities occur and actors need to be nimble at capturing the value from these. This indicates that the sustainability of competitive advantage – in its most traditional sense – is not that important as it is increasingly difficult to maintain a superior value proposition or competitive strategy for long periods of time.

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Actors can, however, find sustainable competitive advantage from their ability to influence and reconfigure the market configuration to fit their objectives."

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Continua.

Os mercados como configurações (parte I)

"Markets as configurations" de Kaj Storbacka e Suvi Nenonen, publicado pelo European Journal of Marketing Vol. 45 No. 172, 2011, pp. 221-258.
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É como voltar a um local onde se viveu na infância... ler um artigo que racionaliza, descreve, ilustra o que fizemos sem teoria de suporte, fizemos porque tinha de ser feito, fizemos porque não havia outra alternativa.
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Do abstract:
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"Markets can be viewed as configurations of market actors engaging in market practices. (Moi ici: Os mercados não se regem por leis imortais, imutáveis, talhadas na pedra. Os mercados não existem, emergem, vão emergindo da relação entre os intervenientes. Mentes conservadoras podem crer que os mercados são como os reagentes de uma reacção química e que o tempo não os influencia, por mais vezes que se repita a experiência. Tolos!!! Os mercados são seres vivos que aprendem e desaprendem não podendo ser encarcerados numa lógica newtoniana) Market configurations are perpetually dynamic as new actors enter the context, and as actors introduce ideas and business model elements to the network. As a result the configuration’s marketness evolves towards higher levels of configurational fit, resulting in increased value co-creation opportunities. An actor wanting to influence the market configuration can do so by working on its mental models and business models. (Moi ici: Claro que há uma via mais fácil, mais rápida e ... errada, como o demonstra a situação da libra e da economia inglesa: "Imprimam bentos!" Só que mudar modelos mentais e modelos de negócio não é fácil. É preciso ter coragem, coragem para abandonar a protecção da manada e a relação pedo-mafiosa com o Estado.)  The power of the actor’s mental and business models is mediated by the actor’s network position, its clout, and the fact that a change in any element evokes reactions from other actors. Actors need to develop new sets of market capabilities, such as value sensing, the ability to measure markets, price formation and pricing logics, and market scripting"
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"it is the customer who creates value and the goal of a provider is not so much to make or do something of value for the customer as it is to mobilize customers to create value for themselves ... a suggest that firms should be viewed as extensions of customer processes: “firms participate in customer practices, customers are not extensions of firm’s production processes”."  (Moi ici: Se isto não é uma mudança de paradigma para os economistas empedernidos... naufragados na concepção marxiana de que valor é trabalho incorporado...)
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"markets cannot be seen as given structures where actors simply compete for positions. Market actors will make subjective market definitions by identifying the relevant network(s) to participate in – both in terms of exploiting existing opportunities and exploring new ones. In a similar vein, Read et al. (2009) argues that in the traditional rational “text book” view opportunities are precursors of strategy: i.e. the firm adapts to the opportunities present in the environment. In an effectual view, opportunities are outcomes of deliberate efforts of the effectuators (market actors) to co-create their environment by attaining commitments from a network of partner, investor, and customer stakeholders (Sarasvathy, 2008). (Moi ici: Isto é bonito e profundo... e possível, co-criar um ambiente, terraformar um ecossistema, desenhar uma nova cadeia da procura, fugir da pedo-máfia e da impressão de bentos. Been there already, done that and proud of it!!!)
Effectual market actors will need new sets of capabilities and management practices to be able to co-create their market. We suggest that a way for market actors to deal with the subjectivity of markets is to conceptualize them as configurations, a construct similar to “business ecosystems”. Ecosystems are assumed to self-organize into a stable symmetry, or stasis. As an actor disrupts this symmetry (Moi ici: Como escreve Sarasvathy: "What matters is that entrepreneurs create variations. These variations are then subject to selection processes that determine what survives and what does not.") by introducing new ideas or new resources into the system, the system seeks to recover by aiming at a new stasis. Similarly, configurations are constellations of design elements that commonly occur together because their interdependence makes them fall into patterns."
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"“firms are not simply passive victims of their environment but strive to alter competitive market conditions in their favour”.
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Designing conscious activities by a market actor to alter the current market in its favour elevates a central research avenue: how can a market actor influence the market configuration.  (Moi ici: Por isto é que o equilíbrio em economia é uma treta. Sempre que um empreendedor puder introduzir variações...)
A market actor wanting to influence a market configuration can be labelled a “focal actor”, ... market networks can be described by starting from a focal actor and analyzing this actor’s relationships. A focal actor wanting to influence the market practices in a market configuration can do this by working on its mental  models and business models.  (Moi ici: Eu repito "by working on its mental model and business models". Não é através da impressão de bentos, ou de PINs, ou de corredores, carpetes e biombos do poder)
The mental models relate to how the focal actor views the relevant market, and they gain visible form as they are translated into different value-creating practices in the business model. The market practices are the results of the interaction between individual market actors’ business model elements. Market configurations are perpetually dynamic and developing as new actors enter the context, and as different market actors introduce new ideas and new business model elements in the network. This leads to a perpetual oscillation effect between the elements in the configuration: between the actor and the market practices. The power of the actor’s mental models and business models to influence a market configuration is mediated by the focal actor’s position in the network, its clout, and the fact that a change in any configurational element is likely to evoke a reaction from all actors wanting to shape the market in their favour."
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E como é que a sua empresa faz isto?

• "Perspectiva Clientes do BSC: partes interessadas?"
• "Orquestrar um enredo"
• "A evolução da ideia de mosaico estratégico (parte VI)"
• "Como é o ecossistema da sua organização?"
• "Alargar os horizontes"
• "Quem define a personalidade da cadeia de valor?"
• "Clientes-alvo e proposta de valor (parte II)"

Continua.