Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos (parte II)

E voltando a "Monetizing Innovation" e ao conselho "Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos":

"The Three Steps to Create Great Value Communications
Step 1: Develop Crystal-Clear Benefit Statements—Not Feature Descriptions
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A company that excels at value communications articulates its products' benefits in meaningful terms to customers. This is not about describing product features. A feature belongs to the product; a benefit belongs to the customer. Value is a measure of the benefit to the customer. Communicate benefits, not features. Take each feature and ask yourself this: What does the customer achieve because of this feature? If you are still unsure about how to phrase your product's benefits, probe your customers about their pain points and how your product would solve them.
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To be more specific, when you create a value message, you should determine the customer purchasing criteria and how your product or service might perform on those criteria compared to existing alternatives. Such information can be captured in a 2 x 2 matrix that we call the matrix of competitive advantages, or MOCA for short. (See Figure 10.4 for an example.) 

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The benefits your product delivers that are most important to customers and that competitors can't match (top right quadrant) are the ones to emphasize in your sales and marketing messages." 

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Qual o problema com este passo 1?

Lucro e preço

"Pricing plays a huge part in profit growth.[Moi ici: A essência do Evangelho do Valor]
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Fortunately, small to mid-size companies can maneuver their businesses into a profitable position by just following the fundamentals. You can start with these seven basic rules of a profitable pricing strategy.
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1. Avoid the Tired Cost-Plus Pricing Formula...
2. Understand and Leverage What Your Customers Value.
Your offering is not a commodity. It doesn’t matter what you sell. You should never believe it’s a commodity. If you do, your ability to sell on value is lost. Once that’s lost, your ability to turn a profit is also lost.
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Work with customers to determine why they choose to do business with your company.
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Once you can articulate and quantify value increases, you have a much stronger foundation for asking for a proportional price increase and defending your existing pricing in the face of competitive pressures.
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3. Implement Price Increases Slowly...
5. Segment Your Way to Pricing Success.
Your customers, product lines, and market areas are all different. They should have equally unique prices to achieve their maximum profitability.
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Some companies seeking simplicity within their pricing strategy apply a “peanut butter” approach. This applies the same pricing to all customers or all products. It’s easy, but it rarely works. Businesses often end up falling short of their margin potential by neglecting to set higher prices for some customers as well as losing customers who seek a lower price.
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Some companies customize pricing by customers but not by buying situations. This strategy still falls short, because every customer values every buying situation in a unique way.
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6. Discount Responsibly...
7. Analyze, Adjust, Repeat.
The best way to build a successful pricing strategy is to keep a close eye on it and its effects on margins. Then tweak prices as needed to increase success and profitability in the long run."

Trechos retirados de "7 Fundamental Rules of a Profitable Pricing Strategy"

"The story about your business is more important than the facts about your business"

"The story about your business is more important than the facts about your business. Sound outrageous? Maybe, but the brain research proves it’s true. People relate to and remember stories— even people who make a living analyzing facts.
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A POV [point of vue] tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It tells the world why this category and the company creating it are different. Different sticks. Different forces a choice between what was and what can be. A POV built around better is about comparing your offering to the thing customers already know. Better reinforces the power of the category king you’re trying to beat (who by definition is not you). If customers think two companies are tied in the better wars, they just choose the category king—or the lowest price if there’s no clear king. A great POV takes you outside the better wars and sets you in a different space all your own."

Recordar "Para reflexão"

Para reflexão

"we could claim that organizations don't create value for the customers but the way customers uses the product create value.
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It is the experience of use that it is decisive.
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When we're drinking wine it is not only the product, the wine that we're drinking, it's also the restaurant setting that we're in, it's also the story, or the origin story of the wine, it's the interaction with the waiter who is telling about the wine, or the somellier and you ask questions and value is created through that interaction.
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You're talking about complementarities to the bottle of wine ... each and every product should link to something that complements it ... experiences, stories."

Quando no passado dia 13 de Junho passeei pelo Porto, visitei a loja de "A Vida Portuguesa", repleta de turistas. Ao dar de caras com esta caixa de lápis:

Reconheci logo os lápis que eu usava em 1970 na minha primeira classe. Depois, recordei um ou outro desenho da altura que fiz... e senti criar-se uma ligação com a criança que fui. Então, pensei, o que é que esta caixa de lápis diz aos turistas? Nada!
Talvez se pudesse criar uma "complementaridade" começando por enquadrar os lápis e referir que se trata da última fábrica de lápis da Península Ibérica. O mesmo que o somellier conta acerca do vinho.

"One interesting factor in all of this is that networks and the focus in interactions, it is now more expensive to internalize thank link and network. Is that mean that buildind large companies doesn«t make sense anymore?" [Moi ici: Eheheh! Conseguem adivinhar a resposta de Esko Kilpi?]

Empresas grandes são boas a extrair valor, empresas pequenas são boas a criar valor. Extrair trata do denominador. Criação trata do numerador.
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Evoluir da transacção para a interacção.
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Perceber que o essencial são relações.


Trechos retirados de "Esko Kilpi and the value of wine and interaction"

Interacção e co-criação de valor

"Contemporary markets are increasingly interconnected, with actors no longer seen as part of linear value chains but existing in networks of service systems where interaction, collaboration and experience sharing take place. In such markets, traditional boundaries between the roles of “customer” and “provider” are losing clarity, highlighted by the emergence of concepts such as prosumers and post-consumers. Customers are not satisfied with the limited role of a buyer, receiver and user of a firm’s offering at the end of the value chain, but proactively engage in crafting the offering according to their personal needs and wants, and seek to also engage other stakeholders (such as other consumers, communities, firms or government organisations) in the service system to contribute their resources towards common aims."

Em sintonia com o ponto 4 e os exemplos de "Tantas lições para quem quer criar uma comunidade"



Trechos retirados de "Customer Engagement Behaviours and Value Co-creation" de Matthew Alexander & Elina Jaakkola

Originação de valor, o caminho

"Don’t treat a customer like a partner, and overinvest, if they simply want to transact [Moi ici: Os clientes não são todos iguais nem procuram todos o mesmo]
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While it’s true many businesses offer what some consider a commodity service or offering, you should never get trapped in a commodity mindset. You should always look for the little extra thing you do that makes your service worth the value. When people tell you someone down the street offers the same service for $5 less, advise them to go down the street because you’re never going to make that guy happy. You will never have a relationship with that customer.
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‘I can’t raise my prices, the bumpy economy has made it too competitive’
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You have to raise your value - or perceived value - so you can raise your price [Moi ici: Recordar "Aumentar preços, em vez do choradinho" e "Qual o cenário da sua empresa?"]

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Perceived value comes into play when you really understand your customers.
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If all you do is look at what competitors offer, you’ll keep trying to match your price to theirs. If instead you find out what your customers place value on, you may find that you perform value-added services—that your competitors do not—that actually increase the value of what you offer your customers."

Trechos retirados de "Stop Resisting And Develop A Strategy To Raise Your Prices & Increase Profit"

Caem na esparrela e não percebem

Se aparecesse uma afirmação de Belmiro de Azevedo ou de Américo Amorim a defender que a produtividade podia aumentar 300 milhões se os trabalhadores se empenhassem mais o que escreveriam os comentadores do DN?
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Até "espumavam"!
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No entanto, a coisa é dita por um estudo (aura de ciência, logo recuamos a pré-Heisenberg e associamos ciência a Lei, a Certeza!

"se todos os profissionais portugueses fossem felizes a produtividade seria superior em 300 milhões de euros." 

Pois eu digo: TRETA!
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Volto ao Evangelho do Valor e à equação:

O artigo "Produtividade sobe 300 milhões com mais felicidade" está ao nível do modelo mental da Sonae, o modelo mental do século XX. Como se aumenta a produtividade? Reduzindo o denominador! Ou com trabalhadores mais felizes ou mais controlados, ou mais rápidos, ou menos malandros!
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Eu digo: TRETA!
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O aumento da produtividade que este país precisa não é conseguido olhando para o denominador, (isso é "peaners")é conseguido abraçando o desafio de aumentar o valor, concentrando a atenção no numerador.

Acerca do Valor

Ao ler "The strategy map: guide to aligning intangible assets" de Kaplan e Norton e publicado na Strategy & Leadership, 2004, Vol. 32 Iss: 5 pp. 10 - 17.
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Fiquei a matutar nestes trechos:

"Creating value from intangible assets follows four principles
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(1) Value creation is indirect - improvements in intangible assets affect financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.
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(2) Value is contextual - the value of an intangible asset depends on its alignment with the strategy. For example, training employees in TQM and six sigma techniques has greater value for organizations following a low total cost strategy than for one following a product leadership and innovation strategy.
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(3) Value is potential - intangible assets, like employees trained in statistical quality control and root cause analysis, have potential value but not market value. Internal processes such as design, production, delivery, and customer service are required to transform the potential value of intangible assets into tangible value. If the internal processes are not directed at the customer value proposition or financial improvements, then the potential value of employee capabilities, and intangible assets in general, will not be realized.
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(4) Assets are bundled - the value from intangible assets arises when they are combined effectively with other assets, both tangible and intangible. ... Maximum value is created when all the organization's intangible assets are aligned with each other, with the organization's tangible assets, and with the strategy." 

Há aqui material que a service dominant logic agarraria anos depois. Por exemplo, recordar daqui:

"to adopt the view of not what resources are, but rather what they become. [Moi ici: O mesmo que escrever "Value is potential"] This is the essential nature of resources, and so we define them as anything, tangible or intangible, internal or external, operand or operant, that the actor can draw on for increased viability."

Relacionar "Value is contextual" com:

• "Transactions are replaced by interactions because contextual value creation cannot take place without interaction;" (aqui) 
• "Value is highly contextual." (aqui)

Interessante como Kaplan e Norton andavam à frente de muita gente que já então escrevia sobre valor.

Acerca da criação de valor

"Value Creation is less about products and solutions, and more about customer centricity, customer experience, people, and relationships.
Value Creation is not about a specific business case — our value propositions may focus on a specific decision and business case for our solutions.  Value Creation is about how we sustain value over the life-cycle of our relationship with the customer.
Value Creation is not about a transaction—but about 100’s and 1000’s of interactions that create meaning for our customers—as enterprises and individuals.
Value Creation can never be reduced to price—but it’s about the importance–or value–we bring in a long term relationship.  It becomes inconceivable to all parties not to have this relationship—the costs are too high."

Trechos retirados de "Your Value Proposition Is No Longer Sufficient"

É isto que os humanos têm de procurar em Mongo!

É isto que os humanos têm de procurar em Mongo!

There is going to be two kinds of value: emergent value created in interaction by human beings and algorithmic value created by machines

— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) April 11, 2016

Non-algorithmic! Created in complex, context specific interaction, meaning that it is not repeatable, perhaps? :-) https://t.co/lankt62mQY

— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) April 11, 2016

"The strategic logic is temporal rather than spatial. When following a spatial metaphor, there is a territory that can be explored and understood by the leaders, but in the temporal logic the territory is seen as being under continuous development and formation by the exploration itself. “It is impossible to map an area that changes with every step the explorer takes.”
People inhabit a complex world of emergence, uncertainty and continuous change. Corporate life is improvising and learning together. It is an ongoing continuous exploration, a movement that is open-ended and always incomplete."

Trecho retirado de "Network leadership"

Efeitos de 2ª ordem

Há dias em "Pricing man (parte VI)" sublinhei:

"value is often inextricably linked to outcomes which managers fail to truly understand and quantify: second-order effects and intangible benefits"

Num comentário, o Paulo Peres pergunta-me a minha opinião sobre o sentido daqueles "second-order effects".
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O fabricante "clássico" normalmente concentra-se nas especificações, nos atributos que pode controlar.
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Entretanto, neste artigo "Value Definitions and Consumer Consciousness" encontro uma boa contribuição para o tema:

"The principal difference between the atomistic and phenomenological philosophical assumptions is that in the former, value sits in the ‘noun’ to be subjectively perceived and consumed; in the latter, it sits in the ‘verbs’ to be enacted and practiced in use. The implication of an atomistic assumption is that it may underestimate the actions, practices and interactions that create the experience of an offerings use in context.
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in utility theory, like perceived satisfaction literature, an exchange is considered successful when the ‘utility’ received is that which has been stipulated as the terms of the exchange. Therefore, satisfaction is relative to what was defined at purchase. This implicitly assumes that what represents value in the context of a purchase is the same value in the context of consumption i.e. the offering generates the same utility in both time-space contexts. The limitation of this assumption is that it does not recognize the phenomenological nature of value at consumption and that value could change if the context of consumption changes. This implies that satisfaction in use may not be the same as what was expected at purchase because the customer’s context, agency and resources have changed, despite the offering being ‘delivered’ exactly as promised at purchase."

As especificações, os atributos, são o que o fabricante controla, são a 1ª ordem. O que o fabricante não controla é o que o cliente pretende conseguir, sentir, experienciar com a integração dos recursos na sua vida.
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A integração dos recursos gera efeitos de 2ª ordem na vida dos clientes. Porque comprou a matéria-prima aquele fornecedor, a maior densidade permitiu maior produtividade, traduzida em mais metros por unidade de tempo, traduzida em menores custos, traduzida em maior margem ou preço mais baixo sem perder margem - mais competitividade. O que é que o fornecedor faz, domina? A densidade. O que é que o cliente consegue? Preço mais competitivo sem perder nível de margem, ou seja, mais quota de mercado! Por exemplo.

Uma certa preguiça

As empresas grandes são as mais lentas a perceber Mongo, são as mais lentas a abandonar as velhas práticas do Normalistão, são as mais lentas a tentar perceber o que é valor para os clientes.
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A 10 de Abril de 2014 animei uma conversa entre agentes de um sector que então vivia uma crise profunda. No sentido de esvaziar previamente a deriva para o preço apresentei vários exemplos portugueses de durante os anos de chumbo da troika:

"Depois da Bimby, depois dos smartphones, depois das cápsulas de café, depois de vendidos 65 mil bilhetes para os Rolling Stones em menos de 48 horas, mais um exemplo para fazer pensar quem acredita que a única variável que atrai os consumidores é o preço mais baixo:
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"A Tupperware Portugal foi nomeada Country of the Year, pelo seu desempenho no ano de 2013 em que conseguiu um crescimento de dois dígitos pelo segundo ano consecutivo."

Por isso, sempre que vejo empresas com marca própria a apostarem nos descontos para vender, penso no "volume is vanity, profit is sanity" e penso que alguém está a ser preguiçoso, que alguém desistiu de tentar seduzir os clientes, proporcionando-lhes mais valor potencial, e optou pela receita do curto prazo, o desconto.
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O pior é quando o desconto, além de roubar contribuição, além de diminuir o lucro, canibaliza as vendas naturais, ou seja, nem acrescenta vendas novas:

"Na prática, "as famílias aproveitam as promoções para o que precisam, otimizando as compras sem necessariamente comprar mais em resultado das promoções".
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Os números não enganam. Numa análise aos fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG ) sem frescos, em que se retira o valor das promoções, a Kantar conclui que o valor real do mercado está a cair globalmente (-2,6%) até outubro. E se analisarmos os efeitos das promoções para um conjunto de 154 marcas FMCG, a Kantar conclui que apenas 50% conseguem crescer em volume. O que aconteceu é que "a venda incremental (gerada pela promoção adicional às vendas) deixou de existir e começou-se a "comer" a venda-base, estivéssemos ou não em promoção",
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"as promoções assentam essencialmente em produtos de marca e não de marca branca", razão por que em crise os produtos de marca branca tenham perdido quota.
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"O natural é que o produto mais barato fosse o da marca branca, mas já não é." É certo que as promoções fizeram com que muitas pessoas regressassem ao consumo da marca de fabricante, mas as coisas complicam-se se a promoção é levada a volumes mínimos críticos, abaixo dos quais a viabilidade do produto deixa de existir"."[Moi ici: Quando a distribuição grande tem tanto poder sobre as marcas que fazem parte da Centromarca, quer dizer que estas não têm trabalhado a sua relação com os clientes dos donos das prateleiras. Os consumidores são os únicos capazes de vergar, de mandar nos poderosos donos das prateleiras. E os consumidores estão disponíveis para serem surpreendidos, para serem seduzidos por produtos inovadores, por ofertas com mais valor potencial, basta ver os exemplos acima. Receio que muitas empresas FMCG apostem mais no curto-prazo, e ainda continuem fieis aos modelos do Normalistão.]

Trechos retirados de "Retalho. Quase metade das vendas já são feitas com descontos"

Pricing man (parte V) - muito sumo

"People have asked me thousands of times to name the most important aspect of pricing. I answer with one word: “value.”
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When asked to elaborate, I will use the term “value to customer.” The price a customer is willing to pay, and therefore the price a company can achieve, is always a reflection of the perceived value of the product or service in the customer’s eyes.  If the customer perceives a higher value, his or her willingness to pay rises. The converse is equally true: if the customer perceives a lower value relative to competitive products, willingness to pay drops.
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“Perceive” is the operative word. When a company tries to figure out the price it can achieve, only the subjective (perceived) value of the customer matters. The objective value of the product or other measures of value, such as the Marxian theory that value is defined by the human labor time invested, do not matter intrinsically.  They matter only to the degree that the customer thinks they matter and is willing to a pay a price in return.[Moi ici: Em Portugal ainda há muitos marxianistas, sobretudo empresários... mesmo quando são politicamente mais de direita]
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The Romans understood this connection so well that they incorporated it into their language. In Latin the word “pretium” means both price and value. Literally speaking, price and value are one and the same. This is a good guideline for businesses to follow when they make their price decisions. It leaves managers with three tasks:
– Create value : The quality of materials, performance, and design all drive the perceived value of customers. This is also where innovation comes into play.
– Communicate value : This is how you influence customers’ perception. It includes how you describe the product, your selling proposition, and last but not least the brand . Value communication also covers packaging, product performance, and shelf or online placement.
– Retain value: What happens post-purchase is decisive in shaping a lasting, positive perception. Expectations about how the value lasts will have a decisive influence on a customer’s willingness to pay for luxury goods, consumer durables, and cars. [Moi ici: Algo na linha de J. C: Larreché que referi aqui]
The process of price setting begins at the conception of the product idea. A company must think about prices as early and often as possible in the development process, not just after a product is ready to launch."

Trechos retirados de "Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything"

Muito mais do que valor financeiro (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Por vezes, à noite, entretenho-me a ver no canal História um programa que julgo que se chama "O Preço da História", acerca do que aparece numa loja de penhores em Las Vegas.
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Frequentemente aparecem artigos invulgares que requerem que a loja chame um especialista para avaliar o seu preço de mercado. Recentemente, apareceu alguém com um blusão de aviador da força aérea americana da II Segunda Guerra Mundial. O especialista comprovou a sua autenticidade, avaliou o seu preço de mercado e, no fim rematou algo como:
- Assim, vale $X. Se arranjar a estória que está por trás dele, quem o usou, onde o usou e como chegou até à actualidade consegue que ele se valorize para $1,5X.
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No mesmo canal há um outro programa sobre "gente do ferro-velho", dois "arqueólogos" da modernidade percorrem a América rural em busca de itens que possam comprar para, depois, venderem na sua loja e a coleccionadores. Muitas vezes, apanham uma carcaça metálica semi-enterrada, e que quase já desistiu de lutar conta a corrosão e gritam que pertence a uma qualquer moto do início do século XX e que é um exemplo do que chamam de "Americana" e são capazes de pagar pequenas fortunas por causa da mística, por causa das estórias.

Valor é muito mais do que simplesmente o arranjo de átomos de uma certa maneira:

"All of the products and services around us are examples, and it is the information embedded in these products and services that gives them their value.For example, Hidalgo notes that a Bugatti Veyron sports car sells for $2.5m. He then conducts a thought experiment, asking the value if one drove it into a wall — presumably less. Yet all of the atoms in the car would still be there (assuming one kept the broken bits). What has changed is the order or arrangement of the atoms in the car. That order reflects the information embedded in the product, which in turn reflects the knowledge and know-how of its designers and manufacturers. One can think of “knowledge” as information that is useful to humans — when it is embedded in a product, it enables that product to do useful things."[Moi ici: A informação que refiro nesta série é outra, é a que permite sensoriar experiências e mudar pessoas]

Trevho retirado de "‘Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies’, by César Hidalgo"
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Muito mais do que valor financeiro (parte II)

Parte I.
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O tema desenvolvido na parte I, relativamente ao valor na relação B2C insere-se no tema deste postal "No Dearth of Pricing Experiments". Nele, Rags segue uma linha muito semelhante à por nós seguida há uns meses em "Consequências da radioclubização ou os muggles à solta":

"Their assumption, which seem to be taken almost axiomatically is,
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“Customers want to know the costs of products they buy”.
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So they show their detailed costs breakdown, their overheads and margins. Have we seen this before? Yes, in the extreme form of cost based pricing I illustrated a few years ago,
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The simplest counter argument that negates their premise is that customers do not buy product to offset our costs. They have a need to fill or a job to be done. They hire the right product that will get the job done under constraints. Our costs are just that, our costs. Not a concern for our customers.
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Pricing is about getting your fair share of value you create for your customers. As a online retailer Everlane seems unclear what unique value it creates for its customers. So it is hoping customers will gladly pay to offset its costs and cover its margin.
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Wrong and futile!"

Muito mais do que valor financeiro

O @pauloperes via Twitter enviou-me esta foto (os sublinhados a amarelo são meus):

Estou tentado a concordar com o que leio com uma condição, que aqueles "customers" não sejam traduzidos por "consumidores".
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B2B é um bicho bem diferente do B2C ou do B2B2C!
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Se o negócio é B2B acredito que se aplica o que está sublinhado na figura. E, por isso, faz todo o sentido evoluir para um value-based pricing que considere todo o ciclo de vida do produto nas mãos do cliente. Por exemplo, o fabricante de polímero que vende o seu material mais caro por demonstra ao cliente que ele produzirá mais por unidade de tempo. Por exemplo, o fabricante de máquina de espuma que vende a sua máquina mais cara porque demonstra ao cliente que produzirá mais espuma e com menos desperdício por unidade de tempo.
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Se o negócio é B2B2C vai depender. Quem é que a empresa do primeiro B eleje como aquele para quem realmente trabalha? Vimos recentemente aqui o caso da Raporal. A empresa, sem marca própria na qual aposte a sério, elejeu o segundo B como o vector, já a Purdue elejeu o C da relação como o seu vector principal. Quando se eleje como vector o outro B as hipóteses de value based pricing são poucas ou nenhumas porque se concentram na cadeia logística. Quando se eleje como vector o C, as hipóteses de value based pricing crescem muito porque, usando a linguagem de J. C. Larreche, já não estamos a trabalhar só ao nível da captura de valor, estamos a trabalhar também ao nível da originação de valor!!!

Se o negócio é B2C vai depender do posicionamento da empresa. No caso do B2C como interpretar a frase traduzida:

"Diminuir os custos totais dos consumidores e/ou aumentar as suas receitas e você aumentar seus lucros."

Agora, imaginar um consumidor a preferir um iphone a um HTC... conheço um HTC-fan que é capaz de demonstrar tecnicamente a superioridade de um HTC apesar do preço inferior face a um iphone... mas é de atributos técnicos que estamos a falar no reino do B2C ou de magia?

Se o negócio é preço, então, para mim como consumidor, prefiro comprar couve romanesca no Lidl a 1,59/kg do que no Pingo Doce a 1,99/kg.
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No entanto, se o negócio não é preço, então, é um desperdício de oportunidade e um erro pensar como um muggle e não perceber que o consumidor quer mais do que a coisa, quer a experiência que a coisa permite sensoriar. É claro que se pode ir buscar uma bicicleta à Sport Zone por um bom preço e pagar a um técnico para a afinar e fazer alguma customização adicional mas não é a mesma coisa que ir arranjar uma bicicleta à megastore do mercado de Matosinhos que tenha passado pelas mãos dos duendes.

Continua.

Valor e marxianismo

"For hundreds of years, many economists believed that the value of a good depended on the cost of producing it. In particular, many subscribed to the labor theory of value, which argued that a good’s value derived from the amount of work that went into making it.
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Much like the geocentric view of the universe, the labor theory of value had some superficial plausibility, as it does often seem that goods that involve more labor have more value. However, much like the story in astronomy, the theory got increasingly complicated as it tried to explain away some obvious objections.
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Today, the labor theory of value has only a minuscule number of adherents among professional economists, but it remains all too common in other academic disciplines when they discuss economic issues, as well as among the general public.
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value is subjective. That is, the value of a good is not determined by the physical inputs, including labor, that helped to create it. Instead, the value of a good emerges from human perceptions of its usefulness for the particular ends that people had at a particular point in time. Value is not something objective and transcendent. It is a function of the role that an object plays as a means toward the ends that are part of human purposes and plans."

Trecho retirado de "We're Still Haunted by the Labor Theory of Value"

O foco!

Coincidência?
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Não há coincidências, todos os acasos são significativos!
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Ontem comentei com espanto em "Comprar volume de vendas" a motivação por trás da aquisição da SaabMiller perguntando onde pára a criação de riqueza.
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Depois, durante o dia, em mais uma viagem de comboio li "Seven Leadership Keys To Resolving Mission Impossible":

"shareholder value theory has induced CEOs to focus on increasing the share price without doing the hard work of improving real performance in terms of creating value for customers.
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“managing the stock market”, instead of “managing the real market in which factories are built, products are designed and produced, real products and services are bought and sold, revenues are earned, expenses are paid, and real dollars of profit show up on the bottom line.”
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The real world consequences of corporations focusing on maximizing shareholder value as reflected in the stock price have now become clear: cost cutting, staff reductions, squeezed operations, lower investment and R&D, reduced benefits and pensions for employees, mindless mergers, closed factories, off-shoring, increased debt, reduced ability to compete, declining rates of return on assets, excessive financialization of the economy, and ultimately secular economic stagnation.
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“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value,” ... “In other words, we must turn our attention back to the real market and away from the expectations market.
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the purpose of a firm is to create a customer, then the success of the firm must be framed in terms of achieving that purpose. Shareholder value is a result, not the goal of the firm."

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A propósito de "Why Anheuser-Busch InBev Needs SABMiller to Keep Growing":

"“They are incredibly good at running efficient operations, but they have always struggled to demonstrate growth in the businesses they buy. So, inevitably, when the growth starts to wane, they have to look at another target … and thus the need to constantly acquire.”
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“They own hundreds of brands globally, but they don’t own some of these cooler, micro-brewed/craft beers that are becoming popular in the U.S., here in the U.K. and across Europe,” he added. “The Bud Lights of the world are out of favor with consumers who are developing more nuanced palates Twitter .” Anheuser-Busch InBev’s efforts to introduce its own craft beer brands like Bud Lime have yielded limited gains."

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Acerca da criação de valor

"Value is created by the buyer not the seller.
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If buyers rely on their own experiences, then how can any salesperson create value?
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What top sales performers do, almost instinctively, is they connect to the value drivers (some of which may have been un-articulated) of their ideal customers.
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By believing in value creation by salespeople may lead those hungry salespeople down the wrong path especially for small businesses where their sales team is also their marketing team.  Possibly the best lesson from this marketing and consequently sales research is to just listen to what is being said instead of presuming you as the salesperson already know what your sales prospect needs or wants."

Conhece os value drivers dos seus clientes-alvo?
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E sabe quem são os seus clientes-alvo?
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Qual é a sua proposta de valor para eles?
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Trechos retirados de "Value Creation – The Truth Leaks Out"