Uma novela sobre Mongo (parte XII)

 Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV, parte V, parte VI, parte VII, parte VIII, parte IX, parte X. e parte XI.

Segue-se outra previsão, de "The Great Fragmentation : why the future of business is small" de Steve Sammartino, que vem ao encontro do que escrevemos aqui no blogue há muitos anos acerca dos prosumers e da tendência para empresas mais pequenas:

"The laptop corporation.
The story of access isn’t limited to production and digital services. This is true for all the major elements that go into the business marketing mix. We also have access to new ways of raising finance, … And we have access to an audience, ... A more accurate and wider view is that we’re all laptop corporations if we want to be. If anyone has access to an entry-level, $500 device and an internet connection, they also have access to a media production facility, a media distribution facility, low-cost labour markets, the world’s manufacturing districts, global banking and payment systems, and even bespoke capital-raising techniques from crowdfunding websites. In real terms, anyone with access to the network has access to all of the important factors of production.
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Access to technology and information creates access to an everything state.
Information not only changes what we can know and what we can do, it changes where we’ll get it. We’re entering the age of the infinite store, where you, I and everyone else can retail.
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What it means for business
Everything a company can do, a person can do now too. Having a large corporate infrastructure is no longer an advantage."

Uma grande vénia ao recentemente falecido Alvin Toffler que escreveu sobre as electronic cottages do futuro no distante ano de 1980:

O meu exemplar, herdado de casa dos meus pais.

Uma novela sobre Mongo (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

I understand and is noble
But is so XXth Century thinking https://t.co/89xwQhDJRx

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) December 9, 2016

Porque Mongo é tão estranho e mete medo a muita gente:

"the ability to create products that enable us to own the tools is where the economy is headed.
It’s what technology wants. It fragments down to the micro level and becomes personal. The job of the corporate hero of tomorrow is to provide a platform for customer independence.
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The reason why it’s hard for companies to cope with this shift to micro businesses, is that it’s a multi-generational shift. Given that the dawn of the industrial revolution was in the late 1700s, and if we use 30 as an average age for a new parent (it used to be much lower), we’re living through a nine-times generational shift in lifestyle and economic understanding. This is a significant amount of indoctrination handed down from parents and employers of how things should be done and what works in this world. It’s pretty hard to unlearn all of this, especially when most of it has been proven empirically. [Moi ici: O modelo do emprego do século XX não é necessariamente a última Coca-Cola no meio do deserto, foi uma criação bem sucedida e ajustada a um certo tempo e desenvolvimento técnico-cultural. Muito provavelmente dará lugar a modelos mais assentes no empreendedorismo.]
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The problem is that our business environment is changing quickly and the habits of large organisations are not [Moi ici: E não são só elas, é também o Estado habituado a esse modelo e todas as suas funções que dele dependem. Imaginem o impacte de algo deste tipo nas escolas, por exemplo, sem a protecção do Estado]. They prefer all replacement staff to have the same industry experience, the same education, the same previous job title, the same customer experience, and experience in the same channels of distribution, which is essentially a risk-reduction strategy for the hiring manager if things turn out badly rather than a growth strategy for the organisation. It’s not surprising, given that the primary role in large organisations is to protect against the financial downside rather than chase a revenue upside. This course of action works as long as the business and technology environments remain stable. The problem is that our business environment is changing quickly and the habits of large organisations are not."

Trechos retirados de "The Great Fragmentation : why the future of business is small" de Steve Sammartino.

Acerca de Mongo

I wonder how long it takes to understand that individuals now have industrial power

— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) March 19, 2016

O que é isto senão uma demonstração daquilo a que chamamos aqui de Mongo?

"In a 2002 interview Peter Drucker said, “In the Industrial Age, only industry was in a position to raise capital, manufacture, ship and communicate at scale, across the world. Individuals did not have that power. Now, with the Internet, they do.”"

Trecho retirado de "Giving Customers Scale"

Outro sintoma do futuro em Mongo

Quando escrevo sobre o futuro do mundo económico para onde caminhamos, uso a metáfora de Mongo, ou do Estranhistão.
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Em Mongo falo do triunfo das PME, dos prosumers, da democratização da produção, do regresso dos alfaiates e modistas, o regresso dos artesãos. Por isso, foi com muito gosto que encontrei e li este texto "How 3-D Printing Is Saving the Italian Artisan":

"Italy’s craftsmen have been undermined by competition from China and other parts of Asia. [Moi ici: Recordar Manzano]
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Techniques such as the 3D printing used by Pomini and Armani have helped turn northeastern Italy into an unlikely hothouse of innovation. Last year growth in the region was positive for the first time since 2007, at 0.5 percent. Exports rose by 3.5 percent in 2014 and are expected to keep climbing.
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the use of 3D printing and other similar technologies has the potential to boost revenue at Italy’s small-scale manufacturers by 15 percent, or at least €16 billion ($17.8billion). At their best, these technologies inject elements of the digital economy into the physical world, allowing a galaxy of small companies to compete with multinationals, [Moi ici: Lembram-se do óbvio de que ninguém fala?] in much the same way homemade YouTube videos hold their own against traditional video production. The advent of rapid prototyping and other innovations means “you can compensate for your disadvantages with variety, customization, and a rapid response to what the market is demanding,”
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New production processes are not the only technologies leveling the playing field for Italy’s small-scale producers. The connecting power of the Internet opens the possibility for small manufacturers to rapidly find new markets, even as Italian demand remains low."

A marca do século XXI

Tantas ideias que tenho em mente para este postal que, sem disciplina, daria para um longo capítulo de um livro sobre Mongo.

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O material começou a ser recolhido na passada quinta-feira, durante uma viagem de comboio ao princípio da noite, com a leitura de "Protecting IP from 3D Printing: What Companies Need to Know".

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O autor parte do exemplo de como a indústria musical não se soube proteger do digital, para dar conselhos às empresas grandes sobre como protegerem a sua propriedade intelectual, num mundo em que os bits comandam a adição de átomos, através das impressoras 3D.

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Quando li o texto no Cabinet, escrevi:

Então, perante o advento das impressoras 3D em cada casa, em cada bairro, em cada Staples, em cada Worten, o autor só pensa em copiar, só pensa que as pessoas vão copiar!?!?!?! Come on! Copiar é burrice, a produção numa impressora 3D é mais cara que a produção em massa.

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Depois, sexta ao fim da tarde, no Twitter, descobri este gráfico:

Em 1875 existiam nos Estado Unidos mais de 3500 produtores independentes de cerveja. Depois, o comboio, a Revolução Industrial, a produção em massa, o marketing de massas, e a consolidação eficientista começaram a concentrar a produção em cada vez menos produtores, cada vez maiores e mais eficientes. Então, o presidente James Carter, nos anos 70 do século passado, publica uma lei que liberaliza a produção, permitindo que pequenas unidades independentes possam produzir e comercializar cerveja. E foi um Big Bang!!! 

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Agora, em 2015, o número de produtores de cerveja volta ao nível de 1875 e os produtores independentes já representam 11% do mercado.

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Apesar do poder do marketing, apesar da eficiência, cada vez mais gente opta por beber cerveja artesanal. E a cerveja artesanal, copia os sabores dos produtores grandes?

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Não! A sua força está na variedade, na experimentação, no sabor.

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Ainda ontem à tarde, durante uma caminhada, encontrei este artigo sobre as impressoras 3D em África, "The 3D printing revolution":

"In February, a young Togolese entrepreneur, Afate Gnikou, stunned the world by winning first prize at the 10th International Conference of Barcelona’s Fabrication Laboratory. The winning technology was a 3D printer. The design did not come from one of Africa’s top universities or research institutes. Gnikou and his team assembled their prize-winning printer from electronic waste collected in dumpsites around the Togolese capital of Lomé.
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The technology turns traditional manufacturing upside down. Instead of centres of mass production, it makes possible decentralised production by the masses.[Moi ici: Voltar atrás e reler este parágrafo]
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The potential for printing other household products is only limited by people’s imagination and the size of the printer.
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The power of 3D printing lies in tapping into local needs and inspiring creativity. It does not require formal structures to do this, and everyone can participate in the technology. For example, 3D printing can enable rural women to rapidly prototype agricultural tools adapted to their culture, cropping systems and environments."

Em "We Are All Weird - Um manifesto sobre Mongo" sublinho, com as palavras de Seth Godin, algo que escapa a muita gente.:

"The mass market — which made average products for average people  was invented by organizations that needed to keep their factories and systems running efficiently.
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Stop for a second and think about the backwards nature of that sentence.
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The factory came first. It led to the mass market. Not the other way around."

Com as impressoras 3D, com a cultura DIY, com a IoT ou IoE, com a democratização da produção, com a criatividade em acção, por que haverão as pessoas de copiar o que as empresas grandes vão oferecer? Os prosumers vão ignorar a oferta da massa, como os consumidores de cerveja artesanal fogem do "lowest common denominator"
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Esta é a revolução que vai marcar o século XXI, o fim da massa:

"mass market. About mass politics, mass production, mass retailing, and even mass education.
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The defining idea of the twentieth century, more than any other, was mass.
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Mass gave us efficiency and productivity,
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And now mass is dying.
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We see it fighting back, clawing to control conversations and commerce and politics. But it will fail; it must. The tide has turned, and mass as the engine of our culture is gone forever."

Não vai ser fácil, muita gente que trabalha no mercado de massas, que vive do mercado de massas, que imposta o mercado de massas, vai rebelar-se contra a possibilidade de uma liberalização económica anárquica, local, relacional, co-criativa.
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Seria interessante ter um POTUS libertário... nesta altura chave do processo.

Mongo e os marxistas

Em Portugal a esquerda marxista mais participativa nas redes sociais ainda está agarrada ao modelo do século XX, aos exércitos de operários, (normalmente traduzida num desprezo pelos empreendedores, startups e micro-empresas) e à versão moderna da maquinaria, a automatização.
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Interessante este texto marxista sobre Mongo, "Peer-to-peer production and the coming of the commons":

"We are witnessing the emergence of a new ‘proto’ mode of production based on distributed, collaborative forms of organisation.
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One way to describe the changes now taking place is as a shift away from a context in which the technological and economic advantage lies with economies of scale and mass production that depend on cheap global transportation and, thus, the continuous availability of fossil fuels. The move is to ‘economies of scope’, where bringing down the cost of common infrastructure for networked enterprises brings competitive advantages.[Moi ici: Claro que ainda se focam muito nos custos, ainda não chegaram à paixão e ás tribos]
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This new emerging modality tends to out-cooperate and out-compete classic modes of capitalist production. This is because of its higher innovation potential (there is no privatisation of innovation); the ability for distributed parallel development on a global scale without the use of costly bureaucracies of control (as with Wikipedia, every module can be worked on separately, by any contributor with the necessary skills); and the much cheaper production costs due to price structures free of the rent of ‘intellectual property’ (IP). Where these new forms occur – in knowledge production, free software production and now emerging in physical production – they tend to displace proprietary and IP-based modes.
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We regard this as the peer production equivalent of the invention of the assembly line by Henry Ford. It inserts the rapid production methodologies that have proven themselves in open source software production (such as ‘extreme programming’) into the world of machine design, and links it directly to microfactories and distributed enterprise."

Claro que hão-de descobrir que os grandes inimigos de Mongo são os incumbentes que tratam da oferta no mercado e os que vivem da impostagem que se extrai dos actuais laços de produção, emprego e consumo.

"From Mass Production to Production By the Masses" (parte I)

No capítulo VI, "3D Printing - From Mass Production to Production By the Masses", do livro "The Zero Marginal Cost Society" de Jeremy Rifkin, encontro muito do que tenho escrito ao longo dos anos neste blogue acerca de Mongo:

"The long-dominant manufacturing mode of the Second Industrial Revolution is likely going to give way, however, at least in part, over the coming three decades.
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The consumer is beginning to give way to the prosumer as increasing numbers of people become both the producer and consumer of their own products.
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First, there is little human involvement aside from creating the software. The software does all the work, which is why it's more appropriate to think of the process as "infofacture" rather than "manufacture." [Moi ici: Coloco este trecho final só para sublinhar que este capítulo está todo virado para o Mongo tecnológico, o Mongo da produção 3D]
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A 3D PRINTING PROCESS EMBEDDED in an Internet of Things infrastructure means that virtually anyone in the world can become a prosumer, producing his or her own products for use or sharing, employing open-source software. The production process itself uses one-tenth of the material of conventional manufacturing and requires very little human labor in the making of the product. The energy used in the production is generated from renewable energy harvested on-site or locally, at near zero marginal cost. The product is marketed on global marketing websites, again at near zero marginal cost. Lastly, the product is delivered to users in e-mobility transport powered by locally generated renewable energy, again at near zero marginal cost.
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The democratization of manufacturing means that anyone and eventually everyone can access the means of production, making the question of should own and control the means of production irrelevant, and capitalism along with it.
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The democratization of production fundamentally disrupts the centralized manufacturing practices of the vertically integrated Second Industrial Revolution.
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But underneath the surface, an even more radical agenda is beginning to unfold, albeit undeveloped and still largely unconscious. If we were to put all the disparate pieces of the 3D printing culture together, what we begin to see is a powerful new narrative arising that could change the way civilization is organized in the twenty-first century. Think about it. The DIY culture is growing around the world, empowered by the idea of using bits to arrange atoms. [Moi ici: Mongo é meta "bits to atoms"] Like the early software hackers of a generation ago, who were motivated to create their own software to share new information, DIY players are passionate about creating their own software to print and share things."

Continua.

A vantagem dos duendes

Há muitos anos, entre 25 e 30, não sei se no meu primeiro Drucker, "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", ou no meu segundo, o monumental "Management: Tasks, responsibilities, practices" li a história de uma marca suíça de botas de montanha que ganhou prestígio após a primeira guerra mundial. A empresa era gerida por dois irmãos, durante essa guerra, um dos irmãos ficou a gerir a fábrica, enquanto o outro foi combater como voluntário, julgo que no exército francês, esse irmão usava as botas e mandava cartas, ao irmão na fábrica, com conselhos sobre como melhorar o desempenho e conforto das botas. (BTW, em quantas empresas os seus gestores e líderes não usam nem conhecem os seus produtos e serviços? Por exemplo, quem decide as carreiras dos transportes públicos anda de transportes públicos?)
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Com a especialização trazida pela era industrial, em que quem produz o recurso está distante de quem usa e integra esse recurso na sua vida, a comunicação entre produtor e beneficiário tem tendência a rarefazer-se e mesmo a desaparecer. Sem essa comunicação não há co-evolução, não há interacção, não há customização.
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Lembrei-me de tudo isto por causa do artigo que o DE trazia ontem "Nelo admite crescer acima de 10% ao ano com novas modalidades":

"A marca foi criada em 1978 por Manuel Ramos, e está ligada à evolução da própria modalidade em Portugal. "A génese da canoagem portuguesa confunde-se com o aparecimento da marca Nelo. O senhor Manuel Ramos foi o primeiro campeão nacional da modalidade.
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Muitos dos 85 trabalhadores são praticantes de canoagem. Não há nada como passar pela experiência para perceber as necessidades dos atletas. "Mais de 50% das pessoas que trabalham aqui estão ou estiveram ligadas à modalidade. Começando pelo senhor Manuel Ramos até ao empregado mais novo que tem 19 anos, e que é também campeão nacional de canoagem. É um dos factores principais do nosso sucesso, que as pessoas que trabalham nos barcos percebam o que é o barco, como é que funciona""

Esta interacção com o beneficiário, esta coincidência entre produtor e utilizador é um trunfo importante, conjugada com esta abordagem:

""desde cedo que Manuel Ramos percebeu que não podia fazer as coisas como os outros faziam, tinha de ser diferente, de ser superior aos outros, para se conseguir distinguir, para ser um ‘player' no mercado"." 

Esta é a vantagem dos artesãos modernos, dos duendes, a paixão conjugada com a coalescência entre produtor e consumidor, fomentadora de interacção que cria diferenciação, customização e, sobretudo, magia!!!

"porque há-de continuar a existir "produção em massa"?"

O que pensar disto?

"On Wednesday, General Electric announced the launch of FirstBuild, a "microfactory" and open community for students, engineers, and innovators on the University of Louisville campus in Louisville, Kentucky. The company wants to create a new business model for the manufacturing industry by harnessing open innovation, the maker movement, and community involvement to build a revolutionary new wave of smart appliances.
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The company already has microfactories in Chandler, Arizona, Knoxville, Tennessee, Las Vegas, and Germany, and plans to open 100 microfactories around the world in the next 10 years.
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FirstBuild is meant to be a community of engineers, designers, hardware hackers, and anyone who is passionate about innovation in the appliance space.
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"It's about producing small batches of products and getting them into consumers' hands very fast," Tepper said. "We'll have rapid iterations on those products, by working with consumers, community engineers, and designers. Once we work on the project for a while, we can start mass producing."

Sem tirar nem pôr, a materialização do modelo de Mongo que desenvolvemos neste blogue há anos, os tais centros de produção artesanal local que permitem o diálogo entre fazedores e utilizadores.
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O último sublinhado, está a uma cor diferente porque ilustra uma outra vertente de reflexão, Mongo não é só o triunfo da "inovação aberta", havendo este contacto directo entre utilizadores e produtores, havendo o triunfo das tribos, porque há-de continuar a existir "produção em massa"?

"GE launches 'microfactory' to co-create the future of manufacturing"

Conselhos úteis para "fazedores" e para PMEs

Conselhos úteis para "fazedores" e para PMEs em "Want To Sell More Art? Sell Yourself First"

Acerca de Mongo

"The great surprise: a prosumer world.
We're in the era of what Alvin Toffler called the "prosumer". Techno-literacy is concerned not just with consuming media but also creating it. Toffler's prosumers are people who consume media, who also produce it, and who are both producing and consuming at the same time. The Maker Movement is great evidence that we're in this kind of prosumer era where some of the artificial divisions that we had in the industrial society are breaking down - where there were producers and consumers, and they were separate camps. We're getting back a little bit more to a previous era - the hunter/gatherers - where people made the stuff that they consumed. In a curious way the new technologies can offer us more access to that earlier era.                  
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Certainly most of the things that are going to be produced are going to be made by robots and automation, but we can modify them and we can change them, and we can be involved in the co-production of them to a degree that we couldn't in the industrial age. That's true not just for media and liquid intangible things but also for tangible things, and that's sort of the promise of 3D printing and robotics and all these other high-tech material sciences is that it's going to become as malleable.
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Using the Internet and AI and connection, the physical world will be as malleable for us when we have help of these tools as the intangible world has been, and so that era of the prosumer can return. But again, this is not going to happen by osmosis; it will take training; it will take teaching; it will take education. It will take a literacy, a techno-literacy, to learn how this world works—to learn that these technologies have biteback, that they have feedback, that they have issues, restrictions, and there are costs. All this stuff is part of it."              

Trechos retirados de "A Conversation with Kevin Kelly"

Vai ser interessante observar a cumplicidade

"Brands have been around for a long time. People often used symbols that stood for their products or their lineage, which may have had a relationship to the creation and purveyance of certain products. But modern branding really came into its own in the twentieth century. The ability to economically put a message in front of a consumer; the emergence of products that you could buy, rather than make yourself; and the pursuit of profits based on the economies of scale provided by manufacturing.., and communication began to suggest that creating a reason why someone should buy your product (as opposed to a competitor's) were good things. As Crawford describes it:
"Consumption, no less than production, needed to be brought under scientific management—the management of desire. Thus, there came to be marketers who called themselves "consumption engineers" in the early decades of the twentieth century."
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This represents a fundamental shift away from the maker/designer model in which the duality of design was mediated through individual decisions based on how the needs of the two sides (process/final artifact) should best be served. Now business was in the driver's seat and could use a more scientific approach to streamlining production and driving demand, with brand being the emerging point of focus for the consumer. In this situation, design's biggest effect would be felt in how the brand was brought to life and used; the decisions about product were no longer open and flexible, and consumers’ attention was often diverted away from the pragmatic tangible value, of the product-in favor of the intangible and aspirational value of the brand."

E o que é que vai mudar com Mongo?
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E quando o produtor e consumidor se puderem reunir numa mesma pessoa?
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E quando o consumidor puder dialogar directamente com o produtor?
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Uma disrupção brutal do modo de vida em que a sociedade ocidental se habituou a viver nos últimos 100 anos.
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Quando os "Giant armadillos" deixarem de cavar túneis, há todo um ecossistema que vai desaparecer... um pouco como em Portugal, com o fim do escavar através das obras públicas.
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Num país socialista como Portugal vai ser interessante observar a cumplicidade e as artimanhas que os governos e os incumbentes vão implementar para atrasar Mongo, para prolongar o modelo do século XX.
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Trechos retirados de "Experience Design: A Framework for Integrating Brand, Experience, and Value"

Passa-lhes completamente ao lado

Este artigo "The Internet of Things and the future of manufacturing" é tão ... "ídolo com pés de barro".
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Falm sobre o impacte da tecnologia e da Internet of Things (IoT) na produção e na logística das empresas. Por exemplo:

"Right. For example, a piece of metal or raw material will say, “I am the block that will be made into product X for customer Y.” In an extreme vision, this unfinished material already knows for which customer it is intended and carries with it all the information about where and when it will be processed. Once the material is in the machine, the material itself records any deviations from the standard process, determines when it’s “done,” and knows how to get to its customer. It might not happen right away, but things will definitely move in this direction."

Ou ainda:

"So how do we assess our existing logistics systems and identify the gaps? Let’s take container logistics in maritime shipping, which might be considered almost Stone Age in view of what is to come. It will be a tremendous effort to bring container logistics into the next generation of manufacturing." 

Passa-lhes completamente ao lado que os consumidores poderão fazer o download das instruções, poderão dirigir-se a um centro de serviços no bairro onde moram e alugar uma máquina que produzirá de acordo com as instruções. Ou então, poderão dirigir-se a um "artesão" conhecido pelos seus designs e comprar-lhe as instruções ou o produto já acabado, ou melhor ainda, fazer o jogo de ping-pong da interacção e co-desenhar o produto com o artesão.
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Por isto é que ontem escrevi sobre a segunda rodada que aí virá.

A primeira rodada

Como são as coisas...
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Dois artigos sobre a tentativa dos incumbentes evitarem ser flanqueados, não através da melhoria da relação com os seus clientes mas através do lobby junto do poder para protecção das suas rendas.
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Em "Auto dealerships forcing themselves between Tesla and its customers":

"In an attempt to offer a hassle-free car-buying experience, Tesla Motors is experimenting with selling cars directly to consumers over the Internet.
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But car buyers in North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas may not have the same opportunity because auto dealerships are lobbying for laws that would deprive Tesla Motors of the freedom to sell vehicles directly to consumers in these states, forcing Tesla to instead sell cars through a franchised dealership."

Em "Strangling Innovation: Tesla versus “Rent Seekers”":

"The greatest number of jobs is created when startups create a new market – one where the product or service never existed before or is radically more convenient. Yet this is where startups will run into anti-innovation opponents they may not expect. These opponents have their own name –  “rent seekers” – the landlords of the status-quo.
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Examples of startups challenging the status quo include: Lyft, Square, Uber, Airbnb, SpaceX, Zillow, Bitcoin, LegalZoom, food trucks, charter schools, and massively open online courses. Past examples of startups that succeeded in redefining current industries include Craigslist, Netflix, Amazon, Ebay and Paypal.
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While Tesla, Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, et al are in very different industries, they have two things in common: 1) they’re disruptive business models creating new markets and upsetting the status quo and 2) the legal obstacles confronting them weren’t from direct competitors, but from groups commonly referred to as “rent seekers.”
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Rent seekers are individuals or organizations that have succeeded with existing business models and look to the government and regulators as their first line of defense against innovative competition. They use government regulation and lawsuits to keep out new entrants with more innovative business models. They use every argument from public safety to lack of quality or loss of jobs to lobby against the new entrants. Rent seekers spend money to increase their share of an existing market instead of creating new products or markets. The key idea is that rent seeking behavior creates nothing of value.
These barriers to new innovative entrants are called economic rent.
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Instead of offering better products or better service at lower prices, rent seekers hire lawyers and lobbyists to influence politicians and regulators to pass laws, write regulations and collect taxes that block competition. The process of getting the government to give out these favors is rent-seeking."

Vejo isto com alguma ironia... é a primeira rodada. Agora são os distribuidores a tentarem salvar as suas rendas. Já antevejo uma segunda rodada em que os fabricantes vão lutar contra os prosumers de Mongo e a sua capacidade para produzirem em casa para si e para a comunidade em que residem

Mongo na cerveja em Portugal

Via André Cruz descobri este projecto "Cerveja Artesanal Portuguesa":

"Este movimento/blog que dá pelo nome de Cerveja Artesanal Portuguesa é algo que luta pela cerveja de qualidade em Portugal. Melhor, pela cerveja portuguesa de qualidade. Não só existimos para dar a conhecer as cervejas artesanais portuguesas como incentivamos a produção dela. Do lado direito existe um link chamado “Quero fazer cerveja. Como começar?” que vos indica o caminho para saciar essa vossa vontade de fazer cerveja.
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Além disso, somos um movimento que tenciona catalisar não só a produção como a venda de cervejas artesanais. Hoje a legislação é muito apertada e para qualquer micro/pequena cervejaria, é muito complicado entrar no mercado. A legislação é pró-macro cervejarias e isso não ajuda nada. Numa altura em que projectos de empreendedorismo como estes contam muito para a economia local e nacional, era importante que as directivas legais fossem de encontro à necessidade de criar valor por nós, amantes de cerveja."

Isto é Mongo!!! Isto é o movimento de prosumers! Isto é o futuro!!!
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BTW, recordo Loulé:

• Novembro de 2007 Ah! e acerca da façonnage recordar "Não há sectores obsoletos, há, sim, estratégias obsoletas" (Março de 2012). Não quero ser aborrecido mas podem chamar-me bruxo!!

A revolução em curso

"Welcome to the New Industrial Revolution—a wave of technologies and ideas that are creating a computer-driven manufacturing environment that bears little resemblance to the gritty and grimy shop floors of the past. The revolution threatens to shatter long-standing business models, upend global trade patterns and revive American industry.
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"Manufacturing is undergoing a change that is every bit as significant as the introduction of interchangeable parts or the production line, maybe even more so," says Michael Idelchik, who heads up advanced technologies at GE's global research lab, located about 15 minutes away from the battery plant. "The future is not going to be about stretched-out global supply chains connected to a web of distant giant factories. It's about small, nimble manufacturing operations using highly sophisticated new tools and new materials." (Moi ici: Chamem-me bruxo!!! É isto que escrevemos aqui há tanto tempo! O modelo do século XX a dar lugar ao modelo do século XXI. Esta é a corrente de fundo que os estrategas deveriam aproveitar, fazer batota)
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At the same time, technological advances now allow manufacturers to invent new ways of fabricating things that represent an extreme departure from the classic production-line model. By far the most significant of these steps forward is additive manufacturing—a process of making a three-dimensional object of virtually any shape from a digital model.
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These exotic machines can use a range of materials—everything from wood pulp to cobalt—and create things as varied as sneakers, fuel nozzles for airplanes and, ultimately, even human organs. And a single piece of manufacturing equipment, rather than being custom-designed to perform a single function, can be programed to fabricate a virtually limitless array of objects. (Moi ici: Flexibilidade, baixos custos para produções unitárias, explosão da variedade)
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Almost certainly, it won't mean creating jobs the old way—building large factories that employ thousands of people. (Moi ici: Cuidado com os sonhos de re-industrialização com base no paradigma do século XX) The real opportunity is in the growth of highly specialized, highly advanced microfactories and in legions of small entrepreneurial ventures making old things in new ways, as well as producing new products and custom-made items.
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Still, this new environment leaves manufacturers facing big new challenges, as digital files of physical objects show up in huge numbers on websites like Thingiverse and Physibles, and manufacturing instructions appear online, too.
"I give a lot of speeches about this topic to manufacturing groups, and people are usually quiet during the Q&A," says Christine Furstoss, who oversees a staff of 450 engineers and scientists working on materials, energy strategy and processing technology at GE's research center. "But afterward, they come up to me in private and want to talk about how frightened they are. People get a glimpse of how this could change the game in their business, and they are just not sure what to do about it."" (Moi ici: O fim das fábricas como as concebemos e dos empregos como os concebemos - em linha com o que escrevemos aqui há anos!!!)

Trechos retirado de "A Revolution in the Making"

Curiosidade do dia

Achei interessante:

"We sell for you"

Adequado aos tempos que vamos viver, sobretudo para os "fazedores" e prosumers de Mongo.

A estabilidade é mesmo uma ilusão (parte III)

Na sequência de "A estabilidade é mesmo uma ilusão (parte II)" (Parte 0 e parte I).

"IT'S been one of the hottest economic questions for at least the last few decades: what sort of jobs will provide a comfortable, secure, middle-class lifestyle for the next generation of Americans?"

Qual seria a resposta se fosse procurada neste blogue?

"future “good” middle-class jobs will come from the re-emergence of artisans, or highly skilled people in each field. Two examples he mentioned: a contractor who installs beautiful kitchens and a thoughtful, engaging caregiver to the elderly. He reckons the critical thinking skills derived from a liberal arts education give people who do these jobs an edge. The labour market will reward this; the contractor who studied art history or the delightful caregiver with a background in theatre will thrive.
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This is consistent with a shift in the labour market I've observed. It seems the market now rewards individual more than firm-specific capital. That's economic jargon for the idea that it's better to be really good at your job than merely good at being an employee. There's less value in being the company man; you must be your own man possessing a dynamic skill set applicable in a variety of ways.
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What Mr Katz describes is a world where a good job is not lifetime employment, where your employer takes care of you from age 20 until death (with a very generous pension). He describes people responsible for their own economic destiny. That may seem unsettling, because the old regime appeared to offer more stability, though that stability may have been an illusion. Actually the new way may offer more certainty because people look out for themselves, rather than being vulnerable to changes that impact their employer. The nature of work constantly evolves. The company man was a post-war construct. The self-sufficient artisan is actually more consistent with historical labour markets.
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But in order to build your human capital and be that modern, competitive worker it seems you must believe you're a little special. The company man was content to be a cog in the machine, the modern worker must take pride in his talents.
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Believing you're exceptional and in control maybe a necessary characteristic of modern workers. But it must be balanced with realistic expectations and humility. It's not enough to take pride in what you do; modern workers must be open to applying their skills in a variety of different and ever-changing ways"

Se vamos a caminho de Mongo (o Estranhistão), se "we are all weird", se o futuro passa pela co-criação e pela co-produção, se o futuro passa pela customização e personalização, então, o futuro são os artesãos. O futuro é voltar ao passado, é desmassificar a produção, é olhar para a segunda metade do século XX e perceber o "post-war construct" como uma anormalidade histórica a que nos habituamos e que temos medo de abandonar porque é a conhecida.
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Trechos retirados de "The return of artisanal employment"

A estabilidade é mesmo uma ilusão (parte II)

Parte 0 e parte I

"The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the American economy has more than twenty-one million “non-employer” businesses - operations without any paid employees. These include everything from electricians to computer consultants to graphic designers. Although these microenterprises account for only a modest portion of America’s gross domestic product, they now constitute the majority of businesses in the United States.
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The research firm IDC estimates that 30 percent of American workers now work on their own and that by 2015, the number of nontraditional workers worldwide (freelancers, contractors, consultants, and the like) will reach 1.3 billion. The sharpest growth will be in North America, but Asia is expected to add more than six hundred million new soloists in that same period.
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Some analysts project that in the United States, the ranks of these independent entrepreneurs may grow by sixty-five million in the rest of the decade and could become a majority of the American workforce by 2020. One reason is the influence of the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old generation as it takes a more prominent economic role. According to research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 54 percent of this age cohort either wants to start their own business or has already done so.
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In sixteen Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries- including France, Mexico, and Sweden - more than 90 percent of businesses now have fewer than ten employees. In addition, the percentage of people who are either a “nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a new business” is far higher in markets such as China, Thailand, and Brazil than in the United States or the United Kingdom."

Recordar o que se escreve por aqui acerca de: Mongo; artesãos; prosumers e antifragilidade.
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Trecho retirado de "To sell is human : the surprising truth about moving others" de Daniel Pink.

O empreendedorismo é o fim último da humanidade

"Onde está a nascer o novo emprego?"

"Com os números do desemprego em Portugal a atingirem os 17,5% - o nível mais alto dos últimos 27 anos -, há números que trazem esperança: mais de 60% do novo emprego, criado entre 2007 e 2011, foi responsabilidade das pequenas empresas, com um número de empregados igual ou inferior a 50 pessoas; as empresas jovens, com idade igual ou inferior a cinco anos, já representam 46% do emprego criado em cada ano. E as ‘start-ups', nascidas em cada ano, representam 6,5% do tecido empresarial, mas são responsáveis, em média, por 18% do emprego criado em cada ano."

Associado a este mesmo tema, recordo o artigo "Onde está a nascer o novo emprego?" no Caderno de Economia do Expresso do passado Sábado, que termina associando-se à nossa metáfora de Mongo como um mundo de artesãos e de prosumers:

"o crescimento económico de um país está directamente ligado ao número de empreendedores que consegue criar", concluindo que "nada é mais humano do que a criação de coisas. O empreendedorismo é o fim último da humanidade".