"Re‐shaping demand landscapes" (Parte III)

Parte I e Parte II.

"The decision of where on the landscape firms should position their products is at the core of product positioning. By deciding what attributes to include in the product and what uses of the product to promote, firms guide the customers’ understanding of the new product’s comparison set, i.e., the appropriate demand landscape for the product. Firms’ emphasis on a subset of product attributes helps the customers determine the product’s location on the relevant demand landscape and the customers’ WTP for the product.
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Competitor products can serve as referents for the introduction of new products and repositioning of existing products. Depending on the competitors’ positioning in relation to the customers’ ideal points, firms may pursue either differentiation or imitation strategies.
...
Four conditions are useful for thinking about how firms decide when to move on the demand landscape and when to reshape the landscape: weak connection between product attributes and performance, large number of attributes used by the customer to evaluate products, opportunity for collective action, and fragmentation of buyers and suppliers. Both firms that are constrained in their product-attribute choices and firms that have exhausted their repertoires of product modification options can pursue profits by attempting to change the shape of their demand landscapes.
...
Firms that are limited in their product modification options, e.g., generic drug manufacturers, may be especially likely to turn to landscape-shaping strategies in order to promote their products."

Trecho retirado de  "Re‐shaping demand landscapes: How firms change customer preferences to better fit their products". 

"Re‐shaping demand landscapes" (Parte II)

Parte I.

"A long-standing tradition in strategy conceptualizes the firm's operating environment as a fitness landscape. In this conceptualization, the firm’s performance is an outcome of searching the landscape for an optimal position. ... More recent contributions to this literature put forward the possibility of firms not just searching a landscape shaped by other actors, but also reshaping the landscape, i.e., changing the topology of the landscape to improve a focal firm’s position on the landscape and, with it, the firm’s performance. This suggestion expands the repertoire of strategies available to firms.
...
To date the research on demand landscapes has taken the shape of the landscape as a given, implicitly assuming that firms operate on exogenously determined landscapes (i.e., firms’ only option is to change products to accommodate customer preferences). Taking a different perspective, I propose that firms can reshape the demand landscapes for their products (i.e., change customer preferences to accommodate their products).
...
I consider two approaches to landscape reshaping by firms—1) moving the customer’s ideal point and 2) manipulating the customer’s perception of the distance between the customer’s ideal point and the firm’s product.
...
My starting point is the demand landscape —a concept that describes the distribution of customer preferences in terms of customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for different combinations of product attributes. ... In my conceptualization, the demand landscape represents a mapping from product attribute combinations (product positions) to customers’ WTP for these combinations."

Trecho retirado de  "Re‐shaping demand landscapes: How firms change customer preferences to better fit their products".

Trabalhar o ecossistema

Ando a ler um excelente livro que vou ter de comentar aqui no blogue, “The Art of Action: Leadership that Closes the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results” de Stephen Bungay.

Para já, fico-me por uma citação relacionada com o tema da estratégia e da sua relação com as partes interessadas. Fez-me lembrar a minha experiência de trabalhar com empresas que elegem o influenciador ou o prescritor como o verdadeiro motor do modelo de negócio. Recordar:

• A mensagem de quem sabe quem são os seus alvos (Setembro de 2016)
• Arquitecto de paisagens competitivas (parte I) e (parte II) (Junho de 2012)
• Dores de crescimento (Junho de 2011)
• Sem uma estratégia clara, come on... BSC? (parte I) e (parte II) (Julho de 2014)
• Balanced Scorecard (parte V) (Agosto de 2016)

“A few years ago, I visited a manufacturer of domestic boilers. At the time, the company was number three in the market and was not only making good returns but gaining share, closing the gap with the number two player. I asked all the top executives why the company was so successful. One said it was the quality of the product – but he admitted that the differences with competitors’ products were small. One said it was the brand – but had to admit that the market leader’s brand was also very strong. So it went on: R&D, technology, production efficiency, delivery times, customer service – all had their advocates, but none in itself felt compelling.
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My last interview was with the managing director. I asked him once again why the business was so successful. “Let me tell you how our business works,” he said. “Almost all of our domestic business is for replacement of existing boilers. People replace boilers when their existing ones break down. What do you do when your boiler breaks down? You call the installer,” he continued, answering his own question. “When he tells you the boiler is too old to repair because he can’t get the parts, what do you do?” He paused. “I’ll tell you. You do what he suggests. And when you ask him which new boiler to install, he tells you that too. So 90 percent of all purchasing decisions are made by the installer.” He paused to let this sink in. “Our business,” he said deliberately, “is about service to the installer. But I am the only person around here who gets that. They all think I’m an old man with a bee in his bonnet.” He looked me in the eye. “We are being successful because we offer our installers better service than any of our competitors.
...
This informed all his operational decisions. He wanted to increase the number of visits installers paid to the company’s site – which was already more than any of their rivals – and build a new training center. He was obsessed with the quality of  “its installation literature. He was ready to invest whatever it took to increase spare parts availability at the distributors so that installers did not waste time waiting for a part. He wanted the new range of boilers the company was just developing to be energy efficient, quiet, and reliable, but above all he wanted them to be easy to install. And so on. And it was working.
.
He wanted to run some strategy workshops to focus all his top team on optimizing service to the installer. They were already making their implicit strategy happen, but as it became explicit and the top team grew more aligned, so decision making and execution became more focused. At the time of writing the company has overtaken the number two player, and is closing the gap with the market leader.
.
In this example, service to the installer is the source of competitive advantage my friends are seeking to exploit. Their aim is to achieve leadership of their chosen segments. They have identified becoming the supplier of choice to the installer as an opportunity across the market, and by excelling at that they are unhinging the position of their major competitors. They already have the capabilities to do so, but they are investing further in those capabilities and creating others. They are doing what all successful strategists do, which is to build further on their existing strengths. They therefore have a coherent strategy”

E na sua empresa, como aborda o ecossistema da procura? Está a ver onde a estória das partes interessadas na ISO 9001 nos pode levar?

"You can’t shape your customer"

Este texto de Alex Osterwalder, "You Don’t Design Customers, You Understand Them (Or Not)", merece alguma reflexão:

"What he had done was retrofit the customer profile against the digital payments solution they’ve worked out.
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Now, it’s ok to sketch out the customer profile for a customer you’ve never met in a meeting room. However, you then have to immediately go and verify (and get a reality check) if your assumptions from the meeting room were true. From those tests you adapt and modify the customer profile based on what you’ve learned. Only now, armed with this verified information, you are ready to design the appropriate solution.
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You can’t shape your customer. You can only understand the customer. The value proposition is where you make choices: you decide which jobs, pains and gains you want to address with which solutions. Get out of the building to understand your customer, then shape your value proposition around them. While this might sound like common sense, it’s still not common practice."

Não quero ser diletante nem, como conta Pedro Arroja, ser aquele tipo que numa conferência, na parte das perguntas e respostas, coloca uma pergunta ao orador e acaba a querer fazer ele próprio uma conferência, mas acho que há motivo para reflexão.

Alex Osterwalder escreve, e bem, para startup-people. Eu escrevo sobre a realidade a pensar nos meus clientes-alvo, PME industriais. As PME industriais com que trabalho querem dar uma sapatada no status quo em vivem, mas têm alguns constrangimentos: têm uma herança, ou seja uma estrutura produtiva e comercial que não se pode deitar fora como a água de um banho, têm um espaço de Minkowski (As posições anteriores limitam as posições futuras afinal os macacos não voam)

... e, sobretudo, têm pouco dinheiro.

Assim, ao contrário da liberdade de uma startup uma PME pode estar perante uma situação que se pode traduzir desta forma: sou o que sou, a minha vantagem, ou o que pode ser a minha vantagem é o que sou e não posso mudar - por falta de dinheiro, por autenticidade, por falta de alternativa, por falta de outras experiências. Nesse caso, o que a empresa produz não se altera mas tem de alterar quer o cliente, quer a abordagem comercial:

"Se calhar não é a lã que tem de mudar, se calhar são os mercados onde se quer vender os produtos autênticos feitos com ela que têm de mudar. Como no exemplo da artesã de Bragança, ou das tábuas de cozinha, ou do burel de Manteigas, ou os "Tecidos tradicionais em lã como o burel, a samarra ou o sarrubeco" de Albano Morgado."

Assim, para muitas PME aquele "You can’t shape your customer" não pode ser levado à letra. Elas têm de ir a todo o mundo à procura dos clientes que se ajustam ao que elas podem oferecer com vantagem. Sei que isto roça o limite e pode ser interpretado quase como arrogância estatal que trata os contribuintes como reféns. Não é desprezo pelos clientes, é não ter alternativa de recursos para investir em mudanças.

Considerem os empresários do calçado cheios de dinheiro ou de acesso a financiamento e com uma tradição de gestão bem maior, imaginem o que teriam feito quando a China invadiu o Ocidente com o low-cost... teriam deslocalizado. Em vez disso, tiveram de subir na escala de valor e subir às árvores como no exemplo dos 20 para os 200€. Assim, fazem uma análise da sua situação e concluem: só posso sobreviver se trabalhar para este tipo de cliente ...

Outro ponto que merece reflexão em "You can’t shape your customer" é: não se modifica um cliente individualmente, mas acredito numa frase que será "You can shape your market":

• Arquitecto de paisagens competitivas (parte II) (Junho 2012)
• Driving markets (Maio de 2014) (Storbacka escreveu um livro em finlandês cujo título era qualquer coisa como: market driving not market driven)
• Acerca dos ecossistemas (Setembro de 2014)
• "markets are not – they become" (Marlo de 2015) ("markets are malleable and subject to multiple change efforts. Markets are always in the making, or paraphrasing Vargo and Lusch: markets are not – they become. This opens up questions about how market actors join in and influence this process of becoming in practice.")
• Assumir o desafio de mudar um mercado (parte IV) (Janeiro de 2018)

Em suma, a startup vai-se reformulando e pilotando até se ajustar ao cliente-alvo. A PME-tipo percebe onde pode actuar e depois procurar os clientes, ou trabalho o mercado, com quem pode ter sucesso. 

Por isso uso os marcadores lá em baixo.

"Ecosystem Roles"

"Ecosystem Roles
1. Participants
Ecosystem participants are involved in the key activities: they provide value on one hand (producers) and consume value on the other (consumers). Sometimes, the same participant behaves as a producer or consumer in different moments of interaction: these are roles that one participant can play. Participants can be of different kinds: individuals, organizations, teams…
Most often, beyond the value traded, new value is created in the interaction: as simple as that.
...
2. (Platform) Shapers  [Moi ici: É preciso ter locus de controlo no interior]
Shapers normally provide value to the ecosystem in two different ways: design, execute and evolve contexts for interaction [Moi ici: "relationships are not zero sum games"] (infrastructures, channels), and actively provide services to generate liminal learning and continuous staged improvement.
...
4. (Platform) Stakeholders
External Stakeholders are normally those players that — even if not directly interacting in ecosystem relationships — are interested or impacted by the positive or negative externalities deriving from the ecosystem actualization through the platform.
...
Despite one cannot actually own ecosystems, some entity can certainly own/control a platform strategy, as the latter is made of technology, data and information, narrative, human activities and more."

Trechos retirados de "The Future of Ecosystemic Design"

Assumir o desafio de mudar um mercado (parte IV)

Parte I, parte II e parte III.

"the host firm of our research study worked actively to shape its markets by embracing not only the new technology and the firm's market offers, but also the unspoken rules, guidelines and evaluation schemes developed over time by the actors in a proposed new market and shared among them.
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A firm aiming to shape a market needs to have in place a conscious and active market strategy, which demands specific skill sets (often new) and competences, a long-term perspective, and dedicated senior managers who recognize the long-term value of these activities, given that market-shaping strategy does not necessarily deliver short-term financial results).
What is evident from our study is that, to succeed in its market- shaping ambitions, a firm needs to build its recognition and legitimacy and secure market access by placing emphasis on all three levels of influence.
...
a firm seeking to shape the market needs to carry out multiple activities aimed at all three levels of influence and commit multiple resources to that effort if it is to be effective.
...
A market-shaping firm must also be able to balance a range of time horizons and influence levels effectively, so that the inherent activities form reinforcing cycles and support each other.
...
A market-shaping firm thus needs to be proficient in working at different levels of tangibility in its offers, such as abstract levels that cater to general audiences in one-to-many interactions and concrete levels that, for example, demonstrate value propositions in one-to-one interactions. It therefore needs to recruit and develop different competences and skills, such as in customizing the type of information and delivery mode to many customers in different situations. Strategies employed to build the appropriate competences often focus on the training of sales and R & D staff to interact with a variety of kinds of target audiences and communicate different types of information"

Assumir o desafio de mudar um mercado (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

"Market offer level.
The exchange object – the value proposition or market offer, including the products and services that make up that offer – is a central element of the understanding of markets. ... “markets are created when actors, dyads, triads, complex networks, and service ecosystems evolve through unique service provision efforts”.
...
the importance of defining what should be exchanged, specifically that the different market actors in a collaborative process need to define that object and the potential value it might have. That value might be idiosyncratically understood and thus differ between actors. A market-shaping strategy thus needs to include an interaction between actors in a market or a channel within it as a value proposition emerges. ... from a marketing management perspective, ... suppliers need to include downstream actors to a greater degree when the suppliers try to grow a market. A sales force, for example, can function as a direct link to the direct customer and other actors when a firm tries to shape market expectations."

Trechos retirados de "Unraveling firm-level activities for shaping markets" de Daniel Kindström, Mikael Ottosson, Per Carlborg, publicado por Industrial Marketing Management 68 (2018) 36–45

Market shaping

Um tema que aprecio muito: quando uma empresa assume o desafio de influenciar o mercado, trabalhando o ecossistema.

"Market shaping is increasingly being recognized as a viable and deliberate market strategy, for firms that construe markets as being malleable, and thus possible to ‘shape’. A market-shaping perspective emphasizes markets as elements of ongoing processes, to be influenced and shaped by the actors involved through their own activities, and through the coordinated activities of multiple actors. Market-shaping thus aims to influence a market by means of activities aimed at a wider array of actors than just direct customers, such as their own customers, in pursuit of increased and sustainable competitive advantage. These market-shaping activities can stretch from traditional firm level activities such as sales to activities that involve the entire markets institution e.g. changing the rules of the market.
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Shaping a market can often be challenging, however, especially for incumbent firms in mature markets with established market structures and behaviors or business models."

E depois, uma narrativa que me soa tão familiar:

"this firm faces increasingly saturated traditional markets, as well as potentially declining growth. To address this challenge, it has been working continuously to realize a market-shaping strategy, the foundation of which has been the shaping of previously unserved market niches into new market segments susceptible to a changed, sometimes radically different, technology. In many potential segments, the technology was not proven and had not been previously used, which required the firm under study to shape the market in such a way as to create opportunities for future market offers.
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To that end, it carried out a range of single and composite activities at three levels and involving various actors. The levels could be defined as: ‘system’, concerned with a system of actors in the process; ‘market’, relating to more tangible customer-supplier relationships; and ‘technology, focused on the more fundamental aspects of building the whole operation. The actors involved would thus include both direct and indirect customers as well as other stakeholders."

Quantas pessoas conseguem relacionar esta temática com a nova cláusula sobre as partes interessadas relevantes incluída na ISO 9001:2015.

Vamos descascar este artigo com calma para tirar o máximo sumo.

Trechos retirados de "Unraveling firm-level activities for shaping markets" de Daniel Kindström, Mikael Ottosson, Per Carlborg, publicado por Industrial Marketing Management 68 (2018) 36–45

13 anos depois ...

"A dyadic perspective may be too limited to comprehend contemporary value cocreation phenomena though, especially those that take place in service systems
...
“firms are increasingly engaged  in  complex  market  configurations  where  the  alignment  of  market  views  becomes  central  for  success. Firms  therefore  need  to  offer their  view  on  how  the  market  should  be  configured,  and  engage  actors  in activities aimed at creating a shared market view.” In practice, even service systems with only three firms (e.g., manufacturer, dealer, and user) can prove highly complex as market configurations.
.
Triads  of  independent  firms  that  connect  through  network  ties,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for  the  purpose of doing business represent complex market configurations. Their network ties can be structural, economic, or social in character. A case in point is the Illinois-based company Caterpillar, a global leader in earth-moving products. To realize its value propositions, the company needs to foster network ties with users of its equipment but also with dealers that sell and service that equipment. Caterpillar operates through  an  extensive  network  of  independent  dealers  in  over  180  countries  and  refers  to  those  dealers  as  “a critical  competitive  differentiator”  and  “the  foundation”  of  its  worldwide  success.  However,  Caterpillar  also believes its dealers may be missing out on US$9–18 billion annually in easy-to-capture revenue, such that they need to enhance their service operations to boost their share of the global service market. Despite the integration of  diagnostic  technologies  into  Caterpillar  machines,  dealers  have  not  capitalized  on  these  assets  sufficiently
...
we  consider  the development of a triadic value proposition and analyze how the discontinuous effects of a new-to-the-industry service  initiative  might  change  relationships  among  actors  in  the  business  triad."

13 anos depois destas minhas experiências:

• Arquitecto de paisagens competitivas (parte II)
• O sucesso no novo mercado interno também passa por esta mudança
• Convite

Trechos retirados de "Triadic Value Propositions" de Kowalkowski, Kindström, e Carlborg, publicado por Service Science 8(3), pp. 282–299, 2016.

Foco e mosaico de actividades (parte IV)

Parte I e parte II e parte III.

"The final two categories depict companies that are living a coherent identity:
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10. Coherent companies have a powerful value proposition and a system of a few differentiating capabilities that support that value proposition. Their portfolio of products and services grows successfully because of the strengths they consistently bring to bear.
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11. Supercompetitors use their coherence to shape their future. They apply their capabilities to a broader range of challenges and loftier goals, serve the fundamental needs and wants of their customers, and ultimately lead their industries. These companies are not just playing the game of business well — they’re changing the rules."[Moi ici: Recordar scripting markets, performativity, mercados como configurações]

Trechos retirados de "11 Types of Strategic Maturity: Which One Describes Your Company?"

Olhar para o ecossistema (parte II)

Parte I.

Pensar a nível de ecossistema passa por perceber que os mercados não existem, os mercados são seres vivos que vão existindo e evoluindo:

"the starting point is to view markets as emerging outcomes best understood by following the process of their practical realization
...
the idea of markets as plastic entities that are continously ‘in the making’
...
markets as ‘on-going socio-material enactments that organize economized exchanges’
...
by conceptualizing markets as continuous enactments rather than ready-made, CMS goes beyond simplistic stage models of market emergence, for example, formation–stability– change–dissolution. It stresses that markets are continuously shaped both by explicit efforts to create new markets or change existing ones, and by the everyday activities of buyers and sellers. This allows us to explore how users exert influence over markets beyond the initial commercialization of an offering."

Por exemplo:

"We conceptualize market shaping as five interrelated subprocesses in which users may be involved as agents: qualifying goods, fashioning modes of exchange, configuring actors, establishing market norms and generating market representations." 

Fundamental perceber que se pode ser um arquitecto de paisagens competitivas.

Trechos retirados de "How users shape markets" publicado por Marketing Theory 1–24, 2016

Desenhar mercados, deliberadamente

"The new major aims to prepare students to think at the nexus of economics and computer science, so they can understand and design the kinds of systems that are coming to define modern life."

Pode ter uma variante interessante, muito para lá da tecnologia e das startups. Os promotores da concorrência imperfeita não descuram o estudo e teste de modelos de configuração dos mercados/ecossistemas porque acreditam que os mercados/ecossistemas não só podem surgir, sem design deliberado, como podem ser desenhados por actores com o poder de agirem como pivôs.

Trecho retirado de "Two sciences tie the knot"

"seizing enhanced value creating opportunities"

"This increasingly networked ubiquity has given rise to recognition of the apparently inexorable rise of systems, such as so-called "business ecosystems (BE)", in which strategists can design and realize systems of value creation.
...
The notion of industries, just as the notion of value chains, is becoming ever more outdated and hinders strategists from understanding their changing business landscapes and identifying threats and opportunities for realizing value potentials.
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The construct of "industries" does not allow the strategist to consider uncertainties in the broader contexts that can transform existing playing fields, or that give rise to new ones - such as "nutraceuticals". Focusing strategic attention on industrial sectors, ..., prevents considering or seizing enhanced value creating opportunities.
...
Our research and experience suggests that redesigns of systems that help value to be created, rather than product - and industry - specific competition strategies (and optimization within existing product and technology categories) is called for if something substantial is to be done about opportunities and threats linked to the inefficiencies that we see in business and societies at large today."

Trechos retirados de "Strategy for a Networked World" de Ramirez & Mannervik.

Relacionar com:

"Making good choices is central to business and personal success. Integrative thinking is important because it provides a way out of our natural inclination to lose sight of the bigger picture by taking entrenched positions or to opt for shoddy compromises. Integrative thinking doesn’t choose one solution making a few trade-offs to placate the opposing view. Rather it looks for altogether new creative approaches."

Trecho retirado de "Integrative Thinking Revisited"

"The key source of success is to conceive the VCS and make it work"

Há anos li um extraordinário artigo de Storbacka e Nenonen, "Scripting markets: From value propositions to market propositions", publicado por Industrial Marketing Management Volume 40, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 255-266.

Alguns postais que escrevi por essa altura foram:

• Os mercados como configurações (parte III) (Julho de 2011)
• Não é armadilhar, é criar harmonia, é construir uma sinfonia... (Julho de 2011)
• Boleias de passageiro clandestino que permitem viver mais um dia mas não ensinam a pescar (parte III) (Dezembro de 2011)
• Scripting markets (Abril 2014)

Agora em, "Strategy for a Networked World", de Rafael Ramirez e Ulf Mannervik, encontro tantas referências que me soam a uma outra forma de desenvolver o conceito de "scripting market":

"In today’s networked world, conceptualising value on the central basis of two-way exchanges as one did in the industrial era (with the idea of “value-added” products or services) has become very limiting, in fact too limiting, for capturing the full potential of value creation.[Moi ici: Aqui a fuga às relações diádicas e a importância do ecossistema]
...
render value creation more synchronous, less sequential, and more interactive than ever before.
.
Such innovations help to pack in more options for interaction and thus more interactions, and more actors and more possibilities for further action to co-create many more values per unit of time and space than ever before.[Moi ici: Outro tema caro a este blogue - a importância das interacções]
.
These novel interaction possibilities in turn change what people value and can trust,
...
These possibilities for interacting are now bundled in ever denser packages (“denser” meaning more functions per space and time unit, and thereby also per person or interactor). These possibilities help people and their organisations to co-create value in ways that were unimaginable a few decades ago. [Moi ici: Densificação, um tema que vi referido pela primeira vez num livro de Normann e Ramirez que li em 2008 e reli em 2013)]
...
Value co-created by two or (typically now) more actors, with and for each other, with and for yet other actors, is an invitation not only to rethink organisational structures and managerial arrangements for value creation, but also to rethink value creation itself.
...
thinking of value and values as contingent, always located in a setting — no longer as isolated in things or individual bodies or groups of bodies. Value and values here become dependent on those with whom one connects and in connecting, who co-create value. [Moi ici: Valor é co-criado e não criado por quem produz] They also matter in terms of those this co- creation affects positively as well as negatively.
.
[Moi ici: O trecho que se segue é fundamental] Patterns of interactivity arise or can be designed.[Moi ici: Quando se descobre que as interacções podem ser desenhadas, abre-se um mundo de possibilidades] These patterns connect those we term “actors” as co-creators, and their designed interactions support or may even constitute their roles and identities. In turn, these actors’ roles and identities interact with each other, and in doing so form interconnected patterns; so these roles and identities in turn thus maintain the interactions.
...
[Moi ici: Segue-se o TRUQUE!!!] We consider this configuring of interactions to be the result of a design activity. We use the term VCS for the pattern of interactions intentionally configured by the strategic planning carried out by an organisation.
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The designed interactions become manifested as (“designed”) offerings: configuring offerings that set the overall design of and integrates a VCS, and supporting offerings between any two actors in such systems.
...
if the key to creating value is to design and co-create offerings that mobilise others (who may have the role in the interaction of customer or supplier or partner or employee or investor, etc.) to co-create value, then the key source of success is to conceive the VCS and make it work. We suggest that this designing of offerings is a key task for strategists and managers engaging in strategy work today."

O contexto tem muita força (parte X)

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

"Following Austrian approaches to strategy, the breakthrough of guerrilla logic was to realize the quest for sustainable advantages by firms in rapidly changing markets is futile; competitive advantage is merely ‘a temporal assessment of recent strategic choices’. Yet the response in both guerrilla and capabilities logic is the same: the intensified competition characteristic of Cell 2. We believe the defining conditions of the hyper environment make this response misguided, because firms cannot evade the trap of contributing to the escalation of competitive intensity that prevents any firm from reaching a sustainable position from which to reap superior returns. Moreover, the externalities of constant disruption of industry equilibrium can come back to haunt the firms that contributed to creating the disruption.
...
Hypercompetition, for example, dismisses the potentially stabilizing collective benefits of cooperative strategies. However, the emphasis on firms exploiting others for advantage can act as a drag on the development of field- level capabilities needed to address turbulence.
.
Essentially, we argue that conventional strategy practices in a hyper environment can depress the potential for sustainable competitive advantage. The positive feedback loops gear the players for competitive escalation and disruption, not for superior economic returns and sustained advantage.
...
Proposition 2: In hyper environments, the locus of sustainable advantage shifts from the firm to the extended social field....
in a hyper environment positive feedback dynamics strongly connect the various elements in the field. This means that competitive advantage ‘defines a firm’s potential relative to the overall processes and resources of the network’. It also means that ricocheting effects can alter the structure of the field. In such highly volatile situations, all firms in the field face extraordinary difficulties in capturing advantages and repelling ricocheting costs.  ...Hence, sustainable competitive advantage for firms, a bedrock notion in mainstream strategy, may be outmoded in the hyper environments of Cell 4. In such environments the advantage may lie in actors’ abilities to dampen returning externalities through collaboration, rather than in competing more effectively than rivals. The advantage would be for the field; if attained, it would redound to the players in it. This is consistent with Senge’s (1990) insight that one’s position cannot be managed in isolation from the behaviour of the whole system;"

Contexto, partes interessadas, ecossistema ... ainda vamos chegar ao scripting markets de Storbacka e Nenonen.

Trechos retirados de "Contrasting Perspectives of Strategy Making: Applications in ‘Hyper’ Environments" de John W. Selsky, Jim Goes e Oguz N. Babüroglu, publicado por Organization Studies em Janeiro de 2007.

O contexto tem muita força (parte VIII)

Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV, parte V, parte VI e parte VII.

Outro artigo citado em "Strategic Planning in Turbulent Environments: A Social Ecology Approach to Scenarios" de Rafael Ramírez e John W. Selsky, publicado por Long Range Planning em 2014, é "Contrasting Perspectives of Strategy Making: Applications in ‘Hyper’ Environments" de John W. Selsky, Jim Goes e Oguz N. Babüroglu, publicado por Organization Studies em Janeiro de 2007 de onde retirei:

"Revolutionary change, increasing volatility and blurring of boundaries in many industries have stimulated two lines of extension of the core neoclassical perspective."

Como não pensar logo neste exemplo: "Mayweather e McGregor causam pior fim de semana nas bilheteiras em 16 anos"

"Conflating turbulence with intense competitive challenges reveals two problematic assumptions. One assumption is that strategy is competition, that is, a firm’s key relations with other firms are competitive (or hypercompetitive) and competitive behaviour is directed at other industry players. However, competitive actions may not always be appropriate, and direct effects of competitive actions — as well as unintended higher-order consequences — may not be con- fined to other industry actors. The other assumption is that the competitive ground is considered stable enough for familiar kinds of competitive behaviour, albeit speeded up or more focused.
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The logical conclusion of conflating turbulence with competitive challenges is that ‘the more turbulent the environment the more aggressive must be the firm’s response’. As we discuss below, such ‘proactive’ responses may produce problematic unintended consequences in extended social fields."

Para alguém como eu que tem pavor dos Dick Dastardly que passam a vida a ver motards e que não seguem o meu querido "Live and let live" isto é importante.

Continua.

Dado vs variável

The industrial era was about making products. The post-industrial era is about making customers. Peter Drucker was right @rstraub46

— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) May 15, 2016

Aquele "about making customers" faz-me logo pensar naquela mudança de mindset: o mercado não é um dado, é uma variável. O mercado não existe objectivamente, o mercado é uma construção de uma rede de actores/agentes. Assumir que um mercado existe é assumir uma postura reactiva e perder a oportunidade de fazer a diferença

Não está na altura de organizar as ideias?

"Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t follow the prevailing practices of their industries.
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First, these companies commit to an identity. They avoid getting trapped on a growth treadmill, chasing multiple market opportunities where they have no right to win. Instead, they are clear-minded about what they do best, developing a solid value proposition and building distinctive capabilities that will last for the long term.[Moi ici: Recordar "Focalização, focalização, focalização"]
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Second, many managers assume they should adopt the best practices of their industry and treat external benchmarking as the established path to success. But the companies we studied believe otherwise. They translate the strategic into the everyday. They design and build their own bespoke capabilities that set them apart from other companies. Then they bring those capabilities to scale in their own distinctive ways.[Moi ici: Como proponho às PME, não existem boas práticas "Não existem boas-práticas!!!" e "Não faz sentido, para uma PME, procurar "ser o melhor""]
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resist disruptive reorganizations and instead put their culture to work. They tap the power of the ingrained thinking and behavior that already exists below the surface in their company, using culture, not structure, to drive change.[Moi ici: Podem ser empresas grandes mas seguem o que proponho às PME, recordar "Do concreto para o abstracto e não o contrário" e comparar com "They tap the power of the ingrained thinking and behavior that already exists below the surface in their company,"]
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Fourth, a conventional company might try to reduce costs across the board by going lean everywhere. But the companies we studied cut costs to grow stronger. They marshal their resources strategically, doubling down on the few capabilities that matter most and pruning back everything else.[Moi ici: Recordar a parte III desta série "Como descobri que não é suficiente optimizar os processos-chave" (Parte I, parte II e parte III)]
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Finally, these companies are not trying to simply become agile. They don’t respond to external change as rapidly as possible. Instead, they shape their future by creating the change they want to see. [Moi ici: Parece difícil para uma PME enveredar pelo que Storbacka e Nenonen chamam de ser market driver em vez de market driven, ou de "scripting markets" recordar as 3 proposições de "Acerca da definição do mercado" e "Scripting markets". No entanto, recordar este caso de sucesso aqui]
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they are focused on the fundamental questions about a company’s strategy, such as: Who do we want to be? What is our chosen value proposition? And they’re just as focused on fundamental questions of execution: What can we do amazingly well that no one else can? What other capabilities do we need to develop? How will we blueprint, build, and scale those capabilities — and put them to use?"

Quantos modelos de negócio tem a funcionar em simultâneo na sua empresa?
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As ginásticas dos últimos anos levaram a sua empresa a jogar em vários tabuleiros em simultâneo? Produz o que parece ser o mesmo tipo de produto quando na realidade produz para diferentes tipos de clientes com exigências e valores diferentes? Expõe os seus produtos em diferentes canais? Os argumentos comerciais que funcionam para um grupo de clientes não resultam com outros grupos? Uns clientes preferem uma relação transaccional e valorizam o preço, enquanto outros pedem-lhe para co-construir soluções?
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Não está na altura de organizar as ideias, alinhar negócios e fazer batota com o resultado da reflexão e transformação?
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Será que podemos ser parceiros na co-construção dessa transformação?
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Porquê nós?

Trechos retirados de "5 Ways to Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap"

"Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once." (parte II)

Parte I.
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Ainda ontem à noite na ETV ia tendo uma coisinha má ao ouvir propostas de engenharia para aumentar os preços do leite, sempre agarradas a vários acrónimos de programas da União Europeia.
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O que tem acontecido ao número de produtores de leite e de carne nas últimas décadas em todo o mundo?
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Redução, concentração do número de produtores e aumento da quantidade produzida.

"Em 1993, existiam em Portugal cerca de 84000 produtores de leite; Em 2010 restavam apenas 8400. ... Ao logo de décadas, a desistência de produtores foi compensada pelo aumento de dimensão das explorações que permaneceram e da produtividade por animal."
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"Começou com 40 vacas do pai num terreno de 30 hectares ("era propriedade do meu bisavô"). Agora, dirige uma exploração modelar mecanizada e informatizada com 560 animais, que dá trabalho directo a 4 homens e produz cerca de sete mil litros por dia." (fonte)

No Reino Unido o mesmo filme:

"Last year alone more than 40 dairy farmers in Wales quit the industry, with many fearing that their livelihoods were simply no longer sustainable.
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Some 9,960 dairy farmers in England and Wales have left the industry since 2002, with 60 farmers giving up milk production in December alone in the face of falling prices." (fonte)

"In June 2007, the UK dairy herd was estimated at two million animals. Since 1995, the number of UK dairy farms has fallen by around 43 per cent, but average herd sizes have actually risen during this time from 71 cows in 1994 to 92 animals in 2004. Similarly, average milk yields have also risen from 5,299 litres per cow in 1994 to 6,770 litres per cow in 2005 (figures from Defra). Future trends suggest herds will get larger with fewer farmers staying in the industry." (fonte)

 Em França o mesmo filme:

"The number of dairy farmers is forecast to drop by 70 per cent by 2015, coupled with an increase in the number of cow per farm as the industry moves away from the traditional family unit." (fonte)

Vamos introduzir um pouco de pensamento estratégico pragmático:

Os produtores começam na primeira casa e à pergunta "Existe uma vantagem competitiva?" respondem logo:

- Não!!!

E seguem a vida intuitiva, a via do senso comum, a via do século XX. Tenho de crescer para baixar os custos unitários e poder ser competitivo pelo preço.
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Esta via é honesta, é legítima e alguém tem de a seguir. No entanto, não haja ilusões é a via da selva dos números, da crueza das commodities.
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99,9% dos produtores segue esta via. Como o consumo agregado de leite e seus derivados tende a baixar com a evolução demográfica, quanto mais um produtor cresce em produção, mais um outro tem de desaparecer, daí os números do filme lá de cima.
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E é esta pressão medonha que leva a esta situação "Près de 10 % des élevages sont « au bord du dépôt de bilan », selon Stéphane Le Foll" (Imaginem um ministro francês com tomates para dizer esta verdade, nem Jaime Silva conseguiu)
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O que pode um produtor retirar da mensagem da parte I?
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Sim, eu sei, há anos que escrevo aqui que "o leite é a commodity alimentar por excelência"
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Conhecem aquela frase "Se eu lhes der amendoins, vou ter macacos!". Se eu lhes der uma commodity como posso esperar que eles queiram tratar o meu produto como se não fosse uma commodity?
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Um produtor X, e escrevo um porque esta é uma decisão pessoal, resolve olhar para aquela figura lá de cima e pensar. Será que posso criar mercado? Será que posso influenciar o mercado? Será que tenho de me submeter ao mercado que existe? (Ele não sabe mas está a precisar de ler Nenonen e Storbacka sobre scripting markets)
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Num acto de loucura, quebra o molde mental onde foi enformado, e descobre que a sua missão não é alimentar todo o mundo, descobre que a sua missão não é produzir mais do que o vizinho, sob pena do vizinho ser mais competitivo no preço que ele, a sua missão é produzir carne ou leite que clientes apreciem e estejam dispostos a sustentar o seu negócio de livre vontade.
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Então, resolve responder à primeira pergunta com um sim! Depois, acrescenta para si mesmo:

"Ainda não tenho mas vou ter e quando a tiver vou ter um oceano azul por minha conta em vez de tentar apenas sobreviver num tanque infestado de tubarões."

 Ao comunicar a sua ideia radical à família, alguém lhe diz:

"Li num blogue escrito por um gajo anónimo da província, que existe uma coisa chamada a polarização do mercado. Todos os produtores estão, há décadas, a fugir do mercado do meio-termo para o low-cost comoditizado, onde entram numa guerra infernal entre si. Quantos é que estão a fugir do mercado do meio-termo para cima, para o da diferenciação, para o da autenticidade?"

Que diferenciação pode um produtor criar que seja valorizada não pela massa, mas por um nicho? (Ele não sabe, nem o contabilista que lhe ajuda nas contas, mas precisa de ler Marn e Rosiello. Precisa de saber que se seguir a via da diferenciação, reduz os custos e o  risco da quantidade por um lado, e aumenta o lucro porque pratica preços mais interessantes)
Que outras fontes de receita pode um produtor conseguir além da produção?
Quem serão os seus clientes-alvo? Há mercado para leite integral?
Há mercado para espécies menos eficientes mas autóctones? Nunca esquecer o exemplo das irmãs psicólogas no deserto de Aragão.
Posso vender directamente ao consumidor? Quanto me custa ter as autorizações para o fazer?
Posso vender visitas de estudo de escolas à exploração?
Posso vender refeições na quinta com produtos retirados da horta por indicação do cliente, como se escolhesse os peixes ou crustáceos numa marisqueira?
Posso vender o aluguer da terra e o trabalho para cultivar os legumes, como se fosse um jogo do FB?
Talvez a mudança tenha de ser feita por tentativa-e-erro, até encontrar o que funciona.
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Qual a alternativa a não fazer esta mudança? Continuar no duelo até que no final só exista um produtor.
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Será que vai avante com a mudança?
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A maioria desiste, vende o negócio.
Outros adiam o inevitável lutando por mais subsídios e apoios.
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Só uma minoria desesperada:

"To play by David's rules you have to be desperate. You have to be so bad that you have no choice."

 Arrisca mudar de vida, sair da sua zona de conforto. Deixar de vender quantidade e passar a vender experiências.
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E agora, para terminar em grande com um termo da moda, fazer da exploração uma plataforma de negócios que alimentam uma marca em vez de vomitar quantidade industrial.

Continua.

Cuidado com os fantasmas turísticos

Este artigo "Turismo de Portugal e INE vão estudar perfil dos turistas internacionais" deixa-me com um misto de sentimentos contraditórios.

"O primeiro passo passará por um inquérito ao turismo internacional, no período entre 2015 e 2016, para compreender aspectos como o perfil demográfico, gastos e motivos de deslocação dos visitantes estrangeiros e dos nacionais que viajam além-fronteiras.
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ainda faltam indicadores para conhecer melhor a procura e o seu impacto na economia nacional e, posteriormente, adoptar novas políticas."

Informação estatística é boa para perceber o impacte macro do que se está a fazer. No entanto, é perigosa para os actores da micro-economia que não fazem a sua parte, ou que acreditam em modelos do século XX.
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Em "Customer satisfaction in tourist destination: The case of tourism offer in the city of Naples" de Valentina Della Corte, Mauro Sciarelli, Clelia Cascella, Giovanna Del Gaudio, publicado por Journal of Investment and Management 2015; 4(1-1): 39-50 pode ler-se

"The importance of emotions in the consumer behavior models has increased significantly during the last few years.
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the experiential approach focuses on the affective and emotional component of the consumption process. The concept of “experience” is strictly connected with the entertainment aspect and implies the consumer participation and interaction during the product/service creation. Building an experience means bring the product/service to life and underline its identity through the sensorial involvement of the consumer.
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customer satisfaction can depend on a series of elements that belong to the subjective sphere of the customer and to the objective quality of the product/service experienced.
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Indeed, it can be easily noticed that the contemporary tourist wants to live a unique experience and is not interested anymore in purchasing a standardized product/service: in order to meet the new needs of the demand, the tourist destinations must give top priority to the achievement of tourist satisfaction."

Um mundo de emoções, de subjectividade, de experiências, de particular.
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Qual é o problema da estatística num mundo de emoções?

"Appealing to mass markets usually results in dilution of experience because it needs to appeal to the lowest common denominator."

Os fantasmas estatísticos, a miudagem.
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Ainda, nas palavras de Lior Arussy em "Passionate and profitable : why customer strategies fail and ten steps to do them right":

"Companies that seek lasting, sustainable, differentiating attributes must reexamine their employees’ experiences to determine how to build human driven attributes into their value proposition consistently. This goes beyond the tired old story of the one employee who dared to break the rules. This is about building an entire operation of rule breakers. It requires a different culture and conditions for such behavior to be nourished and cultivated.
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[Moi ici: Depois, acerca do efeito das médias e da estatística] "*When you view different customers differently, you can create better, more suitable experiences for customers, as opposed to sinking to the lowest common denominator. *Customized services based on emotions and aspirations should allow you better connection and communication with customers. *There are more opportunities out there to deliver more value (and charge for it) to customers. *Viewing your business from the customer’s perspective opens up new ideas for additional services."

Continuo a crer que a maioria dos empresários do sector ou, pelo menos, os que têm acesso mais facilitado aos media, continuam com o locus de controlo no exterior. Então o governo é que tem de decidir se quer um turismo de qualidade ou não?
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À espera de uma promoção feita pelo governo que nunca poderá fazer por eles aquilo que só eles podem fazer, deixar de serem market-driven e passarem a ser market driving, sim, passarem a procurar moldar e criar o seu próprio mercado, não focando-se na objectividade mas nas experiências dos turistas, dos clientes... scripting markets.
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"INE e Turismo de Portugal cooperam para conhecer melhor os turistas"