É preciso passar da reacção à transformação (parte IV)

Parte I, Parte II e Parte III.

Já depois de escrever a Parte III li um artigo que parece retirado deste blogue, desde os seus primeiros anos, "Winning the Right Customers Isn’t Just a Sales Issue" de Scott Edinger (Harvard Business Review, Maio de 2025)"

"If you’re trying to lead growth of any kind, from revenue to margin expansion, it’s critical that your sales organization has a clear understanding of your go-to-market strategy. Here are three areas to focus on to ensure your sales team not...

Does your organization sell what you want, to whom you want, the way you want? Or do you have too many instances of selling whatever you can, to whomever you can, however you can? If your strategy is built on winning in specific target markets with solutions you’ve invested in to drive high-margin growth, the latter approach undermines that focus.

It’s easy to point to the skills (or lack thereof) of your sales team as the cause of the problem. There are always opportunities for sellers to improve the way they interact with customers and prospects. But not winning enough of the right customers, selling what you’ve prioritized and invested most in, at the prices you need, is a leadership and strategy issue, not only a sales issue."

A maioria das equipas de vendas não entende a estratégia. Os executivos avaliam a compreensão da estratégia de entrada no mercado em 6,4 em 10, mas as equipas de vendas avaliam-na em apenas 3,7. Esta discrepância é perigosa, pois cada interacção comercial representa a aplicação (ou falha) da estratégia no mercado.

O autor aponta três áreas-chave para alinhar vendas com estratégia:

• Evitar os clientes errados. 

"Everyone knows you can’t be everything to everyone. Yet sales teams often pursue suboptimal opportunities. How many times have you wondered why time, money, and energy were being spent on acquiring or serving clients that are not a great fit for your company?

Get clear with your sales leaders and teams about the kinds of business you expect them to pursue, and just as importantly, not pursue, by aligning your strategy with actions your sales teams can execute. Communicate precisely and in detail about your ideal client profile, including industry, size and scale, and circumstances.

• Identificar os tipos de clientes que não queremos servir para focar os esforços nos que realmente trazem valor.

"For each of your prospect or client types, there are likely a handful of reasons why they will choose you over competing alternatives. Help your sales team understand specifically what advantages you expect them to focus on during their interactions with prospects and customers. Make sure they're clear on your company's points of greatest value and differentiation, including a deep understanding of the kinds of client issues and objectives that lead to your premium offerings and the solutions you've invested most in creating. Absent this level of understanding, sellers will default to talking about what they're most comfortable and familiar with-often a laundry list of features and benefits."

• Reconhecer que a experiência de venda é parte essencial da experiência do cliente

“The sales experience also accounts for 25% or more of the decision to work with your organization.”

Ou seja, a experiência de compra é determinante e pode pesar mais do que marca ou serviço na decisão do cliente.

Isto reforça uma verdade fundamental: dizer não a alguns tipos de cliente é essencial para dizer sim ao crescimento certo. Focar-se nos clientes certos é uma escolha estratégica, não apenas uma opção comercial.

"the Age of Diverse Markets" (parte IV)

 Parte I, parte II e parte III.

"market mapping—matching customers to the relationships that they should have, not necessarily to the relationships that they initially want.[Moi ici: Quantas empresas não consideram esta segmentação? Lembro-me de ser responsável da Qualidade e Desenvolvimentos numa empresa. A minha equipa fazia desenvolvimentos de receitas para clientes que, depois, iam comprar a matéria-prima à concorrência]

...

In targeting accounts for these relationships, the team found four key factors: (1) the amount of the potential profits at stake; (2) the operating fit; (3) the account’s willingness and ability to partner; and (4) the account’s buyer behavior (that is, relationship versus transactional). The team also saw that it needed to define a small number of alternative relationships—which we call a relationship hierarchy—for accounts for whom full integration did not fit.

...

The decision on who wins big and who gets pushed out is almost always determined by a supplier’s go-to-market capabilities—namely, the ability to choose its customers, to produce more essential customer value through an innovative value footprint, and to create new profits and strategic advantage for the customers.

The overriding management issue is that this change in business eras is creating a critical need for a shift from broad-market targeting to focused-segment—and even customer—selection. In today’s Age of Diverse Markets, “choose your customer” is the most important theme.

...

In the Age of Mass Markets, product prices and cost to serve were relatively uniform from customer to customer. In today’s Age of Diverse Markets, all this has changed: prices and cost to serve vary widely from customer to customer, and even within a customer. Transaction-based profit metrics and analytics allow managers to see exactly where they are making money and where they are losing it—and this detailed understanding of customer, product, and process profitability enables managers to create sharply focused and highly effective initiatives."

 

E a sua empresa, escolhe os clientes? Segmenta as relações com diferentes tipos de clientes?

Trechos retirados de “Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive” de Jonathan S. Byrnes

"Start moving in some general direction"

Em 2014 desenhei esta figura para o postal "3 momentos na evolução do sector do calçado"

Sábado ao ler "Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970-2008" de Ryan Raffaelli, publicado por Administrative Science Quarterly 1–43 (2018) encontrei este outro gráfico:

A introdução merece ser aqui registada por incluir tópicos queridos a este blogue:

"This article uses a study of the Swiss mechanical watch industry to build theory about how a legacy technology, instead of being supplanted by a new dominant design as current theory would predict, is able to reemerge and achieve new market growth. The introduction of the battery-powered quartz watch in the 1970s made mechanical watches largely obsolete, but by 2008 the Swiss mechanical watchmaking industry had rematerialized to become the world’s leading exporter (in monetary value) of watches.
...
Watchmakers redefined and combined values of craftsmanship, luxury, and precision to create new meanings and values for mechanical watch technology; repositioned the mechanical watch as an identity and status marker; temporally distanced themselves from the period of the discontinuous quartz technology by recalling their founding and more successful past and connecting it to the future; and used conceptual bridges such as analogies and metaphors to help employees and consumers understand the new meanings. They redefined market boundaries by reclaiming the competitive set, rebuilding the community of mechanical watchmakers, and mobilizing groups of enthusiast consumers who valued the mechanical watch. For mechanical watchmakers, reemergence culminated in competitive and consumer differentiation that ushered in reinvestment in innovation and substantive and sustained demand growth for the legacy technology."

E recordo uma frase citada aqui no blogue pela primeira vez em 2013:

"When something is commoditized, an adjacent market becomes valuable" 

"Schumpeter (1934) argued that the forces of creative destruction overturn existing market structures and force the dismantling of old technologies, as well as their applications in products, processes, and practices. For decades, scholars have linked industry evolution to technology cycles in which a dominant technology is displaced by a new one that initiates a new regime. Prevailing theory emphasizes technological displacement, assuming that older technologies disappear when newer ones arrive: ‘‘The dying technology provides the compost, which allows its own seeds, its own variants, to grow and thrive’’.
.
Yet displacement is not inevitable. Market demand for some legacy technologies—products such as sailing ships, vinyl records, fountain pens, and streetcars—declined and then reemerged. This study examines the possibility that demand for some legacy technologies may not die away but persist in a generative form that permits sizeable market expansion. Existing scholarship, however, leaves little room for a legacy technology in a field or industry to reemerge. [Moi ici: Como não recordar a tríade]
...
this paper examines how a legacy technology, and the organizations and community that support it, achieves substantive and sustained market growth following the introduction of a new dominant design."

O artigo merece mais uns comentários, mas para já voltemos ao calçado e à situação actual. Quer pela comoditização da sua posição baseada na flexibilidade e rapidez, quer pela deterioração do actual modelo de negócio, as empresas precisam de voltar a fazer como os soldados com o mapa falso, meter os pés ao caminho, e descobrir/construir o caminho.

Heterogeneidade dos mercados (parte II)

Em "Heterogeneidade dos mercados" sublinhámos, com o exemplo da China, que se pode ser muito bom a produzir e a exportar um produto e, no entanto, precisar de importar esse produto para outra segmento de mercado.

Outro exemplo que poderia ter utilizado no texto inicial é o do mobiliário. Portugal exporta mobiliário caro, e importa mobiliário barato.

Um outro exemplo que acrescento agora é "Fast Fashion Must be High-End to Compete in China". Podemos logo relacionar o título com o exemplo do calçado. Os chineses produzem calçado barato, não precisam de importar calçado barato. Daí que o preço médio de um par de sapatos importado pela China é substancialmente superior ao preço médio do calçado importado por países como a Alemanha, França ou a Holanda:

Voltando ao artigo sobre a fast fashion na China:

"While overseas fast fashion brands were quick to enter the Chinese market, they’ve had a hard time competing with local online retailers on websites like Tmall and Taobao. Chinese tastes have also shifted toward more elevated options, which offers an opportunity to high-end, fast fashion brands but hurts entry-level fast fashion. McKinsey & Company’s research suggests that more than 75 percent of China’s urban consumers will enter the middle-class bracket by 2022.
...
“Chinese consumers have easy access to a variety of home-grown and affordable fashion brands online that pose a bigger challenge to brands like H&M and Zara,” says Ray Ju, the New York-based senior consultant of the global brand consultancy Labbrand. As this consumer steps into a new bracket, they are looking for new options that they can’t already find online: clothing with an affordable price point but with higher quality and design.
.
Local customers have shown waning interest in fast fashion in recent years, complaining about bad quality and uncompetitive prices compared to local brands on Taobao."

A minha primeira lei sobre a concorrência?

Perante este tweet dei logo resposta:

O artigo é este, "O curioso caso dos patrões portugueses que não querem um mercado liberalizado" e para quem não conhece a 1ª Lei de Arroja:

"Primeira Lei Arroja da Concorrência: “A concorrência é boa e desejável em todos os sectores de actividade, excepto no nosso”

Pensar que as empresas são todas iguais... come on.

Recordar:

• A mentalidade socialista (não confundir com os partidos) (Maio de 2010)
• Politicamente incorrecto (Abril de 2014)
• Curiosidade do dia (Outubro de 2016)

Neste blogue há uma lei para as empresas grandes de um sector económico (2014):

"Recordar qual é a primeira lei,  quando uma empresa grande pretende livrar-se de concorrentes sem os comprar?
.
Aumentar as barreiras legais e regulamentares!"

Daqui (2010):

"Qual é a minha primeira lei sobre a concorrência? Quando um mercado está saturado, a primeira via para eliminar concorrência é aumentar as barreiras burocráticas," 

Intuição estratégica

Interessante como responsáveis de livrarias pequenas têm uma intuição estratégica muito mais afinada do que muito doutor e engenheiro em empresas grandes, "‘Amazon doesn’t play with the kids’: why booksellers are beating the odds":

"Books and bookshops are on the up. Sales of printed books have risen for the fourth successive year; sales of ebooks are falling; and, perhaps most encouraging of all, despite two recent high-profile store closures, the number of independent bookshops is growing again after decades of decline. Books – and readers who want to experience bookshops, rather than buy from Amazon – are not dead. The physical world lives on.
...
Most of the independents who responded are positive, although some are having to diversify to stay afloat. One has opened a tea room, while another I spoke to has closed her shop but plans to start selling children’s books from a boat. A would-be bookseller in Olney, Buckinghamshire, has bought a bus and hopes to sell children’s books from that. Shops are expensive to run, so bibliophiles are using their ingenuity."

"acha que uma PME consegue?"

Nem as empresas com dinheiro e protecção governamental se safam quando não estão focadas, quando escolheram ser tudo para todos e estar em todo o lado.

Isto a propósito de "Air France plans to cut almost 500 jobs on ‘fierce’ competition":

"Air France blamed increased competition from high speed rail and low-cost airlines as it announced 500 job cuts and said it would downsize its short haul operations.
.
The airline said on Monday it would implement 465 voluntary redundancies over the next year. It also announced plans to cut its domestic network capacity by 15 per cent by 2021.
.
The move comes as the carrier, part of the Air France-KLM group, looks to deal with “extremely fierce competition” in the sector."

Se empresas com dinheiro e consultores pagos a peso de ouro não conseguem, acha que uma PME consegue?

Quem são os clientes-alvo? Qual a proposta de valor?

Quem lida com o extremo da cadeia, tem um trunfo

De "5 Ways to Know Your Customer Better Than Your Competitors Do" sublinho:

"Step 1: Spend Time Talking to the End UserMost businesses classify themselves as business-to-business (b2b) operations, meaning they don’t sell to the end users of their product. Yet these businesses would benefit from interacting personally with the end users.
.
Take YouTube. ...

While the YouTube team knows it is critical to be well-connected to the needs of the “business” customers who pay them, they also spend time directly with their end users, attending events like the annual VidCon conference.
...
Step 2: Spend More Time with the Customer Than Your CompetitionWhen it comes to understanding your customers, spending quality time with them is important—but spending “quantity time” matters even more. Decision makers who spend enough time seeing the day-to-day lives and challenges of their customers have a level of understanding that staged drop-ins cannot provide. In addition, they get the “credit” that comes from being the supplier that is willing to walk in its customers’ shoes.
...
Step 3: Watch Consumers Buy Your Product Before consumers can use your products, they usually have to purchase them. There are many insights that can be gained from watching consumers as they attempt to do this.
...
Step 4: Watch Consumers Use Your ProductObserving consumers as they use your product or receive your service is the perfect chance to understand which features create value, which ones are never used, and which ones actually get in the way.
...
Step Five: Engage End Users as Product Designers Finally, consider putting your customers to work. Stop seeing them as research subjects and instead begin to see them as partners in product development.
...
A Word of WarningToday, businesses have more data than ever. While this is in many ways a great thing, it also creates a dangerous temptation to spend hours and hours analyzing spreadsheets, and runs the risk of confusing quantification for true understanding.
.
Big consumer firms are experiencing the dangerous downside of being insulated from the consumer."

Uma provocação para todos os que esquecem os "end users".

Recordar "Alinhamento":

"The value proposition of the overall supply chain is the same as that of the company that is facing the end customer."

Quem estuda, quem interage com o end-user tem um trunfo importante!

"your single most important decision as an entrepreneur"

“Remember that this is your single most important decision as an entrepreneur: Who are you going to serve? What market are you going to enter? It’s worth spending time here. In the end, your future business will be all the better for it because you took the time to scrutinize your ideas from every angle and eliminate the ones that won’t lead to a viable market choice. Be committed to the tightest, strongest business idea possible. If you do this, you’re setting yourself up to be that much more likely to succeed.
...
choosing your market isn’t like choosing what froyo flavor you want in your cup. This decision creates many more ripples in your life, and knowing that tends to drum up some profound emotions at both ends of the spectrum. In the entrepreneurial world, we don’t like to talk about this much because it feels like inviting or admitting weakness, but the reality is that entrepreneurship is emotional. I don’t want to be one who downplays your emotions as you come to this big decision.”

Trechos retirados de “Choose” de Ryan Levesque.

A onda demográfica

A propósito de "Why marketing to seniors is so terrible", um texto sobre o qual muitos marketeiros deviam ler e reflectir:

"If you took your entire view of the human race from primetime advertising alone, you’d see a society without old people. They don’t work, they don’t drink beer, they don’t drive cars."

E recuo a Dezembro de 2006... e recordo este mapa:

Para reflexão

A sua empresa está com problemas?

Talvez valha a pena ler este texto, "When your project isn’t making money". Um texto de Seth Godin, mais longo do que o habitual. Por exemplo:

"(Low price is the last refuge of leadership that doesn’t have the guts to make a great product and tell a true story to the right people)
.
Because you’re selling to the wrong people…Choose your customers, choose your future.
(Some customers want to pay more than others, and some customers want to get more—of something—than others)"

"You 'Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"

Os industrialistas que criaram o século XX, recordar que para mim o século XX começou a 7 de Outubro de 1913 e acabou a 9 de Novembro de 1989. Nunca esquecer que foram os industrialistas que criaram o mercado de massas, para eles as pessoas eram plancton, afinal:

"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

E o século XX tem progressivamente dado lugar a Mongo, essa realidade económica onde todos somos excêntricos.

Mongo revela-se na explosão de segmentos e nichos que nunca parará até chegarmos ao mercado com dimensão 1.

Esta semana dois exemplos. No calçado:

(BTW, sapatos para animais é uma tendência que notei desde que vim morar para Gaia)

E nas parkas:

"“If you think of these brands, the fit and fashion are not the same,” says Weintraub. “They’re all parkas, but put them on and you’ll see some fit tighter, some are puffy, some are slimmer.”
.
They all have personalities, too, he says, adding that the pricey parkas appeal to younger buyers, who are the primary driver of luxury parkas (not to mention the luxury market in general).
.
“We’re seeing a lot of fragmentation in the luxury parka market – the category itself is not a one-size fits all anymore,” he says."

Só posso rematar, tendo aquele "We’re seeing a lot of fragmentation" em mente com:

You 'Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Mongo por todo o lado e em todos os setores

"The traditional power relationship between mass media and markets is eroding. Connected and conversational consumers are less inclined to respond to generic advertising, template websites, poorly designed mobile sites, and flat social signals. As consumer data has become increasingly available and transparent, the idea that demographic data is sufficient has also faltered. In other words, simply targeting the “right” consumer based on zip codes, ages of homes, median income, and other freely available data fails to answer the most important question: Is the customer ready or at least looking for a contractor to install a new heating and cooling system?
.
Pretending that these shifts aren’t happening is a mistake — one that can significantly harm a distributor’s value proposition among contractors. However, distributors can create a market advantage for themselves and their customers by responding to shifts in consumer behaviors as well as providing marketing and advertising options that are aligned with current trends.
...
Traditional marketing and advertising efforts are being challenged by consumers and contractors with new expectations. As Moises Naim wrote, “The decay of power is changing the world.” Distributors who capitalize on this decay recognize it is not simply decay, it’s the emergence of a new set of opportunities. These opportunities will result in marketing and advertising programs that happen faster, more authentically, and creatively. Distributors also need to pay attention to quickly emerging technologies that will reshape the very nature of brand building and lead generation. Those who do will differentiate themselves — and this may simply be a matter of recognizing that the programs that made HVAC contractors successful have become the things that are now holding them back."

O que é que a sua empresa faz para se destacar da manada?

Trechos retirados de "HVACR Distributors Are Becoming Faster, More Authentic Via Differentiation"

Tenho algum receio...

O @nticomuna no Twitter chamou-me a atenção para este desenvolvimento:

O Grupo Aquinos a apostar no mercado do luxo.

Algo que já se poderia pressentir em “Não nos falta mercado, falta é capacidade de produção”:

"depois da aposta na compra do grupo Francês Cauval ter sido gorada, depois das auditorias efetuadas terem revelado “problemas sérios”. “Seria uma aquisição muito importante, para podermos entrar no segmento de mercado de luxo, mas já estamos a trabalhar num plano B”,"

Espero sinceramente que tenham sucesso nesta aposta no luxo. No entanto, tenho algum receio... recordo Skinner e plant-within-the-plant... e Terry Hill.

"conseguir penetrar no mundo Ikea. O seu principal cliente foi “namorado durante muito mais tempo” do que a própria esposa. Foram precisamente cinco anos para obter a primeira encomenda de 750 sofás, isto depois de “na primeira abordagem não me terem ligado nenhuma”. Mas o interesse superior em conquistar este cliente estava no topo das suas prioridades, pois “paga muito bem, tem volume e uma visão que se encaixa muito na nossa, ajudando-nos muito em melhorar a máquina da eficiência”.
.
Atualmente, a Ikea e Conforama absorvem 60‰ das vendas de um grupo que sempre viu os mercados externos com grande potencial para poder crescer." 

O modelo de negócio para servir a Ikea e a Conforama não tem nada a ver com o modelo de negócio para servir o mundo do luxo... recordar os vários mundos.

Uma coisa é uma coisa, outra coisa é outra coisa (parte V)

Parte I, parte II, parte III e parte IV.

"That mismatch has engendered a kind of schizophrenia in the way computer companies view their supply chains. They cling to measures of physical efficiency such as plant capacity utilization and inventory turns because those measures are familiar from their mainframe days. Yet the marketplace keeps pulling them toward measures of responsiveness such as product availability.
.
There is a kind of schizophrenia in the way computer companies view their supply chains.
.
How does a company in the upper right-hand cell overcome its schizophrenia? Either by moving to the left on the matrix and making its products functional or by moving down the matrix and making its supply chain responsive. The correct direction depends on whether the product is sufficiently innovative to generate enough additional profit to cover the cost of making the supply chain responsive.
.
A sure sign that a company needs to move to the left is if it has a product line characterized by frequent introductions of new offerings, great variety, and low profit margins. Toothpaste is a good example. A few years ago, I was to give a presentation to a food industry group. I decided that a good way to demonstrate the dysfunctional level of variety that exists in many grocery categories would be to buy one of each type of toothpaste made by a particular manufacturer and present the collection to my audience. When I went to my local supermarket to buy my samples, I found that 28 varieties were available. A few months later, when I mentioned this discovery to a senior vice president of a competing manufacturer, he acknowledged that his company also had 28 types of toothpaste—one to match each of the rival’s offerings.
.
Does the world need 28 kinds of toothpaste from each manufacturer? Procter & Gamble, which has been simplifying many of its product lines and pricing, is coming to the conclusion that the answer is no. Toothpaste is a product category in which a move to the left—from innovative to functional—makes sense.[Moi ici: Um artigo escrito em 1997. Recordar a evolução para Mongo, cada vez mais gente fora da caixa. E para certas tribos isto é fundamental e não pactuam com a funcionalidade pura e simples]
.
In other cases when a company has an unresponsive supply chain for innovative products, the right solution is to make some of the products functional and to create a responsive supply chain for the remaining innovative products."

Uma coisa é uma coisa, outra coisa é outra coisa (parte IV)

Parte I, parte II e parte III.

"The rate of new-product introductions has skyrocketed in many industries, fueled both by an increase in the number of competitors and by the efforts of existing competitors to protect or increase profit margins. As a result, many companies have turned or tried to turn traditionally functional products into innovative products. But they have continued to focus on physical efficiency in the processes for supplying those products. This phenomenon explains why one finds so many broken supply chains—or unresponsive chains trying to supply innovative products—in industries such as automobiles, personal computers, and consumer packaged goods.
.
Functional products require an efficient process; innovative products, a responsive process."

Trecho retirado de "What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?"

Continua.

Uma coisa é uma coisa, outra coisa é outra coisa (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

"Supply chains in many other industries suffer from an excess of some products and a shortage of others owing to an inability to predict demand. One department store chain that regularly had to resort to markdowns to clear unwanted merchandise found in exit interviews that one-quarter of its customers had left its stores empty-handed because the specific items they had wanted to buy were out of stock.
...
Before devising a supply chain, consider the nature of the demand for your products.
.
The first step in devising an effective supply-chain strategy is therefore to consider the nature of the demand for the products one’s company supplies.
...
if one classifies products on the basis of their demand patterns, they fall into one of two categories: they are either primarily functional or primarily innovative. And each category requires a distinctly different kind of supply chain. The root cause of the problems plaguing many supply chains is a mismatch between the type of product and the type of supply chain.
...
With their high profit margins and volatile demand, innovative products require a fundamentally different supply chain than stable, low-margin functional products do. To understand the difference, one should recognize that a supply chain performs two distinct types of functions: a physical function and a market mediation function. A supply chain’s physical function is readily apparent and includes converting raw materials into parts, components, and eventually finished goods, and transporting all of them from one point in the supply chain to the next. Less visible but equally important is market mediation, whose purpose is ensuring that the variety of products reaching the marketplace matches what consumers want to buy.
...
The predictable demand of functional products makes market mediation easy because a nearly perfect match between supply and demand can be achieved. Companies that make such products are thus free to focus almost exclusively on minimizing physical costs—a crucial goal, given the price sensitivity of most functional products.
...
That approach is exactly the wrong one for innovative products. The uncertain market reaction to innovation increases the risk of shortages or excess supplies. High profit margins and the importance of early sales in establishing market share for new products increase the cost of shortages. And short product life cycles increase the risk of obsolescence and the cost of excess supplies. Hence market mediation costs predominate for these products, and they, not physical costs, should be managers’ primary focus.
...
Although the distinctions between functional and innovative products and between physical efficiency and responsiveness to the market seem obvious once stated, I have found that many companies founder on this issue. That is probably because products that are physically the same can be either functional or innovative."

Trecho retirado de "What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?"

Continua.

Uma coisa é uma coisa, outra coisa é outra coisa (parte II)

Parte I.

"Decide whether your current supply chain is efficient or responsive. Your chain is efficient if you satisfy predictable demand efficiently at the lowest possible cost, turn over inventory frequently, and select suppliers based on cost and quality. It’s responsive if you invest aggressively in reducing lead time for delivery; use standard components for different product versions; and choose suppliers for their speed, flexibility, and quality.
...
Correct mismatches between your supply chain and product. If you’re using an efficient supply chain to sell innovative products, or a responsive supply chain to sell functional products, you’ve got a mismatch. You can correct it through several means:
.
Change your product.
...
Change your supply chain."

Trecho retirado de "What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?"

Continua.

Uma coisa é uma coisa, outra coisa é outra coisa

Um texto de 1997 mas que continua actual. Aliás, com o advento de Mongo julgo que é ainda mais actual. Também pode servir de base a uma reflexão sobre o que automatizar, num avanço para a Indústria 4.0:

"Are you frequently saddled with excess inventory? Do you suffer product shortages that have customers leaving stores in a huff? Do these supply chain headaches persist despite your investments in technologies such as automated warehousing and rapid logistics?
.
If so, you may be using the wrong supply chain for the type of product you sell. Suppose your offering is functional—it satisfies basic, unchanging needs and has a long life cycle, low margins, and stable demand. (Think paper towels or light bulbs.) In this case, you need an efficient supply chain—which minimizes production, transportation, and storage costs.
.
But what if your product is innovative—it has great variety, a short life cycle, high profit margins, and volatile demand? (A line of laptops with a range of novel features is one example.) For this offering, you require a responsive supply chain. Fast and flexible, it helps you manage uncertainty through strategies such as cutting lead times and establishing inventory or excess-capacity buffers."

BTW, na semana passada ao olhar para os indicadores de uma empresa que engloba tudo e não distingue os dois tipos de cadeia de valor percebi o dilema que sentem ao meter no mesmo âmbito de análise:

• nível de serviço (associado a tempo de resposta);
• nível de stock (associado a stock não movimentado há mais de x meses)

Trecho retirado de "What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?"

Continua.

"Demand windows create opportunities to drive better targeting and engagement along the path to purchase"

Acerca dos clientes-alvo e da sua caracterização:

"The notion of a typical consumer, one whose gender, age, ethnicity, and zip code can be used to make reasonably accurate assumptions about purchasing behavior, is a thing of the past.
...
Many consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories now consist of hundreds of brands, and new niche products launch every week. People can shop at supermarkets, warehouse stores, convenience stores, and a huge array of e-commerce sites. And there are far more ways for marketers to engage with shoppers, including mobile apps and social media.
.
Given this complexity, it’s more critical than ever for brands to find consumers in the moment. Doing so requires a more integrated view of what drives choice, one that isn’t tied to one-dimensional demographics or a narrowly defined need. Companies have to combine a deep knowledge of who is shopping, and when, and where, and why, with an understanding of the emotional and functional benefits of their products.
.
As you make those connections, you gain insight about specific situations, or demand windows, in which consumers want or need to make a purchase. These windows open and close based on different factors at different times.[Moi ici: Diferentes JBTD]
...
Context is everything.
.
Demand windows create opportunities to drive better targeting and engagement along the path to purchase by more directly linking brand, consumer, channel, and occasion

...
To implement a strategy based on demand windows, start with the following three steps:
.
1. Identify your ideal windows. Any given product has a long list of potential demand windows, but only a select few are the right choice for your company. The winnowing process begins with a clear understanding of your company’s own capabilities.
...
2. Tailor your sales and marketing approach. A detailed understanding of demand windows allows you to engage consumers in a way that a company using old segmentation approaches cannot.
...
3. Innovate to create new products and services. Beyond improving marketing strategies for current products, demand windows can help companies develop new products.
...
In a crowded field, demand windows enable companies to find the consumers who are most likely to want or need their brand. Rather than offering quick wins, they can help companies develop a more sustainable source of competitive advantage that will bring growth and profitability."

Aquela tecla de que se calhar não são os clientes-alvo como entidades de per si mas os contextos, as situações em que se encontram, os trabalhos que procuram que conta para trabalhar a procura. Recordar: "it is the situation rather than the customer"

Trechos retirados de "Connecting the Dots from Brand to Demand"