"The Jeep Mud Masks "contain exactly what a true offroad adventurer is missing in the city: 100 percent real dirt, as an expression of the desire to escape the daily grind and search for new adventures far off the beaten track,""Uma brincadeira...
"By 2045 one-third of the workforce could be self-employedConseguem imaginar como muitos deputados classificariam estas afirmações?
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The most important change is that people are finding a way to keep working in a meaningful way beyond the traditional retirement age
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70% of the people who have become self-employed during the past three years are over 50 years old
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The personal finance industry (banks) is decades out of date in accommodating these changes
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Profound changes in the way we work are far outstripping the the ability of political parties to respond
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1/ We have to become better at finding customers and handling our personal finances
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2/ we have to understand that we don’t live in a world of employers and employees any more
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3/ We have to understand the world of running a business better because we are going to run one, however small, at one time or another
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We are so attached to the idea of getting and keeping a job that we don’t grasp the scale and speed of changes with which work is changing
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Many of the people who become self-employed are in effect under-employed. They are working fewer hours than the they would like
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The drivers that have not been understood: the shift to services means much less predictability than in manufacturing
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The growing service industries need flexible labour. The shrinking ones are based on predictability and fixed labor
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Work is getting more creative. In creative and cultural industries it is normal for people to work for themselves and not for an employer."
"Ao contrário da ciência clássica, a economia é uma ciência que depende do tempo, tal como no futebol, o que é verdade hoje amanhã é mentira. O que é verdade numa época fica obsoleto no momento seguinte."
"Some protozoa infect the brain of their host, shaping its behavior in ways most suited to the pathogen, even if it leads to the suicide of the host"Recordar o paralelismo que faço entre a biologia e a economia.
"A Têxtil Nortenha, que chegou a empregar mais de mil pessoas e a facturar perto de 50 milhões de euros, dobrou o cabo das tormentas do sector e passou a dedicar-se em exclusivo à exportação. Tem 100 trabalhadores e facturou 9,5 milhões de euros no ano passado."Vamos simplificar e usar mil pessoas para uma facturação de 50 milhões de euros: facturação por trabalhador de 50 000 euros.
"The reality is that the Internet has done more than create the potential for simple price comparison – it has unshackled shoppers from the tyranny of ‘one size fits all’. Shoppers are free break up their shop and spend their time and money where they get value. The discounter may happily supply those categories that the shopper cares little for, an online specialist perhaps to pick up something unique and interesting, and a high street specialist for a category where expertize and service are desired.E a sua empresa em que campeonato está?
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What is both challenging and exciting about this for the consumer goods and retail businesses is that this won’t be the same for everyone. Over simplifications such as ‘shoppers are driven by price’ are simply not good enough and not true. Shoppers are people, and are far more complex. Price might be all I care about when it comes to buying shampoo, but for coffee I’m a little more discerning, for example. But some of my colleagues would be the exact opposite. The challenge for consumer marketers, shopper marketers and trade marketers is to recognize this. Not to try and be all things to every shopper, however. Rather, to focus on the consumers that are key. To focus on the shoppers that will be key to driving future sales and profit, and to build an understanding of how these target shoppers use different channels for different categories. Generic models and generalizations simply won’t help your brand or store win."
"Sobre a “fórmula Lego”, o Financial Times (FT) dá a receita: pega-se num quilo de plástico que custa menos que um dólar, transforma-se em conjuntos de peças baseadas na saga Star Wars ou Hobbit e apresenta-se depois o produto ao consumidor final, por aproximadamente 75 dólares por quilo."
"Denmark’s Lego A/S reported a 31% increase in full-year net profit on strong revenue growth,Parece uma trajectória à la Apple.
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The closely held toy maker said net profit came to 9.2 billion Danish kroner in 2015 ($1.34 billion), compared with 7.0 billion kroner in 2014. Revenue jumped 25% to 35.8 billion kroner, while operating profit grew 26% to 12.2 billion kroner.
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Mattel's 2015 revenue fell 5% from the previous year, and the company posted a 26% decline in its net profit to $369.4 million."
"“We give you the strength of metal for the cost of plastics,”É claro que as impressoras 3D de hoje não vão acabar já amanhâ com a injecção, o ponto aqui é entrar e começar a brincar.
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The printer costs $5,000 and is being used by at least one automotive manufacturer to make parts for the machines that make cars
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“Our long-term goal is to replace injection molding,”"
"António Nogueira Leite reafirmou os objectivos do Fórum Oceano, que quer dinamizar a indústria do mar em Portugal, tendo apontado "a legislação excessiva" como um dos principais constrangimentos para o crescimento da economia do mar."Trecho retirado de "Nogueira Leite: "França é um exemplo" para a indústria do mar portuguesa"
"Too many salespeople confine themselves to an established budget. Think return-on-investment, make it a financial decision and not a product decision. That’s how the CEO or CFO view their decision. If you have a profit angle, they want to hear it. If you have a product story, they will defer to others.Efeitos de 2ª ordem.
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There is a good chance that a fat, dumb and happy incumbent is not paying attention to the economics of their customer’s business. What is happening with their topline growth? What are the trends? What are the keys to their growth strategies? Are they growing their business profitably? Are they efficient and growing operating margins at desired levels? How would your total solution drive revenue growth so critical to executive management? The more you know about these issues, the stronger your message will be as you gain the attention of the economic decision makers. If you answer these questions, you will positon yourself as a salesperson there to solve problems, someone who is focused on profitability.
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Of course, you need to understand how your “total solution” will impact profitability."
"Special discounts and price promotions - two standard forms of price cuts - are an everyday occurrence in retail , but they seem to occur with increasing frequency and depth. In recent years, promotions accounted for 50 % of beer sales in one of the world’s largest beer markets. Just two years later, some 70% of all beer sales at the retail level came on special offer, with discounts as high as 50 %. Whether driven by opportunity or perceived necessity, this is clear evidence that managers think that aggressive prices help their business. But is this really true?"Entretanto, assistimos ao crescimento da cerveja artesanal, mais cara:
"o impacto positivo das exportações sobre as finanças públicas é muito baixo. O Estado ganha mais quando os produtos das empresas são vendidos internamente, por meio de impostos sobre o consumo, do que quando são vendidos no exterior. Logo, a opção por privilegiar a correcção da dívida externa põe em causa a prossecução dos outros dois objectivos: crescimento do emprego e finanças públicas."Portanto, o ISCTE é uma escola que molda futuros profissionais neste modelo mental.
"Success Factors for an Ultra-low Price StrategyIt is still unclear whether companies can sustainably generate adequate profits with ultra-low price strategies. Nonetheless, the success factors for such a strategy are quite clear:
1. Think “simple yet robust”: A company must strip down a product to the bare essentials, but without making it too primitive or rendering it dysfunctional.
2. Develop locally: The company must develop the product in emerging markets; that is the only way to guarantee that it meets the customer requirements in the ultra-low price segment.
3. Lock in lowest cost production: This requires the right design and the ability to manufacture in the lowest wage locations which still ensure adequate productivity.
4. Apply new marketing and sales approaches: These will also require keeping costs as low as possible, even if that means forgoing traditional channels and approaches.
5. “Easy to use, easy to fix”: These two aspects are of paramount importance, because customers may lack the background to understand complicated functionality and service providers may lack the resources to make anything but the most basic repairs or adjustments.
6. Provide consistent quality: Sustained success is only possible if the quality of ultra-low price products is not only adequate, but above all consistent.
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The key challenge in the ultra-low price segment is to find an acceptable level of value to customer which will attract enough buyers and still keep costs at extremely low levels."
"What is wrong with the economies of the West—and with economics? It depends on whether we are talking about the good or the just.Trechos retirados de "What Is Wrong with the West’s Economies?"
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In the classical models I have been describing, no one is trying to think up something new (except perhaps new profitable investments) and no one is attempting to create it. There is no conception of human agency, only responses to wages, interest rates, and wealth. The economy is mechanical, robotic. The crops may be growing, but there is no personal growth.
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Such classical models are basic to today’s standard economics. This economics, despite its sophistication in some respects, makes no room for economies in which people are imagining new products and using their creativity to build them. What is most fundamentally “wrong with economics” is that it takes such an economy to be the norm—to be “as good as it gets.” The cost is that elements of the Western economies are becoming products of this basically classical economics, which has little place for creativity and imagination.
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Since around 1970, or earlier in some cases, most of the continental Western European economies have come to resemble more completely the mechanical model of standard economics. Most companies are highly efficient.
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How might Western nations gain—or regain—widespread prospering and flourishing? Taking concrete actions will not help much without fresh thinking: people must first grasp that standard economics is not a guide to flourishing—it is a tool only for efficiency.
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We will all have to turn from the classical fixation on wealth accumulation and efficiency to a modern economics that places imagination and creativity at the center of economic life."
"When executives say transformation what do they really mean? Often, the word confuses three fundamentally different categories of effort.Trechos retirados de "What Do You Really Mean by Business “Transformation”?"
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The first is operational, or doing what you are currently doing, better, faster, or cheaper.
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The next category of usage focuses on the operational model. Also called core transformation, this involves doing what you are currently doing in a fundamentally different way.
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The final usage, and the one that has the most promise and peril, is strategic. This is transformation with a capital “T” because it involves changing the very essence of a company.
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Defining what leaders mean when they drop the word transformation matters, because these different classes of efforts need to be measured and managed in vastly different ways.
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Not all of these efforts are of equal impact. Focusing on “today better” operational efforts does nothing more than create parity with the best executors of yesterday’s model. It is a recipe for short-term survival, not long-term sustainability. Leaders instead should be thinking about how to blend together operational model and strategic transformation to execute what Innosight calls a dual transformation. “Transformation A” strengthens today by reinventing the core operating model. “Transformation B” creates tomorrow’s core business."
"Nós estamos a viver um momento de crise internacional que ninguém sabe onde vai parar.Temos vários focos de tensão, fala-se mesmo de uma nova Grande Recessão.Trecho retirado do podcast do último Contraditório da Antena 1 a 26 de Fevereiro (a partir do minuto 9:30). Palavras de alguém pouco recomendável em termos de previsão económica. No entanto, é o que Ana Sá Lopes pensa.
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Nós estamos completamente dependentes de factores externos ... somos um país fraco, endividado ... completamente frágil economicamente. Portanto, ninguém sabe o que vai acontecer e daí vem a grande ameaça ao orçamento"
"Established enterprises don’t get anywhere by wishing they could operate like startups. The key to success in any business is leveraging the assets you do have instead of whining about the ones you don’t."Faz-me lembrar aqueles comentadores económicos e políticos que em vez de terem em conta o perfil de empresas que existem em Portugal, imaginam cenários e clamam por engenharia social para criar amanhãs que cantam com outro perfil de empresas.
"Success Factors for a Low-Price Strategy
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The list of companies who have succeeded with a low-price strategy tends to be short, but their strategies share a set of factors which help create and sustain that success.
1. They began with that strategy from day one: All successful low-price companies focused on low prices and high volumes from the very beginning. In many cases, they created radically new business models. I am not aware of any company having made a successful transformation from a high-price or mid-price position to a low-price one.
2. They are extremely efficient: All successful low-price companies operate with extreme cost and process efficiency, which enables them to enjoy good margins and profits even while charging low prices.
3. They guarantee adequate and consistent quality: With poor and inconsistent quality, success is unlikely, even if you offer low prices. Sustainable success requires adequate and consistent quality.
4. They have a strong focus on their core products: The term no-frills is often applied to airlines , but it could apply to companies such as Aldi or Dell as well. They do nothing that isn’t absolutely required by the customer. That saves costs, without putting the essential value to customer in jeopardy.
5. They have a high-growth, high-revenue focus: This creates economies of scale which they exploit to the greatest extent possible.
6. They are procurement champions: That means they are tough and forceful in their purchasing, but not unfair.
7. They have little debt: Only very rarely do they turn to banks or debt markets for financing. Instead they rely on self-financing or supplier credit.
8. They control as much as they possibly can: This means they carry only their own brands ( Dell , Ryanair , IKEA ); even Aldi ’s assortment is over 90 % private label. They also exercise strong control over the entire value chain .
9. Their ads focus on price: To the extent they even advertise at all, they focus almost exclusively on price ( Aldi , Lidl, Ryanair ).
10. They never mix their messages: Almost all of the successful “low price–high profit” companies stick to an “everyday low price” strategy rather than a “hi-lo” which relies on frequent temporary promotions.
11. They understand their role: Most markets have room for only a small number of “low price–high profit” competitors, often just one or two."
“Pelo contrário, se o crédito se tornar mais escasso e com taxas de juro superiores (cuidado com os spreads), as empresas terão de apostar em estratégias com um maior grau de pureza, risco e taxas de mortalidade mais elevadas, mas taxas de rentabilidade mais atractivas.”
@nticomuna Mas os interesses instalados não desistem. Não apenas em Espanha, por exemplo. Na "terra da Liberdade"... pic.twitter.com/KIbwtvkcFG— anti-comuna (@nticomuna) February 25, 2016
"Why patient engagement is being called “the blockbuster drug of the century”
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The goals of patient engagement range from getting people to review and manage their medical records and follow prescribed treatments to adopting healthy behaviors and seeing their health-care providers as partners. That kind of engagement has proved it can both lower costs and improve health outcomes—one reason why patient engagement has been called “the blockbuster drug of the century.”
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“The more a patient is engaged with their care,” says Sheila Och, director of community health promotion at the Lowell Community Health Center, “the better they respond to their treatment, the better they follow the regimens, and the better they manage their chronic conditions. If individuals start achieving milestones it encourages them to continue.”"
"Compared to those not enrolled in the study, coordinated care “patients have an 88 percent reduced risk of dying of a cardiac-related cause when enrolled within 90 days of a heart attack, compared to those not in the program.” And, “clinical care teams reduced overall mortality by 76 percent and cardiac mortality by 73 percent.”"Bom para relacionar com:
"in age of ubiquitous information, the scarce resource is actually human attention
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the basis of competitive advantage is gradually shifting, away from information and knowledge per se, and towards decisive action and emotional conviction."
"Bucking modern manufacturing trends, Mercedes-Benz has been forced to trade in some of its assembly line robots for more capable humans.Recordar:
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The robots cannot handle the pace of change and the complexity of the key customisation options available for the company’s S-Class saloon at the 101-year-old Sindelfingen plant, which produces 400, 000 vehicles a year from 1,500 tons of steel a day.
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The dizzying number of options for the cars – from heated or cooled cup holders, various wheels, carbon-fibre trims and decals, and even four types of caps for tire valves – demand adaptability and flexibility, two traits where humans currently outperform robots.
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Markus Schaefer, Mercedes-Benz’ head of production told Bloomberg: “Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualisation and the many variants that we have today. We’re saving money and safeguarding our future by employing more people.”
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Skilled humans can change a production line in a weekend, where robots take weeks to reprogram and realign.
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“We’re moving away from trying to maximise automation with people taking a bigger part in industrial processes again. We need to be flexible. The variety is too much to take on for the machines. They can’t work with all the different options and keep pace with changes.”"
-Ande lá, ajude-me a atingir os meus objectivos!Continuei a minha caminhada mergulhando no que aquela frase queria dizer ...
"Luís Silva garantiu que tem sensibilizado as grandes cadeias de distribuição para terem "bom senso" na fixação dos preços na venda de leite. "É necessário que as nossas grandes cadeias de distribuição tenham em consideração que não é por apresentarem preços muito baixos que se ganha eficiência", começou por dizer."E quem pensa nos consumidores?
"Luís Vieira apontou "o fim das quotas leiteiras, o embargo russo, o abrandamento do desenvolvimento da China e de mercados emergentes como Angola e Venezuela, além da redução do consumo interno do leite, em contraponto com um aumento de produção", como principais factores para as dificuldades dos produtores do sector.Pessoalmente, no que à compra do leite diz respeito, não me enquadro no perfil da maioria dos europeus. Se eu fosse espanhol fazia parte da enorme minoria de 5%:
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"Vamos avançar com uma medida na rotulagem, onde temos um projecto para colocar um logótipo com origem do produto portuguesa, de modo a que os consumidores saibam que estão a comprar um produto de qualidade e possam ser solidários com os agricultores nacionais", partilhou o Secretário de Estado."
"Milk is the ultimate low-involvement category, and it shows. Only 10% of the international sample (in Denmark, Germany and Spain the number is less than 5%) would expect the private label version to be of a lesser quality."Há anos que só compra leite açoriano mas porque sou egoísta, porque só penso no que é melhor para mim como consumidor. Agora pedir que o critério de escolha seja a esmola...
"“Some 80% of our revenue is now through trading so our dependence on public funding is way down.
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“This is our next big project. More than 880 people made donations to this project (the Cafe Bar) and we anticipate a similar response next time.”
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At the Tyneside they can be quirky in the way multiplexes can’t. “Take the example of It’s a Wonderful Life,” says Mark. “It has become a phenomenon here. We put it on sale in September and I think we sold 80% of everything before the first of 26 screenings. Six thousand people came to see it and a lot of them were young.[Moi ici: Excelente exemplo de como se pode criar um ritual. Todos os anos o mesmo filme abre a época do Natal. Os comentários falam da atmosfera criada. Ir ao cinema ver uma novidade versus ir ao cinema pelo contexto, pela atmosfera, pela experiência]
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“We’ve set ourselves a target of 200,000 tickets sold a year but we used to battle our way to 90,000.
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“In 2008 we took a decision to make 80% of our programming specialised and 20% of it mainstream.[Moi ici: Trabalhar para uma ou mais tribos]
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“The mainstream films bring in new audiences. [Moi ici: Lembrei-me logo da mineração dos ginásios low-cost] Some of them earn us a lot of money but not all. But we know when people come inside this building they see what a really good place it is to come and see films.”"
