"1.Don't buy what the sector has defined itself as. If you accept the definition, you also accept the boundaries and you will fail to see potential for innovation.Bem na onda da mensagem de "Edge Strategy" de Alan Lewis e Dan McKone e, bem na onda de casos como estes:
2.Be aware that opportunities are all around you, waiting to be recognized."
"La moda española culmina un primer trimestre de récord en el exterior. En los seis primeros meses del año, las exportaciones de productos textiles (incluyendo prendas confeccionadas) se incrementaron en un 10,6%Trechos retirados de "Las exportaciones de moda crecen un 10,6% hasta junio"
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Entre enero y junio, las exportaciones de calzado decrecieron un 5,1%,"
escrevi:Automating some jobs can help America tackle its productivity crisis https://t.co/WKkM1bgN1B via @Recode— Jorge Barba (@jorgebarba) August 21, 2016
Depois, apanhei este tweet de Tom Peters:@jorgebarba rather that at a lower cost. The German lesson, the lesson of countries with a strong currency. The rest is a rat race @Recode— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) August 21, 2016
Ao fim do dia li este texto "To Fix the Economy, We Need More Bump and Grind":"Bringing manufacturing home" will mostly increase sales in robotics and other automation tools, not employment.— Tom Peters (@tom_peters) August 21, 2016
"A good way to add friction (and jobs) to our software-driven economy would be to invest in painfully slow, physical, local, wasteful infrastructure."Que estupidez!!!
"A good way to add friction to our hyper-fast software-driven economy would be to invest in painfully slow, physical, local, wasteful infrastructure, like a nice bridge or sewer.O texto faz-me lembrar as parvoíces do Krugman a suspirar por terramotos e guerras intergalácticas, para fazer crescer a economia com a reconstrução subsequente. Um pouco a ideia da falácia da janela partida de Bastiat. No entanto, a ideia por trás do artigo faz sentido e é a base para o conceito do Estranhistão!
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[Moi ici: Depois, esta verdade] Eliminating Friction Benefits the 1 Percent
Businesses loathe friction, a catchall term for anything that gets in the way of speed and profits."
"Escrevo aqui há muitos anos que o século XX foi o século do Normalistão. O século das linhas de montagem, o século do eficientismo, o século das mega-empresas, o século da massa - da produção e do consumo.Em vez de eficiência (remoção de fricção) a aposta na eficácia!
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Escrevo também que o século XXI será o século do Estranhistão, o oposto do século XX.
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Enquanto o Normalistão tudo comoditizou, elevando a interacção zero ao altar supremo (Grab & Go; automatização; compra online; ...), no Estranhistão quanto mais interacção melhor."
"Quem não aposta no "cheaper" e no "cost", aposta na interacção, aposta na co-criação, aposta noutro mindset... eu diria, "Every visit customers have to make are an opportunity for interaction and co-creation""O Estranhistão é a aposta na fricção. É muito mais escorreito ir à Decathlon ou ao Intermarché comprar uma bicicleta. Ou, então, ir aos duendes e co-criar uma.
"Uma vez numa estação de rádio, num programa sobre política internacional no século XX, ouvi alguém dizer que o século XX tinha sido um século curto. Tinha-se iniciado com a I Guerra Mundial e tinha acabado com a queda do Muro de Berlim.Neste livro, o Normalistão é o século XX.No referido texto pode ler-se:
E o Normalistão não acabou com o fim da União Soviética. Pelo contrário, o fim da União Soviética criou as condições para que a China aderisse à Organização Mundial do Comércio e com essa medida elevasse o Normalistão ao seu apogeu..Talvez a melhor data para situar o princípio do fim do Normalistão seja 2008 e a realização dos Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim.
.Quando começou o Normalistão? Talvez a melhor data, talvez a data mais simbólica para situar o começo do Normalistão, um mundo económico dominado por quem produz e que assenta a competitividade no custo mais baixo, nos ganhos de escala, na eficiência superior, seja Outubro de 1913"
"The things we use every day—food, clothing, vehicles, furniture, electronic devices, even the materials that compose our homes—now come from far and wide. We don’t even notice. International trade over vast distances is now so normal that we forget it wasn’t always the case.E sobre Mongo, interessante como o autor encadeia temas como:
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But now a reaction to globalization has set in. In cities and towns all over the United States, weekend farmers’ markets have sprung up, selling fruits and vegetables. The main attraction is that they are local.
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Globalization ramped up slowly for a century or so before entering a new phase in the 1960s. I was born in 1964, so the explosion of the global economy roughly spans my lifetime. Mine is the first globalized generation. But, if I reach 100, I suspect I will see children of a de-globalized generation.
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That’s my theory: We are going full circle.
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Humanity spent the last 50 years globalizing. Now, thanks to certain technologies, that whole process is reversing. Historians are likely to mark the 2008 financial crisis as the turning point: Peak Globalization."
"Sean Clarke will take over on 11 July. Most recently CEO at Walmart China he actually started his retail career at Asda back in 1996.Agora em Agosto escreve-se "Asda to focus on quality not price as it posts worst ever quarterly sales":
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Asda has had a difficult year as the continued success of the discounters Aldi and Lidl and the resurgence of Morrisons and Tesco ate into its sales. Like-for-like sales fell by 5.8% over the Christmas 2015 quarter, its worst performance in history.
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Sean Clarke has been tasked with “repositioning” the business in a “very competitive market place”. That will involve a big investment in price to maintain its market share. But it will also need to look at the brand and what it stands for – something that has become lost in the price war."
"Asda has reported its worst ever quarterly performance as like-for-like sales fell a whopping 7.5% for the three months ending June 30.O que me põe a pensar é o passado do CEO (qual a sua experiência?), CEO da Walmart China, qual é a proposta de valor da Walmart? E o título do artigo de Agosto, abandonar o preço? Pensar em diferenciação, então porque escolheram este CEO?
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The poor second quarter performance compares to a 5.7% fall in Asda’s first quarter and represent an eighth consecutive quarter of decline.
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According to Retail Remedy’s Paul Thomas, the 7.5% decline is “apocalyptic” for Asda. He says the supermarket brand must now focus on talking up its non-food offer to differentiate from rivals including a resurgent Tesco and expanding Aldi and Lidl.
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Thomas explains: “It is too soon for the new CEO to have had any significant impact but a 7.5% decline in like-for-like sales is apocalyptic for Asda. There is absolutely no honeymoon period for Sean Clarke: it’s a case of get in there and power up the defibrillator.
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“Asda’s USP was that it was the cheapest grocer in the UK. They lost that crown to the discounters which leaves them with… and there is the problem.”
"For over two decades, the F-35 has been the symbol of everything that's wrong with mammoth defense contracts: behind schedule, over budget, and initially, over-sold.Será que isto é o que acontece quando alguém não tem a coragem de assumir os custos afundados?
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The development of the F-35 has been a mess by any measurement. There are numerous reasons, but they all come back to what F-35 critics would call the jet's original sin: the Pentagon's attempt to make a one-size-fits-all warplane, a Joint Strike Fighter.
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Still, we could have seen this coming, and not just because of the technical complexity involved in making a warplane for so many constituents. Long before the delays and overruns that riddles the F-35 program, history was littered with illustrations of multi-mission aircraft that never quite measured up."
"The act of scaling beyond a certain point is a dilution of quality.
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Scale is the decision to serve more people. This means swapping “by hand” for more efficient means. Efficiency is the choice of speed over quality. It’s trading exceptional, exquisite, and excellent for “good enough. Scale doesn’t mean that something isn’t good, useful, or even that it isn’t worth buying. But it does mean that trade-offs were made.
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To retain exceptional, exquisite, and excellence, you have to make greater investments, investments that kill efficiency. You have to hire more people to create high touch, high value, and high caring. You have to keep slack in the system when your competitors are working on becoming leaner. The decisions you make because of your choice of strategy must look like madness to your competitors.
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Exceptional takes more investments in time, money, and caring. Good enough is about being efficient."
"O economista, que foi técnico do Banco de Portugal, entende que seria essencial proceder a uma desvalorização cambial promotora da competitividade-preço da produção nacional, quer com vista à recuperação dos instrumentos necessários à prossecução de uma política por parte do Estado assente na capacidade deste de se financiar junto do Banco Central Europeu.Gente crente na ilusão monetária para enganar o povo-trouxa.
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"Um novo modelo económico é possível e absolutamente necessário. Temos de abandonar definitivamente o modelo dos baixos salários e do trabalho precário e sem direitos e criar um modelo assente nas capacidades, nas competências, na competitividade, em níveis de vida mais elevados e nos direitos do trabalho.""
"O presidente da Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, anunciou nesta sexta-feira um aumento de 50% do salário mínimo dos funcionários públicos a partir de setembro, enquanto a base de cálculo do bônus de alimentação, que todos os trabalhadores recebem, aumentará mais de 200% a partir deste mês."Como será que Octávio Teixeira explicaria estes aumentos aos trouxas?
"Fehlbaum took over the company when he was 27, succeeding his elderly parents, who had founded the company in 1950 and had handled manufacturing and distribution in Europe for Herman Miller. During his 30s, he devoted himself to chairs, developing the company's trademark approach of partnering with famous designers to create products for his company.Talvez a sua empresa precise de seguir um exemplo como este.
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The result: Vitra is now renowned in the design community. As well as serving clients all over the world in all kinds and all sizes of companies (and even furnishing chairs that appear in IBM ThinkPad advertisements and the ads of other high-tech companies), Vitra's chairs sit in the European Commission offices in Brussels, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and the conference room that is used by the G-8 in Cologne. When Pope John Paul II visited Zagreb in 1994, he waved to the adoring throngs while he was sitting on a Vitra chair.
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As Fehlbaum's story demonstrates, even the most prosaic item can be the object of passion and the embodiment of great design" [Moi ici: Como não pensar outra vez em "There is no such thing as an average or old-fashioned business"]
E "Portuguese 10-year bond yields head towards 3%"#Portugal 10-year bond yields rise above 3%. Investors expect downgrade by DBRS = exclusion from #ECB's QE. pic.twitter.com/BuHHo6wM4Z— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) August 19, 2016
"As polémicas que se desenvolveram durante os últimos cinco anos sobre o que eram as alternativas de política económica tinham na sua base o equívoco de não reconhecerem a descontinuidade entre as condições do passado e as exigências do futuro.Por fim, "A maldita sorte de Passos Coelho":
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Para Portugal, o euro - e a sua disciplina - é o pressuposto para atingir a escala europeia e escapar à sua escala nacional exígua. É a única resposta que Portugal tem para compensar as consequências do fim do seu império e da nacionalização dos seus centros de acumulação de capital. Os que ignoram a disciplina do euro e sonham com a antiga moeda própria não querem governar Portugal nas suas circunstâncias históricas concretas."
"Ninguém sabe quando isto vai acabar, mas já pouca gente acredita que acabe bem."
"Since 2005, the approximately two dozen U.S. furniture makers that brought the case have received $309 million in Byrd amendment money. But the payments didn’t stem the decline of the domestic wooden furniture industry.Têm tudo a aprender com o calçado ou o mobiliário português e "Por que é que a internacionalização é fundamental?"
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“The money allowed us to fight that fight on the scale that we fought for as long as we did,” he said. But “the consumer wasn’t willing to look past short-term gains of getting something for less” and continued to prefer imports.
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“We’re not sure as an industry whether a made-in-USA moniker means something,” Mr. Prillaman said."
- Viemos de longe e o que nós andámos para aqui chegar!Em Julho de 2008 estávamos neste nível absurdo e caímos até Agosto de 2011 com "É preciso pensamento estratégico primeiro!". Em Maio e Agosto de 2015 já tínhamos chegado a "A economia de experiências a crescer no Algarve" e a "Acerca de sectores estáveis e demasiado homogéneos na oferta (parte VII)".
“muitas das unidades de enoturismo, agora consolidadas, começaram por ser apenas projetos vitivinícolas e, com o tempo, foram diversificando a sua atividade e viram no turismo, nomeadamente no alojamento, uma oportunidade para afirmarem a sua marca e complementar a sua oferta.”
Portugal é o penúltimo país da OCDE com menos funcionários públicos, mas é o 5º país da OCDE que mais gasta com o emprego público em % PIB.— MAL (@mlopes) August 18, 2016
"The Guerrilla Gravity showroom in Denver is not where you pick out a bike. It’s where you help build one.A democratização da produção é isto.
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“Riders get to customize their bikes by color scheme and the components they want,” said Kristy Anderson, who co-founded the company in 2013. “Some people really want to watch their baby being built.”
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“Just like craft beer, people are supporting small-batch manufacturing because it is their neighbors — people they know — doing it,” Anderson said.
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The bikes-to-beer comparison is apt. The rise of craft breweries in the United States saw consumers opting for unique varieties of beer produced by local artisans in small batches rather than the mass-produced brands that have dominated the market for so long.
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But craft brewers are just the tip of the small-batch manufacturing iceberg. Below the surface are hundreds of companies like Guerrilla Gravity, offering consumers a locally crafted product with a focus on quality and craftsmanship.
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Particularly in Colorado, small-batch manufacturers are seemingly everywhere.
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“It’s generally born of passion, manifesting itself in products,” Sullivan said.
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It’s easy to see how small-batch manufacturing is a trend, given the national interest in locally grown foods and the success of craft breweries. But what are the long-term prospects of these newer, smaller members of the manufacturing industry?
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The benefits these companies are finding in the small-batch model — in addition to appealing to consumers’ desires for well-crafted, local goods — suggests an economic advantage to staying small.
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“There’s an emotional connection when you know the makers, or when there is a story behind the product,” he said. “That connection to story and that connection to place is really powerful. And it’s resonating with consumers.”"
"When customers evaluate a product or service, they weigh its perceived value against the asking price....
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What consumers truly value, however, can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated.
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The amount and nature of value in a particular product or service always lie in the eye of the beholder, of course. Yet universal building blocks of value do exist, creating opportunities for companies to improve their performance in current markets or break into new ones. A rigorous model of consumer value allows a company to come up with new combinations of value that its products and services could deliver.
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We have identified 30 “elements of value”—fundamental attributes in their most essential and discrete forms. These elements fall into four categories: functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact.
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Our first hypothesis was that the companies that performed well on multiple elements of value would have more loyal customers than the rest. The survey confirmed that.
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Our second hypothesis was that companies doing well on multiple elements would grow revenue at a faster rate than others. Strong performance on multiple elements does indeed correlate closely with higher and sustained revenue growth. Companies that scored high on four or more elements had recent revenue growth four times greater than that of companies with only one high score."
"In the context of your business, coherence means the core parts of your business all being aligned and in sync with one another--supporting and reinforcing each other.Para quem trabalhamos?
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Too many companies have great goals on paper, but simply don't act in alignment with those goals, or their stated priorities and values. Instead, these underperforming companies allow their efforts to become fractured and scattered, often working at counterpoint to each other.
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The most successful companies get all their moving parts working in alignment with each other to achieve their top objectives in a manner consistent with their core values and priorities."
"When prospects tell you the price is too high or you believe the sale has stalled because of price, consider these things.
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1.Does the customer have the cash flow to pay for your product or service? In other words, the price is not too high, the customer just can’t afford it.
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2.Is there someone else making the decision, that you haven’t met, who doesn’t understand the value and told your contact to go back and negotiate the price? Don’t rely on your prospect to sell your solution to the decision maker. You are the best person to do that. If you suspect that there is someone else involved in the decision making process, ask. ...
3.Does the prospect understand the value they are receiving for the price? Maybe they need more education on how your solution is a fit for their need.
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4.Is your prospect differentiating you from your competition? Maybe they are comparing you to a competitor who has a lower price and you haven’t differentiated yourself from that competitor in their mind.
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Before you start negotiating your price, be sure you really have to. If you have a fair price for what you offer, why would you lower it?"
“Value-based pricing is the method of setting a price by which a company calculates and tries to earn the differentiated worth of its product for a particular customer segment when compared to its competitor.”Sim, acho que tem a ver com "a particular customer segment".
"2) Compare with next best alternative. This pricing method only works when the target segment has a specific competitor’s product they can buy instead. Value-based pricers always ask the question: “What would this segment buy if my product wasn’t available?” This “next best alternative” for the target is the essential point of comparison for calculating the value-based price. For products that are truly new, without peers, the value-based pricing methodology won’t work well."Julgo que o autor confunde competition-based pricing com value-based pricing.
"In competition-based pricing, we compare the features and specifications of our product with those of the competition and make a judgment about how the product should be positioned and priced."O value-based pricing procura identificar os benefícios (económicos e emocionais) que o cliente vai sentir por causa da oferta. Depois de reconhecidos, ambas as partes partilham os ganhos criados pela interacção.
"The lesson is as direct as it is disruptive: There is no such thing as an average or old-fashioned business, just average or old-fashioned ways to do business. The thrill of breakthrough creativity can be summoned in all sorts of industries and all walks of life if executives and entrepreneurs are prepared to reimagine what’s possible in their fields. In fact, the opportunity to reach for extraordinary may be most pronounced in settings that have been far too ordinary for far too long."Uma mensagem bem na linha daquela lição que aprendi há cerca de 10 anos:
“… there are no “sunset” industries condemned to disappear in high wage economies, although there are certainly sunset and condemned strategies, among them building a business on the advantages to be gained by cheap labor”Claro que o mais fácil é vender maçãs como sempre se venderam maçãs, ou vender têxteis como sempre se venderam minutos de trabalho. Ou vender serviços de contabilidade como um serviço de cumprimento de legislação.
"A indústria de moldes tem uma grande dependência da indústria automóvel. A Cefamol acredita que isso possa ser uma ameaça, mas é, diz, uma oportunidade."A vida real é mesmo assim. Não há oportunidades nem ameaças intrínsecas, tudo é subjectivo, tudo depende da postura. Recordar "Transformar Ameaças em Oportunidades" e "Estratégia e pontos fortes, o ovo ou a galinha".
"Não é o que acontece que conta, é o que nós decidimos fazer com o que nos acontece."Todas as hipóteses têm um lado solar e um lado lunar. Quem tem medo compra um cão!
"Successful companies do not create moats. They happen naturally or by accident. Companies that attempt to create moats usually do so at the cost of not spending time on further delighting their customers – which almost always backfires."Como encontrar essa coisa boa, esses resultados que possam servir de alicerce para a transformação necessária?
"De acordo com o recente estudo “Global Survey Growth Retail Strategies”, desenvolvido pela Nielsen, os consumidores portugueses são especialmente atraídos pela variável preço: 77% dos inquiridos confessam perder algum tempo para encontrar as verdadeiras “pechinchas” (mais 16 pp comparativamente à UE). Os portugueses são também claramente atraídos pelos produtos com ingredientes saudáveis (62%)."As PME, portuguesas ou não, não são muito boas a competirem pelo preço mais baixo. Essa proposta de valor é a mais adequada para os gigantes que podem usar e abusar de vantagens de escala. Claro que nos sectores transaccionáveis os gigantes pensam em grande e colocam as unidades produtivas em países de mão de obra barata.
"Contactada pela agência Lusa, a administração da Efacec diz ter identificado “a necessidade de proceder a um conjunto de intervenções indispensáveis à otimização da produção industrial e atividade comercial da empresa, com vista à obtenção de ganhos efetivos de produtividade, competitividade e sustentabilidade”, mas assegura o respeito pelas “melhores práticas laborais e sociais”, tendo “as estruturas sindicais e todas as pessoas envolvidas” sido informadas “com a máxima antecedência possível”."
"A aposta crescente em Angola, e em outros mercados africanos, significa que deixará de ter recursos para trabalhar o mercado norte-americano? Se sim, é uma genuína escolha estratégica legítima. Terá consequências na gama de produtos e nas margens? Implicará produtos mais maduros? É uma mudança importante nos factores críticos de sucesso, que implicará outros tipos de competências."
"“Estas intervenções estão integradas nos programas de melhoria operacional de 2013 e 2016 que preveem medidas de redução de custos com fornecimentos, fundamentalmente de custos indiretos”"
"Chart 3 provides a clear breakdown of the cost of a sneaker, and the impacts of the retail markup on the overall cost. By analyzing the cost breakdown of a sneaker, which was produced in Indonesia, it becomes obvious that brand companies and retailers profit most from retail markups, and that the profits are not shared fairly with the workers responsible for shoe production."O potencial de subida na escala de valor com a adopção de marca própria e com o bypass ao comércio tradicional é uma grande tentação mas não é nada fácil.
"Portugal is highly specialized in leather footwear which it exports primarily to European markets. Neighbouring Spain is the main supplier of imports which consist mostly of rubber & plastic and textile footwear."
Nem de propósito, ontem durante a caminhada matinal li este working paper "Strategy and the Strategist: How It Matters Who Develops the Strategy", de um autor que muito aprecio, Eric Van den Steen:"Ponto prévio.Estratégia é escolher.Estratégia é renunciar..Um consultor não faz escolhas nem renúncias em nome de uma empresa..Um consultor é um outsider que facilita as reflexões que levam as empresas a fazer escolhas e renúncias. E quando decisões são tomadas, o consultor deve ainda fazer o papel de advogado do diabo, para que a empresa tome consciência das consequências dessas decisões.Todas as decisões, todas as escolhas e renúncias acarretam riscos que devem ser avaliados."
"when or why should a company’s strategy be developed by its CEO – the paper shows that strategy formulation by the CEO (or by a strategist with control over the right decisions) leads to both a better strategy and better execution when the strategic decision is controversial. [Moi ici: E para uma empresa na situação 3 o mais provável é que a decisão seja controversa porque vai passar por uma mudança de vida] With regard to the second question, the paper shows that a strategist’s vision (as a strong belief) may improve implementation, but only if two conditions are met: the strong belief must be about a strategic decision and that decision must be controlled by the strategist. Vision about non-strategic decisions may in fact hurt the strategy’s implementation."Numa situação tipo 3 as coisas não poderão continuar como estão e não basta uma melhoria de eficiência, é preciso mudar de "jogo", é preciso mudar de modelo de negócio.
"When you lose a deal, you own that loss. You have to believe that you could have done something different, something that would have turned the tables in your favor. Most of the time, there is something that you could have done that would have helped you win the business. But, not always.Recuar a 2008 e a uma frase que ficará para sempre gravada na minha mente:
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Your business strategy can preclude you from winning deals. In fact, if you sell constantly with your company’s overall business strategy, you will lose deals because your business strategy is designed to ensure you lose.
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If you work for a company that has made the decision to compete by creating compelling, differentiated value, that choice is going to preclude your ability to win by having the lowest price—or even by matching a competitor’s price.
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Sometimes, however, your prospective client purchases a lower price, a lower value solution, because their constraint is real and difficult to overcome. In this case, your business strategy protects you from taking business that doesn’t allow you to deliver the value intended because you can’t afford to deliver it at a lower price.
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These losses come with the choice of strategy. This doesn’t mean you’re wrong, and it doesn’t mean that your strategy is wrong. It means that you are not selling a one size fits all offering."
"the most important orders are the ones to which a company says 'no'."Trechos retirados de "When Your Business Strategy Means You Do Not Win Deals"
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