"Só os desmemoriados podem acreditar que é em poucos meses que a banca nacional está a ser desmantelada e vendida. É um processo que tem quatro décadas, com uma única linha de tendência - a mesma que se encontra na diminuição da taxa de crescimento, na perda de competitividade e no acentuado envelhecimento demográfico. O que acontece agora é a consequência inevitável do que esteve a ser feito, de ilusão em ilusão."Trecho retirado de "A inocência dos esquecidos"
"Solutions come and go, while Jobs stay largely the same. JTBD is about understanding human motivation as a problem to be solved. Human motivation changes slowly. Therefore, Jobs change slowly.Trechos retirados de "When coffee & kale compete" de Alan Klement.
...
Solutions, on the other hand, constantly change because technology enables better ways of creating solutions that solve our Jobs. This is why we focus on the JTBD and not the product itself or what the product does.
.
Favor progress over outcomes and goals.
...
Over time, you will notice that you need to change the outcomes and goals you deliver to customers. Why? A successful product and business will continually improve customers’ lives. As customers use your product to make their lives better, they will face new challenges and desire new goals and outcomes."
"Retail stores employ almost 5 million people, and the Labor Department has projected that to grow by 7 percent over the next decade.A aposta naquilo que este blogue apelida de interacção, de relação, de co-criação de valor. A aposta naquilo que este blogue apelida de eficácia em detrimento da eficiência,
...
That’s right. This is the thing where the luddites just keep getting it wrong. It’s an application of what you said, which is that the scarce thing becomes valuable. Retail clerks are growing.
.
The other thing that's been growing for decades is bank tellers. That one might actually finally begin to decline. But bank teller jobs have continued to grow for the last 30 years as ATMs and online banking were rolled out exactly for the reason you said. Which is all the sudden there’s an opportunity to differentiate by providing a higher level of service by providing a person.
.
Vinod Khosla has written all these stories about how doctors are going to go away. He thinks computers are going to be so much better at diagnosis that there’s no room for doctors any more. And I just think he's completely wrong. I think the job of a doctor shifts and becomes a higher-level, more important job that pays better as the doctor becomes augmented by smarter computers.
.
That's why I'm so optimistic about the economy. That’s why I think the Luddites and the slow-growth people are wrong. We can have tremendous amounts of job creation and have huge productivity improvements. They’re not actually in conflict, despite what everyone thinks right now."
"6. Leverage your ecosystem. Your company exists in a broad network of relationships. These relationships are not just with customers, but also with suppliers, distributors, retailers, industry associations, institutional partners, and government agencies. You can leverage this ecosystem to engage your customers in ways that go beyond what has been relevant to your business relationship in the past. A broad ecosystem can provide data on what else is of interest to your customers, thereby opening up new ideas for product and service offerings and growth opportunities."Qual é o ecossistema da sua empresa?
""Um consumidor do Centro da Europa prefere um produto português a um produto espanhol, marroquino, turco ou egípcio. Mesmo se o nosso produto for mais caro, desde que seja de qualidade, nós vendemos." "No ano passado, um produtor teve de me mostrar uma factura para eu acreditar que tinha vendido batata-doce de Aljezur três vezes mais cara na Alemanha e na Suíça do que o valor do produto espanhol e norte-americano. Conseguiu isso por ter um produto de excelência."Absurdo é querer produzir no campeonato do meio, não ter preço nem diferenciação e esperar que os contribuintes paguem a desvantagem competitiva porque são agricultores.
"German logistics giant Deutsche Post has designed and built its own electric delivery van, exploiting sweeping changes in manufacturing technology which could upend the established order in the auto industry.
.
For the moment, Deutsche Post is using the vehicles itself to meet growing demand for e-commerce deliveries without adding to air pollution in German cities, replacing conventional Volkswagen vans.
.
But having decided to go it alone with the project - upsetting VW "beyond measure" - the group will soon decide whether to start selling the Streetscooter model and join those set to compete directly with established automakers.
...
Advances in manufacturing software are allowing the likes of Deutsche Post, Google and start-ups to tap suppliers to design, engineer and test new vehicle concepts without hiring thousands of engineering staff or investing billions in tooling and factories.[Moi ici: outra forma de democratização da produção]
.
Technical and engineering know-how among this network of suppliers has blossomed since traditional manufacturers began farming out research and development to keep their own costs down after the global financial crisis of 2008-09.
...
Deutsche Post says it took this route when the conventional vehicle makers turned down requests to build the electric vans in what are limited numbers by their standards.[Moi ici: Isto é tão previsível!!! Isto mata a inovação nas empresas grandes, só projectos mega é que passam no crivo, os únicos com potencial de retorno mega. Só que projectos mega são para lá do chasm de Geoffrey Moore, não podem ser inovadores, por definição. BTW, recordar isto.]
...
"We are purposely not reinventing the wheel. We do not produce a single component ourselves. Everything comes from a supplier,"
...
With e-commerce orders rising, Deutsche Post knew increasing inner city delivery trips would mean more pollution unless it switched to zero-emission vehicles. "We scanned the market. There was no electric van available so we decided to build our own," Deutsche Post board member Juergen Gerdes told Reuters.
.
Electric vehicles - which are far simpler in design than combustion-engined cars - require only a tenth of the staff during assembly, dramatically lowering production costs.
.
"We designed it as a tool. So the fit and finish does not need to be as good as in a passenger car," Neidlinger said.
...
Analysts say Deutsche Post has shown the motor industry's shortcomings. "They have opened up a new segment, one which the conventional carmakers have not discovered because they are too hamstrung by their own processes,"
...
For commercial reasons he wouldn't put a price on the Streetscooter, but said: "It did not cost billions to develop and produce. You will not believe how cheap it is to make.""
"The last few decades have seen a decline in business dynamism, as measured by indicators such as new firm formations, worker flows, and job creation and destruction. This is a potentially worrisome trend because an important driver of productivity growth is the reallocation of resources from less productive to more productive firms.
...
there is a clear downward trend in the rate of startups (new firms), and a slower decline in the rate of firm exits. Similarly, over the last several decades, the share of employment at young firms has dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent.
...
using revenue per employee as a measure of productivity, the authors show that the gap in productivity between the most and least productive firms has widened over time.
...
Widening dispersion in productivity is potentially a sign that firms are facing increasing frictions in adjusting to their appropriate size, or that the least productive firms are not catching up to the most productive firms as quickly as they used to.[Moi ici: Tenho uma explicação para esta evolução. O aumento da produtividade pode ser feito por muitas vias. Ou apostando no denominador, ou apostando no numerador. Por outro lado, recordar aquela evolução da figura lá de cima ... em Mongo, com tantos picos, as empresas fazem diferentes apostas competitivas com consequências a nível de produtividade, daí o aumento da dispersão]
...
the link between a firm’s level of labor productivity and its rate of employment growth has been getting weaker over time. Whereas in the past more productive firms in the same industry expanded employment while less productive firms contracted, today this is less true."[Moi ici: Perfeitamente explicável pelo facto de a escala deixar de ser cada vez mais uma vantagem competitiva. Basta ver o exemplo do calçado em Portugal. A produtividade aumentou e o emprego baixou, porque a vantagem competitiva deixou de ser o preço, deixou de ser produzir séries grandes para clientes grandes]
"JTBD Principles
Customers don’t want your product or what it does; they want help making their lives better (i.e. they want progress).
...
Focusing on the product itself, what it does, or how customers use it closes your mind to innovation opportunities.[Moi ici: E condena as empresas ao cost+plus pricing]
...
JTBD is laser focused on describing customer motivation.
...
“Jobs were never intended to explain what the product must do. They stand for what the customer must do.” And what must customers do? They must overcome their struggles and make their lives better.
...
Solutions come and go, while Jobs stay largely the same. JTBD is about understanding human motivation as a problem to be solved. Human motivation changes slowly. Therefore, Jobs change slowly.
...
Solutions, on the other hand, constantly change because technology enables better ways of creating solutions that solve our Jobs. This is why we focus on the JTBD and not the product itself or what the product does."
"he quickly realized his business wouldn’t survive in this remote locale if his only customers were local buyers.
...
A decade ago, independent bookstores were viewed as an industry on the decline. [Moi ici: Uma das lições mais importantes da minha vida profissional aprendi-a num livro: "Na página 255: “… 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” - Na página 257: “If they prosper despite competition from foreign companies with very low-paid workers, it is because they bundle into the products they sell other desirable features, like speed, fashion, uniqueness, and image.”"] Crushed on price by Amazon and by the wide selection of national retailers like Barnes & Noble, thousands of mom-and-pop outlets had closed up shop.
.Como é que a sua empresa pode aproveitar a internet? Se for como a empresa típica, manda fazer um site e usa-o como um anúncio nas páginas amarelas. No tempo das páginas amarelas o potencial cliente pesquisava por ordem alfabética, hoje, a Google é que lista a ordem de aparecimento e essa ordem ou se paga ou exige actividade digital. Qual a actividade digital da sua empresa?
But after years of losses, they are emerging from the decimation, with the number of independent bookstores rising 21 percent from 2010 to 2015.
.
In a twist of fate, it is the internet — the very thing that was supposed to wipe them out — that is helping these small stores.
...
“Bookstores are being reinvented by taking advantage of how the world has changed,”
...
Some bookstores are investing in infrastructure, such as in-shop e-book printers and new back-end systems, while others are embracing social media as an inexpensive way to connect with new customers.
...
owners like Mr. Makin are finding ways to gain customer loyalty with the aid of technology. He knew he could not compete with Amazon on price, but he believed that online buyers would flock to Brilliant Books if they experienced the same customer service that shoppers in his physical store do.
“I say, ‘We are your long-distance local bookstore,’” Mr. Makin said.
He began offering free shipping anywhere in the United States and hired a full-time social media manager, who promotes the store and has used Twitter and Facebook to talk to readers who would never find themselves near Traverse City."
"The customer is now seen as being directly and actively involved in the key moments of value creation as opposed to passively consuming value. [Moi ici: No 1º artigo o cliente é visto como um alvo imóvel]É a continuação de ""a human touch becomes more important than ever""
.
There are profound implications that result from this change of thinking. Products and services are not reproducible as such any more. Solutions are by default contextual, but they can be starting points for someone else to create value. Creative, connected learning is at the core of the post-industrial business.
...
To succeed you need relationships and interaction. When customers are identified as individuals in different use contexts, the sales process is really a joint process of solving problems. You and your customer necessarily then become cooperators. You are together trying to solve the customer’s problem in a way that both satisfies the customer and ensures a profit for you.
...
The focus should now be on cooperation and emergent interaction based on transparency, interdependence and responsiveness.
.
The really big objective of the digital transformation is to reconfigure agency in a way that brings relationships into the center.
...
The key understanding is that it is now the customers or members of the network who create value, not the network owner. The customer will be transformed from being an audience to an actor."[Moi ici: Frase assassina para os crentes no modo gringo de fazer negócio à la século XX]
"Finding your niche, clarifying any market confusion and being transparent in your weakness will allow you to focus, create and get back to what you truly love doing. And when you get back to doing something you love, word spreads like wildfire."E quantas PME são capazes de arriscar seguir esta disciplina? Quantas continuam dominadas pelo efeito de escala em vez de apostarem no efeito de profundidade?
""Um consumidor do Centro da Europa prefere um produto português a um produto espanhol, marroquino, turco ou egípcio. Mesmo se o nosso produto for mais caro, desde que seja de qualidade, nós vendemos." "No ano passado, um produtor teve de me mostrar uma factura para eu acreditar que tinha vendido batata-doce de Aljezur três vezes mais cara na Alemanha e na Suíça do que o valor do produto espanhol e norte-americano. Conseguiu isso por ter um produto de excelência."
eheheh a malta do Normalistão, a malta formatada no século XX passa-se com estas coisas. Pobre bicicletas https://t.co/7bwhI9hZjC— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) October 8, 2016
Em Mongo, no Estranhistão do século XXI a economia do século XX, do Normalistão, não funciona. QED https://t.co/DTfgHiq8aK— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) October 8, 2016
""Women with a strong sense of personal style feel alienated by maternity and perceive the industry as a whole to be cheap and unfashionable,"
...
Storq is one of many new brands livening up this once ignored clothing category. New online labels such as Hatch are rapidly growing, while established brands like ASOS and Topshop have successfully branched out into the maternity market. What used to be limited to a few players is now a battleground for multiple competitors reaching out to moms-to-be. Sales at former strongholds, traditional brick-and-mortar maternity stores, are down and expected to further decline. [Moi ici: Comparem isto com as previsões que fazemos aqui há anos sore o impacte, sobre as consequências de Mongo para os gigantes. Os economistas formados no pensamento económico do Normalistão vão pensar nas economias de escala só que isso não é para Mongo] Destination Maternity, which accounts for 20% of the market, will close 25 to 30 stores in 2016.
.
Sales are declining, explained IBISWorld industry analyst Madeline Hurley, because retailers continue to be mass-focused, trying to meet the needs of too many. Meanwhile, online retailers catering to niche tastes are thriving in this market. [Moi ici: Capeesh? Qual a vantagem da escala? Lindo para as PME] The average age for first-time mothers is also rising gradually, which means women are more established in their careers by the time they pursue motherhood. That means they have more money to spend on fashionable maternity wear. "Women want to feel beautiful whether they’re nine months pregnant or not," says Hurley."
"I struggled with innovation for many years. I finally made progress when I focused on two things: (1) the customers’ struggle to make life better and (2) how customers imagine their lives being better when they have the right solution. This understanding has helped me become a better innovator.Segue-se uma série de ideias sobre o que prejudica a aposta na inovação:
...
Creative destruction is accelerating. The average time a company spends on the S&P 500 continues to drop. ... This happened for numerous reasons. A big one is that it has never been easier to create a product and get it to customers.
...
even though solutions and technologies come and go, human motivation changes very slowly. In some cases, human motivation hasn’t changed at all. The focus on customer motivation is the key to successful, ongoing innovation and business."
"“Sunk costs” keep us from creating new products.
...
It’s a mistake to focus on our customers’ physical characteristics.
...
We don’t take into consideration how customers see competition.
...
We myopically study and improve upon customers’ “needs” and expectations of today; instead we should study and improve the systems to which customers belong.
...
We may think only about the upsides of product changes, ignore the downsides, and fail to embrace new ways of solving customers’ problems.
...
Our decision making can be misled when we manage by visible figures only, and don’t appreciate the context surrounding them."
"Choose Your Destiny Plasticity guides companies to base critical decisions on inner strengths and convictions rather than on alleged external needs.Trechos retirados de "Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel"
...
purpose: the unbreakable conviction about what the company stands for, something that cannot be traded for something else. Having this vision is probably the most indispensable element. To develop and survive in a competing world, companies also must have a reason for being. If they are only followers mimicking the leaders, they are destined to die."
"in our experience, there are 4 methods for increasing product differentiation that are generally underutilized, if not completely ignored.Quantas destas alavancas as PME em Portugal utilizam? E a sua empresa?
...
In a commoditized B2B market, there are four additional ways to differentiate your offering from the competition and increase your differentiation: leveraging the brand, innovating your service offering, as well as designing product and packaging in a way that creates an aesthetic beyond the functional."
"we are moving from a mobile-first world to an AI-first one; that was the context for the introduction of the Google Assistant.E a sua empresa, o que faz?
.
It was a year prior to the aforementioned iOS 6 that Apple first introduced the idea of an assistant in the guise of Siri; for the first time you could (theoretically) compute by voice. It didn’t work very well at first (arguably it still doesn’t), but the implications for computing generally and Google specifically were profound: voice interaction both expanded where computing could be done, from situations in which you could devote your eyes and hands to your device to effectively everywhere, even as it constrained what you could do.
...
An assistant has to be far more proactive than, for example, a search results page; it’s not enough to present possible answers: rather, an assistant needs to give the right answer.
...
Google has a business-model problem: the “I’m Feeling Lucky Button” guaranteed that the search in question would not make Google any money. After all, if a user doesn’t have to choose from search results, said user also doesn’t have the opportunity to click an ad, thus choosing the winner of the competition Google created between its advertisers for user attention. Google Assistant has the exact same problem: where do the ads go?
...
It is not that Google is artificially constraining its horizontal business model; it is that its business model is being constrained by the reality of a world where, as Pichai noted, artificial intelligence comes first. In that world you must own the interaction point, and there is no room for ads, rendering both Google’s distribution and business model moot. Both must change for the company’s technological advantage to come to the fore."
"prefiro apoiar empresas a estarem à frente da onda, tão à frente que ainda não existem normas."Descobri isto em 2004, quando PME e eu percebemos que a marcação CE vinha abrir caminho à comoditização acelerada.
"1. Innovation precedes regulation, not the other way around. In entrepreneurial societies, innovation always precedes regulation. In the United States, for instance, scientists and engineers in Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York are always one step ahead of regulators, developing innovations that help us solve some of our most critical problems. The regulators eventually catch up, but not before the innovators have developed viable solutions for us to improve our lives. If the regulations in your society precede innovation from entrepreneurs, this is likely to curb the entrepreneurial spirt of innovators."Relacionar o "é preciso perder a vergonha de impostar quem acumula dinheiro" com:
"2. Entrepreneurs and innovators are richly rewarded for their breakthroughs. In an entrepreneurial society, entrepreneurs are popular heroes and profit materially from their work. People want to emulate them. In non-entrepreneurial societies, government officials, politicians, and civil servants are the ones who—while not heroes— reap the greatest financial rewards, largely because they are key to getting anything done. When that is the case, then society is at the mercy of the altruism of government officials as opposed to the ingenuity of entrepreneurs and innovators."
Uma questão preocupante para os portugueses é os políticos portugueses terem sucesso mas o país não.— JoãoMiranda (@joaomiranda) October 5, 2016
"5. Work is becoming more modularized. As societies become more entrepreneurial, work, and our idea of work, is becoming more modularized. In other words, work will no longer be confined to employment contracts that require people to work at least eight hours a day for an indefinite amount of time for a corporation. Instead, work will depend largely on shorter term engagements and will be specific to a particular project."E, talvez o trecho mais doloroso para quem acompanha a sociedade portuguesa:
"6. The society is either prosperous or is on a clear path toward prosperity. Perhaps the clearest sign that you live in an entrepreneurial society is that it is either prosperous or on a path to prosperity. Prosperity is different from growth. Economies can grow without becoming prosperous."Trechos retirados de "6 Signs You’re Living in an Entrepreneurial Society"
"the authors challenge the reader’s perceptions and constraints of traditional business constructs. The title presents a shift of the reader’s attention from processes and procedures to those of performance and staging.Nunca tinha pensado nesta nuance, theatre/theater, tão comum no inglês e que se perde no português (como, por exemplo, exploration vs exploitation").
.
Theatre is the performance.
Theater is the environment containing the performance.
.
If this is true, then the title also creates a second challenge by asking; if work is theatre and every business a stage, then what type of guides must one follow in order to design the constructs for the work theater and the type of staging required to curate the experience? Some models of experiential design are needed to go beyond architectural design."
"Spirit Airlines. Customers have consistently rated it as the worst airline in America. Nevertheless, it continues to be the fastest-growing and most profitable airline in America. If customers hate it so much, why do they keep buying it?Para quem trabalha com a ISO 9001:2015 recomendo a leitura exegética do segundo requisito que se pode retirar da cláusula 4.2. Aposto que esta Spirit Airlines identificou claramente os seus clientes-alvo e faz-lhes uma proposta de valor que eles acham muito boa embora imponha um trade-off muito forte. Ver "Bare Fare".
Figures can not only be misleading; they can be misused."
"If streaming is winning and if Netflix is the most likely winner in streaming, shouldn’t Netflix be a reliable profit generator sometime in the future, as ABC, NBC, and CBS are today in broadcast TV and Comcast is in cable? The stock price says yes. But without a big strategy change, the answer is more likely no.O que é isto senão parte do racional que alicerça postais como "O padrão Mongo"?, a parte tecnológica, a parte das barreiras à entrada e saída. A outra parte é a das tribos. Por exemplo, devo ver cerca de 2 horas de televisão por dia, nunca vi nenhuma das séries da moda, mas sou fã do Morse, do Poirot, da Miss Marple e de outras séries da Fox Crime. Devo pertencer a uma minoria que nunca, mas nunca viu um episódio de Game of Thrones e passa bem.
.
The broadcast and cable businesses have enormous scale economies that produced profitable oligopolies.
...
The streaming business, however, has relatively few scale economies.
...
Thus there is little reason to believe that the proliferation of new streaming entrants — including some very deep-pocketed ones, such as Hulu and Amazon — will be followed by a period of extreme consolidation, as was the case in broadcasting and cable.
...
Instead, the streaming business is more likely to develop into something that looks a lot like the highly fragmented magazine sector, in which no one dominates and very few now make good money. Without the consolidation that true scale economies inevitably produce, streaming services will need powerfully differentiated value propositions to gain the pricing clout with consumers and purchasing power with content producers to sustain oligopoly-style profits."
Impressionante! Tozé Teixeira a dizer q o PIB alemão está moribundo em 2016— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) October 4, 2016
Então, a minha mente voou para um texto que tinha lido na viagem de comboio de segunda-feira, o início do capítulo I de "Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior" intitulado "Monkey See, Monkey Do" onde o autor descreve a experiência de Solomon Asch.Mão amiga q faça chegar ao Tozé Teixeira pic.twitter.com/MnHlfeJtle— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) October 4, 2016
"Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence)."Acredito que é isto, também, que gera candidatos como Trump. Anos e anos de gurus na televisão a enganarem as pessoas, levam-nos a, depois de baterem com a cabeça na parede tantas vezes, escolher o contrário do que esses gurus endeusam.
"The lesson for strategists is that you can never take for granted the most fundamental strategy questions: “What business should you be in?” “What should be your value proposition?” And “What capabilities do you need to win in your business and deliver your value proposition?” Answering these questions is never as easy as it seems, and the answers never last as long as you think or hope."Dedico este parágrafo final retirado de "Lessons from the Strategy Crisis at Netflix" a todos os "empresários", políticos, académicos e jornalistas que se especializaram em apoiar empresas que não querem mudar apesar do seu contexto ter mudado, fazendo-se de vítimas dos maus que, supostamente, mandam no mundo.
Acho que muitos "empresários", os especialistas em obter suporte de vida dos governos, dirão antes:"If we can keep competitors focused on us while we stay focused on customers, we'll turn out all right.” —@JeffBezos pic.twitter.com/2gIWlgNSdQ— Alex Osterwalder (@AlexOsterwalder) October 5, 2016
If we can keep government money focused on us while the world change, we can decouple and turn out all right.
"A dívida pública portuguesa aumentou 2,5 mil milhões de euros em agosto, relativamente ao final de julho, para 243,3 mil milhões de euros, divulgou hoje o Banco de Portugal (BdP)."No caminho certo rumo ao socialismo venezuelano: o da orgia despesista.
"The time is ripe for entrepreneurs, but will employees survive the next evolution? Maybe, but they're going to have to change, now.Trechos retirados de "Unmotivated Employees Won't Like Where The Work World Is Headed"
.
The work world is shifting in favor of those who want to do something, contribute, create, innovate, make meaning, and own their lives. Recent studies show the workplace is headed in a participatory direction that will not accommodate traditional employees stuck in Industrial Age management structures.[Moi ici: Conjuguem isto com DIY, com democratização da produção, explosão de tribos, tribos mais aguerridas, plataformas cooperativas e Mongo]
...
Trend #1: Crowdsourcing and Crowdsource services. People will work everywhere and some will never meet. Just-in-time labor will reduce the number of permanent employees.
...
Trend #2: Productivity measured in outputs, not hours.[Moi ici: Tantas discussões sobre a produtividade e os salários portugueses porque a maioria só mede as horas]
...
Trend #3: Values vs. rules. Values, which guide and encourage personal initiative, will be more prevalent than rules, which box people in, dull their thinking, and keep them from innovating.
...
Trend #4: Employee-led innovation. The best innovation will come from the "bottom up," not from management or R&D departments."
"Genet and Ango stumbled across this business prospect hidden in plain sight after they felt the pain of ordering packaging for their first entrepreneurial venture, Inkodye, an art supply dye company. The shipping supplies industry has long catered to large corporations that are ordering hundreds of thousands of boxes, not start-ups looking for small run quantities. [Moi ici: Trabalhar para os underserved] And the ordering process, which requires going through layers of middlemen and sometimes even using fax machines to submit orders, feels byzantine.Agora basta imaginar que eu tenho alguma razão acerca da hipótese de Mongo para começar a suspeitar na quantidade de startups que vão precisar destas pequenas quantidades, pequenas séries e peças não mixirucas. Ainda ontem, à porta da estação das Devesas em Gaia, a minha mente divagou acerca de um camião com os dizeres "caixotaria". Juro que pensei na quantidade de potenciais clientes que poderiam usar embalagens de madeira mas que fugirão quando ouvirem a palavra caixotaria.
.
Lumi has stepped in as a conduit between the customer and the manufacturing partner. Using Lumi.com, customers can now customize their packing supplies in a few mouse clicks and submit orders of many sizes. Then a manufacturer for the job is chosen based in the work required and the proximity to the buyer’s location.
.
What the packaging industry lacks in glamour, it makes up for in opportunity.
...
The manufacturers have insulated themselves over the last 50 years as much as possible from talking to small brands. They did this for a good reason. There was no Internet, and they had to find a way of focusing on manufacturing, so they set up all these layers of middlemen.
...
It’s also hard for small businesses to create relationships with old school packaging manufacturers because they are used to dealing with large conglomerates that are ordering hundreds of thousands of boxes. If you’re a start-up ordering 10,000 boxes that is not really a big deal to those companies, so it’s hard for young companies to get their foot in the door. At Lumi, we cater to companies of all sizes, including those who need as little as 1,000 custom boxes in a production run."
"Price Is Maximized Through Differentiation.
Differentiation is the most critical issue when it comes to brand building and pricing power. You maximize your pricing power by offering something unique. Over time you maintain pricing power by creating a brand that stands out as unique in the mind of the customer. They pay more because of the uniqueness.
You know you're different when people tell you that you are. If people never tell you you're different, then you're not different enough.
.
Your brand is the embodiment of your unique ideals. Marketers call that a Unique Selling Proposition, or a USP. You need one.
.
Having a USP that customers understand and respect gives you a powerful brand in the minds of customers, and that creates their willingness to pay a premium price
...
So un-branded doll clothing is a commodity. Un-branded anything is a commodity.
And the #1 attribute of a commodity is that it is not unique.
.
The second attribute of a commodity is that the only thing that can possibly be unique is the purchase price. Therefore, people use the price to compete.
You don’t want to be in that space – not in the doll-clothing marketplace – or any other type of product or service. You need a Unique Selling Proposition so that you can compete on something other than price.
...
That means prospective customers don’t care whom they buy from in a commodity market. When that happens – pricing power vanishes."
"Depois da publicação do primeiro livro ‘O Pastoreio e o Queijo da Serra’, resolvi dinamizar, com as Câmara Municipais, as primeiras feiras e concursos de Queijo da Serra que aconteceram em 1978 em Seia, Gouveia, Manteigas, Celorico e Guarda, foram os cinco concelhos onde começámos a promover estes eventos que entretanto deram um salto extraordinário na qualidade e na valorização deste produto, uma vez que o queijo estava numa fase crítica em que os preços caiam constantemente e não havia reconhecimento do mercado.Com a realização destes concursos e com a influência dos meios de comunicação social, aproximou-se o consumidor do produtor. Em 1977, se alguém quisesse comprar um queijo da Serra, o produtor só vendia uma arroba, 15 quilos, era a tradição.Estes concursos trouxeram a oportunidade de adquirir queijos à unidade, o que constituiu uma revolução tremenda por si só. O preço do queijo duplicou, e no terceiro ano quase triplicou. Desde aí, o queijo Serra da Estrela tem tido manifestações de grande interesse e, sobretudo, de incentivo às novas gerações, porque é uma boa aposta que se pode fazer neste setor. Com 70, 80 ovelhas, qualquer casal tira mais rendimento do que um casal de professores licenciados. Hoje ser pastor é um negócio atrativo. Houve uma revolução, nas feiras e concursos, quer em Seia, Gouveia, Manteigas, Fornos de Algodres, Oliveira do Hospital, já se encontra muita gente nova a abraçar esta profissão."Recordar "A mudança em curso passa por coisas como estas" e "Bem haja!"
"As crises modernas no capitalismo têm tido a sua origem no excesso de emissão de moeda e de crédito e não nas propriedades materiais deste ou daquele sector. Ainda que este excesso se exprima e concretize primeiramente num dado sector."
"With respect to pricing, the literature has only fairly recently expanded from its microeconomic foundations to incorporate the notions of customer heterogeneity, bounded rationality, and imperfect competition. [Moi ici: OMG até que enfim!!!] Core elements of profitable and effective pricing are the abilities to create meaningful differentiation, to quantify the (differential) value to customers, to measure customer price elasticity, to segment customers, and to document value to customers. In the scale development process these items obviously play a vital role."Trecho retirado de "Pricing capabilities: the design, development, and validation of a scale", publicado por Management Decision Vol. 52 No. 1, 2014 pp. 144-158
"In this paper, we examine whether organisations that use SPMSs [strategic performance measurement systems] engage in strategy formulation processes differently from those that use performance measurement systems (PMSs) which do not qualify as SPMSs, or those which do not use any type of PMS. In particular, we hypothesise that the use of SPMSs will relate to 1) a greater frequency of strategy (re)formulations, and 2) a more comprehensive strategic agenda, reflected through a greater number and a wider variety of strategic decisions in each strategy (re)formulation.Trechos retirados de "The Role of Performance Measurement Systems in Strategy Formulation Processes" publicado em Long Range Planning 43 (2010) 477-497.
...
Our findings suggest that the use of SPMSs (as opposed to other forms of PMS) by an organisation’s top management team translates into a more comprehensive strategic agenda. Prior studies have shown that strategic agendas shape the extent and direction of corporate strategic change.
...
The results of our study are consistent with the claim that the use of SPMSs influences strategy-making by increasing the managers’ ability to develop more comprehensive strategic agendas.
...
the use of SPMSs has an impact on the nature of the strategic agendas arising from the strategy (re)formulation processes.
...
the use of SPMSs helps frame managers’ mental representations because of their informational effects. These effects are manifested in three broad areas of strategy formulation processes: decision content (e.g. more informed content), analytical dimensions of the process (e.g. more rigour, coordination, efficiency) and social dimensions of the process (e.g. provision of a forum for negotiation and legitimisation).
...
Interestingly, we observed no difference in any of these variables when we compared firms using PMSs that do not qualify as SPMSs and firms that do not have any PMS in place. These findings lend support to the argument that it is precisely the specific configuration of features that sets SPMSs apart from other PMSs that is most relevant here. Furthermore, a separate analysis of the effects of each of the dimensions constituting a SPMS suggested that the detected effects of their use are primarily associated with the inclusion of multi-perspective indicators and of cause-effect linkages in the design of the SPMS."
"A Value Proposition.Desta vez de acordo com esta conclusão do autor de "A Stout Porter: Business Strategy In the 21st Century". Continua a ser fundamental adoptar uma proposta de valor na relação de uma empresa com cada um dos participantes no seu ecossistema da procura.
2/ Having a clear value proposition is difficult in a more digital economy, for various reasons.
.
First, the boundaries between industries are blurred, which makes the playing field more difficult to define.
...
Second, multi-sided business models, which are easier to operate in the digital world, make it even more difficult to articulate a value proposition.
...
Third, for quite some time there has been the illusion that the digital economy would enable endless diversification, with ever more sides added to ever more sophisticated business models. After all, if it’s just a question of moving some digits around, why not diversify without limits? The result, alas, is often the dilution of the initial value proposition into a vast ocean of various businesses that don’t have much in common.
.
Despite those adverse trends, though, it remains strategically important to have a single, identifiable, powerful value proposition. It is no coincidence that the best tech companies, however diversified, all have that kind of value proposition.
...
In the end, a company that lacks a value proposition only retains its customers due to a lock-in or a high barrier to entry. And that can’t last long in the digital economy that rewards high quality at a high scale."
"Over the past decades, companies have tried to develop a competitive advantage through a cleverly cooked strategy and/or a deep focus on functional excellence. However, this approach has shown weaknesses in two areas:Trecho retirado de "Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel"
.
Wastefulness and lack of measure: Too much effort/money/resources have been dedicated to pushing functional excellence in one topic further and in many instances possibly too far. Examples are:
- Companies running cost reduction wave after cost reduction wave do not recognize that the real issue is the lack of appeal of their products.[Moi ici: Profundo!!! Esta é a descoberta da necessidade da mudança da identidade, esta é a desgraça dos prisioneiros do denominador]
- Engineering-driven companies perform miracles but fail to market them appropriately.[Moi ici: Prisioneiros do pensamento marxiano e do Normalistão com a oferta menor do que a procura]
- Consumer goods companies develop innovative new brands but keep all their merchandizing and promotion power on their cash cows.
Groupthink and myopia: Most or even all relevant players in any industry are moving in the same direction like herd animals."
- Retailers that push category management to the extreme leave shoppers clueless in front of endless shelves of similar products.
"Quando os nazis levaram os comunistas, eu calei-me, porque, afinal, eu não era comunista. Quando eles prenderam os sociais-democratas, eu calei-me, porque, afinal, eu não era social-democrata. Quando eles levaram os sindicalistas, eu não protestei, porque, afinal, eu não era sindicalista. Quando levaram os judeus, eu não protestei, porque, afinal, eu não era judeu. Quando eles me levaram, não havia mais quem protestasse"
"Protectionism, by contrast, hurts consumers and does little for workers. The worst-off benefit far more from trade than the rich. A study of 40 countries found that the richest consumers would lose 28% of their purchasing power if cross-border trade ended; but those in the bottom tenth would lose 63%. The annual cost to American consumers of switching to non-Chinese tyres after Barack Obama slapped on anti-dumping tariffs in 2009 was around $1.1 billion, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. That amounts to over $900,000 for each of the 1,200 jobs that were “saved”.Trechos retirados de "Why they’re wrong"
...
The worst answer would be for countries to turn their backs on globalisation. The case for openness remains much the same as it did when this newspaper was founded to support the repeal of the Corn Laws. There are more—and more varied—opportunities in open economies than in closed ones. And, in general, greater opportunity makes people better off. Since the 1840s, free-traders have believed that closed economies favour the powerful and hurt the labouring classes. They were right then. They are right now."
"even the most sophisticated forecasting systems fail because the challenge is not predicting the future - something that is impossible - but developing the ability to respond to change."Uma frase curta mas que devia motivar mais atenção.
Não é o que nos acontece que importa é o que fazemos com o que nos acontece.A realidade, o contexto, é amoral, não quer saber da nossa organização para nada. Quando essa realidade muda, talvez a organização precise de um breve período de luto mas depois tem de, ela própria, também mudar.
"This paper discusses Porter’s principles from our point of view — that of a firm dedicated to investing in promising tech startups in Europe and turning them into long-term leaders on competitive global markets.Nem uma palavras sobre clientes, sobre propósito, sobre razão de ser...
...
The Right Goal...
suggest that increasing returns are now the right goal: business strategy should now be all about maximizing a company’s increasing returns to scale.
...
Increasing returns have a major consequence from a strategic point of view: they create a new competitive regime in which a single company ends up grabbing most of the market. When two companies driven by increasing returns compete on the same market, only one of them will be able to survive on the long term and realize a substantial return on its investment.
...
So let’s be clear: bubble or not, the right goal in the digital economy is not to be the market share leader or the most profitable company. It is to take the vast majority of the market, at (almost) any cost."
"É importante ser eficiente, mas é vital ser eficaz, [Moi ici: Quem conhece este blogue está mais que habituado a esta linguagem. Por exemplo: "Eficácia, eficiência, e produtividade"] ser competitivo. Isto é, não apenas trabalhar bem, mas trabalhar bem a fazer o que vale a pena.A propósito destes últimos sublinhados recordar: "Acerca da produtividade, mais uma vez (parte I)":
...
Em termos de produtividade estrita, o aumento do valor do "output" por hora do trabalho de cada profissional, organização, região e do país como um todo, pode fazer-se dentro do que sempre se fez, ou seja, no âmbito dos negócios, cultura, estruturas, tecnologias, sistemas, qualificações, competências e capacidades de cada um, mas apenas até um certo ponto - parafusos serão sempre parafusos, nunca poderão ser novas tecnologias ou medicamentos. Este é o ponto vital para o aumento da produtividade: a competitividade. Não apenas melhorar, aumentar a eficiência, mas mudar, evoluir no sistema de valor, sofisticar produtos e serviços e alterar processos de trabalho.
.
A competitividade é a produtividade colocada num contexto de mudança.
...
Quando muita gente se questiona: produzir mais como? A resposta é fazendo outras coisas, de outras formas, aproveitando gente qualificada em domínios inovadores.
.
São dinâmicas diferentes, a produtividade e a competitividade, mas estão relacionadas."
"Quando as pessoas falam da produtividade partem sempre do princípio que o que se produz se mantém constante ao longo do tempo... a produtividade é vista como uma medida de eficiência porque:
Porque se assume que a qualidade das saídas se mantém constante ao longo do tempo..."O truque é mudar o que se faz, procurar alternativas com maior valor potencial para os clientes, e que podem, por isso, ser vendidas a um preço unitário mais elevado.
"Aprendam de uma vez: ter mais produtividade não é o mais importante, sobretudo se for medida à engenheiro. O essencial é competitividade!!"Produtividade medida à engenheiro: aqui.
"Apontar aos segmentos e necessidades underserved é apostar no campeonato da eficácia, é apostar na subida na escala de valor, é apostar no numerador da equação da produtividade. É, ser alemão!!! Fugir da roleta da desvalorização cambial como ferramenta de competitividade."Agora, tenham a curiosidade de ir pesquisar no marcador abaixo o que escrevo ao longo dos anos acerca do "Fórum para a Competitividade" e percebam como considero essa organização algo de nefasto para a competitividade do país.
“Se se mexe, taxa; se se continua a mexer, regulamenta; se pára, subsidia”Depois queixam-se do ritmo de crescimento da economia nesta espécie de país.
