"to form a relationship ... providing suggestions and answering questions"

"Why are more and more buyers avoiding salespeople during the buying process? Sales reps, according to Forrester, tend to prioritize a sales agenda over solving a customer’s problem. If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.
.
The answer to the shift away from reliance on outbound sales could reside in social selling, the strategy of adding social media to the sales professional’s toolbox. With social selling, salespeople use social media platforms to research, prospect, and network by sharing educational content and answering questions. As a result, they’re able to build relationships until prospects are ready to buy.
...
Social selling concentrates on producing focused content and providing one-to-one communication between the salesperson and the buyer.
...
with social selling, the goal is for the rep to form a relationship with each prospect, providing suggestions and answering questions rather than building an affinity for the organization’s brand.
...
Social selling makes sense for achieving quota and revenue objectives for multiple reasons. First, three out of four B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions.
...
It doesn’t take a significant amount of time to get started in social selling. B2B salespeople only need to invest 5% to 10% of their time to be successful with social. Salespeople should begin carving out a small percentage of their daily time for social media. Regular interaction with a prospect may not lead to a direct sale this week or quarter, but could result in a significant win within the year.
...
After all, social media is too important to be left to marketing. In fact, a recent study found skilled social media sales professionals are six times more likely to exceed quota over peers with basic or no social media skills. It is time to get started with social selling and meet your prospects where they’re spending their time."

Como não recordar a Indium Corporation.


Trechos retirados de "84% of B2B Sales Start with a Referral — Not a Salesperson"

"The market is a goal collective"

Parte I.

Outra perspectiva acerca dos ecossistemas da procura:

"Viewing markets as goal collectives rather than as individual customers is especially critical in business-to-business where multiple key decision-makers are involved, sometimes all present at the same meeting.
The key to business success is the navigation of the goal landscape. This can truly transform the selling approach.
.
In the case of a scientific instrument manufacturer, this question started with: who is the customer – the director of the research institute, chief financial officer, procurement manager, lab manager? The answer, of course, is all of them. And each has different goals. Unfortunately, in most instances, the main touch-point had been when the sales person met procurement head on; each side armed with ten-point negotiation plans. By realizing each decision-maker had different goals – ranging from the head’s focus on international reputation, procurement’s focus on sales price and the lab manager’s focus on usability – the sales force was able to map out a goal landscape. Armed with a handy guide, sales people could lead with different sales pitches depending on whom they encountered. They could also zone in on the key player for whom their offering had the most convincing competitive advantage.
The firm also changed its practices by encouraging sales people to visit as many parties within a single organisation as possible compared with the old practice of commanding a specific number of visits to different organizations per day.
...
The customer consists of multiple parties, each with their own goals. Success is created by showing how you offer the best solution across these collective goals rather than by focusing on a unique selling proposition for “Barry the island”
.
Communications and sales efforts should explicitly focus on multiple parties. Either in face-to-face meetings or by reframing goals by personifying these with co-decision makers, reminding your counter-party that they need to consider a broader range of goals
...
To gain legitimacy, companies need to provide value to all relevant parties."

Trechos retirados de um excelente texto, "So you Think You Know your Customers? de Nader Tavassoli, publicado por International Commerce Review, Vol. 10, nº 1 Spring 2011

Curiosidade do dia

"O suicida não tem horizonte temporal, vive na conjuntura do fim porque para ele não haverá mais nada depois de desaparecer. Quando o suicida elabora o seu orçamento, as contas parecem certas, mas só porque não tem de clarificar o que fará para o orçamento do ano depois desse e porque também já desistiu de pagar os compromissos que assumiu no passado: nem investe, nem paga a dívida.
...
Trava-se um suicídio mostrando um futuro diferente, já que o passado ninguém pode mudar. O futuro só não será austeridade se houver investimento e crescimento, se a cultura da dependência distributiva e clientelar for substituída pela valorização da competição e pelo prémio ao mérito, se a construção do futuro tiver como base a recusa de repetir o passado."

Trechos retirados de "O orçamento do suicida"

"Aim to help customers achieve their goals."

Trechos retirados de um excelente texto, "So you Think You Know your Customers? de Nader Tavassoli, publicado por International Commerce Review, Vol. 10, nº 1 Spring 2011

"A single customer may belong to multiple goal segments
.
Goal-based approaches to market segmentation – rather than a customer-segmentation approach focused on demographics, for example – have long been argued to lead to more meaningful segmentation schemes.
...
However, even when segments are defined according to goals (needs) the next logical step for many marketers is to assign customers to discrete segments.
...
However, products and services are not bought and consumed to satisfy personas, if there even is such a person as a Barry. Barry is a different person at work, at play and at home. He is a different person on different days of the week.
.
Barry who shifts between independent goals. The implications of seeing consumers as a bundle of goals can be profound.
...
Individual consumers can be members of multiple segments if they buy and consume ice cream to satisfy different goals. Unilever has Solero in its arsenal to compete against Coke for refreshment seekers and Magnum to compete with Häagen Dazs for indulgence seekers. On both occasions Unilever is competing for Barry’s custom. To take this point further, Barry might be value conscious in buying family sized Carte D’Or packages on promotion, but not shy away from a full-priced Magnum at the corner shop when he wants to reward himself.
...
Consumers and customers choose products and services to attain goals and not for the attributes of the offering. Depending on which goal is most active, their preferences and choices can shift dramatically.
...
Using ads, packaging or salespeople, companies try to illustrate a competitive advantage by credibly demonstrating some sort of superiority of product attributes – faster, whiter, smaller, less fatty and so on. This is product-focused selling. Goal-based selling does not exclude a discussion of product features, but its primary goal is to shift the customers’ mindset towards goals that put these into the best light; that activate latent goals that suit your brand at the critical moment. Next, the sales person needs to identify a discrepancy between the desired versus actual state, and demonstrate how the product or service is a means to close this gap."

Preço e JTBD são contextuais

Voltando a este artigo de 2007, "Finding the Right Job For Your Product", encontro um trecho que vem suportar um conselho que dei aos meus vizinhos da Comur na Murtosa.

"Consider another illustration. A maker of boxed drinks, whose products were a mixture of 40% fruit juice and 60% flavored sugar water, had placed its products in the boxed drink section of supermarkets, juxtaposed with competing products that were 100% fruit juice.
.
Though the pure juice products were much more expensive, sales of the juice/water drinks were languishing. When interviewed about their purchases, customers, who were mostly parents, revealed that the job they were trying to get done had a functional dimension — to put a healthy drink in their children’s school lunches — and an emotional dimension — to feel like they were taking good care of their children. When pitted against the job candidates that contained 100% juice, the mixture drink simply wasn’t qualified; it rarely got hired. The company then had its drink placed in another location in the supermarket, in snack foods, and sales improved markedly. When compared to the job candidates in the snack aisle, a drink that had 40% real fruit juice solved the emotional component of the “good parent” job much better than the competing candidates."

A venda depende do contexto!
.
Recordar as conservas de truta fumada da Comur e o meu conselho em "Conservas e pricing".
.
O meu conselho inicial era para situar o preço das trutas fumadas junto do salmão fumado a 3,5€ as 100 ou 150g em vez das latas de sardinhas a 0,60€. Esse conselho motivado pela percepção de que o preço é contextual, aqui é reforçado por uma outra percepção, o JTBD da truta fumada se calhar está mais próximo do JTBD do salmão fumado do que o JTBD das conservas de sardinha ou cavala.

"not all customers are created equal"

"In the enterprise space, sales are lumpy and a couple of deals may represent most of this quarter’s new revenue. So every prospect is strategic. We go the extra parsec on every opportunity; we see each proposal as a must-win. We’ve never met revenue that we didn’t want, and any technical challenge can be solved with a one-off fix. After all, there aren’t enough F2000 companies that we can chance losing even one to fussy product concerns.
...
But not all customers are created equal. At many enterprise software companies, I see one or two outlier customers consuming an inordinate share of support time, product management attention, engineering cycles and roadmap focus — hugely out of proportion to their actual revenue or market value. Maybe we should fire just those two, and free up scarce resources for dozens of more relevant customers.
.
Pareto analysis implies that 20% of our customers generate 80% of our profits. Philip Kotler suggests an even more unbalanced mix: that our top 10% of customers represent 150% of profits, and our bottom 10% account for minus 100% of total profit. (In other words, firing the right 10% of our current customers would double profitability!)
...
Aren’t They All Just “Customers”?
...
Take the Lead with the Customer
Once we’ve sold the idea of firing a customer internally, we have two other big tasks: designing an equitable “out” for the customer/prospect, and having an uncomfortable discussion with them.
...
Outlier customers misapplying our products can waste tremendous amounts of time and attention. Sometimes, we have to fire one or two to serve our core customer well."

Trechos retirados de "Let’s Fire a Few of Our Customers"

“Price matters most when the seller believes price matters most.”

"In one of my keynote addresses, I often share that:
.
“Price matters most when the seller believes price matters most.”
.
When I work with individual companies to improve their margins, each and every one of those engagements starts with someone emphatically telling me that their “Clients are different. They really only care about price.” After seeing results, my clients realize that most of the perception about price is borne by the seller, not the buyer.
.
There are three specific steps you can take to ensure that you and your client appreciate value more than price.
...
Step 1: Don’t Focus On Price
...
often, the person doing the selling starts the conversation with their client about price without even realizing it.
...
focus on results and value, not price.
...
Step 2: You Are Not A Commodity – Recognize Your Value
.
You might think that you provide the same stuff as your competitors. If your business involves human beings, you are not a commodity. The buyer may want you to think of yourself as a commodity, but unless you are simply delivering the same people (as sometimes happens with government contractors), then you are different. More important than having marketing material that says you are different, you and your colleagues need to believe in what makes your company’s products and services different. Then you can focus your efforts where that differentiation matters most. Your unique attributes often pertain to your experience rather than the general services.
...
Step 3: Find Impact Together
.
When speaking with your client about the issue they hope to solve, recognize that the “issue” is the tip of the iceberg. In our research we know that customers make buying decisions when they appreciate “What problem you solve and why they need what you offer.” While discussing their issue (for example, hiring a new IT provider) might uncover what problem they are trying to solve, we don’t yet know “why they need it.” To uncover the magic of why they need it, you ask questions like “What happens if six months from now you still haven’t solved this?” If they cannot convince you that this Issue has enough Impact associated with not solving the Issue, then it might not be worth your time to pursue the opportunity. If you are more passionate about solving the issue than your client, bring your wallet…you’ll have to pay for it.
...
When you avoid bringing up price, when you recognize your value, and when you find impact together, you’ll carve out a niche where customers appreciate value over price. And the next time you think that your customer is focused on price, step back. You might be the one concerned about price."

Trechos retirados de "What To Do When Customers Only Care About Price"

Curiosidade do dia

Não é preciso fazer um desenho para juntar esta outra "Curiosidade do dia" com:

• João Vasconcelos: "Há empresários que têm dificuldade em acompanhar o aumento do salário mínimo"
• João Vasconcelos: "Nunca tivemos tanta intenção de investimento como agora"
• Portugal lidera queda das vendas a retalho na UE

The Mid-market (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

"Does all this activity mean the mid-market is finally disappearing, or can operators in this segment of the market evolve to survive? We ask the experts... [Moi ici: Seguem-se trechos da resposta de Richard Millman]
...
They need a clear strategy and proposition for the consumer, differentiating on quality of product and service. They need to find their point of difference, both as a chain and as individual clubs. Going upmarket — as some mid-market operators are trying or have tried to do — presents a marketing challenge. It's easier to do if you have just one club than a chain, because to successfully make this move, operators must really understand their local marketplace — what their USP is locally — and how to capture new groups of customers. There are still lots of new audiences out there, provided clubs can define their proposition and find something unique to offer their particular geographic and consumer market."

Acerca da importância do alinhamento.


Trechos retirados do número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management"

Market-driven ou market-driving (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
.
O exemplo da aceleração que a Benetton introduziu na sua forma de trabalhar para tentar fazer face à Zara, H&M et al:

"These transformations in the company’s logistics and operations have enabled to increase the number and structure of collections. Before 2003, retailers had to order the most of the items (80 per cent) before the beginning of the commercial season and only two collections were available, the Spring/Summer and the Autumn/Winter. The rest of the items (reassortments or flash) were mainly reorders and, only in small amounts, orders of new products designed during the selling season (20-30 per cent)
.
Because of this rigidity, customers searching for the last fashion trends did not return to the shops. To face this problem, the Benetton Group has increased the number of collections and decreased the amount of orders received before the selling season. The traditional seasonal collection was substituted by two main collections (Contemporary 1 and Contemporary 2) articulated in four launches: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter with a time-to-market between four and eight months. In addition, in order to favour customers’ footfall to shops, Benetton has introduced new collections during the selling season:
• trends, a collection more sensitive to the fashion tendencies with time-to-market between one and four months;
• just in time, a collection that aims to satisfying sensitive customers fashion;
• continuative items, these items represent the core of the Benetton collection and are manufactured in stocks and brought to the market in a very short time (seven days in Italy and 15 days throughout the rest of the world); and
• nice price articles, which are basic yet original and are inspired by the practical needs of day-to-day living."

 Talvez o melhor que a Benetton podia fazer seria não tentar competir no campeonato do fast-fashion. Encolher, fugir dele e procurar manter-se como uma empresa market-driving.

"it is the situation rather than the customer"

Voltei a este artigo de 2007, "Finding the Right Job For Your Product" e, mais uma vez tive de concordar com: nunca é tarde para aprender, às vezes é demasiado cedo.

Não sei há quantos anos li este artigo pela primeira vez. Ontem, tinha de começar a trabalhar numa empresa por volta das 10h30 e resolvi aproveitar para dar uma caminhada matinal de 7 km onde aproveitei para o reler. Este trecho caiu bem dentro e ainda está aqui a ressoar:

"The problem with focusing on customer needs is that a customer finds herself needing different things at different times. [Moi ici: Recordei logo um projecto em curso em que os clientes só dão o trabalho à empresa em certas circunstâncias e optam por um concorrente quando estão sob outras circunstâncias] In contrast, the situation, or the job, is a simpler, more stable point of focus because it exists independently — disembodied, as it were — from the customer. [Moi ici: Para quem começa os projectos de estratégia à procura dos clientes-alvo, significa que na verdade estamos à procura dos JTBD-alvo] Although there may be a  correlation between customers with particular characteristics and the propensity to purchase particular products, it is the job that causes the purchase to occur.
.
Another reason it is so important to understand the situation that precipitated purchase is that this yields insight not just into the functional dimensions of the job to be done but into the emotional factors as well: fear, fatigue or frustration; anxiety or anger; panic, pride or pain; and so on. Products don’t engender emotions. Situations do. Hence, to provide the set of functional, emotional and social experiences in purchase and use that are required to do the job completely, it is the situation rather than the customer that must be the fundamental unit of marketing analysis."

Quando estou apertado com o tempo, preciso de uma XXXX e não quero falhar na promessa que fiz ao cliente...

Quando preciso de ajuda para me ajudarem a criar uma XXXX e conseguir surpreender o cliente ...

Quando um cliente me vem visitar e precisamos de ajuda sobre um contratipo de uma XXXX para tomar uma decisão rápida ...
.
Estou habituado a dizer que o cliente-alvo valoriza:

• rapidez;
• consultoria;
• disponibilidade

E na verdade, talvez seja mais correcto dizer que naquelas circunstâncias é o que o cliente valoriza. Talvez quando esteja sem pressão do tempo ou pretenda um trabalho corriqueiro o preço seja o seu factor preferido para a selecção.

E assim se faz Mongo

"In addition to meeting the perennial need for growth, marketers have been launching more brands in response to the fragmentation of traditional segments. Consider, for example, how customers are migrating out of the middle to the low and high ends of the market in cars, clothes, computers, retailing, and other industries. At the same time, while globalizing consumer tastes are creating segments in some markets that cut across geographies, growing ethnic diversity in other markets is exacerbating fragmentation as customers seek products with local flavor. Furthermore, it's increasingly feasible for marketers to develop and launch brands cost-effectively for fragmenting customer segments. Distribution costs and communication costs are falling, and manufacturing flexibility is on the rise."

Recordar "Polarização do mercado ou como David e Golias podem co-existir"

Trecho retirado de "Profiting from Polarization"

Curiosidade do dia

No tempo da PàF isto seria ridicularizado como não sendo assunto.

Plataformas cooperativas

"Blockchain, however, cleverly makes a trustworthy but ownerless database possible. “Which means you can have platforms that grow without central owners of that platform,” Ramge argues. All the data points that run an auction (the items, their photos, the bids, when they came in) that could all go into a blockchain located on thousands of users’ machines. Creators could build hundreds of different interfaces, all of which would use that same shared database."

Recordar a nossa previsão acerca das plataformas cooperativas.

Trecho retirado de "Can Blockchains Disrupt the Internet’s Monopolies?"

BTW, "A Second Internet, Coming Soon, Courtesy of the Blockchain"

"Study what customers do, not what they say"

Algo que aprendi nos últimos meses e que vem suplantar práticas que tenho seguido ao longo de anos:

"Study what customers do, not what they say.
Just because customers say they’ll buy or use something, doesn’t mean they actually will. Behavioral economists call the former stated preference and the latter revealed preference.
...
It’s a mistake to believe that customer satisfaction is the goal of innovation. It’s also a mistake to believe that customers know what they want — or that we should study customer “needs”. In fact, customers don’t know what they want or what they need.
...
Innovators study switch’n, not bitch’nThe customers who offer the best data about what changes you should make to your product are those who you never hear about. Why? Because (a) they never became your customer in the first place or (b) they left you long ago.
.
Innovation became a lot easier for me when I decided to focus on what customers do, instead of what they think they need or want."

Pensem bem naqueles inquéritos, presenciais ou escritos, que enviamos aos clientes para avaliar a sua satisfação.
.
Trechos retirados de "Bitch’n Ain’t Switch’n — Don’t Be Fooled By What Customers Say They Want"

Market-driven ou market-driving (parte II)

Parte I.

"In the 1990s international incumbents such as Zara, started to erode Benetton’s market position. The rigidity of Benetton’s approach to distribution did not enable the company to rapidly match changing customer’s needs, a capability that was perfectly managed by competitors such as Zara and H&M, due to a total control of the retail-chain.
...
Benetton’s sales come from franchise operations. Zara and H&M, in contrast, own their shops, which make it easier to install unified systems that track global sales electronically’
...
Fast-fashionThe market-driven orientation is implemented also through the fast fashion concept in the fashion industry. The fast fashion concept indicates how some European fashion retailers are adopting effective strategies for answering in real time to consumer fashion trends, revolutionizing the fashion industry. Fast fashion necessitates that companies own an increasing number of shops worldwide, so that through the information infrastructure they can connect the consumer demand with the upstream of design, procurement, production, and distribution. To be successful fast fashion companies require a fast and highly responsive supply-chain. Finally, fast fashion companies achieve short development cycles, rapid prototyping, small batches and variety so customers are offered the late trends in small amounts.
.
Fast fashion is a strategy that has been developed to deal with constant changes in fashion trends. Fast fashion brands have created a system that is able to monitor and match consumer requirements and trends in real time. Many experts in the industry see Zara as the classic illustration of the fast fashion concept in operation
...
Zara’s “fast fashion” is the emphasis of putting fashionable and affordable design concepts matching consumer demand onto the high street as quickly as possible.
.
The company can get a new garment from design, through production and ultimately on the shelf in a mere ten to 15 days whereas the average lead-time for the fashion industry typically ran into several months. Zara’s business model tries to fulfil real time fashion retailing and not second-guessing what consumers’ needs are for next season, which may be six months away. As a result of Zara utilizing this ultraresponsive supply chain, 85 per cent of their entire product range obtains full ticket price, whereas the industry norm is between 60 and 70 per cent.
.
Zara’s garments are produced in small amounts, so as not to be over exposed, if a particular item is a very poor seller. If a product is a poor seller, then it is removed after as little as two weeks. Roughly 10 per cent of stocks fall into this unsold category, in direct contrast to industry norms of between 17 and 20 per cent. Stock are seen as assets which are extremely perishable and that if they are sitting on shelves or racks in a warehouse, they are simply not making money for the organization.
.
Another important strategy of Zara’s “fast fashion” philosophy is to frequently supply new items to retailers’ shops. These “fresher” product ranges stimulate shoppers into frequenting these stores on a more regular basis, on an average of 17 times a year. Through increased stock replenishment of new fashionable items, these stores are developing brand images for being cutting edge, trendy, and fashionable.
...
The resulting increased consumer footfall in shops eliminates the need for large expenditure on advertising and promotion."

Fast-fashion o segredo por trás do retorno de tanta produção da ITV a Portugal. Não é só a Zara, é toda uma série de empresas que embora não sejam tão competitivas e grandes como a Zara seguem, à sua maneira, esta abordagem.

The Mid-market (parte II)

Parte I.

"Does all this activity mean the mid-market is finally disappearing, or can operators in this segment of the market evolve to survive? We ask the experts... [Moi ici: Segue-se a resposta de Michael Clark]
...
Unless it’s a premium or destination club, most consumers will categorise the remainder of gyms as much the same and, as consumer research continues to tell us, they will choose to the join the most convenient one for them. If they have a choice when it comes to convenience, with two or more clubs in similar striking distance, then price becomes more of a factor. This tilts the tables in favour of the budget operators.
.
That said, big box mid-market clubs do have numerous offensive strategies available to them to counter the cost differential. One is to address the ongoing consumer frustration of having to pay for all the club’s services and facilities when they only use one or two areas. This can be achieved by breaking out popular formats – for example, some group exercise genres – into a boutique-style ‘club within a club’, with a separate pay as you go fee structure.
...
Going forward, I feel it will be all about how mid-market operators can articulate their differentiation and how they can attract new markets using technology and other services. A good location alone won’t be enough to stop consumers comparing on price and choosing what they see as a cheaper like-for-like option."

Trechos retirados do número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management"

Curiosidade do dia

"As the thinking goes, growth of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the goods and services produced in an economy every year is essential to a country’s stability and prosperity.
...
But some economists are now challenging that view, arguing that it makes more sense to focus on measures of well-being other than growth.
...
Spence and others who agree with him aren’t saying that the economy should stop growing or even shrink (though there is a group of people who do believe that). What they are arguing is instead that it may be more healthy economically to accept a slower growth rate, but still a positive one, while prioritizing policies that address things like inequality and access to services. This idea is, admittedly, somewhat utopian, but giving it serious consideration can illuminate the shortcomings of the current growth-first approach.
.
It’s not just that maximizing growth doesn’t necessarily help people, but also that rapid growth can itself come at a cost, such as when the pursuit of growth is used to push through policies that are expected increase the GDP but may have negative consequences for millions.[Moi ici: Como não esquecer a orgia despesista de 2009?]
...
Indeed, GDP measures activity in the economy, but there’s no way to know whether that activity is actually good for society. Merely sitting in traffic can cause GDP to go up, since people need to buy all that gas, but it has no societal benefit whatsoever, and additionally has negative consequences, such as pollution and frustration, that don’t show up in GDP at all. The BP oil-rig explosion, which killed 11, and the subsequent spill, which leaked 3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, actually lifted GDP, analysts said, because of the amount of money spent cleaning it up.[Moi ici: A janela partida de Bastiat revisitada]
...
“Economists decided a long time ago that they can’t explain growth,” he told me. “Lots of people thought they knew what causes growth, but nobody actually does.”"[Moi ici: Esqueceram-se de perguntar ao primeiro-ministro de Portugal]

Sabem porque é que a economia não cresce? Porque o Costa não tem ido todas as semanas dar apoio pic.twitter.com/PTjbjcSMqc

— JoãoMiranda (@joaomiranda) November 5, 2016

Trechos retirados de "Does the Economy Really Need to Keep Growing Quite So Much?"

Para reflexão

"We used to have a few simple phases to existence: childhood, education, work, and retirement. Now, entirely new phases of adulthood have emerged.
...
As people age more healthily and work longer, the 50s and 60s will emerge as creative new decades of renewal, mobility and wisdom. Aging societies may not be the sad and boring future everyone fears. They may be an innovative and promising reinvention of human potential.
...
companies will want [Moi ici: Então, por que demoram tanto?] to integrate the consequences of much longer lives into all their products and services. There are huge new opportunities in analyzing and serving the needs of humans are discovering that life hold entirely new chapters. Moving away from quickly outdating stereotypes of aging, retirement, and recreation, to dynamic new images of re-creation and innovations in lifestyle choices is fertile territory. For example, the over-60s entrepreneur is the fastest-growing segment in the UK and people aged 55-64 started 23.4% of all new businesses in the U.S. in 2012, up from 14.3% in 1996."

Trechos retirados de "What Happens When Careers Last 20 Years Longer?"

Market-driven ou market-driving (parte I)

O artigo "From market-driving to market-driven - An analysis of Benetton’s strategy change and its implications for long-term performance" de Raffaele Filieri e publicado por Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 33 No. 3, 2015 pp. 238-257, merece ser lido para quem quer perceber porque, para além da subida dos custos na Ásia, o reshoring está a ocorrer. O artigo leva também a pensar que as empresas de calçado portuguesas que operam como market-driven nos mercados de proximidade, terão de operar como market-driving quando querem exportar para a Ásia ou Estados Unidos.

"The double-dip recession, the growth of low cost retailers, and the capability to rapidly satisfy ever changing consumer fashion needs are three different but intertwined factors which are reshaping the map of competition in the fashion industry. Today’s fashion market place is highly competitive and companies need to constantly “refresh” product ranges within a store to adapt to volatile fashion trends. Market-driven companies such as Zara and H&M seem to master this capability to match customer requirements in real time by offering trendy items at affordable prices.
...
define market-driven management as the activity of “learning, understanding, and responding to stakeholder perceptions and behaviours within a given market structure”. Market driven refers to a business orientation that is based on understanding and reacting to the preferences and behaviours of customers within a given market structure through conducting market research and delivering incremental innovations. This orientation is strongly linked with the acquisition of information and knowledge about customers and competitors, which enable the firm to generate product innovation and to sustain a competitive advantage. The firms’ responsiveness to market needs depends on the propensity to act based on the knowledge acquired from the market
...
the market-driven orientation does not guarantee a sustainable competitive advantage
...
argued that the market-driven approach leaves the organization open to the tyranny of the served market in which managers see the world only through their current customers’ eyes. ... suggest that being market oriented detracts from innovation. To this regard, Christensen and Bower stated: “firms lose their position of industry leadership […] because they listen too carefully to their customers”. The common theme among the criticisms is that businesses pay a penalty for being market oriented. Likewise, while a strong market orientation is indicative of a propensity to innovate, it is not necessarily indicative of successful innovation. In order to induce changes in the behaviours of customers and competitors, simply being receptive to current market trends through market sensing abilities is not sufficient to sustain innovation.
.
It has been suggested that in order to achieve a superior business performance, firms need to actively influence the market rather than being only ready to react to it. To shape the market, scholars have found that a market-driving orientation is better able than a market-driven orientation to gain a sustainable advantage by changing the structure or composition of a market and/or behaviours of its players.
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Innovation is a pre-requisite for creating customers and this is consistent with the “forward sensing” approach, in which market sensing is aimed to acquire state of the art knowledge which allows firms not only to be responsive but also to generate new concepts and ideas that alter the market structure. ... state that over time even successful market-driving firms change, as they should, into market-driven firms."

The Mid-market (parte I)

"Does all this activity mean the mid-market is finally disappearing, or can operators in this segment of the market evolve to survive? We ask the experts... [Moi ici: Segue-se a resposta de Ray Algar]
...
Mid-market clubs were very slow to respond when low-cost gyms entered the market and disrupted the status quo. Now, unless they can offer something more compelling, it will only be a matter of time before more of these generic health clubs start to close.
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In the last couple of years, we've seen a disproportionate number of mid-market independents close as membership stagnated, membership prices remained flat and insufficient funds were generated to reinvest into refreshing the experience.
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The low-cost and premium markets are both well defined, but historically the mid-market brands have deliberately been more generic. Neither one thing or the other.
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The remaining legacy brands need to take stock and now jettison things which no longer serve them, or their members, and rediscover their core excellence. Similar offerings may be good enough when there's significant geographic distance between clubs, but can be disastrous as the distance between health clubs shortens.
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Mid-market clubs need to become experts, and build a reputation, in an area they really care about."

Como não recuar a 2005 e ao primeiro artigo que li sobre o fim do middle-market com a polarização do mercado: The vanishing middle market,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 Number 4.
 
Trechos retirados do número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management"

Não é um "nice to have"

"Define What Your Strategy Is — And What It Isn’t.
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Good strategy is ultimately about choices: it is as much about what not to do, as what to do. Most organizations don’t lose their way due to a lack of ideas, but by frittering away their focus and attention among thousands of seemingly useful but ultimately draining pursuits. This comes from a lack of clarity around your reason for being in existence, and the inability to draw bold lines separating ‘what will keep us on track’ vs. ‘what will lead us astray’. Next time you help create a big idea, initiative or strategy, do your company a favour and write down what it is, and in even bigger letters, what it isn’t. This includes things that customers or the media may be clamouring for. The effort needed to say no to seemingly legitimate options enforces the strategic discipline of clarifying the unique value your organization brings to people and to the market."

Enquanto lia este trecho senti logo click das peças a encaixarem-se:

A importância de se concretizar o que não se é, para reduzir o perigo da deriva da opinião dos clientes que Alan Klement tão bem relacionou com as causas especiais de Deming e que referi em "Acerca da variabilidade dos clientes".
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Sistematizar o que não se é não é um mero "nice to have" é um verdadeiro must para nos guiar e evitar a deriva que desfoca e torra valor.

Curiosidade do dia

Mongo no ensino, também.

"He says he has been complaining to ministers for many years about skills shortages in engineering.
...
"We are taking matters into our own hands," said Sir James, who added that he wants the project to develop into a fully fledged Dyson University, with its own degree-awarding powers.
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Students will be paid a salary while studying and will not have to pay tuition fees - and Sir James says a key benefit will be that students will be working on "live projects" alongside mentors and research staff."

Trechos retirados de "Inventor Sir James Dyson sets up college to tackle skills shortage"

"next time you're imprisoned in a tower"

"people were faster and more creative when they tackled the problem on behalf of others rather than for themselves.
...
Polman and Emich build upon existing psychological research showing that when we think of situations or individuals that are distant – in space, time, or social connection – we think of them in the abstract. But when those things are close – near us physically, about to happen, or standing beside us – we think about them concretely.
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Over the years, social scientists have found that abstract thinking leads to greater creativity. That means that if we care about innovation we need to be more abstract and therefore more distant. But in our businesses and our lives, we often do the opposite. We intensify our focus rather than widen our view. We draw closer rather than step back.
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Think about that next time you're imprisoned in a tower. Actually, don't. Instead, have someone else think about it for you."

Trechos retirados "Daniel H Pink: employees are faster and more creative when solving other people's problems"

Para os registos

Li algures que o peso das exportações portuguesas no PIB representava pouco mais de 21% em 1985, ano anterior à adesão à CEE.
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Em 2008 as exportações representavam 31% do PIB.
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Ou seja, em 23 anos o peso das exportações no PIB cresceu cerca de 10 pontos percentuais.
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Agora, ao consultar o Boletim Económico do Banco de Portugal de Outubro último, verifico que o número em 2015 chegou aos 40,6%.
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Ou seja, em 7 anos o peso das exportações no PIB cresceu cerca de 10 pontos percentuais.
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Notável!!!
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Claro que aqueles 23 anos não deverão ter tido uma evolução linear, a primeira década do século XXI deve ter sido sempre a cair por causa do efeito China e da orgia do não-transaccionável.

"Strategy is Not a To Do List, It Drives a To Do List"

"“You stupid x?!x. These strategies are mutually exclusive. Executing both of them would put us out of business.  You don’t have a clue about what the purpose of marketing is because all you are doing is executing a series of tasks like they’re like a big To Do list. Without understanding why you’re doing them, you’re dangerous as the VP of Marketing, in fact you’re just a glorified head of marketing communications.”
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Strategy is Not a To Do List, It Drives a To Do List
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Once I understood the strategy, the To Do list became clear. It allowed me to prioritize what I did, when I did it and instantly understand what would be mutually exclusive."

Por isso é que a última actividade na sequência é: o que vamos fazer na próxima segunda-feira?


Recordar "Strategy is not a to do list"

Trechos retirados de "Strategy is Not a To Do List"

As marcas da Amazon

"The bottom line for brands is they can no longer view Amazon as solely a channel and need to acknowledge them as a competitor.""

A loja como concorrente das marcas dos fabricantes. É o cúmulo!!! E as marcas dos fabricantes que se queixavam do aperto nas margens, de repente, ficam sem prateleiras!
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Em mercados comoditizados as marcas dos fabricantes concentram-se tanto no seu umbigo, na eficiência, que deixam de ser marcas para os consumidores.
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A memória recua a 2007, a leituras na estação do Carregado, e faz-me ir buscar:

"Manufacturer brands seem to be moving in the wrong direction. While industries with higher advertising intensity tend to have lower private label share, companies are increasingly diverting money away from advertising to promotions.
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Diverting money from communicating with customers to retailer support is the beginning of a vicious cycle for manufacturer brands. As manufacturer brands spend less building their brands with end consumers, they lose brand equity with the ultimate arbiter in the marketplace. This increases the relative power of retailers and their negotiating power. As a result, manufacturer brands are subject to even greater concessions by retailers. In order to fund these concessions to retailers, manufacturer brands divert more money from consumer communications to retailers.
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As reseller equity goes up, to maintain balance, manufacturer brands have to spend more rather than less money communicating with customers."

No limite, o dono da prateleira interroga-se: por que devo dar margem a outros quando posso colocar à venda um produto tão bom ou melhor?
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Amazon a caminho de tornar-se uma espécie de Decathlon ou IKEA.

Trecho inicial retirado de "Amazon’s private label brands are killing it"

Trechos retirados de "Private Label Strategy" 

Curiosidade do dia

"Para muitos especialistas, Portugal deve aproveitar para apostar em produtos onde já é muito  competitivo, nomeadamente, o vinho, o azeite e o queijo."

Uma pessoa fica logo elucidada acerca dos ditos "especialistas" quando:

• a economia de Portugal é resumida à agro-indústria;
• acham que somos competitivos no queijo (LOL);

Farto deste voluntarismo e desta ignorância.

Trecho retirado de "CETA. Uma lança para Portugal aumentar as vendas para o Canadá"

O mundo a mudar

Ontem ao final da tarde na minha caixa de correio electrónico caiu um convite para uma acção de demonstração:

Agora reparem no teor da demonstração:

"A KYAIA - Fortunato O. Frederico, Lda. implementou em consórcio com a FLOWMAT - Sistema Industriais, Lda., Silva & Ferreira Lda., Creative Systems, Lda., CEI - Companhia de Equipamentos Industriais, Lda, INESC TEC- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência, FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto e CTCP - Centro Tecnológico do Calçado de Portugal o projeto de I&D HSSF - High Speed Shoe Factory.
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Este projeto teve como objetivo conceber, desenvolver e implementar um novo modelo de fábrica de calçado para resposta ágil em 24 horas, orientado para a produção unitária par a par, capaz de responder sem stocks, às vendas pela internet, às pequenas encomendas e reposições de produtos em loja e ao fabrico rápido das amostras."

O mundo a mudar, as tentativas para ir encontrando resposta, respostas que por sua vez permitem mais mudança num bailado de co-evolução.

"It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production"

 Daqui "Сhristos Passas (Zaha Hadid Architects): It is interesting to work in Russia, but the approval process is complicated here" sublinho este trecho que parece retirado aqui do blogue:

"we do not have any ready-made solutions. We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same. Of course, the idea of repetition has something to do with the mode of production we had at the beginning of the 20th century, with machines that would repetitively do the same job, so that you got standard, high-quality products — but it was the same from one to the other. It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production — and if you wanted to have something individualized, you could change the colour, or, say, the buttons.
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Christos Passas: “We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same”
Nowadays, I think, the mode of production is changing. It is very important, because the machines we are using today for fabrication, for construction, are so agile that they can produce unique objects in every case."

Recordar:

• Magnitograd versus Mongo
• O século XX começou há  100 anos
• A marca do século XXI

Um tema que tem tudo a ver com "Budweiser's Battle for Beer Market Dominance Hinges on the U.S.":

"“Small brewers have been growing in market share since the late ’70s and early ’80s, but for a long time they were too tiny to pose any threat to the bigger brands,” he says. “Only in the past 10 years have they really made themselves known, with more than 20 percent of the market in dollar sales.” By volume, their share also is going up, with craft beers representing 12.2 percent of the U.S. market in 2015, he says, and they will likely hit a peak this year.
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Craft concoctions can do many things the big beers can’t, like offer greater variety, fuller flavor and snappier names (Pepperation H, Apocalypse Cow and Citra Ass Down) or humorous mottos appealing to locals and tourists, like Utah’s Polygamy Pale Ale (“Try one and you’ll want another, and another, and another...”). Watson says craft brewers also tend to be deeply involved with their communities and are highly philanthropic, bolstering brand loyalty in a way the monster beer makers cannot."

"Because if nobody hates it, nobody loves it"

O @armando_moreira chamou-me a atenção para um artigo de Ray Algar no número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management". Escreverei amanhã sobre ele.
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Hoje, sublinho um trecho que capturou a minha atenção:

"Mobile devices will be used for sign-up and access, and membership is fully flexible: pay per use or pay on a weekly basis — and even with the latter, if you want to leave, you only have to give that week plus one more week's notice. It's designed to give power to the consumer. We're trying to create the ultimate, flexible, user-friendly fitness experience for this target market.
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It's a risk, because only about 800,000 people in Denmark belong to a health club — and of those 800,000, we're expecting a significant number will come into our gym and think it's the worst place they've ever been. In fact, if that isn't happening, we won't have done our job properly. Because if nobody hates it, nobody loves it.
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I come back to clothing. Obviously you can make something that will fit almost everybody and look OK on them — but it wouldn't make a statement Not about the person developing it, nor the person wearing it. We're definitely making a statement with our clubs."

Como não recordar:

• Assim, talvez ter inimigos entre os clientes ou ex-clientes seja bom sinal (Parte I e parte II)
• Justin Bieber e o preço da diferença

Humanos e máquinas

"In his 2013 book, “Average Is Over,” Mr. Cowen briefly mentioned how two average human chess players, working with three regular computers, were able to beat both human chess champions and chess-playing supercomputers.
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It was a revelation for Mr. Work. You could “use the tactical ingenuity of the computer to improve the strategic ingenuity of the human,” he said."

Trecho retirado de "The Pentagon’s ‘Terminator Conundrum’: Robots That Could Kill on Their Own"

Conjugar com "Man and machine: The new collaborative workplace of the future":

"At Ford's factory in Cologne, Germany, a new kind of robot is sitting by the assembly line helping manufacture the legendary automaker's cars. But these collaborative robots, or co-bots, aren't replacing their human counterparts at this Ford Fiesta plant. Instead, they're working side by side with 4,000 Ford factory workers, and not for them.
...
"It's not just the use of co-bots — it's the reduction of industrial robots," said Frank Tobe, a robotics expert and publisher of "The Robot Report." "The traditional caged robot at auto factories is becoming obsolete, because every car is different from every other car."
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Manufacturing precisely configured vehicles where customers choose details like the trim of the dash or the caps of tire valves is not a task for large industrial robots, which have trouble adapting to an age of mass customization in part because they constantly have to be reprogrammed."

Recordar:

• Para recordar ...
• "humans and machines will work together"

Curiosidade do dia

Recordo muitas vezes a palavra histerese quando penso no desemprego.
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Usava-a muito em Fenómenos de Transferência, sobretudo associada à adsorção.

Quando o fenómeno corre no sentido da adsorção tem um comportamento diferente de quando corre a dessorção.
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Por que penso agora em histerese?
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Por causa do desemprego e do salário mínimo.
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Ao longo da década de 90 do século passado tivemos uma evolução dos custos de mão-de-obra no sector do têxtil e vestuário que pode servir de avatar para o que se passou nos outros sectores da economia transaccionável:

À medida que o país adoptava um modelo mental que considerava os sectores tradicionais como obsoletos e incapazes de se ajustarem ao mundo novo, e os sectores não-transaccionáveis como a nova última Coca-Cola no meio do deserto, os salários iam subindo muito acima da produtividade e as fábricas iam fechando. Quem não se lembra da facilidade com que se dizia que se uma fábrica não consegue pagar o novo salário mínimo deve fechar.
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Nessa altura, mesmo que os salários não tivessem subido, mesmo que os salários tivessem baixado, o resultado final teria sido o mesmo, a única coisa que variaria seria a velocidade de destruição de emprego e das fábricas como resultado da adesão da China à Organização Mundial do Comércio (ver tabela acima). Como não recordar o choque de 18 de Fevereiro de 2008, foi o ponto onde começou o comeback.
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Depois da travessia do deserto, no início de 2008  escrevi aqui que o pior para os sectores transaccionáveis tinha passado. O sector do calçado é um exemplo paradigmático dessa evolução.

Quando a troika chegou, os políticos e os Sarumans do costume (a tríade) estavam sempre a falar do sector transaccionável, que era preciso baixar salários para o salvar: TRETA!
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Lembram-se de em 2012 andarem todos à nora com um famoso relatório sobre o desemprego? Esse relatório demonstrava, contra a ideia do mainstream que quanto mais um sector económico em Portugal estava aberto ao exterior menos desemprego tinha.
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Regressemos à actualidade. Esta semana escrevi esta "Curiosidade do dia" e hoje mesmo "Um peu partout". Entretanto, no Twitter aparecem muitas bocas acerca da evolução do desemprego e da subida do salário mínimo. Olhando para a força do reshoring em curso, tema que passa completamente ao lado de artigos como este "A Little-Noticed Fact About Trade: It’s No Longer Rising" e que se traduz em números como estes:

Unemployment rates in European Union countries: @EU_Eurostat pic.twitter.com/WKa7FpcvBP

— Alvaro SantosPereira (@santospereira_a) November 3, 2016

Podemos pensar que ainda poderíamos ter uma evolução melhor.
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No entanto, o ponto deste postal é outro: como está a evoluir o emprego nos sectores não-transaccionáveis? Interessante que agora no sector privado quem mais tem falado contra o aumento do salário mínimo seja a Confederação do Comércio e Serviços, precisamente o subsector privadoque mais subiu os salários durante a orgia despesista até à troika.
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Agora o massacre é e será nesta área por causa do comércio online, por causa da demografia, por causa do fraco poder de compra e porque a dinâmica de crescimento actual está nos sectores transaccionáveis. O perfil de criação de desemprego com o aumento do salário mínimo é diferente e é mais do que compensado pela dinâmica do reshoring.

Un peu partout

Um pouco por todo o lado sintomas do reshoring, desta vez até na anquilosada França:

"Ils sont jeunes, fins gestionnaires, passionnés surtout. Prêts à réveiller une vieille industrie qu'on croyait éteinte: la confection. Elle ne représente plus que 10.000 emplois sur les 57.000 de l'industrie textile française. Mais de plus en plus d'entrepreneurs décident de reprendre des ateliers. Grâce à eux, bien des marques de luxe, ou plus accessibles, proposent ou peuvent à nouveau propose un «made in France» de plus en plus en vogue."

Trechos retirados de "Ils réveillent le «mode in France»"

"43% of managers cannot state their own strategy"

Gostei muito deste artigo, "Make Strategic Thinking Part of Your Job":

"How can we implement strategic thinking if we’re not even sure what it looks like? [Moi ici: Tema demasiado importante para um consultor que trabalha a formulação e implementação de estratégias. Se os potenciais clientes não sabem o que é como vão procurar ajuda?]
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44% of managers spent most of their time firefighting in cultures that rewarded reactivity and discouraged thoughtfulness. Nearly all leaders (96%) claimed they lacked time for strategic thinking, again, because they were too busy putting out fires.[Moi ici: Como devem imaginar isto não são números acerca dos empresários portugueses]
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Unfortunately, for many executives, the connection between their role and the strategic contribution they should make is not so obvious.[Moi ici: OMG]
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Roger Martin’s research, which found that 43% of managers cannot state their own strategy. [Moi ici: OMG] Executives with less clarity must work harder to etch out the line of sight between their role and its impact on the organization’s direction. In some cases, shedding the collection of bad habits that have consumed how they embody their role will be their greatest challenge to embodying strategic thinking.
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One study found that only 14% of people understood their company’s strategy and only 24% felt the strategy was linked to their individual accountabilities. Most executives mistakenly assume that repeated explanations through dense PowerPoint presentations are what increases understanding and ownership of strategy.
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Sound strategic thinking doesn’t have to remain an abstract mystery only a few are able to realize. Despite the common complaint, it’s not the result of making time for it. Executives must extract themselves from day-to-day problems and do the work that aligns their job with the company’s strategy. [Moi ici: Não é fácil! O empresário com quem almocei ontem gosta é de estar a aprender técnica e a aplicá-la. Visitar clientes, interagir com eles é um sacrifício] They need to be armed with insights that predict where best to focus resources."

"This is called value‐based pricing" (parte II)

Parte I.

"Value‐based pricing results from value engineering. As a construct, it works from the premise that in order for the firm to serve customer needs profitably, it needs to understand what those customers need and what they will pay to have their needs met. That is, value‐based pricing seeks to identify the value an offering delivers from the customer’s perspective and then charge accordingly.[Moi ici: Como ontem conversava ao almoço com um empresário, não é cobrar mais porque se consegue dar a volta ao cliente, é cobrar mais porque o cliente reconhece mais valor]
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Value‐based pricing requires approaching pricing challenges through the lens of detecting and understanding value from the customer’s perspective. It requires gathering facts that can be constructed into meaningful information about what needs customers have, how an offer will impact those needs, and how valuable that impact is, all from the customer’s perspective.
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Value‐based pricing isn’t a specific technique or process, but rather a paradigm for managing exchanges between the firm and its customers. As a paradigm, it flows across the firm’s decision‐making process. It defines the context through which all pricing and strategic competitive positioning decisions are made.
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If value‐based pricing relies on understanding value from the customer’s perspective, then what is that value? That is, what value is relevant for pricing decisions?
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The total value a customer receives from a product is the difference between the total benefits the product or service delivers and the total price the customer must pay to receive that bundle of benefits.
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the relevant meaning of value for customers is not an absolute, total value construct but a relative, differentia value construct.
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Differential value is the difference in value delivered to customers by choosing one firm’s offer compared to that delivered by choosing an alternative offer.
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The concept of differential value, ΔV, covers both hard, calculable issues and softer, perceptual issues."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"

Context Map Canvas

Quem trabalha com a ISO 9001:2015 vai sorrir ao reconhecer a parte da cláusula 4.1 sobre compreender o contexto de uma organização ao olhar para este "Context MapÒ Canvas"

Consultar:

• How to Understand Your Market (and Crusg the Competition) (que segunda parte do título mais inadequada)
• Get Clarity on the World Around You and Your Business With the Context Map

Curiosidade do dia

A propósito de:

"A taxa de desemprego situou-se em Setembro nos 10,8%, segundo a estimativa provisória divulgada pelo Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), que reviu em baixa os valores de Agosto para 10,9%, face à estimativa inicial de 11%."

Há dias estive em empresa industrial que teve de recorrer a trabalho temporário, não porque quisesse mas porque era a maneira mais rápida de contratar trabalhador que pretende integrar nos quadros.
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Hoje estive em empresa que colocou anúncio no jornal para contratar trabalhador. O entrevistado que mais gostaram e queriam contratar teve de recusar porque a empresa de trabalho temporário com a qual tem contrato actualmente o "ameaçou" (algo estúpido, porque seria sinal de que um trabalhador temporário teria mais dificuldades em se despedir que um trabalhador contratado) (parece outra versão do mundo das taxas negativas) mas suficiente para amedrontar o tal trabalhador).
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Acrescentar "Turn, turn, turn" e cenas como esta "Spain Runs Out of Workers With Almost 5 Million Unemployed".
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Ouvem alguém nos media tradicionais a relatar estas coisas?
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Pois, convém não estragar a narrativa de alguns.

"taking responsibility for making it a success"

"I also knew that most people in large organizations like ours would have a hard time joining movements like the one we started. It’s not that they don’t want to. It’s just that most of the time, executing today’s strategy using current information is the more comfortable path. That’s what we all learn to do in school, after all. But using yesterday’s information to execute yesterday’s strategy is a terrible excuse for not moving forward. All of the information in the world will not guarantee success if it’s based on yesterday. Sure, you can hire third parties to design your vision and strategy for you. But then you’re not taking responsibility for making it a success."

Trecho retirado de "Design a Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation"

"This is called value‐based pricing"

"Value‐engineered firms focus every aspect of their deliverables to customers on what adds value in excess of the costs to produce and then execute against that mandate.
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That is, in value engineering, the firm works backward from the customer’s needs and value to define the firm’s actions. [Moi ici: Como não recordar a Viarco] Value engineered firms strive to understand their customers’ willingness to pay for different benefits in defining the target price of the offering. From this target price, a target cost is identified that ensures profitable customer interactions. Using the target cost and the target need to be addressed, all attributes of the offering are redefined to ensure market goals are met.
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In drilling down on the issue of value engineering, we confront a simple fact of competitive free markets: customers have alternative choices. Customers can buy from the firm, its competitors, or do nothing at all. Hence, it isn’t enough to deliver value to customers; value‐engineered firms focus on delivering value in excess of their competitors for their select customer segment.
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In setting prices, rather than focusing on costs and markups, value engineered firms work from an understanding of their customers willingness to pay. This is called value‐based pricing. In value‐based pricing, a firm identifies those prices that most closely match customers’ willingness to pay without leaving money on the table nor entering into unprofitable or unhealthy transactions.
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Value‐based pricing is not cost‐plus pricing. It does not always start from the costs to produce and add a markup. This is a good thing. Too often, cost‐plus pricing either (1) sets prices far below a customer’s willingness to pay and therefore leaves money on the table or (2) sets prices so high that few, if any, customers will purchase at that price.
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Starting with an understanding of what customers value - from their perspective, not the firm’s  - results in a culture of value‐based pricing.
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As for competitors and competitive pricing, value engineering positions competitive offerings as an alternative choice for the target customer. It doesn’t ignore competitive prices. Instead, it accounts for their role in engineering the value proposition itself. It suggests that if firms want to outdo their competitors, they have to out‐serve their customers—profitably."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"

“Manufacturing bootstraps people out of poverty.”

Muitos Sarumans, do alto das suas colunas de marfim, quase todos lesboetas (naturais ou emigrados), desprezam as PME industriais dos sectores tradicionais, não lhes dão pica, não são boas para eles aparecerem em reportagens ou em revistas de social travestido de economia.
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Como ocupo a posição oposta, gostei muito de ler "Small Factories Emerge as a Weapon in the Fight Against Poverty":

"What altered Mr. Branch’s fate? There was his own discipline, of course, like completing a two-year course in metalwork between his shifts at Popeyes. Or getting up at 3:45 a.m. and taking three buses to avoid being late for his first factory job.
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But his success is also because of the unlikely survival of Marlin Steel, a rare breed: the urban industrial manufacturer.
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Marlin is a thriving factory in a place where, over the last half-century, factories have fled — first to the South, and later to Asia. That flight haunts the United States perhaps most in its urban areas — especially neighborhoods that once housed the nation’s working class — and helps explain why many African-Americans in particular today live in poverty in metropolises like Baltimore, Detroit, Newark and St. Louis.
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small manufacturers like Marlin are vital if the United States is to narrow the nation’s class divide and build a society that offers greater opportunities for everyone — rich and poor, black and white, high school graduates and Ph.D.s.
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“The closing of factories has taken the rungs out of the ladder for reaching the middle class in urban areas,”
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Many service jobs do not pay as well, nor do they offer the same opportunities for advancement. And as the service sector has expanded in recent decades, less-educated workers in big cities have largely been bypassed as demand has grown for well-compensated professionals in what Mr. Johnson calls F.T.E., or finance, technology and electronics.
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“Manufacturing jobs involve a skill base that you develop over time, and that fortifies your negotiating strength,” Mr. Johnson said. But in lower-skilled jobs, the competition is with someone who will do the same work for less. “The marketplace doesn’t give you any leverage,” he said.
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Today, smaller plants are particularly important to job creation in factory work, … “Small manufacturing is holding its own — and you are seeing some interesting developments in urban centers.”
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Out of 252,000 manufacturing companies in the United States, only 3,700 had more than 500 workers. The vast majority employ fewer than 20.
…
While they may not rival the scale of 1950s assembly lines, these smaller “craft type” producers hold out hope for cities, Mr. Paul said, particularly as some companies look to move jobs back from overseas to be closer to customers and more nimble to supply customized, small-batch orders.
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What is more, these jobs pay people more.”"

Depois, uma queixa que este blogue percebe bem a discriminação dos governos contra os pequenos a favor dos grandes:

"In addition to uniquely local challenges like these, Marlin — along with plenty of other small manufacturing companies — faces a forbidding landscape simply because of its size. “I’m not Under Armour. I can’t get concessions,” Mr. Greenblatt said, referring to the giant sports clothing company that received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and other subsidies as part of a plan to build a new headquarters here."

A propósito da Marlin Steel, fábrica citada no artigo, recomendo a leitura de:

• A receita deste blogue (parte I e parte II)

É interessante que uma fábrica que serve de base à demonstração empírica de como funciona a minha abordagem com as PME sirva, por sua vez, de exemplo para ilustrar como estas PME são muito importantes e necessárias para o funcionamento de uma economia com espaço para todos, mesmo os que abandonaram a escola.

"People, not businesses, buy products"

Julgo que esta é a última citação decorrente da leitura de "When coffee and kale compete" e é acerca de um tema relevante para o meu trabalho nas empresas: os ecossistemas da procura:

"People, not businesses, buy products. Some are tempted to treat B and D differently than A and C. The case is made that there are differences between what is called business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) markets. I don’t make any such distinction. From a JTBD point of view, there’s not much difference between children asking their parents to take them to Disneyland and employees asking their bosses to get them better equipment.
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What matters to us are: (1) do multiple people have varying degrees of influence on the decision and (2) what kind of progress is everyone trying to make with a particular product – regardless if they are using it, buying it or both.[Moi ici: Recordar o Gabinete de Arquitectura deste postal]
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When multiple systems interact. Instead of segregating B2B markets from B2C markets, I suggest we make the distinction between products that interact with one system of progress (what we’ve studied thus far and what most call B2C products), and those that interact with multiple systems of progress 

Everyone expects a product to help them make progress, regardless if they don’t buy it or use it directly.
…
Study the system, not just “users” and “choosers”. One of the most important principles of JTBD is solutions and Jobs should be thought of as parts of a system that work together to deliver progress to customers."

Recordar este postal e a figura:

 Recordar também "Ecossistemas dentro de um cliente", "O ecossistema da procura das parafarmácias", "Acerca do ecossistema da procura" e "Como é o ecossistema da sua organização?"

Curiosidade do dia

Continuem com a eucaliptação desenfreada e depois digam que a culpa é do clima, "Península Ibérica pode transformar-se num deserto até ao final do século".

Os piores do mundo

Para os que acham que os empresários portugueses são os piores do mundo:

• Comparar calçado espanhol e calçado português;
• Comparar vinho espanhol e vinho português;
• Comparar hortaliças espanholas com hortaliças portuguesas.

Turn, turn, turn

Ontem o @nticomuna chamou a atenção para "China as Factory to World Mulls the Unthinkable: Price Hikes" que descreve uma tendência já há muito antecipada neste blogue:

"China’s factories may be on the cusp of delivering a new shock to the global economy after years of undercutting rivals with cheaper costs. This time, increases in prices could reverberate around the world."

Recordar:

• "o impacte da "reversão" da maré da globalização" (Setembro de 2016)
• O maior risco (Agosto de 2016) (atenção ao maior risco)
• Tit for tat (Março de 2016)
• Curiosidade do dia (Janeiro de 2016)
• Implicações para Portugal? (Novembro de 2015)
• Passamos ao nível seguinte do jogo? (Fevereiro de 2015)
• “This industry doesn’t have a future in China” (Dezembro de 2013) (Pimenta no XXX dos outros é refresco. Tão fácil ver o que eles precisam de aprender a fazer... subir na escala de valor, seguir a lição de Berger: Não existem indústrias obsoletas, existem sim estratégias obsoletas)
• Curiosidade do dia (Fevereiro de 2013)
• Por que não se fala nisto? (Abril de 2012)
• A re-industrialização do Ocidente (Fevereiro de 2012)

Há um tempo para tudo, o eterno retorno.

"The value is in the experience"

"It is all about the customer experience these days. That is where the value lies for any businesses wanting to attract and to serve customers.
...
“The value is in the experience: it won’t go down in price, and no one can steal it.” It is more than a wrapping; the customer experience is now very much a part of the product. The how has become part of the what."

Trechos retirados de "The end of the captive audience: why airports need to develop their value chain"

Vantagens e desvantagens comparativas

Para os que acham que que temos de ser auto-suficientes em pleno século XXI, custe o que custar, eis um cheirinho da coisa em "That Boom You Hear Is Ukraine’s Agriculture".
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Recordar David Ricardo e o vinho português conjugado com os têxteis ingleses.