"a culpa será do primeiro-ministro de turno"

Esta manhã, onde tomei o meu café, estava um exemplar do JN de ontem de onde retirei esta imagem:

Que me fez recordar este postal "Familiar?" e esta imagem:

Numa empresa com ADN para produzir quantidades grandes o preço tem de ser competitivo, o truque não é o preço é a margem e a grande quantidade de unidades repetidas produzidas. Se numa empresa deste tipo o número de pessoas se mantém e a quantidade de unidades produzidas baixa, sinto logo o cheiro a "napalm" pela manhã. Sem acesso a mais nada sei logo que os seus custos fixos unitários estão a subir o que não augura nada de bom para a sustentabilidade deste modelo.

Voltando à foto do JN, ouvi há bocado na rádio que o BE e o governo querem criar um apoio para quem se reformou antes do tempo e foi penalizado. Vai ser lindo ver o pranto e ranger de dentes dentro de 20-30 anos quando isto se materializar "Geração de 40 anos vai ter “cortes de 40% a 50% no valor dos rendimentos recebidos na reforma”". Então, a culpa será do primeiro-ministro de turno que será acusado de roubar os reformados.

Infelizmente, os Bagões, Manelas e Vieiras da Silva não estarão por cá para receber a sua parte:

pena q os vieiras da silva desta vida ñ levem um enxerto de porrada qd acabar a mama https://t.co/H1zdEKrBtb

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) October 20, 2017

Estratégia e capacidades

"While strategic plans identify what your organization should do differently, [Moi ici: É isto que fazem as iniciativas estratégias que ajudo a construir, como transformar uma empresa no terreno, alinhada com a estratégia] very few provide a roadmap for how to build the skills, knowledge, and processes needed to carry out and sustain the critical changes. But without building these capabilities, it’s very difficult to achieve the results you want.
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Capabilities lie at the heart an organization’s ability to achieve results, [Moi ici: Estão na base do mapa da estratégia, as capacidade em que investimos] so it’s hardly a surprise that different results require different capabilities. [Moi ici: Recordar Bruce Jenner e os salami slicers] But strategic plans often get this simple equation wrong, for one of two reasons.

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First, many strategic planners and senior executives assume that if the strategy is logical, then people will figure out what to do, and don’t build capabilities development into their plans at all.
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At the other extreme, some planners like to be prescriptive and can spend significant resources mapping out in great detail what everyone should do differently. But a “paint by the numbers” approach to strengthening organizational capabilities rarely works. Developing capabilities requires experimentation, trial and error, and iterative learning to figure out what will work in each organization’s unique culture, functional structure, and environment.
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To get started with this approach, think about your company’s own strategy, and what capabilities are critical to achieving results. Then identify opportunities for teams to create or strengthen those capabilities while actually executing some aspect of the strategy. Doing this will ensure that capability development is a real and tangible part of your organization’s growth, instead of a hope or an afterthought."

Trechos retirados de "Your Strategy Won’t Work if You Don’t Identify the New Capabilities You Need"

"innovation theater"

"Companies and government organizations are discovering that innovation activities without a defined innovation pipeline result in innovation theater. And an innovation pipeline needs to be driven with speed and urgency and results measured by the impact on the top and bottom lines."

Confesso que quanto maiores as organizations, e mais próximas estão de dinheiro fácil que não decorre da sua missão para clientes, mais sinto que assisto a "innovation theater".

Web Summit, rings a bell?

Trecho retirado de "Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job: Disruption and Activist Investors"

Fugir de os tratar como plankton

"When customers perceive equality between two suppliers, it is easy for them to default to the one that offers lower pricing. If the only quantifiable data point containing a currency symbol that a seller has to engage a customer with is their unit pricing, they will be at a severe disadvantage during any type of negotiation. This lack of solid data will work against them especially if they're either the highest- or the lowest-price provider. Note the key word in the first sentence—"perceive." It's unfortunate, but far too many people today base decisions on their perceptions rather than on facts.
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The old phrase "what you don't know will hurt you" will plague sellers during pricing and business negotiations with customers if they're unaware of the tangible value delivered. Qualitative, abstract, and general statements of activities and perceived benefits cannot effectively combat the thinking that "I can get the same thing cheaper from many other suppliers." Likewise, similar types of intangible statements of supposed benefits cannot consistently and effectively offset price objections for superior products, services, or technologies. Even if the seller and their organization is truly responsible for effectively implementing technology or process improvements that have increased efficiencies and/or reduced external expenditures, the customer will perceive that no formal value has been created."

Recordo esta frase:

"The key management capability is not being in control, but to participate and influence the formation of sense making and meaning. It is about creating a context that enables connectedness, interaction and trust between people" 

 E esta outra:

"to move away from the traditional industrial view of the customer offering as an output of one’s production system to a view in which the customer offering is seen as an input in the customer’s value creating process"

E ainda:

"Customers often think we are different not because we are different, but because we recognize what makes them different"

Isto explica a dificuldade crescente das empresas grandes, empresas que têm tendência a tratar os clientes como plankton. Quando se tratam os clientes como plankton fazem-se contas gerais e genéricas sobre como um cliente médio criará, percepcionará valor a emergir na sua vida. Quando se tratam os clientes como membros de uma tribo específica ou melhor ainda, como indivíduos, fazem-se contas muito mais correctas e ajustadas. Aliás, algo que se confirma ao ler estes textos sobre pricing, as contas são tanto mais correctas e eficazes quanto mais resultarem de uma colaboração entre ambas as partes. Empresas grandes não têm ADN para esse tipo de abordagem. Tudo aponta para Mongo.

Trecho inicial retirado de "Value First Then Price" de Hinterhuber e Snelgrove.

o vector tempo não é irrelevante (parte II)

Recordar estes postais sobre a aplicação dos princípios da física à economia:

• como se fosse um problema de poder de computação. (Setembro de 2015)
• O triunfo da heterogeneidade (Agosto de 2012)
• Em sintonia com os Austríacos (Julho de 2011)
• Na Economia o factor tempo conta, não é um universo newtoniano (Junho de 2011)
• É impossível matematizar a realidade... ainda bem!!! (Maio de 2011)
• o vector tempo não é irrelevante (Agosto de 2010)

"The difference between economic competition and the successful procedure of science is that the former exhibits a method of discovering particular temporary circumstances, while science seeks to discover something often known as “general facts,” i.e., regularities in events, and is concerned with unique, particular facts only to the extent that they tend to refute or confirm its theories. Since this is a matter of general and permanent features of our world, scientific discoveries have ample time to demonstrate their value, whereas the usefulness of particular circumstances disclosed by economic competition is to a considerable extent transitory. ... By the nature of things, however, the theory of the market is unable to accomplish this in all those cases in which it is reasonable to make use of competition. As we shall see, the predictive power of this theory is necessarily constrained to a prediction of the type of structure or abstract order that will result; it does not, however, extend to a prediction of particular events.
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The basis for this point of view is the conviction that the coarse structure of the economy can exhibit no regularities that are not results of the fine structure, and that those aggregates or mean values, which alone can be grasped statistically, give us no information about what takes place in the fine structure. The notion that we must formulate our theories so that they can be immediately applied to observable statistical or other measurable quantities seems to me to be a methodological error which, had the natural sciences followed it, would have greatly obstructed their progress. All we can require of theories is that, after an input of relevant data, conclusions can be derived from them that can be checked against reality. The fact that these concrete data are so diverse and complex in our area of inquiry that we can never take them all into account is an unchangeable fact, but not a shortcoming of the theory. A result of this fact is that we can derive from our theories only very general statements, or “pattern predictions,” as I have called them elsewhere; we cannot, however, derive any specific predictions of individual events from them. Certainly, however, this does not justify insisting that we derive unambiguous relationships among the immediately observable variables, or that this is the only way of obtaining scientific knowledge—particularly not if we know that, in that obscure image of reality we call statistics, in aggregates and averages we unavoidably summarize many things whose causal meaning is very diverse."

F. A. Hayek em "Competition as a Discovery Process"

"the art and science of negotiations of value versus price"

"The selection of the right accounts … Personally, large accounts can be critical, but they could be 100% transactional. If after a journey of 3 to 5 years you don't have a share of these large, critical customers that are open to talking value, you should keep that customer on the list or large customers, but not on the list of strategic accounts. A strategic account has to have some openness value.
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That being said, some strategic accounts will buy a lot of stuff transactionally, but key are the dynamics and the journey: Do I have a share at my strategic accounts that's based on value creation and quantification? Is that share growing out of the total sales to that customer? These are the key metrics you have to look at to encourage you to continue along the value journey. But: if after 3 to 5 years you are 100% transactional, you have to cut your costs and abandon value creation and quantification.
…
You have to set a time frame. I see a lot of Sales Account Managers not walking away. But what do they do? They try to give their customers even more value, assuming that eventually they'll be willing to pay for that value. So, I think that, as you said, after a preset time, if you can't convince them, you should walk away and stop delivering the value. Don't try to deliver more value where it is not recognized or not being paid for.
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There are organizations where procurement is focused on price and price only. Are there things you can do to get them to start thinking that maybe they should do things differently?
…
If you look at companies, they typically will tell you that out of 100 Sales Account Managers, they have that least half or more who let the price go; they don't find the value because they’re convinced that competitors will catch up, but they haven't even checked it. So I would really say that in the end, the art and science of negotiations of value versus price will have the biggest impact on whether the customer recognizes the value you bring.
…
Understanding your competitors’ value and how much more you bring versus your competitors - that's going to be the key to negotiating for value and getting paid for it.”

E a sua empresa costuma estudar os dados das vendas? Stobachoff rings a bell?

Ás vezes descubro que as empresas não têm percepção do que está a acontecer por debaixo do valor das vendas globais do ano.

A quem vendem? O que vendem? Com que margem? Que quantidades?

Não é fácil.

Trechos retirados de "Value First Then Price" editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove.

Vender projectos (parte II)

Parte I.

"Clearly, the shift to becoming a project-driven organization and selling projects rather than products or services presents sizeable challenges to corporations and their business models. Working in projects throughout my career, I have identified these as the important ones:
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Revenue streams. Revenues will be generated progressively over long periods of time, instead of right after the sale of a product. This will affect the way revenues are recognized, as well as accounting policies and the overall company valuation.
Pricing model. New pricing models will need to be developed. It is easier to price a product, for which most of the fixed and variable costs are known, than a project, which is influenced by many external factors.
Quality control. Delivering quality products will not be enough to meet customer expectations. Implementation and post-implementation services will also have to be of the highest possible quality to ensure that clients continue to buy projects.
Branding and marketing. Traditional marketing has focused on short-term immediate benefits. Marketing teams will need to promote the long-term benefits of the projects sold by the organization.
Sales force. The buyer of the project will no longer be the procurement department of an organization. Sales will be pitched to leaders of the business, so the sales force and sales skills will have to be upgraded with strategy and project management competencies."

Trecho retirado de "Selling Products Is Good. Selling Projects Can Be Even Better"

"To cement that link between price and profit"

"CEOs often ask me point-blank for my silver bullet in pricing. Is there one thing in pricing they can do to make their companies better off?
...
I tell them. “Price is a company’s most effective way to drive enterprise value, but it is an extremely sensitive lever’.
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To cement that link between price and profit, a CEO must play three roles: a strategic one, a cultural one, and a custodial one. The CEO defines the primary strategic vector of a company: its direction and its goals. This includes the price position, which can range from ultra-low to luxury. Often viewed as malleable and somewhat arbitrary, the price position is in fact one of the most fundamental strategic decisions any CEO will make. It is also one of the hardest to change."

E as empresas não podem fazer como os governos, não podem subir os preços só porque sim. Na verdade até podem, mas subir o preço sem o correspondente aumento de valor percepcionado pelo cliente é uma boa receita para a seguir começar uma espiral viciosa de problemas.

Trechos retirados de “Pricing and the CEO”.

Cativações e cascata de problemas

Há dias dei comigo a relacionar as cativações governamentais com o comportamento de um responsável fabril.

Qual o papel de um responsável fabril? Atingir objectivos e resolver problemas. Quando um responsável fabril aparece junto da gerência com problemas esta responde-lhe:

- Pago-lhe para resolver problemas não para que me venha trazer problemas para eu resolver.

Assim, mês após mês, os recursos vão diminuindo e o responsável fabril vai fazendo o seu melhor para conciliar o aumento da produção com a diminuição de pessoal e de manutenção.

Então, um dia, o dique não aguenta mais e uma cascata de problemas surge para cobrar dividendos.

Nessa altura, a gerência vai olhar para os números e vai despedir o responsável fabril com justa causa argumentando que a fábrica está ingovernável e que ele é o responsável. E quando o responsável fabril argumentar que a gerência também é responsável esta vai perguntar por evidências, por relatórios, por avisos. Como o responsável fabril interiorizou aquela resposta inicial "Pago-lhe para resolver problemas não para que me venha trazer problemas para eu resolver." nunca pôs a boca no trombone.

Claro que no caso da política o importante vai ser conseguir realizar as próximas eleições antes da cascata de problemas se manifestar.

Pricing e posicionamento

"We are observing an increasing involvement of CEOs in pricing, which has a significant impact on profit performance. The CEO’s role is threefold: strategic, cultural, and custodial. If a company chooses a premium price positioning, all aspects of strategy, culture and implementation have to be different from those of a company that aims for a low price position. While the CEO should not get involved in the details of pricing or price negotiations, he or she must make sure that all efforts are aligned according to the necessities of the selected position."

Leio este trecho em “Pricing and the CEO” e recordo uma frase lida recentemente em "Value First Then Price":

"changing pricing practices involves far more than changing list prices. ... Changing pricing practices is, in many cases, a case for a true organizational transformation. Its a bit like changing the company DNA. Pricing is part of the company culture, and changing pricing practices requires a change in capabilities, in culture, in structure, in incentive systems, and in how de company interacts with customers."

"the rapid testing of many modest innovations"

Fantástico!

Que memórias!

Chegar ao Twitter e apanhar uma ligação para um artigo, "All Management Is Change Management". Ler o título e perceber que o nome do autor é Robert H. Schaffer.

Fico logo em pulgas. Será que é o mesmo Robert H. Schaffer que escreveu "The Breakthrough Strategy"?

Leio o artigo e no final vejo a foto do autor e confirmo que é o mesmo Robert H. Schaffer que tanto me ensinou e que citei nestes postais:

• A dança da chuva e outros rituais (Julho de 2006)
• Simplex (Abril de 2006)

Quando não sigo o principal conselho de Schaffer arrependo-me: concentrar um problema grande numa cascata de problemas mais pequenos e capazes de serem resolvidos mais rapidamente.

E o que diz Schaffer neste artigo?

"all management is the management of change.
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If sales need to be increased, that’s change management. If a merger needs to be implemented, that’s change management. If a new personnel policy needs to be carried out, that’s change management. If the erosion of a market requires a new business model, that’s change management. Costs reduced? Productivity improved? New products developed? Change management.
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The job of management always involves defining what changes need to be made and seeing that those changes take place. Even when the overall aim is stability, often there are still change goals: to reduce variability, cut costs, reduce the time required, or reduce turnover, for example. Once every job in a company is defined in terms of the changes to be made (both large and small), constant improvement can become the routine. Each innovation brings lessons that inform ongoing operations. The organization becomes a perpetual motion machine. Change never occurs as some sort of happening; it is part of everyday life.
...
Leaders should view change not as an occasional disruptor but as the very essence of the management job. Setting tough goals, establishing processes to reach them, carrying out those processes and carefully learning from them — these steps should characterize the unending daily life of the organization at every level. More companies need to describe their work in terms of where they are trying to go in the next month or next quarter or next year.
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How do you transition into such a company? The simple answer is to skip the months spent creating a comprehensive plan to make the company more change-oriented. Instead, focus on some important goals that are not being accomplished. Have teams carve out some sub-goals they will aim to achieve in a few months. [Moi ici: Este é o velho Schaffer!] They should be asked to test innovative steps they think will make a difference and to learn from the process. Maintaining a short time frame for these experiments permits the rapid testing of many modest innovations. Of course, these are steps to advance major strategic goals, but the emphasis should be on executing specific changes — with each success followed by a new round of more-ambitious goals to tackle."

"There's no such thing as a true commodity"

"So, personally, I am a big fighter against the concept of commodity. There's no such thing as a true commodity. It's the new economy, the Internet, and the sharing economy that are leading to so many service opportunities and so much value creation that no commodity is ever condemned to remain a commodity. It is a mind-set, it is a question of capability, and it is a question of top-driven transformation. It is not a question of "help me, my product is a commodity!""

Trecho retirado de "First Value Then Price"

Outro exemplo de Mongo, agora o mel

"Italy’s wide range of high-quality honeys — a happy result of climate, countryside and strong horticulture — has led to the country developing a trained method of tasting. Just as wine experts can taste grape varieties, honey tasters are taught to distinguish and remember different flavours and nectar sources. Does a jar of monofloral honey contain what it says on the label, for example, or is it significantly altered by large quantities of other types of nectar?
...
“To start with, people tend to know just one or two kinds of honey — just a brown liquid with the same taste,” says Gian Luigi Marcazzan, president of the government-funded register. In contrast to the bland blends of imported industrial honey, Italy has about 50 distinct types of monofloral honey, 22 of them closely studied and analysed. And
every millefiori has its own character. Different honeys will appeal to different tastes. “There is a honey for everyone if you look for it,” he says.
...
Since each honey is unique to its time and place, it is a product that varies widely. Even in monofloral honeys the bees can fly where they want and gather in other nectars."

Há dias eram os vinagres, já foram os azeites, já foram os vinhos e as cervejas, já foi o sal, estão a ser as castanhas, ... agora o mel!!!

Sempre que se abandona o granel, começa-se a subir na escala de valor, precisa-se de marca, de denominação de origem, de marketing, ... trabalhar para Mongo.

O problema é que os produtores estão concentrados em produzir que não trabalham o ecossistema da procura, a marca, o marketing, a relação, a interacção.




Trechos retirados de "Forget wine tasting, Italy is now a prime destination for honey-tasting courses"

Vender projectos (parte I)

"In the beginning companies sold products. And then they sold services. In recent years, the fashionable suggestion has been that companies sell experiences and solutions, solving the needs and aspirations of customers.
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Companies, indeed, do all of these things. But increasingly, what companies sell are projects. To understand the difference, think of an athletic shoe company, such as Nike or Adidas. A focus on products means a focus on selling running shoes. A focus on experiences might mean they sell you a membership to a local running club. A focus on solutions might mean they figure out how to help you reach your goal weight. While these clearly offer more value than simply selling you a pair of shoes, they also have limitations. Selling products limits the revenues you can make from clients: Unless you are innovating and continually updating your product offering, customer attrition tends to be high, and incentivizing repurchases can be hard. Selling experiences provides intangible benefits that are hard to quantify and measure, often focusing on meeting the needs of one single customer, preventing any mass production. Selling solutions became popular in the early 2000s when customers didn’t know how to solve their problems. But today, in the internet age, people can do their own research and define the solutions for themselves.
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A focus on selling projects would mean helping someone do something more specific, such as running the Boston Marathon. Nike could provide you with its traditional sports gear, but in addition it could include a training program, a dietary plan, a coach, and a monitoring system to help you achieve your dream. The project would have a clear goal (finish the marathon) and a clear start and end date.
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And that is just one type of project. More so than products, the possibilities with projects are endless."

Treco retirado de "Selling Products Is Good. Selling Projects Can Be Even Better"

O futuro é demasiado importante para depender dos seus clientes, apenas

Cuidado com os seus clientes e com o seu know-how.

"Purchasing know-how is dwindling due to budget cuts.
The inevitability of budget cuts among retailers is having an adverse effect on the purchasing know-how and professionalism available within these organisations. More and more purchasers are merely acting on the basis of sales results and purchasing lists. They are losing contact with the market and with consumers and their business, increasingly, is dominated by rules, margins and prices. Purchasing ‘success’ is more about budget than about understanding the market, anticipating trends and responding quickly.
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Considerations for actionIf your organisation has a keen understanding of European markets, or the capacity to develop that kind of knowledge, capitalise on it by taking on a more assertive role in your relationships with buyers. In many cases, they will welcome your expertise. If you lack this capacity, find a wholesaler/importer who can compensate for you.
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Market awareness is dwindling due to budget cuts.
Awareness of market trends and developments is eroding among buyers in Europe for the same reason for which purchasing know-how is diminishing. Due to budget cuts and high workloads, many buyer organisations lack the capacity they need for competitive analysis, market research and trend watching. All too often, they do not see an opportunity until it has all but passed by.
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Considerations for actionDo not restrict yourself to manufacturing, but instead keep a constant lookout for opportunities emerging in the market. Take time to study market reports and competitors and share knowledge and insights with your buyer. This added value will be much appreciated; much new business arises from problems and opportunities no one else has identified."

O futuro de uma empresa é demasiado importante para depender dos seus clientes apenas.

Continuando a leitura de "CBI Understanding European Buyers: Footwear".

"Once escalation takes hold ..."

Deve ter sido isto que aconteceu recentemente com a entrada do Estado no capital do SIRESP:

"Once escalation takes hold, it can be difficult to reverse, but you can reduce the chances of falling into that trap.
...
Escalation of commitment is deeply rooted in the human brain. In a classic experiment, two groups of participants were asked whether they would be willing to invest $1 million to develop a stealth bomber. The first group was asked to assume that the project had not yet been launched and that a rival company had already developed a successful (and superior) product. Unsurprisingly, only 16.7% of those participants opted to commit to the funding.
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The second group was asked to assume that the project was already 90% complete. Its members, too, were told that a competitor had developed a superior product. This time 85% opted to commit the resources to complete the project.
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These results underscore the fact that people tend to stick to an existing course of action, no matter how irrational. The project’s likely outcome was identical for both groups. Because a competitor had beaten the company to the market with a superior product, the new product was almost bound to fail. The only difference between the two situations was the timing of the question: before commitment to the project versus when it was nearing completion."

Cuidado com a relação entre humanos e custos afundados. Boa para manter os laços na tribo, má para a racionalidade das decisões de gestão.

Trechos retirados de "Stop Doubling Down on Your Failing Strategy"

"get to the point quickly"

Gosto de ir directo ao assunto e evitar "testamentos" quando se trata da documentação de um sistema de gestão. Recordar a importância que dou aos verbos, por exemplo,:

• A abordagem por processos (parte I) (de Novembro de 2008); e
• 10. Designar um processo (de Maio de 2017)

Como digo tantas vezes, por exemplo em "the art of focusing on what’s important and ignoring the rest":

"Ao modelar o funcionamento de empresas, não sejam como os franceses, não tentem incluir, não tentem contemplar tudo;"

Como não sorrir em cumplicidade com:

"1. GET TO THE POINT
When you get to the point quickly, your messaging becomes instantly clearer. Clarity makes your writing easier to understand, easier to retain, and more enjoyable to read. ...the “lard factor”. These are the unnecessary words in a sentence that aren’t doing a job, have the tendency to confuse rather than explain, and generally get in the way of your message..
According to Lanham, “Business prose ought to be verb-dominated prose, lining up actor, action and object in a causal chain, and lining them up fast”. Or put even simpler, business communications should be action-oriented, clear about what action it wants to take place, and quickly explain what that is."

Trechos retirados de "Intercom on Customer Engagement"

O poder da interacção

"increasingly emphasized operant resources like knowledge and skills as the basis for value creation...as traditional manufacturing companies have increasingly invested in services due to the increase in competition in traditional markets, the need for differentiation and the possibility of earning higher margins. These companies eventually become solution providers, which offer ‘a comprehensive bundle of products and/or services, that fully satisfies the needs and wants of a customer related to a specific event or problem’. ... Consequently, scholars have emphasized identifying competences and processes that enable companies to co-create solutions with the customer ...Simultaneously, the customer’s role has evolved in value-creation literature from a pure recipient of goods into the determining party in the relational value-creation process ... ‘value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary’. ... ‘value is best defined as value-in-use’ because it can only emerge or be created through the recipient’s use. Following that logic, the provider is a potential value facilitator and co-creator only through the relational nature of the joint solution creation process....Although extant literature addresses value creation from many perspectives, three commonalities emerge. First, researchers agree that the customer’s role has evolved to the locus of value creation. Second, value creation occurs as a relational process. Third, value is perceptual and the result of the customer experience."

Trechos retirados de "Hunting for Value: How to Enable Value-in-use? A Conceptual Model" de Jan Petri e Frank Jacob, publicado por Journal of Creating Value 3(1) 1–13, 2017 

"é para aí que vamos novamente"

A escola pública foi criada para servir o modelo económico do século XX. Agora, no século XXI, com o modelo de Mongo a entranhar-se e com uma demografia completamente oposta. A escola pública não consegue ajustar-se a um mundo que precisa de pessoas diferentes e não de autómatos todos iguais.

Em 2012 escrevia:

"Frequentei o 7º, 8º e 9º ano de escolaridade na Escola Comercial Oliveira Martins no Porto, uma escola criada algures no final do século XIX pela iniciativa de comerciantes para formar e preparar os seus trabalhadores. Recordo isto porque sinto que é para aí que vamos novamente, em vez de uma escola obrigatória destinada a formar legiões de robots necessários para operar acriticamente as sociedades do século XX, em vez de uma escola que pretende eliminar as nossas diferenças de idiossincrasia  e nos tenta enformar para sermos cidadãos "normais", em vez de uma escola que prepara as crianças de Pousafoles do Bispo para serem iguais e trabalharem como as pessoas de Lisboa, o que só as levará a detestar, ou ignorar, ou nunca equacionar que um futuro também é possível em Pousafoles do Bispo, vamos precisar de escolas sem programa definido em Lisboa, escolas destinadas a reviver as sociedades locais, as economias locais, os orgulhos locais."

Agora começo a encontrar com cada vez mais frequência isto:

• Faltam 28 mil trabalhadores para a indústria metalúrgica;
• Fabricante de eólicas dá formação para resolver falta de operários

Num país com outra cultura talvez a solução passasse por uma solução muito simples, os empresários em torno de uma associação sectorial pagavam a formação profissional e o governo cortava um valor equivalente nos impostos a cobrar.

Familiar?

Imaginem este modelo a funcionar:

Um modelo dedicado a servir clientes que continuam a comprar grandes séries de produção. Encomendas grandes permitem aumentar o poder negociar junto dos fornecedores porque se encomendam grandes quantidades de matérias-primas, algo que ajuda a reduzir os custos variáveis.

Um trabalho comercial forte apoiado num preço competitivo permite conquistar encomendas grandes que alimentam uma utilização intensiva dos activos e permitem ter custos fixos baixos.

Quanto mais baixos os custos fixos e variáveis mais baixo pode ser o preço e mais fácil é conquistar encomendas grandes. Preços baixos a praticar na produção de produtos simples, o que reduz os custos variáveis e cobrar por extras não previstos na opção-base.

O modelo tem tudo para ser sustentável, tem 4 ciclos que se auto-alimentam e reforçam o momentum da empresa.

Agora imaginem que o trabalho comercial decai, as encomendas caem, os custos fixos aumentam, os preços têm de subir. Então, a empresa começa a receber com cada vez mais frequência encomendas de outros clientes que não se importam de pagar um preço unitário superior porque fazem encomendas mais pequenas e artigos mais complexos. Encomendas mais pequenas, mais variedade, reduz a produtividade do trabalho via eficiência, reduz o poder negocial junto dos fornecedores. Artigos mais complexos implicam custos variáveis superiores...

A empresa até pode achar interessante o aumento do preço médio, a empresa até pode achar interessante a manutenção das vendas. No entanto, o perfil da produção está a alterar-se. A empresa, que estava "formatada" para as encomendas grandes começa a ter de lidar em simultâneo com encomendas grandes e pequenas, encomendas com exigências muito diferentes. Basta recuar a 2008  e ao que aprendi com Terry Hill:

A empresa deixou de ser representada pelas bolas azuis e passou a ser representada pelas bolas vermelhas.

A estrutura da empresa, de mão de obra intensiva, começa a ficar sobre-dimensionada porque está a produzir cada vez menos unidades a um preço superior. Esse sobre-dimensionamento traduz-se em custos fixos superiores o que se repercute em preços mais altos e acelera a transição da empresa para o outro modelo. Contudo a infra-estrutura está preparada para servir o modelo anterior.

Os prejuízos começam a aparecer, as pessoas correm, correm e parece que não saem do sítio porque os problemas surgem com cada vez mais frequência.

Familiar?

Não se pode ficar como um tolo no meio da ponte!

Recordar Skinner e "The Focused Factory", recordar o PWP.

Alteração da lógica do mercado e dos seus ritmos

Ontem em "Acelerar o time to market" sublinhava o como a tecnologia permite reduzir o tempo, desde a ideia até à prateleira, e reduzir os custos para produzir pequenas séries.

Hoje, mais um exemplo, desta feita sobre a alteração da lógica do mercado e dos seus ritmos:

"Many shoe designers put out new collections only twice a year–perhaps launching strappy sandals in the spring, and boots in the fall. M.Gemi, a direct-to-consumer luxury shoe startup, has totally nixed that model. It drops a new pair every single Monday. This week, for instance, it debuted a $198 slip-on sneaker made from crushed velvet, a material that seems to magically change color under different lights.
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The idea is for customers to wake up on a Monday morning to an email featuring the latest shoe. If a customer likes it, she can get it in time for a party or a date that weekend. “We don’t expect our customers to buy a new shoe each week,” Cheryl Kaplan, M.Gemi’s president, said at an event today at the Fast Company Innovation Festival. “But it gives them something to look forward to and keeps our conversation with them going.”

Trecho retirado de "M.Gemi Feeds Our Luxury Shoe Addiction With Cheaper, Italian-Made Heels"

Às vezes "it sucks" ter razão

Recuo a 2010 e 2008 em "Sobre a impossibilidade de prever o futuro e o paradoxo de Zenão (parte I)" depois de ver esta reportagem.

Estava escrito nas estrelas, com 10 anos de antecedência estas escolas poderiam ter tomado certas medidas para mudar de vida, enquanto existiam graus de liberdade.

Mais do que uma treta

Ao dar de caras com esta figura:

Pensei logo na cláusula 7.1.6 da ISO 9001:2015.

O bloco 1 aplica-se a:

"A organização deve determinar o conhecimento necessário para a operacionalização dos seus processos e para obter a conformidade dos produtos e serviços.
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Este conhecimento deve ser mantido e disponibilizado na medida do necessário."

Este é o conhecimento que se pode estudar e o conhecimento que se transmite pela experiência.

O bloco 2 aplica-se a:

"Ao enfrentar novas necessidades e tendências, a organização deve ter em consideração o seu conhecimento atual e determinar como adquirir ou aceder a qualquer conhecimento adicional necessário e atualizações requeridas." 

Quando vamos a formação, quando visitamos para ver a experiência e o exemplo de outros, estamos a trabalhar para colmatar "gaps".

Quando falo em "radar" penso naquele quadrante "discoveries". O que nem imaginamos que não sabemos.

O conhecimento em que se tropeça quando se observam clientes, não-clientes, ex-clientes, revistas técnicas, seminários, livros, conferências, patentes, ...

Quem dá atenção ao quadrante das "discoveries"? Como é que a sua empresa pensa estas coisas? Limita-se a cumprir mínimos olímpicos ou procurar ser exigente consigo própria?

A ISO pode ser mais do que uma treta quando se trata como sendo mais do que uma treta.que

Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs (parte VIII)

Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV, parte V, parte VI e parte VII.

"servicification. This means that the emphasis, when we look at offerings, is no longer on the production process that historically created them as outputs, but in their property as inputs in the value creating process of the customers system. This shift of emphasis from production to use, from output to input, from the past to the future, immediately widens the scope of what an offering is, what kinds of characteristics a company needs to build into its offerings, and what competences are required of the company. It also automatically shifts the emphasis from the transaction to more long-term relationship with the customer…
experiencification. By this I mean that offerings are now increasingly designed to be linked also into the mental and symbolic processes of customers including the meaning and purpose of their value-creating activities. In fact, many offerings which seem like products are simply artefacts which fulfill the function of bringing to the customer a context, a story even, which is somehow meaningful to him. Artefacts link a more general, external reality with and inner, personal, reality into a whole characterized by the pursuit of meaning and purpose."

Escrever sobre este título "Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs" e recordar uma linguagem muito usada em empresas industriais:

- "A expedição é o cú da fábrica!"

Trechos retirados de "Reframing business" de Richard Normann.

Acelerar o time to market

"The impetus to use automation is not just about costs: it is also trying to keep up with consumers. Across the board, the most successful retailers are now those with a constant stream of new products to meet rapidly changing tastes and shopping habits. Yet companies have been slow to adapt footwear, with its more complicated manufacturing process, to so-called fast fashion trends — at least until now.
...
Traditional shoe production has required as many as 200 different pieces across 10 sizes, often cut and glued together by hand. The new manufacturing process being developed by Flex has introduced two ideas once thought impossible: the gluing process has been automated and lasers are used to cut the Flyknit material.
Lead times in the shoe industry once ran to several months: Flex has promised to help Nike speed up lead times, which can be three to four weeks for a customised pair of sneakers.
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Moving production closer to its key markets will help satisfy some of that demand."

Trechos retirados de "Robotics in the running for Nike’s factories of the future"

"estrutura possibilidades para atingir objectivos compatíveis com essas possibilidades"

O que se segue também serve para as empresas, e de que maneira, em vez de ser levado pela maré, escolher um caminho:

"O exercício do poder é a gestão de um campo de possibilidades, é o desenho de uma trajectória que leva do presente, com os recursos que existem, para um alvo no futuro, gerando e organizando os recursos necessários para se chegar a esse objectivo. Quem não souber que a política é a gestão de um campo de possibilidades não é político - e se exerce uma função política é por razões que não são políticas. Quem não souber desenhar uma estratégia para o futuro poderá ocupar o poder, mas não exercerá o poder, apenas se resignará à inércia das correlações de forças. [Moi ici: Quantas vezes sinto isto em algumas empresas, servas da inércia] A política é uma vocação, que identifica e estrutura possibilidades para atingir objectivos compatíveis com essas possibilidades."

Trecho retirado de "Poder e possibilidade"

Uns fazem, outros queixam-se!

Uma notícia interessante, "Castanha da Beira Alta lança marca própria", leio no Caderno de Economia do semanário Expresso de 7 de outubro último:

"Este ano, com uma novidade: a empresa, gerida por dois irmãos e que fatura anualmente 11 milhões,  vaira lançar uma marca especifica, a Saudade, para diferenciar a martainha, produzida em Sernancelhe e em todos os concelhos limítrofes que constituem a área geográfica com classificação Castanha dos Soutos da Lapa, de Denominação de Origem Protegida (DOP). "Nos últimos anos, percebemos que esta variedade estava a ser muito valorizada, no mercado nacional mas sobretudo nos países para onde exportamos, pelos distribuidores e assadores. O problema é que, na hora de comprar, não há nada que diga a estes clientes o que estão a comprar, que diferencie este produto sazonal, de alta qualidade, de outras variedades. Uma castanha parece-se sempre com outra castanha.
...
A insígnia Saudade — Sabores do Coração, que será apresentada em Madrid, durante a Fruit Attraction, uma das principais feiras empresariais de frutas e legumes da Europa
...
Além de querer ir ao encontro do consumidor português, "que vai passar a ir ao supermercado e a saber o tipo de castanha que está, de facto, a comprar", a insígnia pretende comunicar diferenciação deste produto a mercados como Alemanha, França, Suíça, Luxemburgo, Itália, Espanha, Estados Uni-dos e Canada—geografias onde a Frusantos, que exporta mais de 50% da sua produção, está presente, O lançamento de uma marca própria faz parte do projecto de internacionalização..."

Um exemplo interessante: criação de uma marca, aposta na diferenciação, internacionalização e participação em feiras.

Uns fazem, outros queixam-se!

"influence the formation of sense making and meaning"

"The idealistic view of a manager as one who is in control is not consistent with our practical experience, or with modern science. From the point of view of the sciences of complexity, an organization is not even a system, but should be understood as a pattern, or as interconnected patterns in time. [Moi ici: Um ponto de vista interessante que reforça o papel e importância da comunicação]
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These interconnected patterns are the results of self-organizing processes across the network forming the organization. Many events, local interactions generate emergent outcomes that cannot be traced back to any specific management action. Looking towards the future, we create what happens next, without knowing what will happen next.
...
The organization, then, is no longer self-regulating in a cybernetic sense, but self-influencing in a complex sense. Self-influence as a concept is not necessarily positive, it can lead both to self-sustaining and self-destructive behaviors.
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The key management capability is not being in control, but to participate and influence the formation of sense making and meaning. It is about creating a context that enables connectedness, interaction and trust between people. [Moi ici: Outro insight poderoso, "influence the formation of sense making and meaning". Como desesperei interiormente há tempos, quando um empresário interpretava o meu conselho sobre a criação de um ecossistema da procura, como um convite para ligações pouco transparentes e até ilegais com outros actores]
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Most people believe that the role of leaders is to choose strategic directions and then persuade others to follow them. A modern view of strategy is about exploration and experiments, a search process of trial and error. [Moi ici: Não sou tão radical assim embora perceba a importância ads experiências. Recordo os "arbustos"] The openness to the possible through the search process leads to having to live with anxiety and not knowing. Work needs to equal learning."

Acerca dos arbustos:

“Typical strategic planning processes focus on chopping down the branches of the strategic decision tree, eliminating options, and making choices and commitments. In contrast, an evolutionary approach to strategy emphasizes creating choices, keeping options open, and making the tree of possibilities as bushy as possible at any point in time. Options have value. An evolving portfolio of strategic experiments gives the management team more choices, which means better odds that some of the choices will be right” … “The objective is to be able to make lots of small bets, and only make big bets as a part of amplifying successful experiments when uncertainties are much lower.” 

Trechos iniciais retirados de "The Future of Management"

Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs (parte VII)

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

"Customers in B2B markets are becoming increasingly sophisticated about purchasing. Recognizing that most products and services they buy are not strategic to their businesses, they begin by simply seeking suppliers that will meet their basic specifications at a competitive price. Then, after they’ve winnowed down the contenders, they often ask the finalists to offer “something more.”
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Many suppliers misunderstand this request. They’ll respond with the well-worn tactic of stressing features their offerings have but competitors’ lack, and when that doesn’t work, they propose price concessions. But it turns out that customers are looking for neither of those things.
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During a three-year research project, we discovered that when purchasing managers ask for something more, they are actually looking for what we call the justifier: an element of an offering that would make a noteworthy difference to their company’s business. A justifier’s value to the customer is self-evident and provides a clear-cut reason for selecting one supplier over others, effectively breaking the tie among the final contenders.[Moi ici: O artigo está cheio de bons exemplos, em vários sectores, destes "justifiers"]
...
The justifier, or tiebreaker, helps the purchasing manager demonstrate to senior leadership that he or she is making a contribution to the business. [Moi ici: Outra vez um exemplo de deixar de pensar nos outputs para concentrar a atenção nos inputs. Basta pensar no que vem a seguir] That is no small thing. People responsible for nonstrategic purchases have difficult, often thankless, jobs. They’re under pressure to complete these transactions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whenever anything goes wrong with what they’ve bought, they get blamed. But their diligence and understanding of the business typically get little recognition.
...
Tiebreaking sellers coach their salespeople to explore this topic with customers and engage them in a conversation about their concerns.
...
With value selling, suppliers build a case to prove that their offerings provide greater worth to customers than competitors’ do. But when purchases aren’t strategic, that approach is ineffective, and suppliers need something extra whose value is self-evident to win the sale.

...
The top yearly goals of a customer’s senior management can be a great source of ideas for justifiers. By visiting a customer’s website or perusing its annual report, a supplier can learn about initiatives aimed at improving safety in specific areas, reducing waste, and the like. Yet purchasing managers told us that salespeople rarely conduct such rudimentary background research or put in the time to learn about their customers’ objectives.
...
we discovered demonstrate that with enough determination, even a supplier of a nonstrategic offering can persuade its customers’ purchasing managers and leadership that it is something special."

Trechos retirados de "Tiebreaker Selling"

Mais um exemplo de Mongo

Este artigo, "These Fancy Vinegars Are the Ones to Prioritize in Your Pantry", é mais um exemplo do fenómeno de entranhamento em Mongo.

No passado quantos azeites havia na prateleira? No passado quantos vinagres havia na prateleira? E agora?

Curiosidade do dia

Estórias da carochinha para enganar tótos, com sucesso: “As pessoas estão à frente do défice”.

Política é fazer escolhas. Política é optar por beneficiar certas opções em detrimento de outras, com legitimidade.

Os "preceitos neoliberais" que terão provocado os incêndios, de que fala Catarina Martins, serão estes? pic.twitter.com/ce05XJfZSj

— Paulo Ferreira (@pauloferreira1) October 22, 2017

Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs (parte VI)

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

"to shift our attention from production to utilization, from product to process, from transaction to relationship. It enhances our sensitivity to the complexity of roles and actor systems. In this sense the service logic clearly frames a manufacturing logic rather than replaces it. Creative business thinking comes from applying the service logic mode of thought, recognizing that within that overriding logic there are islands of a manufacturing logic. In other words, the service logic encourages us to think in terms of value creation and Value-creating Systems. It moves us from the oversimplified view that 'producers' satisfy needs and desires of 'customers' to the much richer but more complex view that they together form a Value-creating System. Within that system the provider has to find a way to position himself, and enhance and leverage the value creating process of the customer. It helps us move from the traditional industrial notion of products as outputs to the value-creation economy notion that offerings should he seen as inputs in a value-creating process."

Trecho retirado de "Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape" de Richard Normann

"Gaming the system" - está-nos no sangue

"What determines what a company can do actually is less what an executive thinks ought to be done,  but rather that decision right there makes determines what this happens, and that determines what this is.
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This is actually more powerful, and an executive decision, I think and it's interesting that these metrics we assume that that's the way it should be done but we never think about it just as a general rule.
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When we decide we're going to measure it this way, people, all of us, cheat and try to game the system so that the the metric goes up"

Trecho retirado de "Harvard Professor – Clayton Christensen The Process of Strategy Formulation and Implementation"

Para reflexão

Recordo Abril último:

"A evolução do retalho é um tema que me interessa porque é super importante para as PME com que trabalho. A maioria das PME portuguesas não tem marca própria relevante. Ou produzem para marcas de outros ou produzem componentes que serão incorporados nas marcas de outros (B2B2C ou B2B2B2C).
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Assim, o seu futuro depende em larga escala, segundo o modelo de negócio actual, do sucesso da última interacção da cadeia, aquele ...B2C. Se esta última interacção falhar, tal como falharam em massa as sapatarias de rua quando chegaram os centros comerciais, as nossas PME terão um problema em mãos."

Ao ler:

Factory work does not take place in factories any more but in retail

— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) October 22, 2017

"It's not lupus"

Há tempos realizei uma auditoria interna a uma empresa e deixei a Oportunidade de Melhoria que ilustro acima.

Na cláusula 6.2.1 da ISO 9001:2015 as empresas são convidadas a definir os resultados que esperam para o seu sistema de gestão da qualidade. Segundo a cláusula 6.2.2 as empresas devem planear como vão atingir os desafios de desempenho referidos anteriormente.

Noto que algumas empresas certificadas (e, por isso, com esta abordagem validada pelas entidades certificadoras) listam actividades genéricas já incluídas na descrição de processos. Por exemplo, na ilustração acima a empresa quer reduzir desperdícios, quer ser mais eficiente, quer reduzir custos. A empresa acredita que a principal acção a desenvolver para ser mais eficiente passa por "executar os trabalhos segundo o planeamento estabelecido". A empresa já planeia os trabalhos. A empresa já procura executar os trabalhos segundo o planeado. A empresa planeia e executa de forma perfeita?

Claro que não! E esse é o ponto. A ISO 9001:2015 na cláusula 6.2.2 a) refere "o que será realizado".

Não adianta repetir o que está escrito de forma geral e genérica no procedimento sobre a execução dos trabalhos.

Quantas obras executaram?
Com quanto é que cada obra em particular contribuí para o indicador "Proveitos vs Custos"?

O que nos diz um histograma sobre a distribuição dos resultados de cada obra?

Faz sentido analisar diferentes tipos de obra, tendo em conta a sua duração ou âmbito dos trabalhos?

Faz sentido distinguir os desvios, mão de obra, tempo, materiais?

A ideia é fazer o mesmo que a "equipa" do Dr. House:

Analisar os sintomas sob várias perspectivas e ângulos. Depois, usando o princípio de Pareto, reduzir o âmbito do problema. Por exemplo, deixar de ser "reduzir os desperdícios (custos)" e passar a ser "reduzir a disparidade entre a mão de obra realmente utilizada (horasxhomem) versus a mão de obra planeada nas obras do tipo X.

Só nessa altura, depois de bem delimitado o principal contribuinte para o problema, é que faz sentido começar a pesquisar as causas mais prováveis. Por exemplo:

• deficiente planeamento?
• deficiente preparação?
• má coordenação?
• mau acompanhamento?
• condições atmosféricas?
• ...

A imagem do Dr. House acima diz respeito a esta fase. Listar as possíveis causas e depois mandar fazer umas análises, umas verificações, recolher dados históricos, que permitam validar/corroborar uma ou mais causas.

E só depois de identificadas e validadas as causas mais prováveis é que faz sentido pensar na resposta a 6.2.2 a).

"Violations of rational choice principles in pricing decisions"

"We are interested in how customer purchase decisions exhibit behavioral patterns that are inconsistent with rational choice models. As we will see, violations of rational choice can take many forms: demand that increases with price increases, choices that are influenced by the addition of irrelevant options, preferences that are unstable, and a willingness to pay that is fluid and subject to contextual influences. In this context we thus summarize how firms can influence customer perceptions of value and price without changing the price. Second is the manager. Managers set prices and in this process are equally susceptible to violating fundamental principles of rational choice. These violations can take the following forms: conformity bias, competition neglect, competitor obsession, simple heuristics, and underpricing for new product introductions.
...
This refers to the tendency to pursue competitor-oriented goals—such as market share—to the detriment of one's own profitability. When comparative profits are provided, managers show a consistent tendency to price below optimal levels in order to hurt competition, as opposed to maximizing their own profits. Field studies suggest that competitor orientation and market share goals are detrimental to profitability. ...  “The use of market share as a measure of corporate or executive performance is at best a waste of time; at worst, it is totally misleading. We recommend that you never make the market share calculation. If you emphasize competitive goals, you are letting the competition define your business and its success.” Competitor obsession leads to lower prices and lower profits. This effect is well documented in industrial markets.

Trechos retirados de "Violations of rational choice principles in pricing decisions" de Andreas Hinterhuber

Comparar o primeiro truque, "price quality effect", com:

"Why did Apple push the limits of pricing on the highly anticipated device? A key reason involves using a premium price to set an expectation of excellence in consumers’ minds."

Trecho retirado de "The Psychology Behind the New iPhone’s Four-Digit Price"

"Strategy is not planning"

"I must have heard the words “we need to create a strategic plan” at least an order of magnitude more times than I have heard “we need to create a strategy.” This is because most people see strategy as an exercise in producing a planning document. In this conception, strategy is manifested as a long list of initiatives with timeframes associated and resources assigned.
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Somewhat intriguingly, at least to me, the initiatives are themselves often called “strategies.” That is, each different initiative is a strategy and the plan is an organized list of the strategies.
...
To make strategy more interesting — and different from a budget — we need to break free of this obsession with planning. Strategy is not planning — it is the making of an integrated set of choices that collectively position the firm in its industry so as to create sustainable advantage relative to competition and deliver superior financial returns. I find that once this is made clear to line managers they recognize that strategy is not just fancily-worded budgeting and they get much more interested in it.
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Obviously you can’t execute a strategy without initiatives, investments, and budgeting. But what you need to get managers focused on before you start on those things is the strategy that will make these initiatives coherent.
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That strategy is a singular thing; there is one strategy for a given business — not a set of strategies. It is one integrated set of choices: what is our winning aspiration; where will we play; how will we win; what capabilities need to be in place; and what management systems must be instituted?
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That strategy tells you what initiatives actually make sense and are likely to produce the result you actually want. Such a strategy actually makes planning easy. There are fewer fights about which initiatives should and should not make the list, because the strategy enables discernment of what is critical and what is not."

Não é fácil passar esta mensagem. Não é fácil raptar a gestão de topo dos atractores do dia-a-dia e conseguir que encontre tempo, que encontre disposição para subir na escala de abstracção, para fazer o tal "upframing" e olhar para a paisagem competitiva de uma forma diferente.

Trechos retirados de "Don’t Let Strategy Become Planning"

Será o efeito de Mongo?

Recordar:

• Porque não somos plankton (parte V)
• E porque não somos plankton (parte VII)
• Plankton?

Para enquadrar a continuação do fenómeno:

• Procter & Gamble Puzzled by Decreased Consumer Spending -- Update
• Shoppers desert family brands as P&G shares fall

Será o efeito de Mongo?

Contribuição

"When you run a company, it’s obviously important to understand how profitable the business is. Many leaders look at profit margin, which measures the total amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs. But if you want to understand how a specific product contributes to the company’s profit, you need to look at contribution margin."

"Contribution margin". A primeira vez que li sobre esse conceito foi com Peter Drucker, talvez no livro "Managing For Results". Pensamento que me fez chegar a "Managing for Business Effectiveness":

"What is the first duty—and the continuing responsibility—of the business manager? To strive for the best possible economic results from the resources currently employed or available.
...
1. What is the manager’s job? It is to direct the resources and the efforts of the business toward opportunities for economically significant results. This sounds trite—and it is. But every analysis of actual allocation of resources and efforts in business that I have ever seen or made showed clearly that the bulk of time, work, attention, and money first goes to “problems” rather than to opportunities, and, secondly, to areas where even extraordinarily successful performance will have minimal impact on results.
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2. What is the major problem? It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between doing the right things and doing things right. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all. Yet our tools—especially our accounting concepts and data—all focus on efficiency. What we need is (1) a way to identify the areas of effectiveness (of possible significant results), and (2) a method for concentrating on them.
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1. Economic results require that managers concentrate their efforts on the smallest number of products, product lines, services, customers, markets, distribution channels, end uses, and so on which will produce the largest amount of revenue. Managers must minimize the attention devoted to products which produce primarily costs, because their volume is too small or too splintered.
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2. Economic results require also that staff efforts be concentrated on the very few activities that are capable of producing truly significant business results—with as little staff work and staff effort as possible spent on the others."

Uma grande coincidência desta semana que passou foi auditar uma empresa em que este tema está na ordem do dia, ainda que sem o saberem.

Drucker, o homem que mudou a minha vida.

Trecho inicial retirado de "Contribution Margin: What It Is, How to Calculate It, and Why You Need It"

Agora estou na dúvida... talvez tenha sido o Engº Vergílio Folhadela quem primeiro me deu a conhecer a contribuição.

Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs (parte V)

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

"the more a supplier's product contributes to creating meaningful differentiation in the customer's products, the more value quantification has to be detailed, collaborative, and customer-specific.
...
There is one golden rule. If you are a lawyer you should not ask what you do for your client. What you should ask is what the client is able to do as a result of working with you [Moi ici: Outra vez a concentração nos inputs que o cliente tem de processar para atingir os seus objectivos] - as opposed to working with your closest competitor. You have to ask what your competitive advantage is incrementally worth to customers in monetary terms."

Outro excelente trecho retirado de "Value First Then Price" editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Todd Snelgrove.

"drilling into that"

"How can you compete? Well, for starters, understand where you fit in.
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Now, some of you will construe what I'm about to say as "niche" or "stay small" but neither is the case at all! No, what you need to do is to understand - and then effectively communicate - the real-time relevance of your business.
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In other words, you have to be the best for one particular set of scenarios, not a solution for a variety of scenarios that are close to what the customer is looking for.
...
What this is really about is understanding the market for your products or services and, drilling into that. All the different types of customers who buy from you. Too many times, we think only in terms of a specific avatar - the key buyer - but the real world is that there are 7 billion potential customers on this planet (over 10 billion if we're thinking in terms of B to B, also), so a narrow view of who your buyer is (and where they are) can restrict your growth. Of course, you have to balance this, but the key is understanding that casting a wider net with one solution may yield far greater results than throwing a myriad of solutions to the masses and not being able to execute any of them perfectly."

Trecho retirado de "Make More Money (By Selling Less?)"

Mudar de vida ou não

Neste esquema relaciono a ISO 9001:2015 com uma sugestão que me deram para abordar um projecto em curso.

Além de uma abordagem baseada em números, partir da situação actual com as fragilidades e forças da organização. Considerar um conjunto de cenários plausíveis que se podem manifestar no futuro, tendo em conta o contexto da empresa.

Em cada um desses cenários determinar o que podem ser riscos e oportunidades.

Depois, equacionar o que ignorar, o que reduzir, o que evitar, o que assumir e o que aproveitar.

E no todo, avaliar se a empresa precisa de mudar de vida ou não.