"At the climax you don’t go against your nature. So make sure to play your own game"

Embora Kasparov esteja a falar acerca de pessoas, a mensagem vale também para empresas:

"What other advice do you give the people you coach?
There’s this conventional wisdom that it’s possible to give universal advice - a tip.
But we’re all different.
Something that works for you may be counterproductive for me.[Moi ici: Cuidado com as boas-práticas!] So you have to understand who you are, know what you’re capable of and what you’re not, [Moi ici: Uma reflexão sobre quem somos como empresa, qual a nossa experiência, qual a nossa cultura, o que nos diferencia] and then try to construct a game [Moi ici: Uma estratégia!] - or a deal or a campaign - in which your superior qualities will be factors and your disadvantages will not be displayed. Some of us are more aggressive; some more defensive. At the end of the day your key decisions will be made under time pressure, which means you’ll act on your gut feelings. At the climax you don’t go against your nature. [Moi ici: Qual é a nossa reacção instintiva, qual é a cultura que partilhamos, como comunicamos] So make sure to play your own game."

Trecho retirado da Harvard Business Review de Abril de 2015

Uma self-fulfilling prophecy

"customers are going to the extreme. Recognizing the efficiency model in corporations and the vanilla (i.e., boring) products and services provided as a result of the efficiency focus, they reciprocate. They develop an efficiency model of their own: a discount strategy. It is not that they do not appreciate value, they simply cannot see any. In the absence of differentiation and reasons to pay a premium, they default to price as the primary decision factor.
Companies simply forgot to create and add value. They took their success for granted. They wanted to maximize their original product and service investments and then let them sit there without updating until they became irrelevant, boring, and - as we like to say in professional jargon - mature and tired. Tired products represent tired companies: companies that prefer to succumb to market trends instead of redefining them; companies that focus on incremental, existential improvements rather than order-ofmagnitude change; companies that believe they still have time to milk their existing products. They are hanging on by a thread, literally waiting for a brand new competitor to hit them with a brand new, exciting value proposition that will tip the scales and push their product into the irrelevance abyss"

Trechos retirados de "Passionate and profitable : why customer strategies fail and ten steps to do them right" de Lior Arussy.

Uma outra abordagem (parte III)

Parte I e parte II (também podia ser a parte XVIII da série dos tectos de vidro)

"If one assumes that value is embedded in an offering and delivered to the customer, as goods-dominant logic does, then it makes sense to accept any and all customers who might benefit from that value. However, once one realizes that value is only realized through co-creation with a customer, then customer choice becomes critical to success. Success depends on matching the resources and capabilities of the firm and its service network (e.g., partners, suppliers, and employees) with the willingness and ability of a given segment of customers to be part of the service operation based on their expertise, desire for control, access to resources, risk-taking orientation, and the relative priority they place on the value advantages versus disadvantages of distinct service options. A proper match is a source of strategic advantage.
...
While the customer always participates in value creation, the customer can have a more or less active role in the service provision itself.
...
In an “enabling” service, the customer is a job (co-)executor who acts in conjunction with the firm to provide service to get a job done. In such instances, the customer is really a service partner to the firm because their knowledge and skills play a prominent role in success or failure."

Como não recordar "selection is key to the development of the experience"

E a sua empresa, escolhe os seus clientes? É conduzida pelo mercado, ou conduz o mercado?




Trechos retirados de "A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage" de Lance A. Bettencourt, Robert F. Lusch e Stephen L. Vargo, publicado no número de Outono de 2014 da California Management Review.

A vantagem de quem desenha cenários

Parece um texto escrito neste blogue há vários anos:

"Durante muitos anos trabalhámos em grandes séries e em produtos de pouco valor acrescentado. Nos  últimos anos, tem acontecido uma deslocação na cadeia de valor, com as empresas a procurarem ser cada vez mais inovadoras e criativas, apoiadas em centros tecnológicos e numa certa dinâmica de promoção externa.
...
A evolução foi consequência da crise ou o resultado de um trabalho que vinha de trás?
R - A crise não veio, numa primeira fase, trazer maior procura dos nossos produtos, mas podemos dizer que levou as empresas nossas clientes a colocar as suas encomendas em países com capacidade de resposta em tempo mais curto, como é o caso de Portugal. Talvez a crise, nesse domínio, nos tenha favorecido.
...
Penso que a crise, numa primeira fase, terá sido favorável ao sector têxtil e vestuário porque, face a situações de intermitência e volatibilidade do mercado de consumo, as empresas optaram, em parte, por colocar as suas encomendas mais em cima do local e do momento da venda, deslocando-as para a Europa."

Recuar a 2009:

"Uma situação económica negativa dificulta a obtenção de crédito. O aumento dessa dificuldade gera um aumento da dificuldade em importar calçado da Ásia. O aumento dessa dificuldade reforça a necessidade ou vantagem em aproveitar a proximidade entre a produção e o consumo."

Consegue perceber a vantagem da PME que em 2009 co-desenhou isto?

Para onde vai a sua empresa?
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É impossível prever o futuro, mas pode perspectivar quais as linhas de força que o podem vir a moldar.
.
.
.
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BTW I, a propósito de:

"P - Dirige também esse apelo aos jovens universitários?
R - Aos jovens que estão a fazer a sua opção universitária. O curso de engenharia têxtil não tem tido procura. A Univerasidade do Minho foi a primeira a formar engenheiros têxteis. Não há disponibilidade no mercado de engenheiros têxteis.
Procurem este curso e qualifiquem-se. Da forma como tem vindo a progredir, este sector está para ficar."

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Recordar "Não é impunemente que se diz mal" em Fevereiro de 2011
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BTW II, recordar "A maré, as duas correntes e o que não aparece nas capas dos medias"


Trechos retirados de "João Costa: Têxtil e vestuário é sector promissor e com futuro"

Curiosidade do dia

Sabem o que se diz sobre a capacidade dos empresários portugueses, para os media e os académicos, são os pior do mundo. Então, quando se fala das empresas familiares, o desprezo ainda é maior.
.
Alguns números da realidade americana:

"Although we’ve also heard numerous family enterprise success stories, cases of harmony, health, and longevity seem to be exceptions to the rule.
According to the Family Business Institute, only 30% of these organizations last into a second generation, 12% remain viable into a third, and 3% operate into the fourth generation or beyond. Even those that do continue often see their value decline significantly when power changes hands at the top."

Trecho retirado de "Leadership Lessons from Great Family Businesses" de Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Sonny Iqbal, e Jörg Ritter, publicado pela Harvard Business Review este mês de Abril.

Mercados em tudo

Os mercados que se desenvolvem naturalmente são uma coisa impressionante!
.
Um exemplo em "Breast Milk Becomes a Commodity, With Mothers Caught Up in Debate"

"selection is key to the development of the experience"

"Appealing to mass markets usually results in dilution of experience because it needs to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Therefore, selection is key to the development of the experience. We must ensure that we establish relationships with customers who appreciate and are willing to pay for the rich experiences we design and deliver. The development stage includes customer segmentation, when we develop different flavors of the experience for different customers. Treating different customers differently is another essential principle of successful customer strategies. Treating all customers the same misses the point regarding the individuality and uniqueness of each customer and his or her needs."

Trechos retirados de "Passionate and profitable : why customer strategies fail and ten steps to do them right" de Lior Arussy.

Uma outra abordagem (parte II)

Parte I.
.
Voltando a "A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage" de Lance A. Bettencourt, Robert F. Lusch e Stephen L. Vargo, publicado no número de Outono de 2014 da California Management Review.

"Like other companies, Ingersoll Rand had struggled with innovation when its focus for asking questions to guide value creation was misplaced. All too often, Ingersoll Rand had been asking questions anchored in goods-dominant logic, such as “What technologies should we add to a product?” or “What new features would customers like?” and this was leading to answers and innovations that missed the value mark. However, once Ingersoll Rand adopted a service lens and focused on answering the right question, “How can we help the customer get their job done better?”, it started not only creating offerings that were better aligned with how customers judge value, but it also discovered opportunities to extend its service reach beyond its traditional engineering comfort zone."

Este exemplo, é uma boa ilustração do que penso ao ler sobre a história do drone controlado pelo pensamento que referi em "No caminho da "magia""
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Interessante, em conversa com representante de empresa líder na produção de hardware para pessoas com mobilidade reduzida, deu para perceber como o mindset está no “What technologies should we add to a product?”

- Que inovações estão para sair?
- Um GPS incorporado no hardware!
- What?!?!?!

E calçar os sapatos do cliente e ver o mundo desse ponto de vista e perguntar: “How can we help the customer get their job done better?”

"The combination of service and customer jobs helps companies envision opportunities beyond today’s offerings and emphasizes the important role of customers and other resources in value creation. 
...
a service lens reveals that firms fundamentally do not offer products. The point where exchange occurs between a seller and buyer is not where value is created."

...

Acerca da palavra metanoia

Embalado por uma ideia para criar a representação de uma estrutura sistémica que englobasse o desemprego jovem, os estágios e o salário mínimo nacional, voltei à biblioteca para pegar num livro de 1990 que terei lido em 98 ou 99, aquando da minha primeira ida aos Estados Unidos, "The Fifth Discipline" de Peter Senge.
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De repente dou com o texto "Metanoia - A Shift of Mind":

"When you ask people about what it is like being part of a great team, what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative. It becomes quite clear that, for many, their experiences as part of truly great teams stand out as singular periods of life lived to the fullest. Some spend the rest of their lives looking for ways to recapture that spirit. The most accurate word in Western culture to describe what happens in a learning organization is one that hasn't had much currency for the past several hundred years. It is a word we have used in our work with organizations for some ten years, but we always caution them, and ourselves, to use it sparingly in public. The word is "metanoia" and it means a shift of mind. The word has a rich history. For the Greeks, it meant a fundamental shift or change, or more literally transcendence ("meta"—above or beyond, as in "metaphysics") of mind ("noia," from the root "nous," of mind).
...
To grasp the meaning of "metanoia" is to grasp the deeper meaning of "learning," for learning also involves a fundamental shift or movement of mind."

Já não me recordava desta passagem. No entanto, de certeza que ela estava presente no meu inconsciente aquando de:

• Redsigma - o fim da linha (Agosto 2013)
• Metanoia (Agosto de 2013)
• Metanoia

Curiosidade do dia

Excelente reflexão sobre o futuro do jornalismo, ou da produção de conteúdos, em "Marc Andreessen's 8 business models for journalism".

Relacionar estratégia e comportamentos

"To be successful, it’s necessary to ensure your employees fully understand your strategy and what you hope to achieve in the year ahead. Then you must translate a strategy into actionable behaviors to ensure employees are able to carry it forward. After all, business is a performance art: Saying is not the same as doing. But if you can’t say it, clearly and concisely, your people will only have more trouble implementing it, efficiently and effectively."

E na sua empresa, as pessoas sabem qual é a estratégia?
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Existe uma estratégia clara?
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As pessoas percebem que actividades e comportamentos estão em sintonia com a estratégia?

Trecho retirado de "Start Articulating Your Strategy"

O parágrafo final é mortal para as empresas que ...

Há uma citação que uso já há algum tempo:

"Value it's a feeling, not a calculation"

"Emotions make the corporate world uncomfortable. The perception is that since emotions cannot be managed very well and are difficult to fit into pie charts or reports, they must be ignored. The efficiency-oriented operations we pride ourselves on are full of logic and predictability, so we tend to treat the customer accordingly. Financial managers have no clue as to how to factor emotions into their financial models. Thus emotions are treated as the type of irrational behavior from which we must shy away.
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In reality, that thought process is fundamentally flawed. Businesses built on logic alone will be very expensive to operate. We actually want emotions in our relationships with customers. A purely logical customer will shop for the lowest price every time and will demonstrate no loyalty at all. The cost of doing business with customers will be high, because each time we will have to “acquire” them again through expensive incentives.
...
The problem with emotions, however, is that many of them occur in a nurturing environment. They demand mutual commitment in order to deliver commitment. In the long, uncomfortable affair companies have with emotions, they have tended to exploit the customer’s emotions but not to communicate their own."

O parágrafo final é mortal para as empresas que não fazem parte de uma tribo, para as empresas que julgam que o big data resolve tudo, para as empresas que não apostam na co-criação, para as empresas que não escolhem os seus clientes-alvo, para as empresas que não interagem.

Trechos retirados de "Passionate and profitable : why customer strategies fail and ten steps to do them right" de Lior Arussy.

E ninguém que os envergonhe...

Faz sentido que o salário mínimo pago em Penamacor seja o mesmo que em Lisboa?
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Faz sentido que os impostos pagos em Penamacor sejam os mesmos que em Lisboa?
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O que acontece ao emprego e à densidade populacional em Penamacor?
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Agora, imaginem replicar isto a outro nível:

"julgo que é cada vez mais premente este sonho mirífico de uma política fiscal harmonizada. Mas sinto e penso que vai ser cada vez mais importante, nos tempos que aí vêm, para a sobrevivência do projeto da zona euro”.
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Quem o diz é Santana Lopes, em entrevista ao programa Fora da Caixa, da Rádio Renascença"

Mais uma vez repito-me, pena que os jornalistas sejam uns ignorantes e uns cobardes, incapazes de fazer perguntas que envergonhem quem usa o espaço mediático para dizer barbaridades sem contraditório.
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Eu, anónimo engenheiro da província, sem conhecimentos de fiscalidade, faria como o rafeiro, agarraria a perna e não a largaria:

• como é que funcionaria essa harmonização fiscal?
• quais seriam as implicações para o emprego nos países periféricos?
• quais seriam as implicações para o investimento nos países periféricos?
• acha mesmo que impostos iguais aqui e na Alemanha iam beneficiar Portugal?

Santana Lopes acredita na concorrência perfeita, acredita que o mercado deve ser uma arena em que todos estão em igualdade de circunstâncias.
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Sorry! Peço desculpa por lhe estragar o conto de crianças. Num mercado perfeito quem ganha são os maiores, sempre!
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Nem nos Estados Unidos existe harmonização fiscal!!!
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Os políticos, vide o exemplo desta semana de Costa e da nomeação do governador do Banco de Portugal, lançam postas de pescada sem qualquer estudo ou reflexão digna do nome. E ninguém que os envergonhe...

Uma outra abordagem (parte I)

Ontem de manhã cedo, durante uma caminhada, comecei a leitura de "A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage" de Lance A. Bettencourt, Robert F. Lusch e Stephen L. Vargo, publicado no número de Outono de 2014 da California Management Review.
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Depois, a meio da manhã tive uma reunião numa empresa e, para meu espanto, um dos temas coincidiu com uma das mensagens principais do artigo.
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A empresa produz hardware industrial. É uma especialista reconhecida a nível mundial e, apesar de todos os quadros experientes que tem ao seu serviço, todos diplomados por universidades, continua aprisionada a esta visão do negócio:

"The problem with customer centricity at most companies is that it is grounded in an old enterprise ormanufacturing pattern of thought—what has been referred to as a goods-dominant logic. This outdated logic regards what the firm produces as the proper focal point for creating value."

Interessante como a tradição pode levar uma empresa inovadora a rejeitar convites de clientes concretos, para dar o salto para o futuro:

"In contrast, a service lens regards the proper focus for value creation as helping customers to get one or more jobs done (i.e., accomplish a goal or resolve a problem). This reorientation enables firms to pose truly customer-centric questions grounded in value creation."

 Interessante como a pessoa que mais apreciou o desafio dos clientes foi alguém que está menos integrado no sistema de concepção, desenvlvimento e produção do hardware:

"Business leaders, product engineers, and marketing professionals who
focus on how things are currently being done place constraints on their thinking. They define markets in terms of the output they provide; thus, they are unable to see the business growth possibilities that come with a service lens. This is why so many disruptive innovations - such as zero-turn radius lawn tractors, car sharing services, and retail health clinics - are created by firms that are outside traditionally defined industry boundaries or by the customers themselves."

O meu desafio?
Há uns anos não seria um desafio pois só trabalhava para empresas que sabiam que tinham um problema, ou oportunidade, e me contactavam, para os ajudar. Hoje, já procuro convencer empresas que têm um problema, ou oportunidade, e ainda não se aperceberam, a dar um passo no desconhecido.
.
Continua.

Curiosidade do dia

"Machine efficiency was becoming so great that President Roosevelt, in 1935, told the nation that the economy might never be able to reabsorb all the workers who were being displaced. The more sanguine New York Times editorial board then accused the president of falling prey to the “calamity prophets.”
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In retrospect, it certainly looked as if he had. Unemployment, which was at nearly 24 percent in 1932, dropped to less than 5 percent a decade later. This was a pattern that would reassert itself throughout the twentieth century: the economy would tank, automation would be identified as one of the main culprits, commentators would suggest that jobs were not coming back, and then the economy would rebound and with it employment, and all that nervous chatter about machines taking over would fade away.
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When the economy faltered in 1958, and then again in 1961, for instance, what was being called the “automation problem” was taken up by Congress, which passed the Manpower Development and Training Act. In his State of the Union Address of 1962, President Kennedy explained that this law was meant “to stop the waste of able- bodied men and women who want to work, but whose only skill has been replaced by a machine, moved with a mill, or shut down with a mine.” Two years later, President Johnson convened a National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress to assess the economic effects of automation and technological change. But then a funny thing happened. By the time the commission issued its report in 1966, the economy was approaching full employment. Concern about machines supplanting workers abated. The commission was disbanded."

Trechos retirados de "How Robots & Algorithms Are Taking Over"

"They shape the future"

Ainda na quarta-feira à noite, num jantar de francesinhas, o Aranha recordava esta frase de Seinfeld:

"Not That There Is Anything Wrong With That".

Por isso, sorri esta manhã, ao ler "What George Costanza Can Teach the C-Suite":

"Most companies get trapped on the growth treadmill, chasing multiple opportunities wherever the market is heading. The most successful companies, however, commit to doing only what they do best, and they grow by applying this in a very clear-minded and disciplined way in the market.
.
Most companies pursue functional excellence and benchmark everything. Unfortunately, this approach leads them to the same crowded place in the market as everyone else.
...
Winning companies don’t simply react. They shape the future: reimagine their capabilities, create demand and realign their industry on their own terms.
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Advantage is transient. Even the most formidable position is vulnerable to the melee of pressures in today’s market."

"you cannot save your way to prosperity"

"when the finance or accounting department drive savings, often times they do so without seeing the big picture of how cost cutting might impact employee and customer satisfaction as well as loyalty.
...
 you cannot save your way to prosperity . When you cut costs without considering the impact on employees, customers, and overall loyalty, you make a conscious decision to follow a short-term path with poor long-term results.
...
When revenue falls, it is natural to think about cutting costs. If you do cut costs, be careful about your message to employees and customers. Customers and employees don’t want to board a sinking ship. Focus your efforts on where you can add the greatest value for your existing and future customers."

Trechos retirados de "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of Cost Cutting
Comment Now".

Um bom sinal

"As contas externas de Portugal chegaram ao final de janeiro com um saldo positivo de 277,8 milhões de euros, depois de terem registado um défice de 410,1 milhões de euros no mesmo mês do ano passado."

Trecho retirado de "Contas externas de Portugal com excedente de 278 ME em janeiro"

Mongo e os marxistas

Em Portugal a esquerda marxista mais participativa nas redes sociais ainda está agarrada ao modelo do século XX, aos exércitos de operários, (normalmente traduzida num desprezo pelos empreendedores, startups e micro-empresas) e à versão moderna da maquinaria, a automatização.
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Interessante este texto marxista sobre Mongo, "Peer-to-peer production and the coming of the commons":

"We are witnessing the emergence of a new ‘proto’ mode of production based on distributed, collaborative forms of organisation.
...
One way to describe the changes now taking place is as a shift away from a context in which the technological and economic advantage lies with economies of scale and mass production that depend on cheap global transportation and, thus, the continuous availability of fossil fuels. The move is to ‘economies of scope’, where bringing down the cost of common infrastructure for networked enterprises brings competitive advantages.[Moi ici: Claro que ainda se focam muito nos custos, ainda não chegaram à paixão e ás tribos]
...
This new emerging modality tends to out-cooperate and out-compete classic modes of capitalist production. This is because of its higher innovation potential (there is no privatisation of innovation); the ability for distributed parallel development on a global scale without the use of costly bureaucracies of control (as with Wikipedia, every module can be worked on separately, by any contributor with the necessary skills); and the much cheaper production costs due to price structures free of the rent of ‘intellectual property’ (IP). Where these new forms occur – in knowledge production, free software production and now emerging in physical production – they tend to displace proprietary and IP-based modes.
...
We regard this as the peer production equivalent of the invention of the assembly line by Henry Ford. It inserts the rapid production methodologies that have proven themselves in open source software production (such as ‘extreme programming’) into the world of machine design, and links it directly to microfactories and distributed enterprise."

Claro que hão-de descobrir que os grandes inimigos de Mongo são os incumbentes que tratam da oferta no mercado e os que vivem da impostagem que se extrai dos actuais laços de produção, emprego e consumo.

Curiosidade do dia

A propósito de "A tale of floods and dams", onde se pode ler:

"Readers will tell me that things are not great in Bulgaria and that growth is disappointing. This is true, but at least per capita growth is positive."

Lembrei-me desta "Curiosidade do dia":

"Apesar do PIB cair, o PIB per capita tem crescido porque a população japonesa está a cair mais depressa." 

Então, se a evolução da emigração nos últimos anos tem sido esta:

Como será a evolução do PIB per capita português?