"the key to competitiveness wasn’t simply productivity"

Coisas que muita gente na academia, na política e nos media ainda não percebeu:

"When the economic crisis hit tyre demand in 2009-10, Michelin realised, according to Mr Guillon, that “the key to competitiveness wasn’t simply productivity, it was above all agility”. Starting in January 2013, it began to accelerate the process of freeing teams to operate independently."

Não adianta produzir um produto muito barato mas que não sai do armazém.

Um exemplo do uso do factor rapidez em "Só depois do apito do árbitro é que a 4Teams começa a produzir cachecóis para o Benfica"

Trecho retirado de "Power to the workers: Michelin’s great experiment"

Curiosidade do dia

@diniscosta Ainda bem que agora estamos todos de acordo que temos que cortar o défice mais depressa e que isso não prejudica o crescimento.

— Paulo Ferreira (@pauloferreira1) May 15, 2017

Picking winners

"PS quer medidas que promovam turismo científico e de saúde"

E por que não o turismo religioso, ou satânico, ou monumental, ou futebolístico?

O que sabe um partido político, este ou outro, sobre o que o mercado procura?

Depois, lá teremos o Capitão a queixar-se de que os privados não fizeram a sua parte:

@pauloferreira1 Sempre. E em Beja o Estado investiu e quem falhou foram os investimentos privados. Para exemplo é mal escolhido. Só isso.

— MCF (@MCF977) May 10, 2017

"A bad decision feels good in the short run"

Ainda ontem escrevi sobre "o job to be done das religiões neste mundo" e agora, ao escrever isto, consigo recuar a Maio de 2017 e ao "Abençoado cheiro a bosta", tudo por causa deste trecho:

"Our job as leaders (and we all are, in our own way) is to elevate the long run on behalf of those we care about, regardless how hard the marketing and tribal noise around us encourages to fall prey to instant comfort."

Gente a sério está neste patamar:

"A bad decision isn't only bad because we're uninformed or dumb. It can be bad because we are swayed by short-term comfort and ignore long-term implications. A bad decision feels good in the short run, the heartfelt decision of someone who means well. But there's a gap when we get to the long run."

Trechos retirados de "When time catches up"

"autonomy at work is the key to employee satisfaction"

"A recent survey conducted by The Harvard Business Review reveals that autonomy at work (not micromanagement) is the key to employee satisfaction and organizational achievement.
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It describes this concept as "rebelling," or giving employees the freedom to "deviate from organizational norms, others' actions, or common expectations, to the benefit of the organization."
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Autonomy for your employees depends on clearly defining your company vision while grounding every project in logical outcomes. Issues arise when people get caught up in their output (how much work they're producing) without a defined outcome (what it is they need to produce).
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"Am I working on the right thing?" is a hard question to answer without understanding what the outcome should be.
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When you hire the right people and share the outcomes you wish to achieve and why, you can trust them to figure out the how. 

Fiz logo o paralelismo com o Blitzkrieg: Agilidade e estratégia

Trechos retirados de "This Harvard Survey Reveals What Most People Miss About Leadership"

Cuidado com a tentação do volume.

"If you think it is difficult to sell with a higher price, try selling with a lower price, where you are undifferentiated and commoditized."

Parar! Voltar atrás e reler a frase.

"Your company has a business model and a strategy. If your strategy is to differentiate your offering and create greater value, you no doubt have a higher price than many—or most—of your competitors. That higher price isn’t some arbitrary decision. It’s based on what is required for you to execute and deliver for your clients.
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If you are exactly as good as you are now and lowered your prices to match your competitors, you would no doubt sell a lot more than you are selling now. Selling would be much easier once you take price out of the equation.
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But here’s the thing: selling more doesn’t make sense.
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Let’s say your Net Profit is 8 percent of Revenue. To match your competitor’s price, you would have to reduce your prices by 11 percent. Now you are better, and you are dead even on price. That sounds good, because you can massively increase your sales. But that reduction in price across all revenue would leave you with Net Revenue Loss of 3 percent. Congratulations, you broke the model and destroyed the strategy."

Cuidado com a tentação do volume.

Trechos retirados de "Understanding Why Your Price Is Higher Than Your Competitors"

Curiosidade do dia

Uma escola aqui em Gaia ostenta a seguinte frase na sua entrada:

Vai onde o futuro te leva

Não gosto da frase. Há qualquer coisa de passivo, de folha impotente levada pela corrente. Preferia uma frase mais do tipo:

Constrói o teu futuro 

Cuidado com as generalizações

Ao olhar para títulos como "Líder da CAP: "Se não houver regadio não há agricultura empresarial"" e ""Estamos em seca permanentemente", diz o presidente da CAP" é importante não esquecer que a agricultura portuguesa é muito mais do que a produção de latifúndio do sul.

Não esquecer qual a distribuição geográfica dos associados da CAP e qual o tipo de produtos que produzem.

Cuidado com as generalizações.

"the opposite of both efficiency and standardization"

"Measuring the value of your organization is all done by the metrics that are employed to do so. [Moi ici: Mais uma razão para o balanced scorecard, para medir o que deve ser mesmo medido] And dependent on in which era the company finds itself it will measure its value and worth differently.
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And so this is what happens in an incumbent organization:
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They understand that they are loosing control over their customers and they try to go out and accommodate them — but everything in the DNA/OS/bloodstream of the organization is measuring increased customer activity as the opposite of both efficiency and standardization — and therefore any initiative becomes a costly mistake.
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And nothing in the organization’s metrics is saying that it needs to rethink its world view in order for it to understand and be able to deliver on the customer orientation that it needs."

As organizações incumbentes já só pensam na eficiência e padronização quando, num mundo em evolução acelerada, o que é preciso é relação e interacção.

Trecho retirado de "Why are Customer Oriented Organizations Failing — They Are Using the Wrong Era of Metrics"

Não é possível querer ser tudo para todos ...

Uma das primeiras mensagens deste blogue desde o seu começo é a de que é fundamental escolher os clientes-alvo. Um excelente artigo pleno de convite ao pensamento estratégico em "How Discounters Are Remaking the Grocery Industry":

"different customers define those criteria in different ways, so grocers need to understand their target customers and how they want to shop. Those insights, in turn, have ramifications for store design, product categories, and other forms of customer engagement with the brand.
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For example, some grocers may target food lovers, who want the highest-quality products; a wide variety of fresh meat, produce, and seafood; and high levels of customer service. These customers are prepared to pay a premium for the right experience. Other grocers, however, may target urban shoppers who need small stores that offer a basic assortment of products and that are within walking distance of their home or office. These shoppers make frequent, fast trips, and they will pay a reasonable price difference for convenience. Still other grocers may target families, who tend to fill their shopping carts with enough food and nonfood items to last the week. These shoppers want low prices, regular sales and promotions, and a large store with a wide selection of products.
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Once a company understands its target customers, it can revise its product categories to better meet their needs. That revision, in turn, will influence the assortment of products sold, the pricing and promotion strategies, and the overall customer experience."

Não esquecer:

"to identify the needs of their target customers, offer them a unique experience, and strike the right balance between complexity and efficiency. Customers can be extremely loyal to their favorite grocery chain. Companies that understand the underlying factors of that loyalty will position themselves to win." 

Não é possível querer ser tudo para todos e o preço mais baixo não é o mais importante para todos.

‘They don’t read enough.’

"“I have to tell you a story about a neighbor of mine in Massachusetts who would be on anybody’s top 10 list of [Warren] Buffett–like people,” Peters opened. “I was at a dinner with him 18 months ago and, out of nowhere, he said, ‘You know what the number one problem is with big company CEOs?’ I said, ‘I can think of at least 70 things, but damned if I can narrow it down.’ And out of his mouth pops, ‘They don’t read enough.’”
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How can we become better leaders? Unsurprisingly, Peters had some suggestions. “I think the people who run things ought to read a lot more psychology and social psychology and a lot less finance and marketing,”"

BTW, actualmente é de bom tom denegrir o que criou as civilizações, o job to be done das religiões neste mundo:

"The Marshmallow Test, written by Stanford social psychologist Walter Mischel, takes another approach to the utility of waiting. (The marshmallow test involved putting children in a room with a single marshmallow and seeing how long they could go without eating it in order to get the promised reward of two marshmallows later.) “Mischel argued that the ability to put things off is what makes us human, too,” Peters said."

Trechos retirados de "Tom Peters Wants You to Read"

Curiosidade do dia

Jornalismo com futuro

Ao longo dos anos escrevo aqui acerca da erosão e decadência do modelo económico dos jornalismo pago pela publicidade:

• "the rebound in the paid-for model"

Acredito que o jornalismo regressará baseado num novo modelo de negócio baseado na subscrição paga e no serviço aos clientes underserved. E foi o que encontrei ao ler "The Local News Business Model":

"In short, the business model [Moi ici: Baseado na publicidade, apelando à maior audiência possível] drove the content, just as it drove every other piece of the business. It follows, though, that if the content bundle no longer makes sense — which it doesn’t in the slightest — that the business model probably doesn’t make sense either. This is the problem with newspapers: every aspect of their operations, from costs to content, is optimized for a business model that is obsolete. To put it another way, an obsolete business model means an obsolete business. There is nothing to be saved.
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It is very important to clearly define what a subscriptions means. First, it’s not a donation: it is asking a customer to pay money for a product. What, then, is the product? It is not, in fact, any one article (a point that is missed by the misguided focus on micro-transactions). Rather, a subscriber is paying for the regular delivery of well-defined value.
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This last point is at the crux of why many ad-based newspapers will find it all but impossible to switch to a real subscription business model. When asking people to pay, quality matters far more than quantity, and the ratio matters: a publication with 1 valuable article a day about a well-defined topic will more easily earn subscriptions than one with 3 valuable articles and 20 worthless ones covering a variety of subjects. Yet all too many local newspapers, built for an ad-based business model that calls for daily content to wrap around ads, spend their limited resources churning out daily filler even though those ads no longer exist."

O artigo continua e reforça a necessidade de uma forte disciplina de corte:

"It’s also worth noting what a subscription business model does not — must not — include:
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Content that is widely available elsewhere. That means no national or international news (except what has a local impact, and even that is questionable), no non-local business content, no lifestyle section.
Non-journalistic costs centers.
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This is perhaps the easiest change to make, and the hardest for newspaper advocates to accept. A subscription business is just that: a business that must, through its content, earn ongoing revenue from customers. That means understanding what those customers want, and what they don’t. It means focusing on the user experience, and the content mix. And it means selling by every member of the organization." 

Contentor Amarelo

Terminou ontem a minha relação com o Contentor Amarelo.

Terminou porque desapareceu o job to be done que passou a ser servido pelo meu novo escritório de trabalho.

No entanto, não posso deixar de elogiar o serviço, a localização, a simpatia. Fiquei fã!

Não se trata de publicidade paga, trata-se de gratidão pura e simples.

OBRIGADO!

Mongo e o fim do marketing?

Forget Marketing, here comes #Customering: Great talk by @joepine: "there are no markets, only individual customers", suggesting new focus! pic.twitter.com/AnDnrHDPYd

— Frank Piller (@masscustom) May 12, 2017

Exactly! "Markets" are a convenient fiction for companies that do not treat customers as the truly unique individuals they are. https://t.co/IXI35Hhj56

— Joe Pine (@joepine) May 12, 2017

Em linha com o que se escreve sobre o marketing de Mongo em "Decentralization and Localization of Production: The Organizational and Economic Consequences of Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)". Recordar a série "Acerca de Mongo"

Pensa que só acontece aos outros? (parte II)

Parte I.

Recordar o "Aon Global Risk Management Survey" de 2017 e o Top 10 dos riscos:

Hearing reports of GPs affected by #ramsomware attack because apparentl CCGs and CSU turning off IT system on mass as a "precaution".

— Ben Heather (@BHeatherJourno) May 12, 2017

#Ramsomware #WannaCry Ciberataque de gran impacto. Lo que estamos viviendo hoy me temo que será, cada vez, más habitual.

— Luis Miguel Sánchez (@sanchezvscrime) May 12, 2017

New ransomware attack that hit over 45,000 computers in 74 countries may have used leaked NSA hacking tool https://t.co/qomsvYzUy0 pic.twitter.com/mJ2ffpKT9d

— Forbes (@Forbes) May 12, 2017

• Empresas portuguesas alvo de ataque informático em larga escala
• Ataque informático a empresas portuguesas terá tido origem no Brasil
• A Massive Ransomware 'Explosion' Is Hitting Targets All Over the World

Curiosidade do dia

Já começou. pic.twitter.com/jGSlcqqUGP

— InsóniasEmCarvão (@insoniascarvao) May 12, 2017

Acerca da Educação em Mongo (parte II)

Numa caminhada antes do jantar de ontem li "Why Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Google, and a Harvard Expert Say Colleges and Universities Are Broken". Depois, ao jantar celebramos a conclusão pela minha filha de um curso sobre programação em Android na Udacity. Às tantas, sem nada combinarmos, acabámos a concordar com o artigo.

"- Os cursos como o meu (área da informática na Faculdade de Ciências) não vão ter grande futuro em competição com os cursos super-práticos feitos via internet."

Alguns sublinhados:

"Google doesn't require a college degree, based on research showing no correlation between academic credentials and performance on the job. And Google has had its pick of top students from top programs at top universities.
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One student told me that a friend of hers had left Yale because she found the school "stifling to the parts of yourself that you'd call a soul.""

Em vez de regurgitar definições e demonstrar teoremas, o curso da Udacity desenvolve-se ao ritmo de cada um e é uma sucessão de desafios práticos que se têm de cumprir.

BTW,  recordar na Parte I a cena da academia que ainda não ensina os seus alunos a programar para Android porque não saberia o que fazer com os professores que tem no quadro.

Como é que a sua empresa lida com estas mudanças?

"think about selling a transformation"

"The starting point of most competitive analysis is a question: Who is your competition? That’s because most companies view their competition as another brand, product, or service. But smart leaders and organizations go broader.
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The question is not who your competition is but what it is. And the answer is this: Your competition is any and every obstacle your customers encounter along their journeys to solving the human, high-level problems your company exists to solve.
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Sure, someone in your company needs to understand the marketplace: who your competition is, what other products are on the market, and how they are doing, at a basic level. But there’s a point at which paying attention to other companies and what they’re doing interferes with your team’s ability to immerse itself in the world of your consumer. Focusing on competitive products and companies often leads to “me-too” products, which purport to compete with or iterate on something that customers might not have liked much in the first place.
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First, rethink what you sell. Most companies think they sell a product. To transcend strictly one-time, transactional relationships with your customers, your company must think about selling a transformation: a journey from a problematic status quo to the new levels and possibilities that will unfurl after the behavior change you help make happen.
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Next, rethink your customers. They are not just the people who have purchased your product or the people who follow you on Facebook. Your customers are all the people who grapple with the problem your business exists to solve.
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Now, focus on their problems. Engage in customer research, online and in the real world, to understand and document their journeys. I don’t mean their customer life cycle with your brand. Map out your (redefined) customer’s journey from having the problem you exist to solve to no longer having that problem. That may be the journey from unhealthy to healthy living, or from being broke to being a good steward of their finances."

Recordar o Dick Dastardly e os observadores de motards.

Trechos retirados de "Obsess Over Your Customers, Not Your Rivals"

"To earn economic profits"

Business strategy is the way in which a firm chooses to differentiate itself from its competitors in a way that results in serving its customers’ needs more profitably than its competitors.
Being more profitable than competitors in a given market is a tall order. It implies earning true economic profits, not simply accounting profits. How are accounting profits different from economic profits?
Accounting profits are those found on the profit and loss statements. They are the difference between a firm’s revenues and its costs. Every firm must achieve accounting profits in order to survive. And while every corporation seeks to survive, survival alone is insufficient in today’s competitive environment.[Moi ici: Recordar "Floating is insufficient"]
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Economic profits are much more difficult to earn than simple accounting profits. Economic profits imply that the firm is earning a higher return on capital deployed in comparison to all other invest- ment opportunities. In an economist’s terms, economic profits are accounting profits less opportunity costs. Earning economic profits isn’t just about making money, it is about making more money by doing the things the firm chooses to do than by doing anything else. The results of economic profits are either growth opportunities for the firm or higher returns to the investors.
To earn economic profits, the firm must, in some way, be better than its competitors. It must have some form of a competitive advantage that enables it to serve its chosen customers more profitably than its competitors do.
This competitive advantage will be reflected in how the firm interacts with its customers, competitors, and itself."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"