"the nature of competition has changed"

"new technology isn’t driving most disruption today. Consumers are. And that in turn means incumbents require a different kind of innovation in order to thrive—not technological innovation, but a transformation in business models. A business model describes how a company works—how it creates value and to whom; how it captures value and from whom. Innovating your business model requires a deep knowledge of customers. You must understand what your customers want, and in particular, the main steps or activities they undertake in order to satisfy their desires. You need to understand their value chain.
...
In today’s new wave of disruption, upstart firms are breaking apart these chains, offering customers the chance to fulfill just one or a few activities with them, and leaving incumbents to fulfill the rest. [Moi ici: Parei e recordei as dezenas de discussões em que dirigentes de PMEs me asseguraram que os clientes preferiam uma one-stop-shop. Pois!] I call this process of breaking apart the chain of consumption “decoupling.” Startups decouple to gain a foothold in the market, and they grow by offering to fill a specific activity for customers—what I call “coupling.” Both the initial decoupling and the subsequent coupling allow startups to quickly steal a substantial amount of market share at incumbents’ expense. In short, the startups become disruptors.
...
[Moi ici: Por fim, um trecho sobre Mongo] 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, the nature of competition has changed. Most industries used to have only two or at most a few major global players. Today industries contain many competitors, mostly small ones acting globally. Game theory loses much of its value when one larger, more predictable player has to play a strategic “chess match” with not one, not two, but hundreds and in some cases thousands of small, unpredictable players.”

Trecho retirado de  “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain” de Thales S. Teixeira.

Pena que o jornalismo passe ao lado

Ontem à noite vi esta notícia, "Escola Secundária de Canelas tem falta de funcionários".

No decorrer da reportagem ouvi e fixei: A escola tem um quadro de 21 assistentes operacionais e actualmente 12 desses assistentes estão de baixa médica.

STOP! 12 em 21!?!?!?!?!

A reportagem seguiu o guião habitual, os media não passam de megafones das corporações, e entrevistou o director da escola que fez o seu choradinho. A solução do governo de turno é, perante um problema, atirar dinheiro para cima dele. Logo, vão ser contratados mais assistentes operacionais.

Espero que na sua empresa esta abordagem não seja a seguida. Numa empresa os financiadores, os clientes, são livres e podem mudar para a concorrência se acharem que pagam mais do que o que recebem. A abordagem que uma empresa decente segue e que também devia ser seguida no estado é a de ir à raiz do problema.

É razoável pensar que 12 em 21 assistentes operacionais estejam de baixa médica em simultâneo?
Quais os motivos das baixas médicas? Há um padrão? Será que os assistentes operacionais são sujeitos a situações que levam à deterioração genuína da sua saúde física ou psicológica? Imaginem que isto era verdade... então o comboio de baixas há-de continuar para os novos que vierem, a menos que sejam precários.

Pena que o jornalismo passe ao lado da investigação e se remeta à condição de megafone.

Mais informação sobre acções de melhoria sobre causas raiz em:

• Causas e 5 porquês (Março de 2018)
• Exemplo de acção preventiva (parte VIII) (Maio de 2009)
• Não-conformidades, acções correctivas e preventivas (Dezembro de 2007)

"can lead to outcomes that suck"

“Nokia, once the global leader in mobile phones, had to sell itself in 2013 to avoid bankruptcy, also a victim of digital disruption. Its CEO, Stephen Elop, was brutally honest in acknowledging that he didn’t know what he didn’t know. In a tearful interview that has since become famous, Elop claimed, “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow we lost.”

Como não recordar:

"Lesson #2: Rational choice, chosing a dominant strategy, can lead to outcomes that suck, ou seja, escolhas racionais por actores racionais podem levar a resultados indesejáveis."

Trecho retirado de  “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain” de Thales S. Teixeira.

"strategic choices should flow mainly from the analysis of its unique skills and capabilities"

Excelente abstract:

"Much of the current thinking about competitive strategy focuses on ways that firms can create imperfectly competitive product markets in order to obtain greater than normal economic performance. However, the economic performance of firms does not depend simply on whether or not its strategies create such markets, but also on the cost of implementing those strategies. Clearly, if the cost of strategy implementation is greater than returns obtained from creating an imperfectly competitive product market, then firms will not obtain above normal economic performance from their strategizing efforts. To help analyze the cost of implementing strategies, we introduce the concept of a strategic factor market, i.e., a market where the resources necessary to implement a strategy are acquired. If strategic factor markets are perfect, then the cost of acquiring strategic resources will approximately equal the economic value of those resources once they are used to implement product market strategies. Even if such strategies create imperfectly competitive product markets, they will not generate above normal economic performance for a firm, for their full value would have been anticipated when the resources necessary for implementation were acquired. However, strategic factor markets will be imperfectly competitive when different firms have different expectations about the future value of a strategic resource. In these settings, firms may obtain above normal economic performance from acquiring strategic resources and implementing strategies. We show that other apparent strategic factor market imperfections, including when a firm already controls all the resources needed to implement a strategy, when a firm controls unique resources, when only a small number of firms attempt to implement a strategy, and when some firms have access to lower cost capital than others, and so on, are all special cases of differences in expectations held by firms about the future value of a strategic resource. Firms can attempt to develop better expectations about the future value of strategic resources by analyzing their competitive environments or by analyzing skills and capabilities they already control. Environmental analysis cannot be expected to improve the expectations of some firms better than others, and thus cannot be a source of more accurate expectations about the future value of a strategic resource. However, analyzing a firm's skills and capabilities can be a source of more accurate expectations. Thus, from the point of view of firms seeking greater than normal economic performance, our analysis suggests that strategic choices should flow mainly from the analysis of its unique skills and capabilities, rather than from the analysis of its competitive environment."

Abstract retirado de "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy", de Jay Barney e publicado por Journal Management Science, Volume 32 Issue 10, October 1986.

Afinal há pensamento estratégico

Comecei a ler "Uma empresa de fornos com projetos na forja" e ia comentando para mim mesmo:

- Só features, só produto,  só fábrica.

Chego à parte final e começo a ler:

"Apenas com um concorrente no país, a Induzir bate-se, sobretudo, com empresas italianas e alemãs, das quais procura diferenciar-se."

E recordo logo esta imagem ...

 ... deste postal do mês passado. E uma outra do início deste ano:

Competir pelo desempenho não é o terreno que convém a uma PME portuguesa.

Uma PME portuguesa tem mais vantagens competitivas se optar por navegar no mundo da flexibilidade.

E por fim, chega o remate final do artigo:

"Somos conhecidos por apresentarmos soluções. Não fazemos nada standard. Desenvolvemos o forno à medida." 

E sorrio. Graças a Deus o meu julgamento inicial foi prematuro. Afinal há pensamento estratégico.

Paisagens enrugadas

O que acontece à necessidade, quanto á importância de ter uma estratégia e de monitorar as consequências da sua adopção quando se caminha para Mongo?

Mongo significa paisagem cada vez mais enrugada.

"An adaptive landscape is a mapping from a high-dimensional space of genotypes onto fitness or some other related quantitative phenotype, which defines the ‘elevation’ of each coordinate in genotype space. Evolution can be viewed as a hill-climbing process in an adaptive landscape, where populations tend to move towards peaks as a consequence of natural selection.
...
An adaptive landscape that is smooth and single peaked does not pose any obstacle to evolutionary exploration. It is therefore highly navigable, in that it is possible to reach the global peak via positive selection through a series of small mutations that only move ‘uphill’. In contrast, a rugged landscape can block the approach to the highest peak by entrapping populations on local suboptimal peaks.
...
We define landscape navigability as the ability to access a global peak via an evolutionary exploration involving random mutation and natural selection. Landscape navigability is highest when all mutational paths to the global peak exhibit a monotonic increase in binding affinity, which implies a landscape that is smooth and single peaked. Landscape navigability is lowest when no mutational paths to the global peak exhibit a monotonic increase in binding affinity. This implies a rugged landscape with many peaks.
...
The number of peaks in an adaptive landscape is an important indicator of its navigability. The more peaks a landscape has, the less navigable it becomes, if the peaks are of unequal height."

Trechos retirados de "A thousand empirical adaptive landscapes and their navigability" de José Aguilar-Rodríguez, Joshua L. Payne and Andreas Wagner, publicado por Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 0045 (2017)

Desemprego em 2019

Evolução do número de desempregados, segundo o IEFP.

Entre Setembro de 2018 e Janeiro de 2019 o desemprego cresceu em 14584 pessoas ao mesmo tempo que o desemprego de funcionários públicos baixou em mais de 5100 pessoas.

Entre Setembro de 2017 e Janeiro de 2018 o desemprego cresceu em 7404 pessoas ao mesmo tempo que o desemprego de funcionários públicos baixou em quase 5950 pessoas.

Vejamos como correm as coisas em 2019.

Curiosidade do dia

Pegadas de urso na zona do Barroso.

Foto retirada daqui.

"usando o que produzimos como um input para o seu processamento"

O exemplo que se segue pode servir de reflexão aos que respondem com o seu produto ou serviço à pergunta sobre qual é o seu negócio. Os clientes não compram o que produzimos, os clientes procuram o que vão conseguir viver, experienciar, usando o que produzimos como um input para o seu processamento. Diferentes processamentos, diferentes contextos:

"You’re either pregnant or you’re not. And the market for pregnancy testing kits would appear to be similarly dichotomous: you either need a pregnancy test kit, or you don’t. If you do, you buy one and it helps you answer the first question in the affirmative or in the negative.
.
So you’d think there’s not much to the market – not much market segmentation potential.
...
“why do consumers buy pregnancy kits?”
.
The answer was surprisingly far from obvious.
.
It revealed two very different kinds of buyer of pregnancy kits: those who hopefully await a positive result, and those who anxiously wish for a negative one.
.
These two segments deserved to be served differently. So the product was launched differently for the two types of consumer: one for “the hopefuls” and another for “the fearfuls,” differentiated in name, packaging, pricing and in-store placement.
.
For the fearfuls the product was named “RapidVue,” it came in a plain white clinical pack design, priced at $6.99 and displayed near the condoms in the contraception aisle.
.
For the hopefuls, on the other hand, the company created a pretty pink box labeled “Babystart,” featuring a gurgling, rosy-cheeked infant, priced 50% higher at $9.99 and sold near the ovulation predictor kits.
.
It was a dramatically successful strategy for Quidel. A new way of segmenting the market was born."

Recordar:

• Preço e JTBD são contextuais (Novembro 2016)
• Conservas e pricing (Janeiro de 2014)

Trechos retirados de "Segmenting The Market For Power And Profit"

"being good at what you do matters a lot more"

"In 1972 he [Moi ici: Richard Rumelt] became the first person to uncover a statistical link between corporate strategy and profitability, finding that moderately diversified companies outperform more diversified ones[Moi ici: Recordar "Não há almoços grátis: Há que optar" e o esquema]

—a discovery that has held up after more than 30 years of research. Rumelt also challenged the dominant thinking with his controversial 1991 paper, “How much does industry matter?” His study, published in the Strategic Management Journal, showed that neither industries nor corporate ownership can explain the lion’s share of the differences in profitability among business units. Being in the right industry does matter, but being good at what you do matters a lot more, no matter what industry you’re in."

Trecho retirado de "Strategy’s strategist: An interview with Richard Rumelt"

É nestes momentos de mudança ... (parte X)

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


No último postal desta série escrevi:

Normalmente, prefiro seguir outra abordagem. Ao olhar para a diferença de desempenho entre o Hoje e a Meta, peço que se veja cada um desses resultados como algo de perfeitamente normal.

Se o desempenho actual não é já o desempenho futuro desejado é porque a realidade actual conspira contra nós e nos limita.

Os factos negativos que atormentam a vida da organização são sintomas dessa conspiração:

Factos são factos, factos são realidades inatacáveis sobre as quais se podem construir modelos. Por exemplo, um exemplo desses factos pode ser:

Consultando os registos de reclamação, as notas das reuniões e conversando com os comerciais pode concluir-se que este facto é real.

Depois, entramos no reino das opiniões:

Por exemplo:

Se juntarmos 5 ou 6 pessoas que conhecem a organização e têm pensamento estratégico podemos pedir que listem causas e razões de importância para cada facto negativo que consigam identificar:

Por exemplo, para uma pessoa podemos ter:

Para 5 ou 6 pessoas podemos ter cerca de 40 sugestões de relações de causa-efeito.

Colocando estas 40 sugestões numa parede podemos começar a relacionar essas relações de causa-efeito entre si e, criando uma estrutura hierárquica chegar a (visão parcial):

Olhando para a cadeia de relações de causa-efeito da base até ao topo... podemos equacionar actividades que se realizadas vão originar cadeias de relações de causa-efeito positivas.

Por exemplo, desta base de trabalho:

Foi possível listar:

O roxo - representa uma causa raiz (não tem causas a montante)
O cinza - representa uma acção a realizar para eliminar ou diminuir um passo na cadeia de relações de causa-efeito
O amarelo - representa um acontecimento que decorrerá naturalmente da acção cinza realizada
O verde - representa um acontecimento importante que decorrerá naturalmente da acção cinza realizada

Depois, podemos listar todos os cinzas, todas as acções a realizar. Por exemplo:

E agrupá-las em temas relacionados:

Cada tema pode ser tratado por um projecto específico. Dando origem a uma Ficha de Missão.

Continua.

"This wide gap deserves top management attention"

Segue-se um relato que não anda longe do que encontro quando trabalho com PMEs. Dirigentes que acreditam que o seu negócio é o que produzem, mas que depois dizem que a sua vantagem competitiva nada tem a ver com o que produzem, e tudo a ver com a interacção.

"Over the past twenty years, I have asked thousands of managers around the world Levitt’s question: “What business are you in”? And I have followed it up with another: “Why do your customers buy from you rather than from your competitors?” In answer to the first question, the responses from managers in a wide variety of industries, from extraction, to pipelines, window frames, software, and banking, almost invariably still describe the product the company sells or the production facilities. I am always bewildered at how rarely the customer or the benefits the customers buys, enter the description. [Moi ici: Recordar a série "Privilegiar os inputs sobre os outputs (parte XI)", particularmente a parte IX. Recordar também "Most people tend to describe what they do rather than the value they bring"] To many managers, the product is the business, just as in Levitt’s era. Firms continue to spend inordinate amounts of time, effort, and resources on their products. In fact, businesses are structured around their products: they have product divisions and product managers, profitability is measured by product (not by customer), planning meetings and budgets are product-based, and the managers’ hopes and aspirations are pinned on product innovation and the new product pipeline. Building better products, conventional wisdom holds, is their pathway to a better, less price-competitive future.
.
My follow-up question aims to uncover what managers see as their particular competitive advantage, not just how they see their business – and it does one other thing: it reveals a puzzling gap between their product obsession and their customers’ behavior. So why do they think their customers buy from them rather than from their competitors? The responses consist of reasons such as “They trust us,” “Our reliability of supply and delivery,” “Our service,” “We are knowledgeable about their business,” “Our experience with other such customers,” “We make it seamless,” “They see us as unique,” “We’re in their consideration set,” and so on.
.
Rarely is a better product mentioned, and seldom is a lower price seen as the reason customers buy from us. In other words, the “reasons customers buy from us” reside almost entirely in the interactions that take place in the marketplace: trust, reliability of supply, service, knowledge, and experience cannot be made in a factory, nor packaged and sold off the shelf. These are downstream sources of value. They have their origins in specific activities, processes, and systems the firm employs to reduce the customers’ risks and transaction costs.
.
This wide gap between why customers buy from us (downstream reasons), and where we are spending most of our effort and resources (upstream) deserves top management attention – it can both increase efficiency by re-allocating effort to where it matters, and can build advantage by spending resources on activities that customers value and are willing to pay for."

Trecho retirado de "Why Do Your Customers Buy From You?"

Mongo, tribos e política (parte II)

Parte I.

Este texto, "Homophobia and the Modern Trans Movement", ilustra bem o texto de Fukuyama referido na parte I.

This is Minnesota Women's Powerlifting State Champion. Jaycee set a new state record in women's bench and won best overall lifter. Jaycee was born male and took up weightlifting about a year ago and now dominates the state female rankings. Think About It. https://t.co/fGnTuUghHF pic.twitter.com/EJ9rLeceFT

— FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) February 10, 2019

4) WE are fighting for the right of female athletes to have fair & meaningful competition. If u are a female athlete or sports professional who cares about the future of female sport help strengthen our voice by sharing your story, in confidence, with us. https://t.co/3Xvbtp6Inj

— FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) February 10, 2019

 

"Price is not"

"Luxury goods markets are extraordinarily attractive because they combine high growth and high profitability.
...
On the other hand, loss of exclusivity poses a threat. Luxury goods are by their very nature elitist. Exclusivity plays a key role. Growth strategies and expansion plans which dilute a brand’s exclusivity must be avoided. ... Watering down the brand is extremely dangerous for luxury products. The expansion may pay off in the short run, but long term it can lead to the trivialization of the brand.
...
premium products are by no means limited to prestigious consumer products. There are also many premium offerings in B2B industries.
...
For a premium price position, the quality, competence, or uniqueness of the supplier is at the forefront of the customer’s interest. Price is not. The cost differences between competing offers are typically smaller than the differences in the perceived value and the resulting willingness to pay. The latter is systematically exploited through the premium price.
...
the competitive advantage derived from any given innovation is only temporary, so premium suppliers face constant pressure to innovate. Some brands stress this emphasis on constant innovation in their advertising claim.
...
innovation isn’t the only successful premium strategy—a company can also focus on remaining true to what has worked well.
...
Premium products also require a level of service which is both comprehensive and of a similar quality as the product itself. To deliver this, companies require highly qualified “employees both internally and at its sales and distribution partners.
.
The comparatively high price is an integral feature of a premium product. The price cannot become a ping-pong ball for discount actions, special offers, or similar price-driven measures. Premium suppliers must place a high value on continuity, price discipline, and price maintenance. Wendelin Wiedeking, the former CEO of Porsche, explains: “Our policy is to keep our prices stable, in order to protect our brand and avoid a decline in the residual value for used Porsches. If demand falls, we cut our production, not our prices.” The current marketing decision-makers at Porsche, Bernhard Meier and Kjell Gruner, have a clear philosophy on this point: “We always want to sell one vehicle fewer than the market can absorb, in order to remain true to our brand promise of high exclusivity and high retained value. We are not volume driven, but rather obligated to an enduring business”.
.
This policy works well for several reasons:
Sharp variations in price are not compatible with the sustained high-value image of a premium product.
Temporary price reductions will frustrate or anger customers who purchased the product at its normal (high) price.
For durable goods, price actions can jeopardize prices for used products. The residual value is an important purchase criterion for these kinds of products. A decline in residual value can diminish willingness to pay for new products.”

Trechos retirados de  “Price Management” de Hermann Simon.

Temas para o futuro do retalho

• Portugueses entre os europeus que mais fazem compras em sites estrangeiros
• Ecommerce France was worth €92.6 billion in 2018
• JCPenney is quitting the appliance business as it weathers an identity crisis
• How the Apple store lost its ‘wow factor’
• Experience Will Be Everything in 2019 — Starting with Your Customer
• Why Private Label Products Will Be the Savior of Retail - importante para empresários de PMEs portuguesas
• Brick-And-Mortar Retail Is Not Dead, But Department Stores Like Macy's Sure Are
• Retailers Are Squandering Their Most Potent Weapons
• Why Retail Is Getting 'Experience' Wrong  - importante para empresários de PMEs portuguesas

Para reflexão pelos empresários do calçado e do têxtil

Um artigo interessante e merecedor de reflexão por muitos empresários do calçado e do têxtil, "Millennials have a new shopping habit that could spell trouble for Forever 21 and H&M".

Talvez mais uma razão para subir na escala de valor, talvez mais uma razão para pensar em Mongo e nas suas tribos.

Dá que pensar no potencial impacte numa série de modelos de negócio baseados no fast-fashion... ou no low-cost.

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"

Não estranham estes dois títulos?

• Reclamações contra os CTT subiram 36% em 2018
• Reclamações nos CTT caem 7% em 2018

Lembram-se da frase do candidato Cavaco Silva em 2010?

"Dois adultos perante os mesmos factos, chegam ás mesmas conclusões!"
.
Pois bem, eu defendo:
.
- Dois adultos, de boa-fé, perante os mesmos factos, podem não chegar ás mesmas conclusões!
.
É que a realidade que nos rodeia pode ser única, mas nós não a vemos. Nós só percebemos a realidade através do nosso cérebro. E o cérebro de cada um é diferente, carrega o seu próprio modelo mental de ver e perceber o mundo."

Lembram-se da frase:

"informação verificada, como a da Lusa"

Como é que os dois títulos lá de cima podem ser verdadeiros em simultâneo?

Talvez o tema seja relevante para a sua empresa, tendo em conta os indicadores que são acompanhados. Como é que os dois títulos lá de cima podem ser verdadeiros em simultâneo?

Imaginem que o número absoluto de reclamações em 2018 é maior do que o de 2017 - o primeiro título é verdadeiro.

Imaginem que o número de objectos movimentados em 2018 cresce muito em relação a 2017 - então a taxa de reclamações por objectos movimentados baixa - o segundo título é verdadeiro. (duas reclamações por cada dez mil objetos distribuídos”)

Conversa de fragilista com locus de controlo no exterior

"O secretário de Estado das Finanças afirmou nesta segunda-feira em Bruxelas que o Governo "obviamente" acompanha os riscos que podem condicionar o ritmo de crescimento da economia portuguesa, mas salientou que Portugal "pouco pode fazer" contra riscos externos."

Tão previsível...

Recordar daqui:

"A principal crítica que faço a este governo é a de agir como um fragilista, alguém que acredita que o futuro não vai ter stress, não vai ter problemas e, por isso, avança sem acautelar como reagir ao que pode correr mal. A verdade é que shit really happens." 

E recordar daqui:

"Most problems are like that. When we prepare for them and get used to them, they're not problems anymore. They're merely the way it is.
...
Os fragilistas partem do princípio que o pior não vai acontecer e, por isso, desenham planos que acabam por ser irrealistas ou pouco resilientes. Depois, quando as coisas acontecem, chega a hora de culpar os outros pelos problemas que não souberam prever, não quiseram prever, ou que ajudaram a criar."

mentalidade de fragilista. os astros vão-se alinhar em nosso favor https://t.co/Uw7HtRQ7MF

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) April 21, 2016

Espero que na sua empresa não siga esta abordagem.
Primeiro, assuma um locus de controlo no interior - a responsabilidade por tudo o que acontece na sua organização é sua e de nada vale culpar outros pela falta de preparação que não foi capaz de planear ou realizar.

Segundo, assuma que o futuro pode sempre trazer consigo choques negativos e que a sua empresa tem de ser capaz de os aguentar. Não acredite que têm de ser os outros a alombar com os seus compromissos, não venda a sua independência por um prato de lentilhas, tenha cuidado com os apoios pedo-mafiosos do estado.

BTW, ontem no noticiário das 7 da manhã a Antena 1 referia este número "Portugueses pedem oito milhões por dia para comprar carro"e também o forte crescimento do crédito à habitação. Agora relacione isso com "Há mais 73 mil precários do que no ano da "troika"", com a desaceleração económica em curso, e com a avidez do monstro-estado em impostar cada vez mais e mais.

Trecho inicial retirado de "Portugal pouco pode fazer contra riscos externos, afirma Mourinho Félix"

"play your own game, and always have a healthy respect for the competition"

Engraçado, neste postal, "É nestes momentos de mudança ... (parte IV)", escrevi:

"As empresas não devem focar-se demasiado na concorrência, mas ao iniciar um processo de transformação convém perceber onde estamos, quem pode competir connosco no novo espaço para onde poderemos pensar ir, e se poderemos ter alguma hipótese nele."

Agora, encontro "Play Your Game, But Don’t Ignore Everyone Else Playing Theirs":

"There are two schools of thought on competition. One is “play your own game.” This means to focus on yourself and not allow your approach to be influenced by what anyone else is doing. The other is to study the competition relentlessly and react to everything they do.
...
“playing your own game” can be dangerous when organizations underestimate the competition.
...
There is no question that ignoring—or worse, underestimating—your competition, is a dangerous practice. But businesses and teams, can also go too far to the other extreme.
...
You have to have a healthy awareness of your competition, but if you take it too far, it can dilute your message and you’ll end up deviating from what you stand for. I have seen this approach cost companies deals when they tried to play the competition’s game and came up short.
...
So my advice is to play your own game, understand the kind of people you need to make your game successful, and always have a healthy respect for the competition (without being maniacal)."

"who can best improve someone’s financial health"

Recomendo vivamente a leitura de "The Lesson From Acorns And Stash: People Don't Want Savings Accounts, They Want Help Saving Money":

"The change in the market isn't with young Millennials opening Neobank accounts (or more accurately, debit-related payment accounts), but with:
.
Older Millennials and Gen Xers, and
Savings tools like Acorns and Stash.
...
The overall adoption percentages of Neobanks by generation are small--but the percentage of Older Millennials with a Neobank account is nearly double that of Young Millennials.
...
In contrast to Neobank adoption, US consumers have opened more than 7 million accounts with fintech savings tools like Acorns and Stash. Importantly, those consumers said those tools helped them save nearly $5.6 billion in 2018.
.
Among Older Millennials and Gen Xers--and even Baby Boomers--roughly twice as many are using savings tools like Acorns and Stash than have a Neobank account. And among Young Millennials, it's about three times as many.
...
[Moi ici: O trecho que se segue é muito boa] The lesson here is that consumers want help managing--i.e., improving and optimizing--their financial lives. They don't want an "account" to replace their existing accounts simply because it comes from a digital-only provider..
The relative success of tools like Acorns and Stash provides a clue as to why so many banks haven't seen much success from their personal financial management (PFM) efforts: Tools that monitor or track one's financial life are different from tools that optimize or improve performance.
...
The lesson from Acorns and Stash's success is that banks will need to compete on who can best improve someone’s financial health (for a given cost)--and not on who has the best rates and fees. The winners will be the financial institutions who can deliver on improving financial health--and prove it."

Por cá, os bancos, a coberto da protecção aos incumbentes, andam entretidos a aumentar ou a criar taxas e taxinhas por serviços. Ou seja, a espremer o modelo de negócio do século passado, em vez de seduzir clientes... uma outra versão de "Cambão versus estratégias baseadas nos clientes-alvo".

Talvez ganhassem alguma coisa em ler "The Problem With Problems"