"A tendência começou na época da troika, mas tem também sido validada pelo Tribunal de Contas: na altura de avaliar uma proposta de obra pública, as entidades adjudicantes devem dar predominância aos critérios objectivos, e impedir que os aspectos subjectivos tenham grande valor, de forma a aumentar a transparência e a evitar a corrupção. O critério preço será sempre um dos mais objectivos, pelo que a forma como ele é determinado é muito relevante....A forma como o critério preço está a pesar nos concursos (no caso do último lançado pela Metro do Porto, o factor preço pesa 80% na análise das propostas) e aquilo que consideram ser uma estratégia das empresas estrangeiras em ganhar o mercado português regressa agora ao topo das preocupações das empresas portuguesas, que estão a ter dificuldades em ganhar os concursos."
terça-feira, julho 07, 2020
Um país de amadores
Ontem no jornal Público um artigo a puxar ao chauvinismo, "Empresas espanholas estão a assegurar 70% do mercado das obras públicas em Portugal".
Lembrei-me logo das ruinas ao lado do tanque de água para o gado, enquanto dançava o can-can:
As ruinas que mencionei neste postal e o esquema associado:
O artigo do Público começa assim:
Que conversa mais parola esta de "uma estratégia das empresas estrangeiras em ganhar o mercado português". Isto é o mesmo que as empresas do litoral fizeram às empresas do interior. Quando o negócio é preço ganha quem tiver maior dimensão, menores custos unitários, o resto é treta.
É assim que se faz a consolidação num sector de actividade. As empresas que competem pelo preço e que crescem mais depressa são as mais eficientes e isso, como ilustra o esquema acima, gera uma avalanche de mais vitórias para os vencedores, que vão crescendo cada vez mais e ficando cada vez mais competitivos.
Pensar que é "uma estratégia das empresas estrangeiras em ganhar o mercado português" é a mesma reacção parola de achar que os ingleses deviam ter cedido na lista em nome da mais velha aliança.
Um país parolo.
"get out the squeeze box"
Um artigo para nos fazer pensar nas mudanças que estão em curso nestes tempos pós-Covid, "Why the crisis marks the end of the road for longstanding business lines":
"Segway will produce the last of the two-wheeled personal transporters after which the company was named....Its manufacturer now generates far more revenue from kick-scooters, e-skates and other “micro-mobility” products that threaten pedestrians’ pavement stroll....Olympus agreed last month to sell its camera division, part of the group since 1936, following three consecutive years of operating losses. In May, General Electric finally announced the sale of its lightbulb business, which traced its history back to Thomas Edison’s invention....The onset of lockdown forced companies to take quick decisions, and accelerate pending changes. In the same way, as businesses enter a lengthier, but no less brutal, period of uncertainty, their owners, directors and executives are unlocking strategic changes that might otherwise have become bogged down by sentiment or inertia.[Moi ici: Ao ler isto fiquei a pensar nisto que li no mesmo número do FT de ontem "Spain signals furlough extension into 2021 for worst hit sectors". Quando não se é encostado às cordas não se faz o soul searching que leva a decisões corajosas. A borboleta que é ajudada a sair do casulo nunca consegue levantar voo]The buzzword, as ever, is focus. As I have noted before, it can be dangerous to sweep away old habits hastily, but numerous chief executives attest that the crisis is stripping away resistance to big corporate decisions.[Moi ici: O artigo continua com a Lixil, a empresa do CEO que falou do lockdown como a disguised blessing, continua com a BP e a ABB]...proceed in a “fact-based and unemotional manner”. If he does, it seems inevitable that ABB will put some of its “heritage brands” on the block in due course.Plenty of companies now face questions of survival. Some may be forced into fire sales of assets. Those who are likely to succeed, though, will simply be speeding up a process of constant, cold-eyed assessment of their assets that was under way well before the pandemic incinerated their strategy plans.Such companies, whether they realise it or not, are disciples of Peter Drucker’s philosophy of “systematic abandonment”, which the management thinker considered to be a prerequisite for future growth. Every two or three years, Drucker advised, executives should ask themselves: “If we did not already produce this product line or did not already serve this market, would we now, knowing what we know now, go into it?”...[Moi ici: E dedicado aos não fanáticos, a maioria na qual não me incluo, que apoiam o ministro Pedro Nuno Santos na aquisição da TAP por questões ideológico-sentimentais, este último trecho] Knowing what we know now, clinging on to underperforming businesses merely for emotional or historical reasons is unwise. It is time for executives to get out the squeeze box and start playing."
segunda-feira, julho 06, 2020
Sem fazer escolhas
Encontrei estes gráficos no LinkedIn, já não sei onde em concreto:
Gente com dinheiro e gente com mais de 55 anos.
Qual é mesmo o cliente-alvo dos ginásios?
Por outro lado:
Estratégia é isto, olhar para um universo de potenciais clientes e fazer escolhas, para concentrar o foco:
A maioria há-de querer tudo para todos e tentar servir todos e ninguém.
"rethink your product mix and pricing strategies"
"As these initiatives suggest, you’ll want to rethink your product mix and pricing strategies in response to shifting customer needs. Purchasing behavior changes dramatically in a recession. Consumers increasingly opt for lowerpriced alternatives to their usual purchases, trading down to buy private label products or to shop at discount retailers. Although some consumers will continue to trade up, they’ll do so in smaller numbers and in fewer categories. ... Whatever your business, determine how the needs, preferences, and spending patterns of your customers, whether consumer or corporate, are affected by the economic climate. For example, careful segmentation may reveal products primarily purchased by people still willing to pay full price. Use that intelligence to inform product portfolio and investment choices."
Que alterações é preciso fazer à gama de produtos da sua empresa? E ao pricing?
Trechos retirados de "Seize Advantage in a Downturn" de David Rhodes e Daniel Stelter.
domingo, julho 05, 2020
Sempre do lado do problema, nunca da solução
"Seek advantage in adversity. Don’t merely endeavor to mitigate risk or damage or restore what was; rather, aim to create advantage in adversity by effectively adjusting to new realities.Look forward. In the short run, a crisis many appear tactical and operational, but on longer timescales, new needs and the incapacitation of competitors create opportunities. Crises can also be the best pretext for accelerating long-term transformational change. One of the key roles for leaders is therefore to shift an organization’s time horizons outward."
Há tempos tive conhecimento que esta empresa, Chegg.com, estava a ter um boom à custa do covid-19 e das quarentenas. Recordei ter visto num telejornal uma representante das empresas que dão explicações a lamentar a desgraça que está a ser este ano por causa do covid-19. Pois, um país de coitadinhos, sempre à caça de mais um apoio. Incapazes de fazer um esforço para ver como virar a mesa a favor, gente como o Mário Nogueira, estão sempre do lado do problema, nunca da solução.
Trechos retirados de "A Guide to Building a More Resilient Business"
"If they can’t sell a price increase I don’t want them on my team"
Tanto por fazer a este nível nas empresas portuguesas.
"The best thing a salesperson can sell is a price increase. Pricing is so important – in fact, it is the most important profit lever. Pricing is one of the most fundamental aspects of any business – every company has to set prices for its products and services. If the world was a rational place, pricing management would be a core competence of every firm, but in reality it almost never is.The beauty of pricing, and price increases in particular, for sales leaders is that it all drops straight through to the bottom line. As one recently remarked to me about her salesforce, “If they can’t sell a price increase I don’t want them on my team."At the same time, we know that many salespeople hate even the thought of price-related customer conversations, let alone price increases."
Trecho retirado de "Can You Sell a Price Rise?"
sábado, julho 04, 2020
Ressignificar as experiências
Há tempos uma colega falou-me nesta palavra "ressignificar":
"Viver é estar sujeito a passar por momentos bons e ruins, que nem sempre – ou quase nunca – estão sob nosso controle.Trechos retirados de "Ressignificar: significado, como fazer e benefícios"
No entanto, como vamos reagir a determinadas circunstâncias é uma escolha. Cabe a você decidir se uma crise existencial, por exemplo, vai deixar ensinamentos ou vai servir apenas para lamentações e vitimizações.
...
por mais difícil que a realidade pareça, sempre há uma alternativa.
...
Nos dualismos da vida, a ressignificação é o que nos faz olhar para o lado bom quando a impressão é que só existem coisas ruins para extrair.
Copo meio cheio ou meio vazio?
Preferir sempre olhar pelo lado positivo e priorizar o otimismo ao pessimismo é escolher a ressignificação.
Mas há outros benefícios que buscar outro significado para as nossas experiências pode ter."
"When we talk about resignifying one’s experiences, we’re talking about changing their meaning and seeing them from a new perspective, one that’s less distressing and exhausting.Trechos retirados de "Resignifying Experiences is Essential for Change"
...
Each of your experiences is associated with an emotion. And the meaning you attribute to each experience will always be tied to it. Therefore, giving it another meaning is going to make you focus on a different emotion.
...
Resignifying former experiences is essential for transformation. It’s your choice to either transform or remain stagnant and unable to fly."
Concentrar a energia na acção
Há pessoas, há empresas e há situações em que parecem helicópteros:
Muita gente tem dificuldade em lidar com o abstracto, mas quando a ideia aparece escrita numa folha de papel, quando se torna em algo de concreto, normalmente impele à acção.
Até fazem barulho, até sentem os desafios no ar, até identificam os ingredientes do problema, até se antecipam ao problema, mas nunca mais se decidem, não saem do sítio, pairam e pairam e pairam.
Esta semana analisei a listagem dos factores que uma empresa inclui na sua tabela SWOT.
É claro que encontrei o habitual rol de factores da treta que sempre povoam estas listas, mas também encontrei coisas originais e alavancáveis. Engraçado como às vezes temos uma preocupação enorme em fazer uma lista enorme, quando com apenas meia-dúzia de factores críticos pode-se construir qualquer coisa com sentido.
Se conjugarmos Fraquezas e Ameaças visualizamos escrito no papel uma descrição do inferno em que o mercado interno se vai transformar. Muita gente tem dificuldade em lidar com o abstracto, mas quando a ideia aparece escrita numa folha de papel, quando se torna em algo de concreto, normalmente impele à acção.
sexta-feira, julho 03, 2020
"Lives of quiet desperation"
Esta manhã enquanto conduzia emergiu na minha mente a frase de Thoreau:
"Lives of quiet desperation.What is called resignation is confirmed desperation"
Há cerca de quinze dias escrevi no Twitter:
Ontem passei o dia todo fechado numa empresa. Saí já depois das 19h e enquanto conduzia dei comigo a ouvir um programa na Rádio Renascença onde os comentadores do regime alinhavam com o governo e diziam amém a duas nacionalizações. Nem uma voz contra, nem uma voz a desdizer a narrativa oficial sobre a EFACEC ou sobre a TAP.
Mais dinheiro impostado aos contribuintes torrado em delírios da corte lisboeta. Mais pedras no saco às costas das empresas que têm de fazer corridas com empresas de outros países com governos menos atreitos a orgias socialistas.
Isto nunca vai ter fim, este país nem com 5 troikas vai mudar. Ingenuidade pensar que a UE nos ia proteger...
A 1 de Setembro de 2007 no Expresso, Daniel Bessa escreveu:
"... faltou sempre o dinheiro que o "Portugal profundo" preferiu gastar na "ajuda" a "empresas em situação económica difícil"...
"there is no single way to be rational"
"For an individual, choosing the strategy most likely to succeed maximises expected winnings. But a group made up of such optimising individuals is eventually wiped out by infrequent calamities. As a result, the groups whose genes come to dominate are those who apply ‘mixed strategies’, varying their habitat. The American political scientist James Scott describes the reality of this in the history of ‘scientific’ forestry. Planting the ‘best’ trees led to monocultures which were in due course wiped out by previously unknown parasites. The Irish potato blight was able to devastate that country’s agriculture – leading to at least a million deaths from disease and starvation and to substantial and prolonged emigration from the island – because the potato had been identified as the optimal crop for that country’s conditions and so the country’s food production was poorly diversified. Humans are all better off because we are all different, and because there is no single way to be rational; we give thanks for our current state to St Francis and Oscar Wilde and Steve Jobs and to millions of people who became skilled at their own specialist but routine tasks.”
Recordar Valikangas e "Shit Happens!"
Trechos retirados de “Radical Uncertainty” de John Kay e Mervyn King
quinta-feira, julho 02, 2020
A conspiração continua
"A taxa de desemprego deverá ter diminuído para 5,5% em maio, segundo a estimativa rápida publicada pelo Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) esta quarta-feira. Os dados finais do desemprego de abril mostram que a taxa de desemprego se situou em 6,3%, o mesmo valor provisório que o INE já tinha divulgado no início de junho....A população desempregada terá situado-se em 267,9 mil pessoas, uma diminuição de 16%, ou 50,9 mil pessoas, em comparação com o mês anterior, e de 19,2% ou 63,7 mil pessoas, face a três meses antes. Em comparação com o período homólogo de 2019, a população desempregada caiu 21,9%, o equivalente a 75,2 mil pessoas."
Que dizer destes indicadores e das suas definições...
Os dirigentes do INE não têm vergonha de publicar estes números?
Recordo "A teoria da conspiração exposta"
Trechos retirados de "Desemprego desce para 5,5%, mas número de inativos aumentou para 14,2%"
Empresas estratégicas
Este artigo, "So, You've No Room to Grow... or Have You?", é simplesmente delicioso.
Nestes tempos de torrefacção de impostos para proteger empresas supostamente estratégicas o que dizer de:
"#5 “When you say ‘strategic’ account, I hear ‘loss-making’ account” (Gamblers’ fallacy).I am afraid this one is one of my own quotes, borne out of experience. When looking for outliers within a client’s customer portfolio, a few blue-chip names often show up with both low revenues and margins. The usual explanation given for this is that it is a “strategic account”, often a firm that has had the potential to be a key account but for some reason is not. The assumption is that, if we keep trying, the bad luck will eventually reverse. To try to encourage growth, increasingly better offers are put on the table. If such a client ever were to grow to the size of a key account though, it would then expect even bigger discounts and so the account would end up underwater, if it is not already. The reality is usually that the service level from a competitor is superior, that switching costs are prohibitively high and/or that the client is happy to dual-source to keep their primary supplier on its toes. At some point it will be worth directing your energies elsewhere."
quarta-feira, julho 01, 2020
"Turn, turn, turn"
No WSJ da passada segunda-feira li "How to Slay a Tech Giant (Apple)":
"They had 50% of the computer industry’s revenue but 90% of its profits. They used FUD—fear, uncertainty and doubt—to freeze out competitors. But IBM was vulnerable. A loose horizontal confederation threatened its power: Intel processors, Microsoft’s operating system, Western Digital hard drives and Compaq hardware, along with Lotus, Adobe and Microsoft applications, added up to a “Virtual IBM” and eventually toppled the giant. The same thing happened in the late 1990s with AT&T. A horizontal internet of network equipment, browsers and websites created a Virtual AT&T and toppled the vertically integrated telecom....Apple has become IBM, it’s become AT&T—a vertical giant waiting for a future David to come along with a horizontal slingshot..If I were an investment banker today (Lord help me) I’d be running around pitching a Virtual Apple. Neutralize its strengths and then attack new markets....Unit sales of iPhones and iPad peaked years ago. As the company runs out of new customers, growth is coming from adjacent markets like watches and earbuds, and from online services. And now the Justice Department is investigating its app store for abuse....Remember, IBM didn’t fail overnight—it took decades. But its growth rolled over and the stock market eventually figured that out and cut off access to cheap capital."
Recordar "Turn, turn, turn"
A rapidez é fundamental
Já por aqui escrevi várias vezes sobre o imperativo da urgência de actuação nestes tempos. Por isso, critiquei o prolongamento do lay-off. Por isso, fiquei doente ao perceber que as empresas têxteis andaram distraídas a brincar às máscaras. Até me apetece chorar só de voltar a pensar nisto.
Nos trechos que se seguem, retirados de "Coronavirus: Nine in Ten Companies Need to Act Now!" acaba-se assim:
"Takeaway: Commercial agility is keyWe expect most companies to experience the demand extremes and the stresses of at least two of these scenarios in the next 18-24 months, perhaps even simultaneously depending on how the pandemic progresses in different markets around the world. Whether a company or industry can move to a better position, or defend a desirable one, will come down to their commercial agility. This is the ability to make resilient offer design, sales, cost management and pricing decisions with unprecedented speed and flexibility – over and over again – until some form of equilibrium returns to their market.In this crisis, you have to be faster. You have to reduce your capacity faster, but you also have to bring it up faster. You need to defend the top line and find growth earlier than later."
"We don’t see the point in crystal balling whether the market will go up or down by one, two, three, four, or five percent. We can’t predict the exact scenario for the rest of the year or tell you whether things will brighten up in seven, eight, or 15 months. Instead, what we are most interested in is what needs to change. How are customer needs evolving and how do companies need to respond in terms of their sales, marketing, and pricing approach? We look at demand, not just in terms of volume swings, but also whether behavioral changes in customers will be permanent, and how to react to them....If your industry belongs to the nine in ten outside of the thriving category, then you need to take action now!"
É claro que isto é uma simplificação. Aposto que os materiais de construção DIY estão a ter um desempenho melhor que o resto do sector.
terça-feira, junho 30, 2020
"do I really need to sell a brand?"
"do I really need to sell a brand? Isn't that just a distraction--a way to push an inferior product by confusing the buyer with a bunch of piffle paffle? Isn't my product the most important thing?...Let's face it, without a story, your product is likely just a commodity. Commodities do not sell themselves. It's the stories, myths, legends, grifts, and shticks that we tell about our products that do the heavy lifting. Nota bene: They don't have to be true. They just have to be interesting....Product attributes are never enough--unless your product attributes are exclusively yours or no one else has owned them yet."
Trechos retirados de "Why Every Product Needs a Great Brand Story"
Por cá, basta torrar impostos na TAP e na EFACEC para ficarmos todos bem!
Ontem, depois disto:
Li no FT "Small business: a canary in the American economic coal mine":
"If you’re looking to predict the shape of the economic recovery in the United States – be it V, W, L or even K – don’t look at the markets. Take a look at the small and medium-sized businesses that account for 50 percent of the country’s employment. They are the best economic indicator in America right now. They are also in trouble....By mid-April, revenues from personal service businesses – typically a single entrepreneur working, for example, as a locksmith, hairstylist, or pet sitter – were down 80%. These companies are disproportionately owned by minority entrepreneurs, another reason why the pandemic is increasing inequality. In mid-June, almost half of US small business owners said they did not expect to return to normal operations in the next six months, according to a Credit Suisse survey..These companies – from health clubs to restaurants and retailers – employ about half of the US workforce. These are not “strategic” or “high-growth” companies that policy makers and economists generally seek to encourage. But their pain “is a big problem for the macro economy,” as Deutsche Bank Securities chief economist Torsten Slok told me – not least because they provide far more jobs than the S&P 500 companies, which account for only 10 percent of the US nonfarm total wages....You don’t have to analyze public health statistics or wacky analyst reports to get a sense of the real economy in America. Just go down Main Street. The many small businesses that have closed represent two-thirds of the 20 million jobs lost since the pandemic. Some old hotspots, like New York, reopen with caution. But most small business revenue forecasts are not close to normal..A second wave of illnesses would certainly trigger a new wave of layoffs and insolvencies. According to the New York Fed, only one in five small businesses can survive a loss of income for two months. Many small businesses even reduce their rehiring when they reopen. For the most affected areas, things may never return to normal. The Credit Suisse survey found that 17% of hotels and restaurants believe their revenues will never return to pre-Covid-19 levels..The ripple effects from all of this will be huge. Many small businesses are physical, not virtual. They are not designed for locking. They do not have access to world capital. They are rooted in the communities they serve.Their fortunes are not flattered by the liquidity of the central bank. Any investor who really wants to take the economic pulse of America has only to speak to the owner of his local cafe, beauty salon or cinema. They will have a very different reading from that of Wall Street."
Por cá, basta torrar impostos na TAP e na EFACEC para ficarmos todos bem!
segunda-feira, junho 29, 2020
"Risk is failure of a projected narrative"
A ISO 9001 aborda a abordagem baseada no risco.
“The Oxford Dictionary defines risk as ‘the possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen’,…Risk in its ordinary meaning concerns unfavourable events, not beneficial ones..Risk is asymmetric. We do not hear people say ‘there is a risk that I might win the lottery’ because winning the lottery is not something they would describe as a risk. They do not even say ‘there is a risk I might not win the lottery’ because they do not realistically expect to win the lottery. The everyday meaning of risk refers to an adverse event which jeopardises the realistic expectations of the individual household or institution. And so the meaning of risk is a product of the plans and expectations of that household or institution. Risk is necessarily particular. It does not mean the same thing to J. P. Morgan as it does to a paraglider or mountain climber, or to a household saving for retirement or the children’s education.…Very often, the risks that concern us are not risks to the status quo, but risks to our plans to change that status quo.…We believe the best way to understand attitudes to risk is through the concept of a reference narrative, a story which is an expression of our realistic expectations. For J. P. Morgan, the overarching reference narrative is one in which the bank continues profitable growth. A large corporation will have many strategies for achieving that overarching objective in particular areas of its business and there will be a reference narrative relating to each business unit. Some of these business unit reference narratives may be very risky, but the corporation may tolerate such risks provided they do not endanger the reference narrative of the organisation as a whole.…And since different people start with different reference narratives, the same risk may be assessed by different people in different ways. Risk may not be the same for those who work in an organisation as it is for the shareholders of that organisation.…Risk is failure of a projected narrative, derived from realistic expectations, to unfold as envisaged. The happy father anticipating his daughter’s wedding has in mind a reference narrative in which events go ahead as planned. He recognises a variety of risks – the prospective bridegroom has cold feet, a torrential downpour drenches the guests. There is an implied measure of risk in such assessment – an outcome can fall short of expectations by a narrow margin or a wide one. The scale of that risk may or may not be quantifiable, before or after the event. But this interpretation is very different to the view that has come to dominate quantitative finance and much of economics and decision theory: that risk can be equated to the volatility of outcomes.”
Trechos retirados de “Radical Uncertainty” de John Kay e Mervyn King
Ingenuidade
Há cerca de um mês, no postal "Time compression" escrevi:
"A atenção deve ser concentrada no médio longo prazo. Sempre!Não é a fazer máscaras e viseiras que as empresas vão ter futuro."
Agora descubro que efectivamente, o sector têxtil nacional andou a perder tempo e a desviar-se do fundamental ao dedicar-se à produção de máscaras. As empresas, como os agricultores, têm de perceber que não existe interesse nacional. São usadas como chiclete quando são precisas e depois são deitadas fora. Não culpo quem o faz, quem as deita fora depois de usadas. É a vida! Culpo quem ingenuamente não percebe que é assim.
No JN de hoje "Quebra nas máscaras atrasa recuperação do setor têxtil"
"O fabrico de máscaras e outros equipamentos de proteção contra a covid-19 foi um balão de oxigénio para o setor têxtil, mas está a acabar. Com o mercado nacional saturado e as exportações impregnadas de burocracias para a certificação, as encomendas caíram a pique e Portugal já está longe do milhão de máscaras diárias que estava a produzir no início de maio."
Enquanto canalizaram energias, tempo, atenção, para esta brincadeira, não as canalizaram para o essencial do negócio, procurar clientes no negócio fundamental.
A normandagem é como a ferrugem, nunca descansa
Um novo mundo
"El Gobierno ha modulado recientemente la ley general tributaria que regula las relaciones entre la Administración y los contribuyentes para incluir la posibilidad de realizar inspecciones mediante videoconferencia y adaptarse así a la nueva realidad a distancia que marca el Covid-19."
Trechos retirados do jornal El Economista do passado dia 27 de Junho.
domingo, junho 28, 2020
Até a Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa vai ficar bem!!!
Voltei a recordar-me delas depois de ler: "Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa pode terminar 2020 com prejuízos acima de 30 milhões"
Eu devia ter 9 ou 10 anos quando vi esse episódio. Frank era despedido de emprego atrás de emprego, depois de deixar cada empresa em que ingressava no maior caos, provocado pelas suas trapalhadas. Nos minutos finais alguém, um psiquiatra(?), recomenda que Frank emigre para a Austrália, para assumir o emprego de guardador de rebanhos. Julgo que o psiquiatra terá dito "Põe-no a guardar um rebanho com 1 milhão de carneiros, mnesmo que perca alguns milhares ninguém vai notar". A imagem seguinte é a de Frank, sozinho, montado num cavalo, no meio de uma suposta pradaria australiana, a exclamar:
- Betty (a mulher dele), perdi-os todos!!!
Até a Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa vai ficar bem!!!
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