Curiosidade do dia

Ainda não terá 15 dias de vida

Sintomático

"Suspensão de despacho pode colocar saúde dos diabéticos em risco" fruto de um país de corporações e incumbentes...
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Esta é a cultura anti-Mongo que permeia Portugal...

A propósito da concorrência imperfeita

"The worst mistake in strategy is to compete with rivals on the same dimensions,
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many businesses still get confused around the definition of the concept, and that even trying to be ‘the best’ means a business is starting in the wrong place strategically.
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“What I’ve found over the years is that a lot of management teams think about strategy [like this]: strategy is about competing to be the best company in your business [category/industry]. How do you be the best company? Well, you have to figure out the best product, service, supply chain, marketing, customer acquisition process. You’ve kind of got to figure out the ‘answer.’
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That’s exactly the wrong place to start, he said. “If you think about strategy this way, where does that lead you? That leads you to a race to one ideal way of competing, and the problem with that is if there is only one way of competing and everybody has to race to the same place, it’s not going to be pretty.
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“Even more importantly, what we found in industry after industry is that there is no best way to compete. There are multiple ways to compete, depending on whose needs you’re actually trying to serve. We all know it’s impossible to meet every need of every customer uniquely well. That’s impossible. There’s no one way to deliver value.
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“Strategy starts with a notion that the fundamental question is not how to be the best, it’s actually how to deliver something unique. To the customers you’re choosing to serve. Not because what you’re doing is ‘the best’ but because what you’re doing is delivering distinctive value.
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Strategy is about being unique. That’s ultimately what all successful companies are able to achieve for some period of time."

Trechos retirados de "The worst error in business strategy according to Professor Michael Porter"

Mongo passa por isto (parte I)

Mongo, a democratização da produção, a interacção e personalização entre produção e consumo, o uso das redes sociais como veículo de contacto genuíno e não treta para encher... tudo isso passa por um excelente artigo na revista Inc de Junho deste ano, "Along Came Lolly - From the unlikeliest of places, an e-cmerce revolution - with ruffles":

"Brandi Temple went from sewing dresses for her daughters to make ends meet to running the most talked-about, $11 million company in e-commerce--all because she picked the lock on using Facebook for sales.
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Behind that little piece of paper on the door, it turns out, is a company that says it does more sales on Facebook than any other brand in the world. And outsiders seem to agree.
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"Lolly," says Young, "has been able to do something that no big brand has been able to do, which is to convince people to actually buy on Facebook."
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Lolly Wolly Doodle brought in about $11 million in 2013, and it has roughly doubled its revenue every year since its inception in 2009. It expects revenue to double again this year.
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Along the way, Temple has created an innovative U.S.-based manufacturing process and supply chain that feed off the brand's social-media cues to maximize efficiency. That mechanism seems likely to be adaptable to any number of products and services. Unlikely as it may seem, Temple's company may just represent the beginning of the next e-commerce revolution.
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What Temple is really doing, says Davis, is "reinventing apparel much as Dell reinvented the PC industry. It's affordable custom [manufacturing] in real time with little inventory risk." Davis sees Lolly's Facebook commerce as an important tactic that kick-started the company, but it's just that: a tactic. The real innovation is using social media as the starting point for a new e-commerce model that's powered by a social feedback loop."

E a forma como o artigo termina é tão... tão ao jeito de Mongo:

"We don't even think about competition," she says. "We are our only competition."

Continua.

Acerca da ISO / DIS 9001 (Secção 6 - parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Secção 6 - Planeamento do sistema de gestão da qualidade (Ainda me lembro, aquando do lançamento da ISO 9001:2000, das interpretações mirabolantes acerca da cláusula com esta mesma designação)
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6.1 Acções para abordar os riscos e oportunidades.

Ao planear a viagem da organização para o futuro desejado, há que ter em conta os tópicos determinados em 4.1 e os requisitos referidos em 4.2 e, determinar os riscos e oportunidades que devem ser abordados e planear as acções a desenvolver.

6.2 Objectivos da qualidade e planeamento para os atingir

Primeiro, uma lista de 9 características para os objectivos da qualidade: devem estar alinhados com a política da qualidade, devem ser mensuráveis, devem ter em consideração os requisitos aplicáveis, devem ser relevantes para a conformidade dos produtos e serviços e a melhoria da satisfação dos clientes, devem ser monitorizados, devem ser comunicados, devem ser actualizados quando apropriado, devem estar documentados.
Depois, algo que se enquadra naquilo a que chamo fichas de missão. Ao planear como atingir os seus objectivos da qualidade, uma organização deve: determinar o que precisa de ser feito; quem são os responsáveis; os prazos e, como serão avaliados os resultados.

6.3 Planeamento das mudanças

Quando for necessário realizar mudanças no sistema de gestão da qualidade, devem ser feitas de forma controlada. A organização deve considerar: o propósito da mudança e quais as potenciais consequências; a defesa da integridade do sistema de gestão da qualidade; a disponibilidade de recursos; e a alocação ou realocação de responsabilidades e autoridades.

Na secção 4: Qual é o contexto em que se insere a organização?
Na secção 5: Para onde é que a organização quer ir, qual é a direcção?
Na secção 6: Como quantificar a necessidade de mudança e, como planear a viagem para o futuro desejado?

Acerca do caminho menos percorrido

"It takes a conscious effort to seek out the thing that's a little less obvious, the choice that's a little more risky.
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Popular is not the same as important, or often, not the same as good."

Trecho retirado de "The problem with hit radio"

baixar as barreiras psicológicas à entrada de novos empreendedores de "hardware"

Esta é a evolução dos tempos que correm...
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O que, a par do "efeito do banhista gordo", do efeito da aceleração da importância da proximidade entre a procura e a oferta, do efeito do preço do dinheiro para quem tem de pagar o contentor à cabeça vários meses antes de receber e, do efeito da explosão das tribos de Mongo e o poder da interacção, vão acabar com a China como a "fábrica do mundo".
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Não admira isto:

• "Kyaia quer duplicar vendas e criar 300 empregos"; e
• "Confiança dos empresários em terreno positivo pela primeira vez desde 2010"

Pena que os media não percebam e divulguem esta tendência, para baixar as barreiras psicológicas à entrada de novos empreendedores de "hardware".

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Gráfico retirado de "Launching a hardware startup? The stars are aligned in your favor"

Acerca da ISO / DIS 9001 (Secção 5 - parte II)

Parte I.
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Secção 5 - Liderança
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5.1 - Liderança e comprometimento
5.1.1 - Liderança e comprometimento com o sistema de gestão da qualidade

Uma lista de acções que a gestão de topo deve promover para demonstrar comprometimento com o sistema de gestão da qualidade. Por exemplo; assegurar que a política da qualidade e os objectivos são estabelecidos e são compatíveis com a orientação estratégica e o contexto da organização; comunicar a importância de um sistema de gestão da qualidade eficaz e conforme com os requisitos.

5.1.2 Foco no cliente

Determinar e cumprir os requisitos dos clientes, dos estatutos e regulamentos aplicáveis.
Determinar e considerar os riscos e oportunidades que podem afectar a conformidade dos produtos e serviços e, a capacidade de melhorar a satisfação dos clientes.

5.2 Política da qualidade

Nada de novo

5.3 Papéis organizacionais, responsabilidades e autoridades

Nada de novo. Talvez desta vez comece a ver nas empresas a distinção entre responsabilidades e autoridades.

Na secção 4: Qual é o contexto em que se insere a organização?
Na secção 5: Para onde é que a organização quer ir, qual é a direcção?

Acerca da criação do futuro

"Smarter machines will reduce the number of traditional management jobs in the second machine age and force a change in both the practice and philosophy of management for the millennials poised to become the next generation of managers.
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managers must become entrepreneurial again: Number-crunching computers will replace number-crunching managers.
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Perhaps the transition from owner–entrepreneurs to professional managers was inevitable in an era driven by physical labor and scale economies [Moi ici: O que ficou para trás, o modelo do século XX]. However, returning to modern times and looking ahead, a focus on “the numbers” means management will increasingly be subsumed by computers. Future managers will need to use their creativity to challenge the constraints to both commercial success and social welfare.
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Instead of simply testing hypotheses, management must create the future. The future can’t be created (or even uncovered) by simply examining the past, even with the massive computer power employed in “big data” analyses. The strategic answer can’t be found in the numbers, not even in that central tool of the MBA: the net present value calculation. At the same time, managers can’t run a company based on a set of untested hypotheses: The right business strategy requires creativity and analysis.
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“There’s nothing so practical as a good theory.” Computers can analyze massive quantities of data and discover patterns by drawing on inferential statistics. But even big data computers don’t form the hypotheses needed to develop new strategies designed to break existing constraints and create new business models. Accordingly, managers who seek to break constraints and embrace a hypothesis-driven approach will not face extinction but will instead create the future.
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The millennials have grown up in the earliest days of the second machine age. Although they are aware of the massive quantity of information now available, they understand that new business models aren’t discovered through a historical pool of big data but are instead invented through a process of management that starts with hypotheses, which are tested with data. Big data will allow them to test far more hypotheses, far more cheaply. But data—or the machines that collect it—won’t in itself create the innovative business models of the future, especially those that seek to balance commercial and social goals."

Trechos retirados de "Management in the Second Machine Age"

"finance will eat strategy for breakfast any day"

"Finance is taught independently in most business schools. Strategy is taught independently, too—as if strategy could be conceived and implemented without finance. The reality is that finance will eat strategy for breakfast any day—financial logic will overwhelm strategic imperatives—unless we can develop approaches and models that allow each discipline to bring its best attributes to cooperative investment decision making. As long as we continue this siloed approach to the MBA curriculum and experience, our leading business schools run the risk of falling farther and farther behind the needs of sectors our graduates aspire to lead."

Trecho retirado de "The Capitalist’s Dilemma"

As 3 partes de um BSC (parte V)

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

"Overall, constant iteration between these two time horizons helps accelerate both learning and performance improvement. Tight feedback loops help translate the learning into near-term action. The background provided by a longer-term direction for the business helps provide grounding, orientation, and sense making - all key requirements for effective learning. The foreground, with its emphasis on near-term action, helps companies rapidly develop real-world experience, generating valuable insight into what works and what doesn't, in both the near term and the longer term. The emphasis on near-term action also pushes companies to translate learning into action quickly and thereby repeat the learning cycle. In effect, the foreground created by this strategic approach provides a basis for single-loop learning while the background provides the context for double-loop learning. In this case, double-loop learning refers to the opportunity to reflect on, and refine where appropriate, the basic assumptions and frames of reference that guide management decisions.''

Recordar esta relação entre o BSC e o double-loop learning de Julho de 2007.

A terceira parte, a parte que permite este saltar entre o foreground (iniciativas) e o background (mapa da estratégia) é composta pelos indicadores do BSC.

"From Mass Production to Production By the Masses" (parte I)

No capítulo VI, "3D Printing - From Mass Production to Production By the Masses", do livro "The Zero Marginal Cost Society" de Jeremy Rifkin, encontro muito do que tenho escrito ao longo dos anos neste blogue acerca de Mongo:

"The long-dominant manufacturing mode of the Second Industrial Revolution is likely going to give way, however, at least in part, over the coming three decades.
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The consumer is beginning to give way to the prosumer as increasing numbers of people become both the producer and consumer of their own products.
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First, there is little human involvement aside from creating the software. The software does all the work, which is why it's more appropriate to think of the process as "infofacture" rather than "manufacture." [Moi ici: Coloco este trecho final só para sublinhar que este capítulo está todo virado para o Mongo tecnológico, o Mongo da produção 3D]
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A 3D PRINTING PROCESS EMBEDDED in an Internet of Things infrastructure means that virtually anyone in the world can become a prosumer, producing his or her own products for use or sharing, employing open-source software. The production process itself uses one-tenth of the material of conventional manufacturing and requires very little human labor in the making of the product. The energy used in the production is generated from renewable energy harvested on-site or locally, at near zero marginal cost. The product is marketed on global marketing websites, again at near zero marginal cost. Lastly, the product is delivered to users in e-mobility transport powered by locally generated renewable energy, again at near zero marginal cost.
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The democratization of manufacturing means that anyone and eventually everyone can access the means of production, making the question of should own and control the means of production irrelevant, and capitalism along with it.
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The democratization of production fundamentally disrupts the centralized manufacturing practices of the vertically integrated Second Industrial Revolution.
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But underneath the surface, an even more radical agenda is beginning to unfold, albeit undeveloped and still largely unconscious. If we were to put all the disparate pieces of the 3D printing culture together, what we begin to see is a powerful new narrative arising that could change the way civilization is organized in the twenty-first century. Think about it. The DIY culture is growing around the world, empowered by the idea of using bits to arrange atoms. [Moi ici: Mongo é meta "bits to atoms"] Like the early software hackers of a generation ago, who were motivated to create their own software to share new information, DIY players are passionate about creating their own software to print and share things."

Continua.

"We are living in a time when the designer is everything"

O Miguel Barbot mandou-me este texto "The tables are turning" com o comentário:

"Tem uma série de lições interessantes nas entrelinhas..."

Concordo perfeitamente, vamos à primeira:

"What he has realised is that the designers under his wing have enormous goodwill and likability with press and public, and that is the key to success in modern-day furniture design. He doesn’t need an astronomic marketing budget – the designers “are their own marketing. We are living in a time when the designer is everything – he or she is the most important person in the industry right now; people are attracted to their work in the same way they buy art – the authenticity of a product needs to be traced to its author.”" 

Não percebo como as escolas não conseguem perceber e meter isto na cabeça dos seus alunos...
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Recordar "Tão novos e já tão velhos..."
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E não percebo como é que Rifkin continua preso ao mundo da eficiência e dos custos... o "jogo" vai para lá disso...
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ADENDA: Engraçado como Mongo me faz recordar cada vez mais a mensagem da ICAR acerca da primazia das pessoas... não como povo, mas como indivíduos únicos, não como número socialista, mas como identidade muito pessoal. Os eficientistas vão ter as suas fábricas a trabalhar às escuras, com os seus robots, mas não vão ter clientes...

Acerca da falta de crédito

Assim que li este título "Falta de crédito é obstáculo à recuperação económica" fiz logo a ponte para "The Capitalist's Dilemma".
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Quanto daquela falta de crédito tem um paralelismo com a experiência americana?

"One phenomenon we’ve observed is that, despite historically low interest rates, corporations are sitting on massive amounts of cash and failing to invest in innovations that might foster growth. That got us thinking: What is causing that behavior? Are great opportunities in short supply, or are executives failing to recognize them? And how is this behavior pattern linked to overall economic sluggishness? What is holding growth back?"

 Como é que os projectos onde o crédito pode ser aplicado são avaliados?

"Our success metrics determine what we can and cannot invest in. We have allowed a minority to dictate those metrics to the majority. Over and over, the higher value placed on return on net assets, internal rate of return, and earnings per share over other metrics has led to innovations that squeeze costs and noncash assets. As a result, investing to create growth and jobs is a third-best option, behind efficiency innovations (first) and doing nothing (second)."

E no caso português, ainda é mais grave, dado que as PMEs não podem competir pela eficiência.

Curiosidade do dia

"When YouTube first emerged, Disney saw it as little more than a vehicle for mass piracy. As recently as two years ago, Disney’s online and interactive efforts were widely seen to be floundering. And, of course, despite the proliferation of explicitly unauthorized Disney content on YouTube, Disney certainly still takes copyright seriously. It was a backer of the unsuccessful Stop Online Piracy Act in 2012 and it dramatically flexed its muscles in the 1990s at getting the Copyright Act extended another 20 years, just before Mickey Mouse was about to enter the public domain.
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But in 2014, Disney’s cagy marketing of “Frozen,” loose reins on fan-created content, and purchase of Maker Studios all seem to indicate that the company is figuring it out. And surprise, surprise, in the second financial quarter of 2014 Disney recorded record earnings. Probably all the evidence anyone might need to prove that letting go of your fans is the best business strategy possible."

O poder da plataforma... a plataforma não se controla. Recordar:

"The basis of executive power is shifting from being in charge to being connected. New leaders understand that power with people is much more effective than power over people. It is about integrating the best of networked thinking and leveraging the new platforms for value creation."

Trecho retirado de "How Disney learned to stop worrying and love copyright infringement"

Acerca da ISO / DIS 9001 (Secção 4 - parte I)

Sessão 4 - Contexto da organização
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4.1 - Compreender a organização e o seu contexto

A organização deve determinar, monitorizar e analisar, os temas internos e externos que são relevantes para o seu propósito e direcção estratégica e, afectam a capacidade de atingir os resultados pretendidos

4.2 - Compreender as necessidades e expectativas das partes interessadas

A organização deve determinar, monitorizar e analisar, as partes relevantes para o sistema e os seus requisitos

4.3 - Determinação do âmbito do sistema de gestão

Que produtos e serviços estão incluídos no âmbito e justificação de qualquer exclusão

4.4 - O sistema de gestão da qualidade e os seus processos

Isto faz todo o sentido, não sei se faz sentido para o âmbito de uma norma como a ISO 9001.
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Em 4.1:

• Qual o propósito da organização?
• Qual a direcção estratégica?
• Análise PESTEL e SWOT

Em 4.2:

• Quem são as partes interessadas?
• Qual é o ecossistema da procura?
• O que é que cada um procura e valoriza?

Em 4.3:

• Qual o âmbito do sistema?

Em 4.4:

• Qual o modelo da organização, com base na abordagem por processos, que vamos manipular para atingir os objectivos?

Continua.

Numerador versus denominador

Interessante, muito interessante, em Junho de 2014, poder ler-se isto na revista Harvard Business Review, "The Capitalist Dilemma":

"Because they were taught to believe that the efficiency of capital was a virtue, financiers began measuring profitability not as dollars, yen, or yuan, but as ratios like RONA (return on net assets), ROIC (return on invested capital), and IRR (internal rate of return). These ratios are simply fractions, comprising a numerator and a denominator, but they gave investors and managers twice the number of levers to pull to improve their measured performance. To drive RONA or ROIC up, they could generate more profit to add to the numerator, of course. But if that seemed daunting, they could focus on reducing the denominator—outsourcing more, wiping more assets off the balance sheet. Either way, the ratio would improve. Similarly, they could increase IRR either by generating more profit to grow the numerator or by reducing the denominator—which is essentially the time required to get the return. If they invested only in projects that paid off quickly, then IRR would go up.
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All of this makes market-creating innovations appear less attractive as investments. Typically, they bear fruit only after five to 10 years; in contrast, efficiency innovations typically pay off within a year or two. What’s worse, growing market-creating innovations to scale uses capital, which must often be put onto the balance sheet. Efficiency innovations take capital off the balance sheet, however. To top it off, efficiency innovations almost always seem to entail less risk than market-creating ones, because a market for them already exists. Any way you look at it, if you measure investments using these ratios, efficiency innovations always appear to be a better deal."

Podemos recuar, neste blogue, até Outubro de 2006 para encontrar esta linguagem em "Ainda a produtividade" ou até Novembro de 2007 para encontrar "Mitos, mitos e frases feitas. Alguém Já fez um roteiro para uma empresa em particular?"

Acerca do aumento dos preços

O meu conselho para as PMEs, muitas vezes, passa pelo aumento dos preços ("").
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Às vezes é só mesmo aumentar os preços, dada a disparidade entre a procura e a incapacidade de a satisfazer em quantidade.
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Mais vezes passa por aumentar preços como contrapartida de algo mais, sob pena da PME não ter futuro. Para estas últimas aplica-se:

"Getting a price premium for providing superior value is fine so long as customers feel that it is fair. As a senior manager in our research sagely concluded: “Value-based pricing is not about squeezing as much money out of customers as you can, but building customer relationships.” Customers that feel good about doing business with a supplier are more willing to give that supplier a larger share and a more profitable mix of their business. They are more willing to collaborate with the supplier, to generate and share data on the performance of its offerings relative to the alternatives and what that is worth in monetary terms. They are more willing to work together to “tweak” present offerings to enhance their value and to develop new offerings that will deliver superior value."

Trecho retirado de "Why the Highest Price Isn’t the Best Price"

Acerca da formulação da estratégia

"All too often strategy meetings devolve into pitched battles over who is right and who is wrong about the company’s future direction. How can you reshape the discussion to produce collaboration rather than discord?
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The key is to switch the fundamental question you consider from what is true to what would have to be true.
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What is true provokes arguments, causes proponents of a possibility to dig in, and minimizes the collaborative exploration of ideas. Let’s imagine you put forward a possibility for a strategic direction and, upon hearing the idea, I focus on what I think is true. With this mindset, it is quite likely that I won’t be confident that your idea is valid and I’ll probably start by saying something like “I don’t think that will work,” words that will instantly turn the meeting into a battlefield. When I then raise an alternative strategic direction, you, smarting at my treatment of your idea, will be equally dismissive of me. And so on, back and forth.
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If instead we can focus from the outset on what would have to be true, the conversation can head in the direction of collaboration and mutual exploration of ideas. How? If an idea or possibility strikes you as less than compelling, resist the urge to declare it “not true.” Instead, ask yourself, what would have to be true for me to feel that is a great option? If you identify the features that would have to be true, you can explore whether those really hold true and learn something about that possibility. The process of exploration may well help you modify and enhance the best idea currently in your head."

Trechos retirados de "A Simple Nuance that Produces Great Strategy Discussions"

Não é a agilidade que interessa

"We found that 80 percent of the value destruction in the world’s biggest losers was a result of strategic blunders. It wasn’t fallout from natural disasters or major market shifts, but the decisions and actions made and controlled by the companies themselves that got them in the most serious trouble. In other words, companies succeed when they move in the right strategic directions, not when they move opportunistically.
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So we started to look at the winners.
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We studied them and realized that their greatest strength wasn’t agility—in the sense of always responding quickly to external events. They were proactive, but also very measured and consistent about the big, strategic choices they made.
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Five things in particular stood out that made these companies capable and successful. We call them “unconventional acts” because they contradict the assumptions that many businesspeople make about management success:
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1. These companies stay true to who they are. You might hypothesize that the most dynamic, agile strategy is the best strategy, but that’s not what these companies followed. They commit to an identity and play the strategy long game...
3. They translate their strategic intent into the everyday. You might think that success is driven by adopting the best practices of a company’s industry or by developing functional excellence, but that’s not their focus. They build the capabilities that matter most and execute relentlessly and flawlessly.
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4. They put their culture to work. You’d assume in today’s fast-changing market companies should be able to reorganize on a dime. These enterprises celebrate what is already great about their culture, leveraging their existing behaviors to make themselves more powerful and effective...
If agility is chasing opportunities presented to you by a chaotic market, then agility is not a recipe for success. It’s a guarantee of incoherence and volatile performance. But if you stay true to your identity, aware of your unique strengths and where your capabilities add the most value over time, then you won’t just be agile. You’ll be “smart agile.” Yours will be a truly capable company that will win in the market: today and over time."

Trechos retirados de "Becoming a Capable Company"