"No acumulado deste período, [Moi ici: 2007-2014] as empresas com até 49 funcionários foram responsáveis por 63% dos postos detrabalho criados. As grandes empresas – com mais de 250 empregados - criaram 20% do emprego e as companhias de média dimensão criaram 17% dos empregos."
"When you try something new, you learn more about yourself--what you are capable of, what your limits are, what you enjoy, and what mistakes you would rather not repeat. Eat sushi, try skydiving, or strike up a conversation with someone who intimidates you. Whether the outcome is positive or negative, at least you've discovered something about yourself, and that changes how you respond to your environment and circumstances.[Moi ici: Como diz o Samuel Soares, expande-se a zona de conforto]Até acrescento uma imagem:
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When you move, you learn more about the world--what is good, what is tragic, and what needs to be revised, repaired, and restored.
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Take risks, dive in, dig deep, and choose to care about someone or something, and no matter what happens in the end, that growing passion changes you and changes the world."
"Munidos de todo um arsenal descrito anteriormente, da Missão até às iniciativas estratégicas, colocamos os cintos de segurança e aí vamos nós a caminho do futuro desejado."E a caminhada leva-nos a ver o mundo de forma diferente e a descobrir possibilidades escondidas ou inatingíveis até então.
"Finally, if purchasers are not indifferent as to which firms to buy their goods, then the perfect competition assumption cannot be postulated to work. In fact, Sraffa also deploys this line of critique since, according to Sraffa, purchasers are actually not indifferent as between different producers – this is “the chief obstacle which hinders the free play of competition” (Sraffa, 1926: 544) – the causes for such absence of indifference are custom, proximity, personal acquaintance, possibility to get credit, reputation of the trade mark and design of the product. From a formal point of view, these different reasons of preferences are reflected in the clientele of each firm being willing, if necessary, to pay a higher price."E a sua empresa, o que é que ela faz para tornar a concorrência imperfeita?
"Contemporary markets are increasingly interconnected, with actors no longer seen as part of linear value chains but existing in networks of service systems where interaction, collaboration and experience sharing take place. In such markets, traditional boundaries between the roles of “customer” and “provider” are losing clarity, highlighted by the emergence of concepts such as prosumers and post-consumers. Customers are not satisfied with the limited role of a buyer, receiver and user of a firm’s offering at the end of the value chain, but proactively engage in crafting the offering according to their personal needs and wants, and seek to also engage other stakeholders (such as other consumers, communities, firms or government organisations) in the service system to contribute their resources towards common aims."
"Os bancos têm uma estrutura de custos muito grande. Estão metidos num tsunami e não é por culpa deles. Têm muitas agências bancárias para as necessidades, por exemplo. As fintech são uma ameaça, mas se a Google, a Amazon, o Facebook e a Apple (GAFA) começarem a fazer crédito ao consumo é uma chatice. As gerações mais novas mais depressa pedem um empréstimo ao Google do que a um banco.Claro que o artigo cheira a publicidade encapotada mas é a vida, e não deixa de ser verdade. Os salami slicers esmagam os Bruce Jenner de cada sector.
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O que podemos esperar da banca portuguesa nos próximos dez anos?A decisão mais rápida é colaborar com as fintech. Não há condições para comprar estas startups. Não fazer nada também não é solução, a tecnologia já demonstrou isso. A banca vai ter de perceber que as fintech têm um ritmo muito acelerado, em que o foco é o cliente."
"As exportações estão a cair em valor. Em Abril foram 2,5% face ao mesmo mês do ano passado.Depois, lá se lembrou da prioridade:
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"Não há ainda alarme, mas estamos preocupados e é o tempo certo para intervir", diz Paulo Nunes de Almeida que reconhece que setores tradicionais como os têxteis e vestuário, a cortiça, as madeiras e mobiliário ou o calçado, "continuam a crescer em alguns casos acima da média do ano passado".
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Apesar de um desempenho positivo da maioria dos setores produtores de bens transacionáveis os números do Instituto Nacional de Estatística são claro. As exportações portuguesas estão globalmente a crescer a um ritmo mais lento."
"Os fundos para o apoio às empresas exportadoras no Portugal 2020 têm que ser reforçados", diz o responsável pela maior associação empresarial do país."Trechos retirados de "AEP: "Esperamos da CGD que seja profissional mas diferente do resto da banca no apoio às empresas""
"a dialogue between an English lord and his American visitor:Lembrei-me logo deste diálogo quando vi este tweet:
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“How come you got such a gorgeous lawn?” asks the American.
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“Well, the quality of the soil, is, I dare say, of the utmost importance,” replies the lord.
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“No problem.”
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“Furthermore, one does need the finest quality seed and fertilizers.”
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“Big deal.”
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“Of course, daily watering and weekly mowing are jolly important.”
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“No sweat, just leave it to me.”
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“That’s it.”
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“No kidding?! That’s it?!”
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“Oh absolutely. There is nothing to it, old boy, just keep it up for five centuries.”"
E deste senhor que mimetiza bem a postura do americano do trecho "É preciso ser coerente". Nicolau Santos acha que um roadshow montado à última da hora resolve o problema do investimento externo... "Oh absolutely. There is nothing to it, old boy, just keep it up for five centuries"Este ano estima-se que a Irlanda cresça uns míseros 4.9%. A conjuntura internacional não perdoa.— MAL (@mlopes) June 7, 2016
"“We became interested in low-volume manufacturing,” Venkat said. “What can we make, that could be successful in units of ten?”Ao ler "Jeff Bezos thinks we need to build industrial zones in space in order to save Earth" não pude deixar de pensar na possibilidade remota de Bezos ainda pensar no futuro como a "heavy industry" e as "gigantic factories"... o futuro vai ser uma grande salgalhada para as mentes uniformizadas do século XX.
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The low-volume idea was to make manufacturing faster and more varied, by dramatically lowering the output level at which a product would pay off. You can think of the analogy in TV programming. When there were only three networks, the only shows that could make it were those that could draw a mass audience. But with cable, and then with online videos and podcasting, much smaller and more specialized audiences were “large enough,” and we went from mass-cult Gidget and Get Smart to the much more varied, niche-sensitive, and more interesting modern range from Breaking Bad to reality schlock. Another obvious comparison would be the shift from the standardized, bland-ized mega-brewery U.S. beer world of the mid-20th century, to the rapidly diversifying craft-brew renaissance of today.
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What does this mean, in practice? Without going into all the details, essentially the approach is a combination of the well-known, intangible digital tools of the modern era, with some very tangible, less-known-by-the-public maker-era tools that (as I argued before) are transforming production.
That is: the products coming out of this microfactory use cloud-centric digital techniques we’re all aware of including crowdsourcing, online collaboration, crowd-funding, online sales, open-source coding and design. But they also use the new production techniques, from the real world of real hardware, that have become available only in the past few years—and that keep improving thanks to Moore’s Law. These include 3D printers, laser cutters, low-cost but high-sophistication multi-axis machine tools, and a range of other devices. Together these tools allow people in smaller, less formal, much lower-cost workspaces to design, test, refine, and manufacture items that previously would have come required factory production lines—and to find audiences that collaborate in the process of design and, so far, have provided eager markets.
The operation also uses the social and collaborative tools of the era—shared work spaces, partnerships with local schools. The production tools are available for modest cost to local people who want to use them. “It’s like a manufacturing library,” Venkat said, with production equipment open for shared use. “The ‘books’ are available. We’re not going to read them to you, but you can find them here.”
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An explicit goal of FirstBuild, like many of the maker sites we’ve seen around the country, is to become a center for local individuals and groups with ideas for innovative hardware that might sell.
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“We are trying to overcome the selection bias of needing to scale up for big-volume production,” Venkat told me. “We don’t have to design to a spec. We are making in small-batches, low volumes. We can make one, then the next one, then the next one. We want to be open to as many ideas as we can.”"
Temos é de melhorar a reflexão.Industrial approach is 1. Plan 2. Action. Post-industrial approach is 1. Experience. 2. Reflection.— Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi) June 12, 2016
"Although there is nothing wrong with commitment and perseverance, I, however, think sport (much less war) is often an unhelpful analogy. Good management is not like a competitive sport. And managing your company as if it is, can lead your business astray – or at least create a mighty corporate mess.Recordar porque deixei de considerar o David vs Golias mas o David e Golias: "David tem tudo a ganhar em fugir de um confronto directo com Golias"
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A more useful comparison is that of a builder of communities, with investors, suppliers, partners and, most of all, your employees.
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At the end of the day, organizations are collections of people; this means that superior organizations need more effective ways for them to cooperate and work toward a common goal.
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Research backs this up. Several studies have examined the characteristics of resources that, over time, lead to superior performance. The conclusion of this stream of research is that these resources are usually intangible and community based, such as relationships, trust, culture, identity, or knowledge sharing. That is because, ultimately, competitive advantage comes from people, rather than products or patents."
"Best practices are techniques that supposedly are proved to be widely successful, but in reality, they’re easy to copy-and-paste and can be disguised as one-size-fits-all solutions.
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Few management approaches are universally applicable, and attempts to implement a mismatched approach can do more harm than good.
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Every best practice is a paradox by its nature and makes itself obsolete.
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While it works for some to start with understanding the why (principles) before the how (practices), other times it’s better to start with the how before the why. In other words, it’s not necessarily wrong to implement the practice first and understand the principles after. Oftentimes people and organizations learn best by doing first and understanding what works and what didn’t later, perhaps through a postmortem or a retrospective."
"After talking with the VP of sales, the CEO, and several of the account managers, we realized we had heard a lot about the software’s virtues but much less about the customer problems and pain points that the software was meant to address. [Moi ici: Talvez a sua PME não esteja, ainda, na fase do código. Não interessa! O mesmo conselho aplica-se a PME industriais. Esqueça o produto e pense primeiro no contexto dos seus clientes-alvo. Quem são? O que procuram e valorizam? O produto é um artifício para eles chegarem aonde? Qual é a sua proposta de valor] Eventually we asked this team to focus on three large enterprises and to describe the business challenges these potential customers were facing. Once they developed this context, the salespeople were able to identify a number of very large opportunities where their software could help.Trechos retirados de "The Go-to-Market Approach Startups Need to Adopt"
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Start by identifying a small number of very specific customers — either companies (if you are a B2B player) or desired consumer segments (e.g., urban professionals with specific characteristics). Then put yourself in the shoes of these customers by thinking about their issues and by talking to them not about your product but about their challenges and pain points."
"there are four other distinct reasons why REI is thriving when other retailers aren't:Pois, recordar:
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1. These products contribute to an experienceThis has been said over and over again: millennials love experiences.[Moi ici: Produtos desenhados para um contexto]
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Camping and hiking are experience. (And highly Instagrammable ones, too.) In order to complete those tasks, you need the equipment...which in turn, makes it a necessary purchase. This isn't typical of apparel companies.
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2. People will be willing to pay a premium for a high quality productMost people don't want to shell out lots of money for apparel; they've been conditioned to never shop at a premium. ... Even though some consumers cannot grasp that concept — you'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd disagree with the fact that it's worth it to buy a quality backpack or hiking boots if he or she going for a walk in the woods.
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3. It doesn't sell brands you can get anywhere...
4. It has created a community — which is marketing gold"[Moi ici: Basta visitar o sítio para perceber tantas e tantas pistas para criar uma comunidade a partir da interacção que co-cria valor: a partilha das fotos; a partilha de know-how "We asked: What are your must-haves on every car camping trip? And you gave us a ton of answers! Check out these crowdsourced responses that complete the car camp experience."; a distribuição dos lucros, os projectos verdes "REI Funds Construction of the First Relief Center in Nepal’s Namche Bazaar and Green Energy Project in a Remote Community; Year-long Effort Supports Sustainable Living and Tourism"; animação de eventos "REI Outessa Summit Launches Weekend Getaways of Outdoor Adventure for Women" ou "Enjoy the best of what our National Parks have to offer without all the prep work and planning. Campsites at REI Signature Camping Trips include all amenities and expert guides who take care of itineraries and mouthwatering meals." Este último fez-me recordar "Mais uma sugestão de modelo de negócio"]
"The only way to hook customers into a store would be to make shopping there an 'experience' - but Saunders pointed out that Sports Authority isn't a "destination for consumers" and it's "cheaper and more convenient to shop online or at rivals.""Pois... recuar a 1983 e à minha primeira ida ao Douro Internacional de mochila às costas nas férias da Páscoa. Logo, pensei na compra de saco-cama decente (pontos 1 e 2)
"ONE way to view farming is as a branch of matrix algebra. A farmer must constantly juggle a set of variables, such as the weather, his soil’s moisture levels and nutrient content, competition to his crops from weeds, threats to their health from pests and diseases, and the costs of taking action to deal with these things. If he does the algebra correctly, or if it is done on his behalf, he will optimise his yield and maximise his profit.Impossível ficar insensível às mudanças na calha.
The job of smart farming, then, is twofold. One is to measure the variables going into the matrix as accurately as is cost-effective. The other is to relieve the farmer of as much of the burden of processing the matrix as he is comfortable with ceding to a machine."
"Austria’s Voestalpine is planning to build the first specialist steelworks in western Europe since at least the 1980s as it rides out disruptions in the global industry caused by sharply falling prices.
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Voestalpine’s profitability and expansion plans contrast with the woes of many other steelmakers, including India’s Tata Steel, which has been looking to sell off its UK facilities.
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Voestalpine, despite being based in high cost Austria, has defied the pressures facing rival steelmakers by focusing on premium products — for example, by making components for the aircraft and automobile industries.
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This strategy has protected the company against steep falls over the past year in the prices of basic steel products, partly caused by rising Chinese exports."
"O ministro adiantou ter "expectativas" de que no Conselho Europeu de junho "se possa avançar um pouco mais, em particular no setor do leite", aquele que, juntamente com a suinicultura, identificou como os que mais sofreram alterações estruturais, registando quedas de preços "acentuadas", da ordem dos 10% e 15%, desde o início de 2015."Então, lembrei-me de ir pesquisar os últimos números do INE acerca da produção de leite. No Boletim Mensal de Estatística de Abril de 2016 obtive este número:
"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."O presidente ajuda à festa "Presidente da República diz que "não há milagres" nas exportações com mercados em crise":
""A situação internacional não está boa e quando não está boa nos países que são destino das exportações, não há como fazer aumentar as exportações. Se esses mercados estão em crise, e é o que todas as organizações internacionais dizem, vamos esperar que melhorem. São mercados importantes e tradicionais das nossas exportações, não há milagres aí", afirmou o Presidente da República."Portugal em 2016, como nos outros anos, envia cerca de 80% das suas exportações para o interior da União Europeia. As exportações para a União Europeia estão a crescer quase 4% este ano.
Ou ainda, "Europa surpreende pela positiva" (por favor não mostrar ao presidente, para não lhe estragar o dia).Boris Johnson says Eurozone worst growth in world after Antartica. Actually currently growing faster than US and UK. #ITVEURef— Simon Nixon (@Simon_Nixon) June 9, 2016
"O maior pessimismo nas exportações deve-se em parte a uma deterioração das condições externas, mas principalmente à expectativa de uma maior perda de quota de mercado internacional do que aquilo que era previsto."A verdade é que estranhei a referência do Banco de Portugal a perda de quotas de mercado. Por isso, pesquisei o documento original. A única referência a quotas de mercado aparece neste contexto:
"Em 2017 e 2018, a evolução das exportações deverá estar aproximadamente em linha com as hipóteses para a procura externa de bens e serviços dirigida às empresas portuguesas, não se antecipando ganhos de quota de mercado significativos no conjunto dos dois anos."A verdade é que Portugal mesmo agora não está a perder quota de mercado, está a ganhá-la em países muito exigentes em qualidade-preço-performance. Mesmo em Angola não é linear que esteja a perder quota de mercado.
