Um quase-cego no meio de uma paisagem movediça

 "The corporate strategist’s task is no different. It is to assemble available assets, capabilities, and activities in new ways in search of competitive advantage for the firm. But more importantly, the corporate strategist’s task is to do this successfully over and over again. This is like an almost-blind explorer navigating a rugged, mountainous landscape in constant search for a higher peak. Since she cannot clearly see the terrain, she must develop some theory of what she will find, drawing from available knowledge and past experience. Then, by conducting strategic experiments, which in the corporate world amounts to assembling assets and activities, she gains a clearer vision of some limited portion of this topography.[Moi ici: Uma metáfora interessante mas com uma falha importante, o raio do terreno, a paisagem competitiva, move-se, tem vida própria, Recordar "Acerca da Totoestratégia" e a série sobre o trapezista cego]

Strategic experiments can be costly and time-consuming. They may require several years to assemble, and often involve highly specialized and largely irreversible investments. Consequently, engaging in a purely random, experimental search for increased value is unacceptable. That’s why good strategists compose theories of how to navigate this terrain. Like a scientist’s theory, the strategist’s theory generates hypotheses that guide actions. Theories define expectations about causal relationships: If the world functions according to my theory, then this action will generate the following outcome. They are dynamic and are updated based on evidence or feedback received. They permit low-cost thought experiments, thereby minimizing expensive, misguided investments."

Trecho retirado de "Beyond competitive advantage : how to solve the puzzle of sustaining growth while creating value" de Todd Zenger.

Curiosidade do dia

""Claramente o novo Governo não acredita que a liberalização e a desregulação como a forma correcta de reanimar a economia do país. Em vez disso, está focado numa política financeira mais expansionista e num maior papel do Estado na economia", diz Ralph Solveen. Resultado? "A experiência de tentativas semelhantes de outros países no passado torna duvidoso que este caminho levará ao sucesso", atira o especialista. E acrescenta: "há o risco de Portugal sofrer novamente uma queda da economia, devido aos seus muitos problemas estruturais"."

Trecho retirado de "Commerzbank: "Portugal à beira da crise""

"A economia portuguesa continua a dar sinais de abrandamento, com o indicador do Banco de Portugal a recuar pelo sexto mês consecutivo. Está em mínimos desde a recessão de 2013.
O indicador do Banco de Portugal para medir a actividade económica atingiu um valor negativo em Maio deste ano, o que sucede pela primeira vez desde Agosto de 2013, ano de recessão na economia portuguesa.
...
A OCDE, nas previsões divulgadas recentemente, considerou que a economia portuguesa dificilmente crescerá mais que 1,2% em 2016, a previsão mais pessimista até agora. O Banco de Portugal actualizou as suas estimativas e tem uma previsão não muito diferente, apontando para um crescimento do PIB de 1,3%.
.
O Ministério das Finanças mantém-se como o mais optimista, a prever o crescimento económico de 1,8%."

Trechos retirados de "Actividade económica entra em terreno negativo pela primeira vez desde 2013"

"Nos próximos meses será essencial não esquecer que Portugal é um país rico, moderno, desenvolvido. Avizinham-se momentos de grande turbulência, aperto, dificuldade, onde será fácil perder de vista esta realidade que, no entanto, permanece indiscutível. Precisamente porque deixaremos muito do que agora gozamos, é bom não esquecer tudo o que, apesar disso, ainda temos. Uma crise conjuntural, mesmo grande, não chega a afectar a estrutura nacional."

Trecho retirado de "Problemas de país rico"

E na sua empresa?

"when asked to identify their most important criteria for deciding to invest in a company, the experience and credibility of the management team and the clarity of its business strategy and vision were among the top choices
...
Less popular criteria, by contrast, were strictly financial metrics such as a company’s free cash flow as a percentage of sales, the level of return on invested capital, and leverage ratios.
...
When we asked respondents to describe the areas in greatest need of improvement at their portfolio companies, most cited strategic management processes, such as capital allocation, strategy development and planning, investor communications, and risk management."

E na sua empresa, como estão estas valências?
.
Trechos retirados de "In a Tough Market, Investors Seek New Ways to Create Value"

Acerca da servitization (parte I)

Não é exclusivo para o sector da metalurgia e metalomecânica, que produz máquinas e ferramentas, mas aplica-se como uma luva:

"Because it changes the way in which the firm creates and appropriates value. The imperatives to servitize and to develop the activities accordingly are increasing and becoming more vital than ever.
.
In the manufacturing firm´s value chain, the value adding potential is moving from production activities to the intangible pre- and post-production activities. Therefore, the firm needs to extend these activities to keep the total value adding stable.
.
Technological development like IOT, production systems for high cost countries and additive manufacturing may contribute to a concentration of the value chain back to high cost countries.[Moi ici: Ainda os gurus da nossa praça cantavam o refrão "China a fábrica do mundo e já neste blogue se reflectiva sobre o reshoring]
.
However, they also contribute to further lowering the value adding potential in the production part of the manufacturing firm´s value adding activities.[Moi ici: Nunca esquecer o esquema de Pine e Gilmore e o trabalho corrosivo constante da erosão da comoditização]

...
The competitive pressure reduces margins and opens a disintermediation of the service delivery value chain parts similarly as has already happened to the production part of the value chain.
.
Thus, besides servitization to compensate for the continuous reduction in value adding potential relating to production activities, the manufacturing firm also needs to create service monopolies by product or service attributes that lock out competing service providers and ultimately, they must continually innovate also in the domain of services.
.
Reaching ever higher service content requires a change in the organization, culture, processes and customer interaction as well as the development of new competencies and capabilities."

Como não recordar "PME e código, já pensou nisso? (parte IV)" e "Mais um exemplo de onde o "é meter código nisso" pode chegar"

Continua

Trechos retirados de "Servitization - an Increasingly Critical Strategy for Manufacturing Firms"

O consumidor de Mongo (parte II)

Parte I.

"2. We want convenience...
Convenience is the new basis of loyalty. If things don’t happen for customers quickly or easily, they will quickly go elsewhere. Today’s consumers want extreme simplicity
...
Many more mature companies struggle with the idea of extreme simplicity, as they have built their products, services and infrastructure around the idea that everything must be complete and perfect and therefore complex.
...
3. We want a human connectionIt is an interesting paradox of the digital world that the more we embrace digital, the more powerful human beings become again. It is the law of scarcity: human contact declines in frequency and therefore its value rises in the eyes of the customer. Of course, you cannot automate the human element of the customer relationship.[Moi ici: Recordar o que escrevemos: "Every visit customers have to make are an opportunity for interaction and co-creation"]
...
4. We want to buy from awesome companies:
... there is a growing group of companies that consumers connect with on an emotional level and begin to really pride themselves in buying from them, acting as brand advocates.
...
5. When digital becomes human...
If a brand is really going to stand out from the crowd, however, they must consider the role people play in the customer relationship. Only by allowing consumers to make a genuine human, emotional connection will they establish themselves as a favorite brand, so a strategy that combines modern PR and modern HR is required to capture people’s imaginations."

Os 5 pontos não são nada simpáticos para as empresas grandes habituadas a confiar na eficiência, na automatização e na generalização.
.
AZAR!


Trechos retirados de "How the digital world is shaping the modern consumer", Strategic Direction, Vol. 32 Iss 5, Steven Van Belleghem , (2016).

Parte II - Um festival de experiência e transformação

Parte I.

"Grocers offer fitness classes, facials, child care to lure consumers away from online rivals...
Shoppers looking to pick up milk and eggs may have other reasons to spend time at their local supermarket: yoga classes or a spa treatment, perhaps.
.
Under growing pressure from discounters and online rivals, supermarkets are trying to transform themselves into places where customers might want to hang out rather than just grabbing groceries and heading home.
.
In Phoenix, a Fry’s Food Stores, part of a chain owned by Kroger Co., features a culinary school and a lounge with leather couches perched next to a wine bar. A Kroger store in Hilton Head Island, S.C., offers a cigar section to complement its wine cellar that stocks $600 bottles.
.
Whole Foods Market Inc. has a putting green outside its Augusta, Ga., location and a spa offering peppermint foot scrubs and facial waxing in a Boston store. Elsewhere, it has bike-repair stations.
.
A ShopRite store here in Hanover Township, near New York, runs a fitness studio with yoga, barre and Zumba classes and has a cosmetologist on weekends."

Recordar Pine e Gilmore:

"with experiences, customers pay for the time they spend with a company, rather than for the activites the company delivers"

Recordar "Versão Beta (parte III)"
.
Lembram-se do avanço imparável dos centros comerciais sobre o comércio tradicional? Agora temos o avanço do online sobre os centros comerciais. E temos as experimentações, para reformular o modelo e encontrar alternativas que façam os clientes voltar aos centros comerciais.
.
Não sei se resulta, não sei quanto tempo terão de fuçar para encontrar as alternativas viáveis. Sei é que estão a fazer o que deve ser feito: fuçar, fuçar e fuçar. Pois:

“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.”

Continua.

Trechos retirados de "Attention Shoppers: Yoga in Aisle 3"

Curiosidade do dia

Centeno continua mergulhado no século XX e a praticar "cargo cult" em grande:

"Portugal é bom para fazer investimentos porque "os portugueses são os que mais horas trabalham na Europa", além de serem muito baratos quando comparados com os franceses, por exemplo, disse o ministro das Finanças a uma plateia de gestores, em Lisboa, citado pelo "DN".
...
O ministro não tardou na resposta: "O salário mediano em Portugal é um terço do francês. Esta diferenciação salarial não existe em mais nenhuma área monetária; nos Estados Unidos a dispersão salarial máxima é entre Mississippi e Boston, Massachusetts, e é um rácio de dois terços.""

Qual a taxa de desemprego no estado do Mississippi e na cidade de Boston?

• Mississippi - 6%
• Boston - 3,8%

BTW, "Mississippi has the weakest economy out of all U.S. states"
.
BTW2, a anedota do dia:

"O ministro respondeu que a economia não cresce mais por causa do sistema bancário e financeiro, que não está a funcionar corretamente."

Trechos retirados de "Centeno: portugueses trabalham muito e são baratos". Olha se fosse MLA a dizer isto, as Vestais rasgariam as vestes e cometeriam suicídio.

Cuidado com a ISO 9001

Recordar:

• E isso não o deixa desconfiado? (Março de 2012)
• A minha evolução (Outubro de 2011)
• Ter qualidade já não chega (Junho de 2010)
• A ISO 9001:2008 e a satisfação dos clientes, a oportunidade perdida? (parte III) (Setembro de 2008)

"Great strategies answer five critical questions (“the strategic five”) in ways that are unique to your company: (1) What business or businesses should your company be in? (2) How should you add value to your businesses? (3) Who should be the target customers for your businesses? (4) What should be your value propositions to those target customers? (5) What capabilities should differentiate your ability to add value to your businesses and deliver their value propositions?

You won’t find the answers to these questions in most strategy concepts. Consider total quality management (TQM),[Moi ici: Substituir TQM por ISO 9001] a prescription for reducing cost by minimizing error. TQM is mostly silent on what kind of businesses should be in your portfolio and why, or who your target customers should be and why they’re glad your company exists. It is also a dangerously narrow prescription for what you have to be better at doing than anyone else to achieve and sustain great success.
.
Instead of asking “Should we adopt TQM?” leaders should ask “How can TQM improve our answers to the strategic five?”"

Quem trabalha comigo na implementação de sistemas de gestão da qualidade (SGQ) (ISO 9001) sabe o quão importante é para mim fazer do SGQ uma forma de alinhar a empresa na resposta aquelas 5 perguntas estratégicas. Daí esta figura:

Trecho retirado de "Why Popular Strategies Always Fade"

Um exemplo a seguir com atenção (parte II)

Parte I.

Depois do exemplo da parte I esta espécie de estado de negação, este testemunho de quem ainda não descobriu as alternativas:

"Metade dos utilizadores de internet acede às notícias pelo Facebook e outras redes sociais, indica um estudo do Instituto Reuters que alerta para consequências profundas no jornalismo tradicional e de qualidade.[Moi ici: Este "de qualidade" é de rir]
...
Dele destaca-se, principalmente, que 51 por cento dos utilizadores ‘online’ preferem as redes sociais para aceder às notícias, em detrimento dos canais tradicionais.
.
Plataformas como o Facebook deixaram “de ser apenas o local onde se descobrem as notícias e passaram a ser destinos para o próprio consumo de notícias”.
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À medida que aumenta o acesso às notícias através de plataformas de terceiros, “vai-se tornando cada vez mais difícil, para a maioria dos meios de comunicação social, destacarem-se no meio da multidão, [Moi ici: Não concordo, o que os média fizeram foi antes tentar combater a China nos custos. Assim, perderam qualidade e tornaram-se iguais uns aos outros] ligar-se mais diretamente aos utilizadores e fazer dinheiro."

O que faz falta é virar a página e seguir em frente. Abraçar a nova realidade em vez de a combater e denegrir. Então, poderão começar a descobrir novos modelos de negócio. Até parece que num mundo de tribos não há mercado para notícias a sério, com investigação e especialização. Não pode é ser um jornal de negócios que escreve para funcionários públicos, com todo o respeito para os mesmos, ou jornal de economia em que os jornalistas escrevem erros económicos de palmatória.

BTW,

tanto trabalho para jornalistas https://t.co/t50xHAkkJc
não são é no sítio onde os vossos avós trabalhavam

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) June 12, 2016

Trechos retirados de "Metade dos utilizadores online informa-se pelas redes sociais"

O consumidor de Mongo (parte I)

Algumas sugestões sobre o consumidor de Mongo:

"If businesses today are going to compete, it is vital that they think about exactly who their customers are today, how they behave and how they expect companies to interact with them. Through my research into consumer behavior, the following four characteristics are already becoming apparent in today’s consumer, and this is only likely to increase in the near future.
.
1. We want to be treated as individualsToday, the ideal segment size today is one. We are evolving toward a situation where everyone has his or her own services and products, tailored to their individual needs. Connected technology and intelligent use of data have already enabled extreme personalization when it comes to on-demand services, and the logical next step is for personalized products. One of my favorite examples of this is “nrml” in New York – a store that makes personalized earphones based on just five photographs of your ear. They are made on site and adapted by a 3D printer so that your earphones fit perfectly. This new trend of extreme personalization of products could certainly be a sign of things to come, especially as home 3D printing becomes more common."

Nada que seja novidade para este blogue que prevê esta evolução há muitos anos. O que é muito interessante, associado a esta evolução, é a tendência para empresas mais pequenas e especializadas, mais interacção, mais co-criação, mais tribalismo e muito mais diversidade.

• Para pessoas e para PME (Fevereiro de 2016)
• Been there, done that and... moved on (Novembro de 2011)

Continua.
.
Trechos retirados de "How the digital world is shaping the modern consumer", Strategic Direction, Vol. 32 Iss 5,Steven Van Belleghem , (2016).

Parte I - Os problemas de um modelo

"Department stores were built around the idea that consumers would come to the store for inspiration and discovery. But retailers can no longer rely on that draw. Consumers increasingly get inspiration online first, from social media and blogs, and not from the retailers themselves.
.
When that happens, the decision-making process employed by shoppers gets turned completely on its head – consumers start to choose the specific products they want to buy before they choose where to buy them from. This leaves department stores forced to compete on price instead of value.
...
Another place where department stores are getting hammered is on the fast fashion front. Retailers like Zara and H&M can put out new fashions every few weeks. Department stores were built around the concept of featuring brands, almost like a store-in-store.
...
If your only value proposition to consumers is that you have great brands under one roof, you’re going to lose. ... News flash: you can get great brands anywhere. And when you look for them online, even if they’re at different stores, they’re only a tab away.
.
So what should department stores stand for, then? They should stand for a lifestyle. They should stand for things that help consumers solve their lifestyle problems. But stores have been gutted. High-end luxury department stores are the exception. The rest of the vertical have no expertise in stores. Not beyond what I could get asking random people on the street. Why should I go to a store when I can get better advice from blogs? At least they have followers to help give them some cache and sense of expertise.
.
And department stores are not organized to present solutions to lifestyle problems. Need an outfit for a wedding? Well, first you have to go to dresses, and then shoes, and then accessories. Need a new outfit for a job interview? Same deal, except it may be even worse. You might have to visit several brand vignettes to find this brand’s suits vs. that brand’s suits, and then start all over again if you need a blouse or shoes to go with.
.
Now, part of the problem is that the brands themselves want their vignettes. They want their voice to the customer to stand out, even within the department store. But how do consumers shop online? They see all blouses together. They can filter by brand if they want, but the primary sort is the function first, brand later. And you just can’t shop that way in a department store."

Trechos retirados de "Here's What's Wrong With Department Stores"

Curiosidade do dia

"Numa união de Estados que é voluntária, onde os normativos que regulam o seu funcionamento são decididos conjuntamente, não existe aplicação de sanções. Não pode ser sanção o que corresponde a uma regra que foi livremente aceite como procedimento para corrigir desequilíbrios. Na União Europeia, não há castigos, há correcção dos desequilíbrios. Quem não aceitar as regras que aprovou terá de abandonar, libertando-se dos constrangimentos e renunciando aos benefícios."

Trechos retirados de "Constrangimentos e benefícios"

Um exemplo a seguir com atenção

Ao longo dos anos tenho usado o exemplo do jornalismo como um mau exemplo da reacção a uma disrupção clássica em que alguém vem servir os overserved. Recordar:

• Como não reagir a uma disrupção (Dezembro de 2012)
• Disrupção nas universidades? (Novembro de 2013)
• Sonho? Tomo a nuvem por Juno? Ou será o jornalismo do Estranhistão? (Novembro de 2013)
• Perceber a disrupção em curso (Abril de 2014)

O truque é concentrar a atenção nos underserved. Melhorar a qualidade e diferenciação do jornal/publicação, aumentar preço e confiar no efeito assimétrico na curva do isolucro:

Assim, considero muito interessante este exemplo "Prevention Magazine Will Become Ad-Free":

"going ad-free would reduce Prevention’s operating expenses by more than 50 percent. [Moi ici: Começa bem!]
...
“If we were going to continue with advertising, I could never see a future where we would be profitable.”
...
By going ad-free, Ms. Rodale said, Prevention will reduce its operating expenses by more than 50 percent. The savings will come in part because the magazine will no longer have to maintain a certain circulation level — a number very important to advertisers — which can result in magazines doing things like printing many copies of issues and offering steep discounts or giving them away free. Prevention has also cut its print sales staff.
...
Of course, Prevention, which has a circulation of about 1.5 million, will also be giving up print ad revenue of roughly $12 million a year. But as part of the new business model, it is doubling its subscription price, from $24 to $48. It has already increased the cost of a single copy by a dollar, to $4.99.
...
the new editor in chief, emphasized the editorial freedom that the magazine would have without ads. She said she planned to “bring in controversial stories” on topics such as medical errors, toxic cosmetics and the anti-aging industry."

Um exemplo a seguir com atenção. Será que fará reflectir alguém no meio jornalístico português?

Autópsias para aprender

Cada vez mais trabalhamos em projectos.
.
Por isso, faz cada vez mais sentido pensar em "post-mortem":

"Get more out of post-mortems. Many people dislike project post-mortems. They’d rather talk about what went right than what went wrong. And after investing extensive time on the project, they’d like to move on. Structure your post-mortems to stimulate discussion. Example:
.
Pixar asks post-mortem participants to list the top five things they’d do again and the top five they wouldn’t do. The positive-negative balance makes it a safer environment to explore every aspect of the project. Participants also bring in lots of performance data—including metrics such as how often something had to be reworked. Data further stimulate discussion and challenge assumptions based on subjective impressions.
...
Because we’re a creative organization, people tend to assume that much of what we do can’t be measured or analyzed. That’s wrong. Most of our processes involve activities and deliverables that can be quantified. We keep track of the rates at which things happen, how often something has to be reworked, whether a piece of work was completely finished or not when it was sent to another department, and so on. Data can show things in a neutral way, which can stimulate discussion and challenge assumptions arising from personal impressions."

Trechos retirados de "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity"

Puf! Não há magia!

Na segunda-feira, aproveitei o feriado do 13 de Junho em Estarreja e fui passar o dia no Porto passeando com a minha mulher.
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A meio da manhã resolvemos entrar numa das imensas leitarias que abriram na baixa da cidade para tomar um chá e trincar algo.
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Uma desilusão.
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Quando se entra numa leitaria, entra-se pela expectativa da experiência. E quando falamos de experiência:

"with experiences, customers pay for the time they spend with a company, rather than for the activites the company delivers"

Se os clientes pagam pelo tempo, o preço não tem nada a ver com os custos.

"to availability of commodities, cost of goods, and quality of service, businesses now [Moi ici: Os gestores] must add authenticity of experience as something to be managed.
...
No longer content just with available, affordable, and excellent offerings, both consumers and business-to-business customers now purchase offerings based on how well those purchases conform to their own self-image. What they buy must reflect who they are and who they aspire to be in relation to how they perceive the world - with lightning-quick judgments of "real" or "fake" hanging in the balance.
...
for to compete with such experiences, authenticity must become the primary source of differentiation for commodities as well as commoditized goods and services. ... To succeed, managers across most all industries must add to their expertise in supply-chain management, cost containment, and quality enhancement an understanding of what their customers consider real and fake—or at least which elements influence such consumer perceptions—about their company's offerings.
...
understand that there is no such thing as an inauthentic experience—because experiences happen inside of us; they are our internal reaction to the events unfolding around us. How we react to what happens at a particular venue depends on who we are, what we've experienced before, how we feel at the time, who accompanies us, and so on. No two people ever experience anything alike. This intrinsic characteristic of experiences makes them inherently personal.
...
Therefore, we remain free to judge our experiences with any economic offering as authentic or not. Businesses that offer them therefore can, whether intentionally or by happenstance, gain the perception of authenticity. The best word to describe this process is, once again, render. Businesses can render their inauthentic offerings as authentic. Doing so requires embracing this essential paradox: all human enterprise is ontologically fake—that is, in its very being it is inauthentic—and yet, output from that enterprise can be phenomenologically real—that is, it is perceived as authentic by the individuals who buy it."

E a experiência gerou um sentimento de fake-fake

Um espaço a tentar transmitir autenticidade, através da individualidade rústica, através da decoração. No entanto, o disco fica riscado quando:

• a oferta de chás resume-se às saquetas de marcas comerciais que vêm para a mesa para escolha do cliente, e que este pode comprar num Pingo Doce;
• a pastelaria é igual à das pastelarias mais recônditas deste país, sem um exemplar para amostra de algo feito na casa, de algo único, de algo específico;
• para cúmulo o bule e as chávenas trazem o logotipo da Sical e são de um branco imaculado.

Puf! Não há magia!

Trechos retirados de "Authenticity" de James Gilmore e Joseph Pine.

Portanto, cheira-me a futurologia da treta (parte II)

Parte I.
.
Textos deste tipo "Why AI will break capitalism." cheiram-me a um novo estilo de marxismo. Volto a sublinhar a crença ingénua destes artigos na inteligência como o factor fundamental nos negócios, na economia. TRETA!!! E treta da grande:

"Putting aside the ethics for a second, AI is essentially a new form of inter-species slavery. Instead of relying on our fellow species, we’re creating automated, non-human slaves. AI are just cattle versions of intelligence (once is created/bred for meat, the other for intelligence).
...
Rather than capital now being a source of ownership and minor wealth generation, it can now be a source of exponential wealth creation — simply because AI continuously evolves and builds upon itself. It’s unique because it isn’t a static capital item.
.
AI isn’t just a static piece of IP. It’s capable of building entirely new monopolies, businesses and ‘things’ all by itself.
...
What’s more likely is that when we create AI that is break point for capitalism. Any variable to success can be bought and sold, and that means for those who have wealth, they can buy success instead of creating it. It’s a shift in the ‘fairness’ of capitalism, and the reward for someone putting in effort. When capital can beat humans on thinking, it’s hard to create a marketplace that doesn’t resemble feudalism (albeit minus the harsh living conditions)."

Recordo o insucesso dos 4 prémio Nobel referidos na parte I.
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Até parece que a evolução na Terra criou uma espécie de Vulcanos. Duh!
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Por que é que não somos todos Spocks? Porque não basta a lógica e o QI para ter sucesso neste mundo, também é preciso experimentar e ter sorte.

“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.”

Gente que acredita que a Sandy vence o MacGyver. Gente que não percebe que com a concorrência imperfeita e sem marxianismo a estória é outra:

"MacGyver: Well, old Sandy sure has a mind of her own, doesn't she?
Jill: Yes, but she thinks like me. So I should be able to think it through and find her pattern, logically and rationally.
MacGyver: Without the emotion, right?
Jill: That's what gives her the edge. People and emotion can't get in her way.
MacGyver: Well, I say we trust our instincts—go with our gut. You can't program that. That's our edge."

Gente que acredita num mundo pré-determinado e que só está à espera de suficiente capacidade computacional para poder ser dominado. Ingenuidade perigosa.
.
Prefiro acreditar na arte, na ingenuidade e na sorte.
.
Prefiro acreditar em Mongo sem exércitos puros, racionais e uniformizados. Prefiro acreditar em tribos, em individualidade, em DIY, em p2p.

Curiosidade do dia

A tal campanha em curso para culpabilizar o exterior pelos problemas que estão em germinação, como refiro aqui, hoje materializa-se em "Quebra na Autoeuropa pressiona produção automóvel em Portugal":

"Nos primeiros cinco meses do ano foram produzidos menos de 65 mil automóveis em Portugal, o que representa uma queda de quase 10% face ao período homólogo do ano passado."

Dados do INE só tenho os dos últimos 4 meses, e o que vejo?

• Exportações de automóveis, tractores e outros veículos terrestres
• 2015 - 1878 milhões de euros
• 2016 - 1836 milhões de euros

Ou seja, em 2016 exportámos 98% do valor de 2015.

Get a life!

"Ryanair has come under attack for deciding to close its base near Oslo - a move that is expected to result in the loss of 1,000 jobs - after Norway introduced a new tax on air passengers.
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The Norwegian prime minister has accused the Irish budget airline of attempting to "dictate" policy, after the carrier announced it will scrap its base at Oslo Rygge airport - 66 kilometres from the Norwegian capital - in October and axe 16 routes, meaning its traffic in the country will fall by 50pc."

Uma empresa não concorda com a decisão de um governo legítimo. Legitimamente decide abandonar esse país!
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Não faz greve, não queima pneus, não exige subsídios, não faz chantagem, simplesmente fecha a operação e sai. Deixando a oportunidade para outra empresa servir a Noruega.
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E agora é que passa por mau da fita?
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Devo ser eu que, como anónimo da província, não consigo ver o filme.
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Trecho retirado de "Ryanair attacked over Oslo base closure"

Lc: 9,5

"empresas pequenas cheias de ganas de experimentar" (parte II)

O texto da parte I fez-me recuar a "O que é isto senão Mongo?" e ao texto "In Technology, Small Fish (Almost Always) Eat Big Fish":

"When you start looking at the world through this lens — that when small meets large, small almost always wins — you see it everywhere, across all tech sectors. It's so prevalent, in fact, that I consider it an industry law, in this case, “Leslie’s Law.” More examples to follow, but first, let’s take a closer look at how this plays out..When a sleek, small player enters the market, it does so by creating a low-friction, high-fit product that is sold at a low price to a large market. These new products are sold to a portion of the market that cannot access the larger products due to the cost of entry (in dollars and complexity) and the cost of ownership. The larger company may not even notice that the new company has entered the market because there are no mano-a-mano customer confrontations..This leaves the smaller company free to expand upward into the market. Its leading-edge customers whose needs are expanding, and its own interest in expanding its market upward, spurs it on to increase the features and functionality of its products. From the perspective of the large incumbent companies, this upward migration is imperceptible. They aren't worried, so they don't pay attention to it. But it’s happening..Inevitably, by the time the threat becomes compelling, it’s too late. The small company has taken root, developing the advantages of a lower-cost structure with a simpler, lower-friction product. A new ecosystem has already sprung up around its core offerings. It’s here to stay, and its inroads into the incumbent’s territory can’t be stopped."

Enquanto a empresa da parte I "ataca" o mercado entrando por cima, aytavés da inovação, apelando ao gosto pelo risco dos underserved visionários de Geoffrey Moore, o texto desta parte II refere-se aos que entram por baixo, servindo os overserved, o exemplo clássico de disrupção de Christensen.

"empresas pequenas cheias de ganas de experimentar"

Eis mais um texto sobre as vantagens competitivas das empresas mais pequenas face aos gigantes, "This Company Makes $50 Million a Year Selling
Sexy Orthotics":

"Profoot owes its existence to unconventional products, and its future depends on relentless innovation. "Dr. Scholl's is now owned by Bayer, which is something like an $80 billion company," explains Feldman. Profoot, by contrast, generates less than $50 million in annual revenue, although it turns a profit every year. "It just wouldn't be a very sensible strategy to go head-to-head with them," [Moi ici: A lição de David perante Golias] says Feldman. "I'm sure our entire company is their pencil budget."
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"But we also have tremendous advantages," says Feldman. "We can move much more quickly and come out with a product before their lawyers have figured out whether they can do this or that."
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Often, Dr. Scholl's may not even want to do this or that. Ideas the giant company deems too small to pursue--"interstitial," as Feldman describes them--look like great opportunities to Profoot. "There are plenty of $5 million or $6 million angles we can occupy,"
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In effect, Profoot has built a healthy business in a category dominated by a single giant by trying not to compete with it.
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Profoot innovated not just materials but also the look and packaging of products, based on the mail-order catalog industry's obsession with novelty.
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"I think right now we are clearly the best minds in this category," Feldman says. Alluding to Dr. Scholl's being acquired twice in seven years, he adds, "I don't know how much institutional knowledge is left at the leading brand right now."
Overall, Feldman is bullish. "We have no debt, we have never borrowed a dime, we have more product ideas than we know how to process," he says."

Enquanto lia isto pensava na lengalenga que ouvia na televisão quando era miúdo, e que ainda oiço alguns encalhados recitarem:

"As empresas grandes ficam cada vez mais grandes, só a regulação, só a intervenção do Estado impede os monopólios"

A verdade é que sempre existirão empresas pequenas cheias de ganas de inovar, de experimentar, de servir melhor os clientes e, como efeito secundário, derrubam os gigantes, naturalmente.