Implementação e rigor

"when there is a separation of belief and action, as is frequent in organizations because of delegation, precise implementation has benefits beyond the well-known effect of enabling exploitation of good strategies. It also enables the discovery of better strategies by allowing more effective learning from feedback on the value of current strategies.
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This is because precise implementation solves the attribution problem ... allowing easier rejection of poor strategies (and possibly a search for better ones), as well as making better use of existing good strategies. These two benefits come at the expense of any potential gains from bottom-up exploration that poor implementation might have allowed.
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A second advantage of precise implementation is that it prevents excessive exploration at the aggregate organizational level because of the inadvertent exploration introduced by the imperfect communication of strategy from senior managers to subordinates. If the downward communication process of strategy and upward observation of action is unavoidably noisy, then improving implementation may help to improve organizational performance by reducing what is, in effect, suboptimally excessive exploration. While miscommunication and observation error may seem like two sides of the same coin (as both result from the separation of beliefs and actions), there are fundamental distinctions between the two. Imperfect communication leverages bottom-up exploration, but does not contribute any exploration by itself: it merely “undampens” bottom-up exploration that would have resulted from perfect communication of strategy.
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Observation error, on the other hand, is itself a significant source of exploration for the organization. However, while the effect of miscommunication on the knowledge of the strategist is benign, observation errors introduce biases. The implications is that a strategist who is a great communicator but cannot observe the quality of implementation may be more harmful to the organization than one who is a poor communicator but a good observer of implementation performance, assuming the same imperfect strategy ex ante for both.
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Third, precise implementation also prevents excessive exploration at the organizational level when top managers are also exploring—and indeed this is particularly important when there are observation errors and miscommunication of strategy.
Under these circumstances, there is a strong implementation imperative. Indeed we can say that for the same cost of bottom-up and top-down exploration, top-down exploration (and a strong implementation imperative) is to be preferred rather than vice versa. This is primarily because the communication of strategy is effectively a dampener on bottom-up exploration. These benefits of  implementation as a stimulant to organizational adaptation suggest a rationale for the implementation imperative, in the sense that increasing implementation precision may be useful even with bad initial strategies propounded by the senior managers for each of these reasons. Viewing strategy implementation as a learning process for the strategist thus generates a fundamentally different insight about the value of implementation: unlike the static case, when the intuition says,
“good beliefs, good implementation; bad beliefs, bad implementation”, with learning by the strategist, precise implementation can be useful even with bad beliefs"

Trechos retirados de "The implementation imperative: Why one should implement even imperfect strategies perfectly" de Eucman Lee e Phanish Puranam.

Online conjugado com a economia das experiências (parte IV)

Parte I e parte II e parte III.
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Outro estudo a chamar a atenção para o impacte do online nas embalagens por causa das experiências. "Unwrapping the customer experience"

Curiosidade do dia

"Se o povo se alimentasse de narrativas éramos o país mais obeso do mundo. E se as narrativas significassem prosperidade seríamos o farol das civilizações.
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Tudo, hoje, está reduzido a narrativas. Não há confronto de propostas políticas. Há uma guerra de narrativas.
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Isto está a correr mal ao governo mas também à oposição. Mas sobretudo corre mal ao país, que não vê como vamos sair daqui. E não há guionistas que consigam fazer disto uma boa narrativa porque neste campeonato não há vitórias morais."

Pena que não haja guionistas disponíveis para escrever o lado bom da narrativa. Se a corte de Lesboa quer andar entretida em jogos, se a função pública procura amanhãs que cantam, se os media são prisioneiros da narrativa indutora do cortisol, há, ainda assim, um lado com uma história positiva construído por anónimos:

• um país que aprendeu e habituou-se a competir com os melhores para servir os mercados mais exigentes;
• um país que continua a ganhar quotas de mercado na exportação;
• um país que continua a investir na criação e expansão de empresas exportadoras:
• um país que continua a criar emprego na indústria.

Trechos retirados de "Isto não é um país, é um campeonato de narrativas"

"Granel, Fiambreiras e Rouxinóis"

Eis o título de uma apresentação que vou fazer depois de Agosto, no âmbito de um encontro de empresários abordando os seguintes tópicos:

• A necessidade de fugir do "granel instituído" e evoluir para práticas de gestão mais modernas: segmentação do mercado; diferenciação e especialização; actividade comercial proactiva;
• A necessidade de apostar no marketing para relacionar preço com valor e não com custos; para diferenciar as empresas e ensinar os clientes a comprar;
• A possibilidade de usar as redes sociais como veículo de promoção moderno e económico. Exemplos e objectivos.

Nunca pensei que o título passasse.

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Uma outra alternativa, que não tive coragem de enviar era: "Transsexual, Fiambreiras e Rouxinóis"

A importância de criar etapas proximais

"Error 6: Not Systematically Planning for, and Creating, Short-Term Wins
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Real transformation takes time, and a renewal effort risks losing momentum if there are no short-term goals to meet and celebrate. Most people won’t go on the long march unless they see compelling evidence in 12 to 24 months that the journey is producing expected results. Without short-term wins, too many people give up or actively join the ranks of those people who have been resisting change.
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Creating short-term wins is different from hoping for short-term wins. The latter is passive, the former active. In a successful transformation, managers actively look for ways to obtain clear performance improvements, establish goals in the yearly planning system, achieve the objectives, and reward the people involved with recognition, promotions, and even money.
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Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep the urgency level up and force detailed analytical thinking that can clarify or revise visions."

Uma preocupação antiga no nosso trabalho, transformar sucesso distal numa série de etapas proximais, onde cada uma é uma oportunidade para celebrar o progresso.
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Recordar:

• Uma sucessão de pequenos projectos que produzem resultados rapidamente (Dezembro de 2012)
• Desmascarar mitos (parte IV) (Setembro de 2010) 
• Small Wins (Junho de 2009)
• Fazer a mudança acontecer (parte VII) (Junho de 2009)

A pensar acerca do futuro

3 textos que me põem a pensar acerca do futuro que está a ser construído agora mesmo de forma muito gradual e que ao 100º dia explode e estará em todo lado.

"Num lago há um nenúfar que todos os dias cresce para o dobro do seu tamanho. Se em cem dias cobrir o lago inteiro, quantos dias serão necessários para cobrir metade?"

Primeiro este "Silence on social issues could be the kiss of death for brands, says UN marketing chief". Isto é assumir que nos "social issues" há um lado bom e um lado mau, é assumir um mundo a preto e branco sem tonalidades de cinza. As marcas clássicas que herdámos do século XX apontam para o mercado de massas, apontam para o máximo comum, apontam para o conjunto mais alargado possível de clientes. Isso implica não fazer muitas ondas porque ao cobrir o que um grupo de clientes quer, vai inexoravelmente criar problemas com um grupo oposto que quer exactamente o oposto. Também por isto é que as marcas clássicas estão condenadas a desaparecer, por não poderem tomar partido e por o mercado estar a fragmentar-se num conjunto muito diverso de tribos aguerridas que pactuam cada vez menos com quem não é da sua "cor".
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Segundo, este "LVMH vende marcas Donna Karan e DKNY por 592 milhões".

"O comprador é o grupo G-III Apparel Group e o valor foi de 650 milhões de dólares (592 milhões de euros), incluindo dívida.
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A estilista Donna Karan fundou em 1984 a sua marca de roupa feminina com o marido Stephan Weiss, tendo abandonado a chefia do gabinete de design da companhia no ano passado, para focar-se em projectos como a Urban Zen.
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A companhia G-III é, por seu turno, fabricante industrial de roupa sob insígnias como a Calvin Klein ou Vince Camuto."

Comecei por imaginar uma operação como a compra da marca "Fly London" para subir na escala de valor. No entanto, depois de ver o site da G-III e a quantidade de marcas que fabricam, sinto que é mais um sintoma do hollowing. Carcaças ocas que vivem de glória e nome feito no passado mas que já não têm chama. Outra contribuição para o fim das marcas clássicas.
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Terceiro, este "Procter & Gamble launches direct-to-consumer subscription business" um proprietário de marcas clássicas, habituado a dar plankton aos consumidores ao longo de décadas, tenta mudar de modelo de negócio, tenta fazer o bypass ao retalho físico. Não é mais uma empresa de média dimensão, é só o gigante P&G.

Exemplos

Exemplos de subida na escala de valor.
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Exemplos de segmentação e diferenciação: começar pela escolha dos clientes-alvo e montar mosaico dedicado ao seu serviço.
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Exemplos de paranóia ao serviço dos clientes-alvo.
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Exemplos do Estranhistão a funcionar.

"“O preço foi a decisão mais difícil que tomámos neste projeto”, confessa Maria do Carmo Barbosa, co-proprietária e diretora do hotel. “Mas foi uma escolha acertada, porque trabalhamos com operadores que não discutem preços e temos uma ocupação de 80% entre maio e outubro”, desvenda. Rentabilizar o investimento de três milhões de euros num hotel de luxo não ostensivo significa, para a empresária, uma preocupação constante com os pormenores que ditam o bem-estar dos hóspedes
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Entre maio e setembro, mesmo a 200€ por noite, o hotel está frequentemente esgotado, ainda que a média de ocupação anual ronde apenas 35%. “É rentável”, assegura a diretora, sem desvendar pormenores."

Agora pense no seu negócio, pense na sua empresa ... quem são os seus clientes-alvo? Qual é o seu ecossistema da procura? Qual é a sua proposta de valor? Que investimento faz na interacção e na co-criação de valor? Que mosaico montou para servir o modelo do negócio? Que indicadores utiliza para monitorizar o projecto? Que marketing usa e dirigido a quem?


Trechos retirados de "Turismo a crescer no Norte atrai investimento na hotelaria de luxo"

Curiosidade do dia

"Quanto aos fundos estruturais, o congelamento ficaria dependente do orçamento para 2017: se Bruxelas considerar a proposta credível, a medida não terá nenhum efeito.
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Isto pode ser um problema, já que, de acordo com o El País, a CE está preocupada com a possibilidade de o governo português “continuar a reverter algumas reformas” e que Bruxelas quer ver aprovadas medidas de austeridade na segunda parte do ano."

Trecho retirado de "Bruxelas dá-nos um ano para corrigir o défice. Mas não escapamos à multa"

Pensar acerca do futuro

Agora que ando a escrever um documento para ajudar empresários a pensar acerca da elaboração de cenários hipotéticos para o futuro das suas empresas,  encontro isto:

"The conversation was only possible because it was framed as a discussion about the future. The future is where people can abandon their immediate turf interests and think about new possibilities, new constituencies, things that may be “unthinkable” today. The future is often a “safe place,” maybe the only safe place for highly charged discussions. It is also a place where people can glean a bit from each other’s thinking, unpack each other’s assumptions, and start to build shared understanding, if not compromise.
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People must see themselves as actors in the future. To do that, the abstract future must be made proximate and tangible.
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Our present experiences and environments, including our physical surroundings, influence how we think. They are the filters on our imagination. And on a daily basis we are surrounded mostly by artifacts from the present or the past — buildings, streets, roads, infrastructure that was built decades, sometimes centuries ago. There is rarely anything in our physical environment and day-to-day interactions that gives us tangible and actionable signs of potential futures. For most people, the future is just not a part of their daily experience.
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People need to have a sense of urgent optimism. The future can inspire wonder, awe, and hope.
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Awe, unlike happiness or contentment, is that rare feeling we get when we are in the presence of something vast or great."

Trechos retirados de "The Future as a Way of Life: Alvin Toffler’s Unfinished Business"

Segmentação

"the management of the customer asset can be organized on a customer portfolio level. In the customer portfolio approach each customer is assessed in terms of its value capture contribution. Based on this information, customers are divided into customer portfolios and the customer asset management is designed based on portfolio-level concepts.
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In the proposed framework, each customer is initially assessed in terms of its contribution to value capture, which is measured with economic profit. Based on this information, the customer base of a firm is divided into customer portfolios. Differentiated customer management concepts are then created for each portfolio, with the aim of increasing the total economic profit generation in all customer portfolios. We define customer management concepts as portfolio-specific offerings, which outline both the products and services offered to the customers, as well as the target service level and channels to be used. Thus, the customer management concepts are not limited to any functional domain – and therefore these concepts should be managed cross-functionally. Finally, the customer portfolios’ contribution to the firm-level value capture is assessed, which provides the feedback-loop to individual customer level value capture assessments and portfolio creation.
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The cumulative economic profit contribution analysis is relatively simple: the economic profit contribution of each customer is calculated and customers are ranked in a descending order, placing the customer yielding the largest economic profit for the firm first to the graph, then the second most profitable customer and so forth. The economic profit generated by each customer is added to the cumulative economic profit buildup of the previous customers on the chart in such a way that the graphical illustration ends with the customer yielding the lowest economic profit
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Based on the analysis, three customer portfolios were created and the financial performance of each portfolio was analysed. After this, differentiated customer management concepts were created for each portfolio

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firm should pursue slightly different tactics in each portfolio in order to increase the overall value capture. For portfolio A the firm created a customer management concept called “margin and cash flow maintenance”. The main objective of this concept was to increase the margin and cash flow available from these large-volume customer relationships that already created a considerable positive economic profit. Portfolio B consisted of a large number of small business volume relationships that each individually had an economic profit contribution close to zero. Based on these characteristics, the firm created a customer management concept termed “risk management” for portfolio B. Its objective was to reduce the overall business risks by reducing the interdependencies in the customer base and by using the small-volume customer relationships as a buffer against business cycle variations. For portfolio C, the firm developed a customer management concept termed “capacity optimization”, the objective of which was to use the negative economic profit generating, but large-volume customer relationships to optimize the capacity utilization of the production facilities, thus reducing the average cost level of operations by reducing fixed and capital costs per production unit. The proposed three customer management concepts – i.e. “margin and cash flow maintenance”, “risk management”, and “capacity optimization” – affected directly or indirectly with the main levers of increasing economic profit: increasing operating profit, reducing capital employed, and reducing the weighted average cost of capital."

Trechos retirados de "Management of customer assets for increased value capture in business markets", Suvi Nenonen e Kaj Storbacka, Management Decision Vol. 52 No. 1, 2014

Estratégia e identidade

"It’s astounding how many companies produce a financial plan, customer segmentation document, or financial forecast when you ask to see their strategy. Mission, vision, and values statements are other common stand-ins. But although all of these things are important, they aren’t a strategy, and they’re insufficient for defining who a company is to its market, relative to its competitive set. Worst of all, these companies let their identity be formed by whichever customers buy the most product. Executives in midcaps sometimes think their companies are too small to do in-depth strategy work — but they think this at their peril."

Trecho retirado de "Midsize Companies Shouldn’t Confuse Growth with Scaling"

Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos (parte IV)

Parte I, parte II e parte III.
"The Three Steps to Create Great Value Communications
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Step 2: Make Your Benefit Segment-Specific
... homogeneity is one of the biggest wrong assumptions you can make in your new product design. Your customers are different. The same value messages are not likely to work for all of your customer segments. You should tailor your value messages to the needs of each segment.

Recordar daqui:

Trecho retirado de "Monetizing Innovation"

Curiosidade do dia

A propósito de "Estado contrata um quarto das obras públicas com desconto superior a 30%".
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Que falta faz um pouco de jornalismo de investigação.
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Estas obras tiveram mais acidentes do que as outras?
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Estas obras tiveram mais derrapagens temporais da responsabilidade das empresas do que as outras?
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Estas obras tiveram mais intervenções após a entrega do que as outras?
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Este texto é só um megafone das preocupações dos que perderam os concursos. O que afirmam pode ser verdade ou mentira, faltam os dados.

O paradoxo central

"Business prizes being able to put prices on things and to know their value ahead of time. Yet, if you are inventing point B—in any area of life—you can’t know the outcome at the moment you have to invest money, time, and effort in the point-A world.
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This is the central paradox of business: The core assumptions of economics—efficiency, productivity, and knowable value—work best when an organization is at cruising altitude, but they won’t get the plane off the ground in the first place. That is to say, the history of business—the way we got here—follows from the kind of creative and open-ended work that the structure of business makes hard.
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companies can grow by two means. They can grow by scaling up to the most efficient level of production. Or they can grow artistically by the alchemy of invention."

Trechos retirados de "Art Thinking" de Amy Whitaker

Tanto dinheirinho em cima da mesa

"We find that managers use quite simple procedures, or routines, to set their prices. More complex methods, such as non-linear pricing, or bundling, are not really used in practice. If traditional methods still prevail, like cost-plus for example, managers in big companies in France seem to rely heavily on neutral pricing, to match competitors’ prices. We attribute this finding to potential price rigidity, i.e. the fear of taking the price leadership in a low market growth rate context, or of starting a price war.
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Our results show the capacity of a limited set of companies to fully take advantage of their pricing power, in other words to transform a favourable position on key pricing indicators by capturing value through a premium price. However, the vast majority of surveyed companies relied extensively on competitive factors when deciding on a specific pricing orientation, and aligned prices despite favourable environmental conditions. This observation is a form of nearsightedness, or pricing myopia, that we could describe following Levitt (1960) not as an unfavourable market context but rather as the failure of decision making, i.e. management.
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The vast majority of determinants of pricing strategies are related to competition (price levels, relative quality, differentiation, cost advantage) showing that companies’ strategic orientations regarding pricing in our study are defined mainly by their competitors and/or the market prices
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When firms use more sophisticated techniques (nonlinear pricing, bundling) to capture additional value through their pricing decisions, their choices are driven by market/product dynamics such as market growth rate or elasticity.
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Finally, the key drivers of price premium are differentiation and inelasticity, showing that firms tend to overestimate competitors’ reactions when setting their pricing policies and should focus on basic indicators."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing myopia: do leading companies capture the full value of their pricing strategies?", Manu Carricano , (2014), Management Decision, Vol. 52 Iss 1 pp. 159 - 178

O banhista gordo e o low-cost

A propósito de "Is China Stealing Jobs? It May Be Losing Them, Instead":

"In today’s China, however, workers face a more troubled outlook than Mr. Trump suggests. They are losing their jobs because of a slowing domestic economy, rising costs and stiffer foreign competition — including from the United States.
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Presidential candidates “are screaming about yesterday’s problems,” said Jim McGregor, chairman of the consulting firm APCO Worldwide’s Greater China operations. “Manufacturing for export is getting harder and harder” in China.
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China’s labor market has changed sharply in recent years.
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pushed wages for Chinese factory workers higher. Their monthly pay now averages $424, 29 percent more than just three years ago, the Japan External Trade Organization has estimated. Labor costs in China are now significantly higher than in many other emerging economies. Factory workers in Vietnam earn less than half the salary of a Chinese worker, while those in Bangladesh get paid under a quarter as much."

Chegados aqui, para os que acreditam na transferência da produção low-cost da China para o Vietname ou para a Indonésia, recordo:

• O efeito do "banhista gordo" (Fevereiro de 2013)
• Lembram-se do "banhista gordo"? (Fevereiro de 2014)

Vai ser cada vez mais difícil encontrar capacidade suficiente para a produção low-cost. 

BTW, não é só a produção, são os portos, a logística, os fluxos de matéria-prima, a moeda estável, a estabilidade política ... não vai ser fácil.

Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos (parte III)

Parte I.
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Qual o problema do passo 1?
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O meu problema é com a figura da parte I

A colocação de cada benefício na matriz da vantagem competitiva depende de quem são os clientes-alvo. E a escolha dos clientes-alvo determina o grupo de concorrentes com que uma empresa trabalha. Uma empresa que serve clientes-gourmet não tem a concorrência das empresas que servem os clientes da distribuição grande.
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Consideremos a escala

Consideremos que os concorrentes são independentes do tipo de clientes-alvo:

Uma empresa compara-se com os seus concorrentes. Por exemplo, a figura ilustra o caso de uma empresa que não é competitiva nos custos unitários mas é muito competitiva a nível de prazos de entrega e de customização.
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Agora consideremos a importância para os clientes:

Em vez de pensar genericamente nos clientes, uma empresa deve pensar nos seus clientes-alvo. Se a empresa quiser competir pelo preço mais baixo, ou seja, competir com a China nos custos:

A empresa não tem hipótese de servir com vantagem competitiva este tipo de clientes.
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A mesma empresa, ao pensar em servir os clientes da gama média-alta, situou-se desta forma na matriz (não resistimos a manter a comparação com os concorrentes porque têm de ser diferentes)

Aqui verifica-se que a empresa tem uma série de benefícios na zona das vantagens competitivas ao tentar servir este tipo de clientes.
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E servir os clientes do fast-fashion?

Assim fica explicado o meu problema com o passo 1 de "Monetizing Innovation". Só faz sentido fazer a matriz da vantagem competitiva para um tipo específico de clientes-alvo.

Curiosidade do dia

"IN the mid-1980s, a University of Arizona surgery professor, Marlys H. Witte, proposed teaching a class entitled “Introduction to Medical and Other Ignorance.” Her idea was not well received; at one foundation, an official told her he would rather resign than support a class on ignorance.
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Dr. Witte was urged to alter the name of the course, but she wouldn’t budge. Far too often, she believed, teachers fail to emphasize how much about a given topic is unknown.
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Classes like hers remain rare, but in recent years scholars have made a convincing case that focusing on uncertainty can foster latent curiosity, while emphasizing clarity can convey a warped understanding of knowledge.
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many scientific facts simply aren’t solid and immutable, but are instead destined to be vigorously challenged and revised by successive generations. Discovery is not the neat and linear process many students imagine, but usually involves, in Dr. Firestein’s phrasing, “feeling around in dark rooms, bumping into unidentifiable things, looking for barely perceptible phantoms.” By inviting scientists of various specialties to teach his students about what truly excited them — not cold hard facts but intriguing ambiguities — Dr. Firestein sought to rebalance the scales.
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People tend to think of not knowing as something to be wiped out or overcome, as if ignorance were simply the absence of knowledge. But answers don’t merely resolve questions; they provoke new ones."

Relacionar com esta história "How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology"

Trechos retirados de "The Case for Teaching Ignorance"

Até ao próximo ano, já estou com saudades

O melhor do Tour 2016:

1. As 4 vitórias de Cavendish
2. A amarela de Cavendish
3. A vitória final de Froome
4. A combatividade de Rui Costa
5. O retorno de Herman

Para reflexão