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

É isto, sem tirar nem pôr!

"Big ideas loom every bit as large in successful B2B strategies. Take Crown Cork Seal, once the most profitable and innovative company in an industry — metal containers — dominated by much larger companies. In the early 1960s, Crown’s CEO, John F. Connelly, had the big idea of retooling the company to focus on filling special orders for smaller customers. Instead of going head to head with larger competitors for national customers — such as Miller Brewing Company — with huge orders enabling long, low-cost production runs, Crown became a “short run” specialist.
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Connelly crafted a coherent strategy to bring his idea to economic life that included rapid-response rush orders, high levels of technical assistance, holding inventory for customers, and carrying excess production capacity — all of which went against the grain of accepted wisdom in an industry where success depended on minimizing costs. He bet on being able to charge higher prices by serving smaller customers with far less bargaining power, [Moi ici: Para mim é mais do que uma questão de bargaining power, é uma questão valor criado percepcionado por esse tipo de clientes] and, as Richard Rumelt describes in , it worked. Within a decade, Crown was generating more profit than any other company in its industry, even without having the most revenue. But the big idea lasted only as long as the CEO’s tenure, which ended in 1990. Connelly’s successor shifted to a “strategy” of growth through acquisition. Seven years later, after completing 20 acquisitions, Crown was the world’s largest container manufacturer. But it had lost its distinctive approach and had not found a new one. By 2006, it was one of the industry’s least-profitable players."

Trecho retirado de "What is Your Strategy’s Big Idea?"

Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos (parte II)

E voltando a "Monetizing Innovation" e ao conselho "Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos":

"The Three Steps to Create Great Value Communications
Step 1: Develop Crystal-Clear Benefit Statements—Not Feature Descriptions
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A company that excels at value communications articulates its products' benefits in meaningful terms to customers. This is not about describing product features. A feature belongs to the product; a benefit belongs to the customer. Value is a measure of the benefit to the customer. Communicate benefits, not features. Take each feature and ask yourself this: What does the customer achieve because of this feature? If you are still unsure about how to phrase your product's benefits, probe your customers about their pain points and how your product would solve them.
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To be more specific, when you create a value message, you should determine the customer purchasing criteria and how your product or service might perform on those criteria compared to existing alternatives. Such information can be captured in a 2 x 2 matrix that we call the matrix of competitive advantages, or MOCA for short. (See Figure 10.4 for an example.) 

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The benefits your product delivers that are most important to customers and that competitors can't match (top right quadrant) are the ones to emphasize in your sales and marketing messages." 

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Qual o problema com este passo 1?

Curiosidade do dia

"Mário Centeno enerva camaradas do governo" 

.

Só agora?!!!

BTW

Menos o último. Esses é que não pode ser. pic.twitter.com/EuMskgYvvn

— jcd (@jcaetanodias) July 23, 2016

A ideia é um resultado, não um começo

"Every great strategy stands on the shoulders of a big idea. History is littered with once-extraordinary companies that became mediocre when their strategies drifted away from the big ideas that made them great, or when their once-big ideas lost their commercial punch."

Este é o pensamento que aprendi a não seguir quando trabalho com uma PME no desenvolvimento de uma estratégia: Não começamos pela ideia, começamos pelo que já existe e funciona e procuramos a ideia que pode ser extraída e refinada. Mesmo quando uma PME tem resultados negativos é possível encontrar uma gama de produtos/serviços/clientes que funciona com resultados positivos.
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Recordar:

• "analisamos os meios que temos e imaginamos futuros possíveis" (Abril de 2015)
• Estratégia e pontos fortes, o ovo ou a galinha (Setembro de 2015)
• Do concreto para o abstracto e não o contrário (Outubro de 2015)
• Vantagem é uma classificação subjectiva (Fevereiro de 2016) 

Trecho retirado de "What is Your Strategy’s Big Idea?"

"We find our way by getting lost." (parte II)

Parte I.
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Relacionar com este texto de Mintzberg:

"not so fast: there’s a slower and sometimes more sensible way to make decisions. I call it doing first. I’ll leave how that works in finding a mate to your imagination. Suffice it to say that when you’re not sure how to proceed—often the case in making decisions big and small—then you will just have to do, in order to think, instead of thinking, in order to do. You try something in a limited way to see if it might work, and if it doesn’t, you try something else until you find what work. [Moi ici: Ou seja, quando não há mapa, o melhor é fuçar! Somos o que fuçamos! Humildade como a dos ratinhos no "Quem mexeu no meu queijo".] Start small to learn big.
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So, have you an important decision to make? Good. Hold those thoughts! Look around! Do something! Then you may find yourself thinking differently."[Moi ici: "A caminhada acaba por alterar o mundo, acaba por alterar-nos e por alterar a nossa percepção sobre esse mundo. Então, uma nova iteração terá de ter lugar."]

BTW, recordo a leitura de um artigo científico numa revista de biologia acerca da relação entre a génese do pensamento e a necessidade de movimentação.  

Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos

"You've designed a great product. It answers a market need. You did extensive work to determine the right monetization model, and you developed a winning pricing strategy. Now it's time to let your customers know about your product. For a successful launch, your marketing and sales teams must be strong in communicating and selling the value of your product to customers. As management guru Peter Drucker once said: "Customers don't buy products. They buy the benefits that these products and their suppliers offer to them."
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It sounds easy, but consider this: You have thought about your innovation for months or even years. You know the product inside and out. However, a salesperson may only have 10 minutes with the customer. Your customer might stay on your website only for five minutes. An advertisement may only run for 15 seconds. That marketing message. that sales pitch, and that ad must clearly articulate the value to customers in a very short period of time. If they don't, the would-be customer runes out. How can you maximize your acquisition success? You need to start by articulating benefits—not features—and focus on the most important ones. You need to speak the customer's language, not your language. Finally, you need to get your marketing and sales teams involved early in the product development process. 

Comunicar benefícios em vez de atributos não é fácil. Recordar:

• Old Miths Die Hard... (Outubro de 2010)
• É a experiência de uso na vida dos clientes, não as especificações (Novembro de 2011)
• Muito cuidado com a escolha dos clientes-alvo (Agosto de 2012)

Trecho retirado de "Monetizing Innovation"

Sinais

Sinal dos tempos e da evolução demográfica em curso "New social travel club exclusively for over 50s"

Sim - porque são a única geração com guita para poupar pic.twitter.com/BTvNsO6qe7

— PBM (@pedroboucherie) July 22, 2016

Recordar "Spray maritimo que precede o splash da onda" e "Curiosidade do dia"

Curiosidade do dia

"Durante quatro anos, entre 2011 e 2015, todas as culpas em Portugal foram do governo de Passos Coelho. Sócrates chamou a troika? Não importava: a culpa era de Passos. E agora, dez meses depois, de quem são as culpas? Pois ainda e sempre de Passos. Os bancos estremecem?

A comissão europeia ameaça com sanções? É culpa de Passos, por mais que os comissários em Bruxelas expliquem, no caso das sanções, que tudo depende do presente governo tomar as providências necessárias.
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Ontem, constou que Costa estava preocupado. Depois, constou que não estava. Não sei se está ou não. Também não sei se o governo vai conseguir enrolar a Europa. Talvez consiga. Mas o que não vai é tornar Portugal um melhor lugar para trabalhar e investir. E sem isso, tudo se esfumará um dia, quando o BCE acabar com o dinheiro barato. Dir-me-ão: será como em 2011. Passos Coelho terá de vir limpar a casa, e lá ficará outra vez com as culpas. O próprio Passos, no conselho nacional do PSD de quarta-feira, ter-se-ia muito cristãmente conformado com esse destino. Mas acontece que o mundo já não é o mesmo de 2011, a Europa não é a mesma, nem Portugal é o mesmo. A paciência de Passos para fazer o que já fez, como o personagem de Bill Murray em Groundhog Day, pode-nos induzir em erro: o erro dos pessimistas que são optimistas sem o saber"

Recordo esta outra Curiosidade do dia.

Trechos retirados de "A culpa? Fica para o próximo governo de Passos"

E o ponto de vista dos clientes?

Ao longo dos anos tenho escrito sobre o tema aqui no blogue:

• Será que os estudiosos viajam de autocarro? (Janeiro de 2007)
• Observar é melhor que perguntar (Junho de 2011)
• Get out of the building (Dezembro de 2011)

Recordo o tema por causa disto "Hospital Bosses Eat Hospital Food For A Week, Then Revamp Its Entire Food System":

"After receiving a complaint about terrible food from the wife of a former patient, the managers and CEO of the Ottawa General Hospital spent a week eating hospital food. They hated it as much as the patient did, so they did something about it.
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This story makes one wonder how many other services might be improved if only the bosses were forced to use them. The tech sector has a term for making its employees use their own products—"eating your own dog food.""

E na sua empresa, como é?
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Conseguem experienciar a jornada, os pontos de contacto entre os clientes e a sua empresa?

Acerca do desemprego

Desenvolvimentos interessantes na evolução do desemprego medido pelo IEFP em 2016.
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Depois de nos três primeiros meses do ano o desemprego ter aumentado, algo só visto recentemente no ano de 2012, o segundo trimestre voltou a fazer reduzir o desemprego.

Já agora, um ponto interessante. entre Janeiro Junho de 2015 e Janeiro Junho de 2016 mais de 71% da queda do desemprego foi no grupo "Indústria, energia e água e construção" que representa apenas 27% de todo o desemprego. Ou seja, o grosso da queda do desemprego ocorre no sector secundário. Por exemplo, o sector dos serviços com o maior número de desempregados, "Actividades imobiliárias, administrativas e dos serviços de apoio" viu o desemprego crescer cerca de 3% em termos homólogos.

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A evolução total de desempregados, com a inversão da tendência iniciada há um ano:

Quanto à evolução homóloga (a azul) e mensal (a castanho):

Confesso que esperava um melhor desempenho homólogo do sector "Alojamento, restauração e similares" que apenas baixou 3,7% o número de desempregados inscritos.

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Interessante ver como sem obras públicas mas muitas pequenas obras de reconstrução e reparação o desemprego na construção caiu em termos homólogos quase 15%. Saliente que nas últimas semanas me tenho surpreendido, ao visitar aldeias do interior, algumas sem rede de telemóvel, nos concelhos de Góis e Arganil, com a quantidade de casas reconstruídas. Não é um fenómeno restrito a Porto e Lisboa.

Correcção feita às 12h48

Mais do que evidências, persistência!

"For the rest of us, though, the flip isn't something that happens at the first glance or encounter with new evidence.
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This doesn't mean the evidence doesn't matter.
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It means that we're bad at admitting we were wrong.
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Bad at giving up one view of the world to embrace the other.
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Mostly, we're bad at abandoning our peers, our habits and our view of ourselves.
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If you want to change people's minds, you need more than evidence. You need persistence. And empathy. And mostly, you need the resources to keep showing up, peeling off one person after another, surrounding a cultural problem with a cultural solution."

Trecho retirado de "The flip is elusive"

Underserved ou overserved?

A propósito de "Subir na escala de valor" e destes comentários:

"[Moi ici: Outra vez a disrupção? Agora a servir os underserved, ou os overserved? Talvez esta categorização aqui não funcione tão facilmente] "Consumers are embracing gadgets that do one thing well," said Hiromi Yamaguchi, an analyst at Euromonitor in Tokyo. "Larger appliance makers are selling products with too many functions, and not a lot of people use them."[Moi ici: "too many functions" parece significar overserved. No entanto, a substituição é não por um produto inferior que faz bem uma coisa, mas por um produto superior que faz bem uma coisa, e isso é "underserved"]"

Um artigo bem interessante, "Diagnosing Dislocation":

"Imagine that you run a large company, prominent in its industry, with a loyal customer base and strong profit margins. Suddenly, a new product comes along that threatens your existence.
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new products and services can enter your market from other directions, each distinct in terms of how, where, and when it affects your business. These are market dislocations — radical breakaways from the existing market that occur when a company introduces a business model or a product that sits apart from those of competitors.
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Then, of course, there are bottom-up dislocations, or disruptions.
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incumbents need to recognize the distinctions among the various types of dislocations they may face. Disruptors typically first go after nonusers or the least profitable low-end customers. Only later do the disruptors start capturing an incumbent’s core customers.
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New entrants coming from the side or from the top, meanwhile, go after an incumbent’s core customers right away — thus presenting a more immediate threat."

Curiosidade do dia

Está na altura de jogar a carta do inocente, do cândido, do mártir para enganar os papalvos:

• António Costa pessimista em reunião com deputados
• Deputados do PS receiam precipitação de eleições antecipadas
• Carta que Governo enviou a Bruxelas está "mal escrita"
• Dívida pública aumenta para 238 mil milhões
• Curiosidade do dia

Produtividade e gestão

"We turn to a long-standing question in economics, stretching back to at least Walker (1887), of how much of the variation in national and firm performance can be accounted for by di erences in management practices?
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Overall, on average 30% of the cross country gap in TFP appears to be management related. This fraction varies a lot between countries. In general we account for a smaller fraction of the TFP gap between the U.S. and low income countries like Zambia (6.2%), Ghana (9.7%), and Tanzania (12%), which is likely to be because these countries have much greater problems than just management quality. We account for a larger fraction of the TFP gap between the U.S. and richer countries like Sweden (43.9%), Italy (48.9%) and France (52.3%). Figure A4 graphically illustrates this, showing that more developed countries have a higher share of their TFP gap accounted for by di erences in management.
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Economists, business people and many policymakers have long believed that management practices are an important element in productivity."

Trechos retirados de "Management as a Technology?" de Nicholas Bloom; Raffaella Sadun e John Van Reenen. HBS Working Paper 16-133

Pre conceitos

Ontem de manhã no programa "O mundo ao ouvido" na rádio Antena 1 ouvi uma conversa banal sobre como nós humanos imitamos os sons dos animais. Ás tantas a conversa era como a imitação difere de língua para língua. Um francês, um japonês, um indiano, um português todos proferem sons diferentes ao imitar o mesmo galo, o mesmo gato, o mesmo cão.
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Então, Helena Matos faz uma afirmação que não mais me abandonou durante o dia. Ela recordou aquela estória:

• Quantas palavras usamos em português para falar de neve? Neve; gelo; granizo; saraiva; geada; ...
• Quantas dezenas de palavras têm os suecos e os noruegueses quando querem falar de neve? Já ouvi dizer que têm mais de 40 palavras.

Porque estamos numa dada realidade habituamos-nos a olhar para ela de uma dada maneira e assumimos, sem intervenção consciente, uma série de preconceitos, para facilitar a interpretação dessa realidade. Por isso, não reparamos no novo penteado da nossa cara metade.

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O que inferi das palavras de Helena Matos e acho fascinante, é que faremos o mesmo com os sons. Habituamos-nos a certos sons e tornamos-nos especialistas neles. Por falta de uso, em relação a outros sons, ou não os ouvimos, ou não os percepcionamos. Depois, perante uma mesma realidade, o cantar de um galo, diferentes pessoas de diferentes origens linguísticas ouvem e replicam coisas diferentes.

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Fascinante.

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E carreador de sentimentos de humildade...

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Diferentes experiências de vida, diferentes formas de ver o mundo. 

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Claro que o mundo é só um, no fim, sobrevivem os que têm melhores explicações... porque há os que nunca aprendem com o teste do ácido.

"you are left with one choice"

"Is your business “playing to win” or "just playing to play"
...
He says good strategy starts with making the very difficult choices about what your business chooses to do and what it chooses not to do. These choices need to focus on how best to differentiate your business in a competitive marketplace.
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Entrepreneurs often kick the can down the road on making these types of hard decisions because they fear that their strategic choices may be incorrect. Or the choices may negatively impact the bottom line, especially in the short run.
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Your business cannot be all things to all people. If you don’t make choices on what markets you will serve, you won’t have an effective strategy. As Martin emphasized during his talk, “being the same as others or ‘just playing to play’ is a recipe for mediocrity.”
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He believes it’s important to remember some business basics. Enterprises compete in one of two ways ­— either by being the cost leader, or by differentiating your product or service. Since a small business typically isn’t a cost leader in their industry, you are left with one choice."[Moi ici: Uma outra forma de dizer que a estratégia do custo não é para quem quer, é para quem pode]

Depois, o resto do texto é sobre a técnica de Roger Martin para avaliar estratégias.
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E a sua empresa ... tem uma estratégia?


Trechos retirados de "Good small business strategy begins with hard choices"

E porque não somos plankton (parte VII)

E porque não somos plankton (parte VI)

"Understanding why Dollar Shave Club was cheap means understanding why its blades are cheap, and understanding that means understanding just how precarious the position of P&G specifically and incumbents generally are in the emerging Internet economy.
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For their part, Unilever is fortunate they don’t have a shaving business to protect, because being an incumbent is going to increasingly be the worst place to be. Dollar Shave Club’s motto may be “Shave Money Shave Time,” but just how many shareholders and policy makers are prepared for the shaving of value that this acquisition suggests is coming sooner rather than later?"

Uma conclusão que espelha uma reflexão feita neste blogue há muitos anos. Mongo não é um lugar bom para os gigantes, Mongo não é um bom lugar para os incumbentes. Incumbentes rimam bem com mass-market e mal com tribos aguerridas.
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Só em 2016, escrevemos:

• Mongo não é um mundo gigantes-friendly (parte III)
• Decididamente Mongo não é para gigantes
• Acerca do futuro dos gigantes
• Mongo é uma espécie de final Cretáceo para os gigantes
• Acerca de Mongo
• Isto é poesia para quem acredita na vantagem de Mongo para as PME

Qual o perigo para a Unilever? Recordar "Quando Golias compra um David"

Trechos retirados de "Dollar Shave Club and The Disruption of Everything"

Curiosidade do dia

Há dias escrevemos:

estes etnocêntricos estão mesmo a proíbir q a comunidade cigana de Estarreja deixe de poder usar carroças? https://t.co/2ysDs1Vo4h

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) July 15, 2016

Esta manhã num aldeia do concelho de Arganil vi alguns desses criminosos, segundo o PAN:

Parolos da cidade que não conhecem nem o país nem o que é a vida real.

Para reflexão

- É a vida!

Frase que pode ser proferida quando um incumbente bem gerido (em termos de exploitation) é "eliminado" do mercado por um disruptor.
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E quando um incumbente mal gerido, como a CGD, por exemplo, está tão concentrado a tentar sobreviver às consequências dos erros passados, os exageros do tempo das vacas gordas, que nem se foca na disrupção em curso?

"European banks need to drastically transform their business models to become sustainably profitable and earn their costs of equity. This report raises serious questions about the sustainability of current banking business models and offers three innovative strategic options for what traditional banks could become: platform banks, digital banks, or OEM banks — streamlined banks that emulate original equipment manufacturers.
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Our team recently studied 46 European banks and found that only 10 achieved a positive economic spread in 2015, thereby earning their costs of equity. The remaining banks in our study showed significant gaps in profitability. Overall, the European financial institutions we studied accumulated an earnings shortfall of €110 billion (US$125 billion).
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Platform banks: [Moi ici: Proposta de valor - Serviço] This model would be marked by open infrastructures and the assimilation of products from competitors and financial technology companies into a bank’s own offerings. The core competencies of platform banks would include customer relationship management and the anticipation of client needs, along with the maintenance of open product infrastructures. Digital banks: [Moi ici: Proposta de valor - Inovação] This model is characterized by extensive digitization of customer service as well as all downstream and back-office processes. Inspired by the product development approach of emerging technology companies, digital banks would be in a position to rapidly and efficiently respond to changes in customer or regulatory demands. OEM banks: [Moi ici: Proposta de valor - Preço] This model, inspired by automakers, calls for lean banks distinguished by a low degree of vertical integration. The traditional value chain would be dissolved and efficiency maximized by the integration of external vendors. Although no traditional bank has yet made the full transition to any of these new models, there are signs that some institutions are moving in."

Trechos retirados de "Strategy & European Banking Outlook 2016: It's time to radically rethink business models"

Online conjugado com a economia das experiências (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

"Millennials prefer to spend their money on experiences, not the apparel that is Macy's bread and butter.
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The younger generation does buy clothes, but when they do, it's often in the form of something quick, cheap, and fast.
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And as Jason Dorsey, cofounder and millennials expert at The Center for Generational Kinetics, told Business Insider, they're so prone to spending money on experiences that they often rent clothes and jewelry, which is a death knell to apparel retailers.
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Since experiences take a great share of young people's finite wallets, someone has to lose out.
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" From a retailer perspective, the entire shopping experience literally needs to be an experience, not a commodity," Dorsey said. "This may seem obvious, but in practice it’s much harder to do, especially for department stores. For retailers integrating things like live music, exclusive events, digital gaming, and the unexpected — such as an impromptu fashion show — is what transforms retail shopping into an experience."
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These experiences could be gourmet-food tastings on Saturday, film a YouTube TV show on-site and invite shoppers to participate, and even bring samples of brands or designs that they’re considering bringing in and let customers vote," Dorsey said.
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"The key is to be unexpected and involve millennial shoppers — and the best part is it doesn’t even have to do with clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, housewares, or perfume. You could literally have a day where you’re showcasing local artisans in a common area and asking them to invite all their friends and vote for the winner. Getting department stores integrated into the community is what makes experiences take root and become something people look forward to and want to visit."
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In February, retail expert Warren Shoulberg posited that putting restaurants in stores — a strategy that's older than 100 years — could potentially save the ailing American retail industry.
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"Those first merchants of retailing knew what today’s generation is having to relearn: that retail stores are more than a place to buy stuff,"[Moi ici: Recordar "O poder do contexto" aqui é pôr a loja no contexto da sua utilização]
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"There is no reason, however, they could not integrate more experience like beauty services, dining, fashion shows, etc. John Lewis department stores in the UK are model for this: they’ve teamed up with third party dining brands, invested in new in-store services and experiences and have thrived as a result," Saunders wrote. "What’s lacking from mainstream US department stores is any sense of imagination – and it shows on the shop floor!""

Trechos retirados de "Millennials only want to spend money on one thing — and it's killing Macy's"

"value pricing ... is about customizing an outcome for your client"

"Before you can change to value pricing, however, you must first understand the relationship between value and what you are selling,[Moi ici: O que vendemos é um recurso, um instrumento, uma ponte para chegar ao resultado pretendido]
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remember that in any interaction or relationship with a client, there has also got to be a profit for the client. The total value you create then is your value and the client’s value together.
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often the client doesn’t know fully what they value - what they want, in other words. Your role is to help them see what else they need, beyond their compliance requirements. You are opening the client’s mind, finding the things they care about, looking for triggers. This way you can increase the value you offer, and the price then just follows the value.
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“Value changes, and it changes based on time, place, location and what outcome customers are seeking.” [Moi ici: Daí a importância das tribos e de fazer crescer o cliente, educar o cliente, integrá-lo numa constelação de relações, sinais, significados] In other words, value is related to the context of the situation at hand, and therefore, a focus on value provides the opportunity to drive pricing higher.
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value pricing requires pricing the customer, and not just the service or product. With that in mind, you are intentionally slowing down the sales process to explore the customer’s wants, desires and outcomes (rather than just their needs) in order to sell an expectation of future results.
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value pricing is not about efforts, hours and activities, but is about customizing an outcome for your client [Moi ici: Precioso!] while sharing risk to identify and agree on the real value for your services."

Trechos retirados de "Price Services More Effectively with Value Pricing"

 

Mongo e código na indústria química

A propósito de "Mais um exemplo de onde o "é meter código nisso" pode chegar, "Industry 4.0 and the chemicals industry":

"The initial momentum of Industry 4.0 in the chemicals industry is primarily at the level of business operations, mainly due to the abundance of historical sensor data collected by chemicals companies over the years.8 The long-term potential for business growth applications promises to be equally, if not more, transformational, but those applications take time to develop.
...

...

Curiosidade do dia

A propósito de "Afinal, a bonificação no ISP não chega a todas as empresas" e "Quem pode ter bonificação no ISP?", este ponto de partida:

É preciso afinar um pouco a coisa mas o principal está lá.

Mongo e a autencidade da imperfeição

"Humanity is our ultimate competitive advantage" via @Oxford_Review @gapingvoid pic.twitter.com/sAxkcgc840

— Helen Bevan (@helenbevan) July 17, 2016

Relacionar com:

• Acerca da automatização dos postos de trabalho (Março de 2015)
• "Pensado e fabricado por humanos, de carne e osso" (Janeiro de 2015)

Relacionar com "Perfectly imperfect & the art of making a connection":

"To be human is to be imperfect. Yes, we expect absolute perfection and precision when it comes to things like airplanes, automobiles, or the engineering behind the bridge we drive across everyday. And people naturally assume that the products they purchase will perform to at least the standard advertised. But with aspects of life that require a degree of human expressiveness, absolute perfection is not only impossible to produce, it usually would not lead to better results even if it were.
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people prefer listening to the sound of a human playing a musical piece—even though the human-created version had tiny errors—over that of a computer perfectly playing the same piece.
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When it's live, stuff happens. That's life. Relax, you are only human. If Sir Paul can make mistakes, you can too. Besides, people do not want your perfection, they yearn to see your humanity."

Ofertas antigas e mercados novos

"In The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen explains how incumbents actually pay a high price for actually doing a great job and constantly improving their technological offerings and creating overserved consumers.
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Nonetheless, entrepreneurs looking to create a disruptive new business should not overlook underleveraged old technologies that just need a new use, and a new business model, to remain valuable.
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Importantly, note how the basis of competition for Piql is functionality and reliability, not convenience or affordability. In this, Piql might look more like what today’s incumbents looked like when they started rather than a classical disruptor. Disruptors often do compete on convenience and affordability — the more affordable steel produced by minimills, for example, or the more convenient movie-delivery method of Netflix. Convenience and affordability are both important elements of disruption in existing markets where some customers are over-served, or you are trying to expand to non-consumers.
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But to create new markets, disruptive entrepreneurs often overlook the possibility of emphasizing a different criteria. New-market disruptions go much further than incorporating non-consumers into an industry. They actually create a new nascent industry where before there was nothing, or just a few offerings that did not do the job very well. [Moi ici: Não consigo deixar de recordar o exemplo da artesã de Bragança, ou o denim japonês, ou o burel de Manteigas, ou ... ] And in this case, the basis of competition mostly favor functionality and reliability – these are usually the attributes of old technologies."

Recordar:

• Subir na escala da abstracção (parte II) (Dezembro de 2015)
• Autenticidade e empreendedorismo (Setembro de 2015)
• O que me fascina é a mudança (Maio de 2015)
• Não mudar de produto, mudar de mercado. Um exemplo (Fevereiro de 2015)
• Mais um exemplo positivo (Novembro de 2014)
• Mudar de prateleira, mudar de mercado, mudar de significado (Junho de 2014)
• A ironia da derrota do eficientismo (Abril de 2014)
• Outro exemplo de decomoditização (Janeiro de 2014)
• É exactamente o mesmo desafio da artesã (Dezembro de 2013)
• Uma perspectiva interessante (Fevereiro de 2013)
• Pós-geografia (Fevereiro de 2013)

Trechos retirados de "When Old Technologies Create New Industries"

Só os monopólios informais permitem "pricing power" genuíno

"“The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power,” Buffett told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in an interview released by the panel last week. “If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business.”
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“If you have a really dominant position you can survive for quite a long time with bad management but eventually it will catch up to you,” [Moi ici: Como não pensar logo na PT ou no BES] said Hermalin. “In the short run I would agree with Buffett but in the longer-run perspective there is something to be said for having a good manager.”

Retirando os abomináveis casos dos monopólios formais, estatais ou protegidos pelos estados, só os monopólios informais, baseados na concorrência imperfeita, permitem "pricing power" genuíno: o Evangelho do Valor!

Trechos retirados de "Buffett Says Pricing Power More Important Than Good Management"

Outro exemplo de subida na escala de valor

"When Cabot Hosiery launched in Northfield in 1978, it brought new life and new jobs to an area that, 100 years earlier, had thrived on sheep herding and woolen mills. In the early 2000s, Cabot, too, was expiring when the founder's son, Ric Cabot, stepped up with an idea. Formerly a private-label supplier for big fashion brands, the family business would itself become a brand--one that stood for performance, American manufacturing, and quality so high the company would back it with a lifetime guarantee.
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"I came up with the name Darn Tough because I thought we were darn tough if we could survive," says Ric Cabot. (The name is also, of course, an elegant pun.)
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Darn Tough has done more than just survive. It has demonstrated the appeal of small-state manufacturing and consumers' willingness to pay more for domestically produced goods. [Moi ici: A conjugação da autenticidade com o desempenho. Acredito que é uma dupla capaz de milagres, criadora de "You're talking about complementarities to the bottle of wine ... each and every product should link to something that complements it ... experiences, stories."] The $40 million business sells nearly 5 million pairs of socks a year. Hikers, bikers, skiers, and, yes, hunters buy them. So does every branch of the military services. "You can't pay for that kind of advertising," says Marc Cabot, Ric's father and the founder of Cabot. "Our brand has become a cult brand."
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Sherman, who personally owns 40 pairs, says his customers like Darn Tough's fit and durability. They also appreciate the company story. "In addition to being an amazing product, it was made in Vermont," he says. "That is something that Vermonters want to hear."
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If you wore brand-name socks in the '80s and '90s, they may have come from Cabot. The company private-labeled for Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Talbot's, Brooks Brothers, Polo, and others.
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"Then came the offshoring thing," says Ric. "The giant sucking sound that people are still talking about in politics today."
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Cabot's biggest customers pulled out of their contracts. The work force dwindled to 30 or 35 as production dropped from five days a week to three.[Moi ici: Ainda no Domingo escrevi com pasmo acerca da explicação das elites sobre o encolhimento das fábricas, Ainda agora abano a cabeça de incredulidade e penso que é esta gente que negoceia com os governos. MEDO!!!]
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"From the hottest of fires," says Ric, "comes the strongest of steels."
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The Cabots decided it was time to step out of from the private-label shadows and become a brand themselves. They had the facility. They had the skill. Perhaps more importantly, they had a story: third-generation sock makers operating in rugged Vermont. They designed a merino-wool sock with form-fitting toe box and sculpted heel, and made it with a very high stitch count, which creates density without bulk. Ric envisioned the market to be outdoor enthusiasts--"somebody that demands a lot of their gear."
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In 2004, Ric begged an audience with a retailer in Montpelier, 10 miles away. Filling a backpack with the first Darn Tough product, a running sock, he persuaded the owner to let him set up a rack in the store. He also donated 3,500 pairs to the Vermont City Marathon, an annual event held in Burlington, for inclusion in swag bags. That was the start of demand from local businesses like Outdoor Gear Exchange.
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Borrowing a page from such respected brands as L.L. Bean and Land's End, the Cabots reinforced the quality message with a lifetime warranty. The warranty also acclimates buyers to the price. A 12-pack of Chinese-made tube socks cost less than $12, but many pairs won't last the year. With Darn Tough, "you can make the argument that if I buy one pair of socks at $20, I will never have to buy that style of sock again," [Moi ici: Como não recordar outra vez o exemplo dos sapatos que não se vendiam a 20€ e passaram a vender a 230€.] says Ric. (He calls the percentage of returns "tiny.")"

Trechos retirados de "How This Vermont Sock Company Became a $40 Million Business in a Town of 3,000"

Curiosidade do dia

Depois de passar uma legislatura a exigir mais investimento público, agora, no governo, PS baixa o investimento público.

os reis do spin https://t.co/H8ZTBNvzBQ versus o real https://t.co/zSDyFRrVYg

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) July 16, 2016

Depois de passar uma legislatura a exigir menos austeridade, agora temos a austeridade boa "Governo promete a Bruxelas mais austeridade para 2017".

Lucro e preço

"Pricing plays a huge part in profit growth.[Moi ici: A essência do Evangelho do Valor]
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Fortunately, small to mid-size companies can maneuver their businesses into a profitable position by just following the fundamentals. You can start with these seven basic rules of a profitable pricing strategy.
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1. Avoid the Tired Cost-Plus Pricing Formula...
2. Understand and Leverage What Your Customers Value.
Your offering is not a commodity. It doesn’t matter what you sell. You should never believe it’s a commodity. If you do, your ability to sell on value is lost. Once that’s lost, your ability to turn a profit is also lost.
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Work with customers to determine why they choose to do business with your company.
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Once you can articulate and quantify value increases, you have a much stronger foundation for asking for a proportional price increase and defending your existing pricing in the face of competitive pressures.
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3. Implement Price Increases Slowly...
5. Segment Your Way to Pricing Success.
Your customers, product lines, and market areas are all different. They should have equally unique prices to achieve their maximum profitability.
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Some companies seeking simplicity within their pricing strategy apply a “peanut butter” approach. This applies the same pricing to all customers or all products. It’s easy, but it rarely works. Businesses often end up falling short of their margin potential by neglecting to set higher prices for some customers as well as losing customers who seek a lower price.
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Some companies customize pricing by customers but not by buying situations. This strategy still falls short, because every customer values every buying situation in a unique way.
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6. Discount Responsibly...
7. Analyze, Adjust, Repeat.
The best way to build a successful pricing strategy is to keep a close eye on it and its effects on margins. Then tweak prices as needed to increase success and profitability in the long run."

Trechos retirados de "7 Fundamental Rules of a Profitable Pricing Strategy"

Online conjugado com a economia das experiências (parte II)

Há dias escrevi aqui no blogue este postal, "Online conjugado com a economia das experiências", acerca do efeito conjunto da evolução das vendas online e da procura de experiências na população de lojas dos centros comerciais.
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Entretanto, um outro artigo desperta-me para uma outra evolução em curso, "When Did Shipping Boxes Get Pretty?". A embalagem que envolve a oferta torna-se mais do que um item com uma finalidade tangível e racional e converte-se num componente da experiência:

"Stylized shipping boxes are designed to stand out, while ironically becoming the new norm. Aritzia, Birchbox, Matchesfashion, Urban Outfitters, and countless more have equally trumpeting e-comm deliveries, with custom colored boxes, oversized brand logos, and interior surprises (if you look closely, there is a tiny swimmer at the bottom of Warby Parker's pool-inspired Home Try-On box). Net-a-Porter's black box, tied with a grosgrain ribbon, is so indicative of the luxe goods inside that it offers a downgraded option at checkout, a discreet brown box that doesn't exclaim "Miu Miu platforms enclosed!" Even Amazon has a signature black tape distinguishing its shipments.
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Voicey cardboard boxes, custom-color bubble wrap, and printed packing tape are the online answer to the status-symbol shopping bag, elevated in-store gift wrapping, and iconic product boxes à la Hermès (dating back to the 1950s) and Tiffany & Co. (1837). As much as ever before, customers feel good, affirmed, and proud of a purchase that comes in a vessel that feels special.
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The stakes are even higher, and the reward even greater, for an online-only company like Glossier, where the shipping box is a customer's first physical contact with the brand. Before a shopper can get to the actual thing they paid for — and likely have never seen in the flesh — they'll work through tape, tissue, bubble wrap, an itemized receipt, and protective sleeves. These prosaic necessities ensure the purchase arrives in fine condition, but they can also be a vehicle for the brand to express its identity."

 Este ano tive oportunidade de trabalhar com a empresa de caixas relatada no final de "Acerca da subida na escala de valor em negócios B2B". Pode ser uma oportunidade interessante, para subir na escala de valor

E se acontecer uma quarta vinda do FMI ...

"In my view, the future is built out of three pieces. It’s what comes from the past—existing trends and established commitments. It’s what comes from the future—new business models, new technologies, or new value systems. And it’s the decisions we make today.
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Whether it’s a country, a business, or an individual looking at family and career, foresight is a means to be adaptable and robust in the face of scenarios that might knock you off a path to success. [Moi ici: Fragilista é acreditar que os astros se vão alinhar para nos servir. Treta da grande!] And it’s a means to identify new models that might be opportunities to deliver new value.
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It’s also very important that the process is neutral, in the sense that you need to be able to look at all possible scenarios, whether you like them or not. A neutral, independent platform, process, and research effort is extremely important for putting issues on the table that, sometimes, people have difficulties talking about because their implications might be scary or uncomfortable.
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You need to open people up enough that they can be comfortable with the uncomfortable. They have to learn to make decisions under uncertainty."

E se acontecer uma quarta vinda do FMI, a sua empresa vai estar preparada?

Trechos retirados de "How Do You Plan for Uncertainty?"

É preciso ter uma lata!!!

"“Fénix Renascida: os novos sectores do têxtil e do calçado” foi o tema que juntou ontem, no Laboratório da Paisagem, empresários e actores da indústria têxtil, do vestuário e de calçado. Passado, presente e futuro foram discutidos nesta conferência sob a égide da Vida Económica, onde estas actividades económicas, consideradas tradicionais, mostraram que têm estratégia para continuar a crescer e a expandir-se no mundo inteiro.
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o sector têxtil ultrapassou a crise da abertura dos mercados, nomeadamente a ameaça da China na primeira década deste século, a recessão económica mundial em 2008 e a crise das finanças públicas em Portugal em 2011 e está atualmente no bom caminho para atingir um recorde nas exportações. «Este ano estamos convencidos que vamos ultrapassar os 5 mil milhões de euros de exportação», afirmou Paulo Vaz, diretor-geral da ATP – Associação Têxtil e Vestuário de Portugal, sublinhando ainda que o feito se torna mais relevante por haver menos empresas no sector. «Hoje, a indústria têxtil e vestuário exporta quase 80% do que produz face a 65% em 2008», apontou Paulo Vaz."

Para uns lisboetas - enquanto esta gente anónima faz pela vida, cria riqueza e emprego, exporta e sobe na escala de valor - Portugal vive tempo perdido.
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É preciso ter uma lata!!!

Trechos retirados de "Renascer das cinzas"