Cuidado com a tentação do volume.

"If you think it is difficult to sell with a higher price, try selling with a lower price, where you are undifferentiated and commoditized."

Parar! Voltar atrás e reler a frase.

"Your company has a business model and a strategy. If your strategy is to differentiate your offering and create greater value, you no doubt have a higher price than many—or most—of your competitors. That higher price isn’t some arbitrary decision. It’s based on what is required for you to execute and deliver for your clients.
...
If you are exactly as good as you are now and lowered your prices to match your competitors, you would no doubt sell a lot more than you are selling now. Selling would be much easier once you take price out of the equation.
.
But here’s the thing: selling more doesn’t make sense.
...
Let’s say your Net Profit is 8 percent of Revenue. To match your competitor’s price, you would have to reduce your prices by 11 percent. Now you are better, and you are dead even on price. That sounds good, because you can massively increase your sales. But that reduction in price across all revenue would leave you with Net Revenue Loss of 3 percent. Congratulations, you broke the model and destroyed the strategy."

Cuidado com a tentação do volume.

Trechos retirados de "Understanding Why Your Price Is Higher Than Your Competitors"

Curiosidade do dia

Uma escola aqui em Gaia ostenta a seguinte frase na sua entrada:

Vai onde o futuro te leva

Não gosto da frase. Há qualquer coisa de passivo, de folha impotente levada pela corrente. Preferia uma frase mais do tipo:

Constrói o teu futuro 

Cuidado com as generalizações

Ao olhar para títulos como "Líder da CAP: "Se não houver regadio não há agricultura empresarial"" e ""Estamos em seca permanentemente", diz o presidente da CAP" é importante não esquecer que a agricultura portuguesa é muito mais do que a produção de latifúndio do sul.

Não esquecer qual a distribuição geográfica dos associados da CAP e qual o tipo de produtos que produzem.

Cuidado com as generalizações.

"the opposite of both efficiency and standardization"

"Measuring the value of your organization is all done by the metrics that are employed to do so. [Moi ici: Mais uma razão para o balanced scorecard, para medir o que deve ser mesmo medido] And dependent on in which era the company finds itself it will measure its value and worth differently.
.
And so this is what happens in an incumbent organization:
.
They understand that they are loosing control over their customers and they try to go out and accommodate them — but everything in the DNA/OS/bloodstream of the organization is measuring increased customer activity as the opposite of both efficiency and standardization — and therefore any initiative becomes a costly mistake.
.
And nothing in the organization’s metrics is saying that it needs to rethink its world view in order for it to understand and be able to deliver on the customer orientation that it needs."

As organizações incumbentes já só pensam na eficiência e padronização quando, num mundo em evolução acelerada, o que é preciso é relação e interacção.

Trecho retirado de "Why are Customer Oriented Organizations Failing — They Are Using the Wrong Era of Metrics"

Não é possível querer ser tudo para todos ...

Uma das primeiras mensagens deste blogue desde o seu começo é a de que é fundamental escolher os clientes-alvo. Um excelente artigo pleno de convite ao pensamento estratégico em "How Discounters Are Remaking the Grocery Industry":

"different customers define those criteria in different ways, so grocers need to understand their target customers and how they want to shop. Those insights, in turn, have ramifications for store design, product categories, and other forms of customer engagement with the brand.
.
For example, some grocers may target food lovers, who want the highest-quality products; a wide variety of fresh meat, produce, and seafood; and high levels of customer service. These customers are prepared to pay a premium for the right experience. Other grocers, however, may target urban shoppers who need small stores that offer a basic assortment of products and that are within walking distance of their home or office. These shoppers make frequent, fast trips, and they will pay a reasonable price difference for convenience. Still other grocers may target families, who tend to fill their shopping carts with enough food and nonfood items to last the week. These shoppers want low prices, regular sales and promotions, and a large store with a wide selection of products.
.
Once a company understands its target customers, it can revise its product categories to better meet their needs. That revision, in turn, will influence the assortment of products sold, the pricing and promotion strategies, and the overall customer experience."

Não esquecer:

"to identify the needs of their target customers, offer them a unique experience, and strike the right balance between complexity and efficiency. Customers can be extremely loyal to their favorite grocery chain. Companies that understand the underlying factors of that loyalty will position themselves to win." 

Não é possível querer ser tudo para todos e o preço mais baixo não é o mais importante para todos.

‘They don’t read enough.’

"“I have to tell you a story about a neighbor of mine in Massachusetts who would be on anybody’s top 10 list of [Warren] Buffett–like people,” Peters opened. “I was at a dinner with him 18 months ago and, out of nowhere, he said, ‘You know what the number one problem is with big company CEOs?’ I said, ‘I can think of at least 70 things, but damned if I can narrow it down.’ And out of his mouth pops, ‘They don’t read enough.’”
...
How can we become better leaders? Unsurprisingly, Peters had some suggestions. “I think the people who run things ought to read a lot more psychology and social psychology and a lot less finance and marketing,”"

BTW, actualmente é de bom tom denegrir o que criou as civilizações, o job to be done das religiões neste mundo:

"The Marshmallow Test, written by Stanford social psychologist Walter Mischel, takes another approach to the utility of waiting. (The marshmallow test involved putting children in a room with a single marshmallow and seeing how long they could go without eating it in order to get the promised reward of two marshmallows later.) “Mischel argued that the ability to put things off is what makes us human, too,” Peters said."

Trechos retirados de "Tom Peters Wants You to Read"

Curiosidade do dia

Jornalismo com futuro

Ao longo dos anos escrevo aqui acerca da erosão e decadência do modelo económico dos jornalismo pago pela publicidade:

• "the rebound in the paid-for model"

Acredito que o jornalismo regressará baseado num novo modelo de negócio baseado na subscrição paga e no serviço aos clientes underserved. E foi o que encontrei ao ler "The Local News Business Model":

"In short, the business model [Moi ici: Baseado na publicidade, apelando à maior audiência possível] drove the content, just as it drove every other piece of the business. It follows, though, that if the content bundle no longer makes sense — which it doesn’t in the slightest — that the business model probably doesn’t make sense either. This is the problem with newspapers: every aspect of their operations, from costs to content, is optimized for a business model that is obsolete. To put it another way, an obsolete business model means an obsolete business. There is nothing to be saved.
...
It is very important to clearly define what a subscriptions means. First, it’s not a donation: it is asking a customer to pay money for a product. What, then, is the product? It is not, in fact, any one article (a point that is missed by the misguided focus on micro-transactions). Rather, a subscriber is paying for the regular delivery of well-defined value.
...
This last point is at the crux of why many ad-based newspapers will find it all but impossible to switch to a real subscription business model. When asking people to pay, quality matters far more than quantity, and the ratio matters: a publication with 1 valuable article a day about a well-defined topic will more easily earn subscriptions than one with 3 valuable articles and 20 worthless ones covering a variety of subjects. Yet all too many local newspapers, built for an ad-based business model that calls for daily content to wrap around ads, spend their limited resources churning out daily filler even though those ads no longer exist."

O artigo continua e reforça a necessidade de uma forte disciplina de corte:

"It’s also worth noting what a subscription business model does not — must not — include:
.
Content that is widely available elsewhere. That means no national or international news (except what has a local impact, and even that is questionable), no non-local business content, no lifestyle section.
Non-journalistic costs centers.
.
This is perhaps the easiest change to make, and the hardest for newspaper advocates to accept. A subscription business is just that: a business that must, through its content, earn ongoing revenue from customers. That means understanding what those customers want, and what they don’t. It means focusing on the user experience, and the content mix. And it means selling by every member of the organization." 

Contentor Amarelo

Terminou ontem a minha relação com o Contentor Amarelo.

Terminou porque desapareceu o job to be done que passou a ser servido pelo meu novo escritório de trabalho.

No entanto, não posso deixar de elogiar o serviço, a localização, a simpatia. Fiquei fã!

Não se trata de publicidade paga, trata-se de gratidão pura e simples.

OBRIGADO!

Mongo e o fim do marketing?

Forget Marketing, here comes #Customering: Great talk by @joepine: "there are no markets, only individual customers", suggesting new focus! pic.twitter.com/AnDnrHDPYd

— Frank Piller (@masscustom) May 12, 2017

Exactly! "Markets" are a convenient fiction for companies that do not treat customers as the truly unique individuals they are. https://t.co/IXI35Hhj56

— Joe Pine (@joepine) May 12, 2017

Em linha com o que se escreve sobre o marketing de Mongo em "Decentralization and Localization of Production: The Organizational and Economic Consequences of Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)". Recordar a série "Acerca de Mongo"

Pensa que só acontece aos outros? (parte II)

Parte I.

Recordar o "Aon Global Risk Management Survey" de 2017 e o Top 10 dos riscos:

Hearing reports of GPs affected by #ramsomware attack because apparentl CCGs and CSU turning off IT system on mass as a "precaution".

— Ben Heather (@BHeatherJourno) May 12, 2017

#Ramsomware #WannaCry Ciberataque de gran impacto. Lo que estamos viviendo hoy me temo que será, cada vez, más habitual.

— Luis Miguel Sánchez (@sanchezvscrime) May 12, 2017

New ransomware attack that hit over 45,000 computers in 74 countries may have used leaked NSA hacking tool https://t.co/qomsvYzUy0 pic.twitter.com/mJ2ffpKT9d

— Forbes (@Forbes) May 12, 2017

• Empresas portuguesas alvo de ataque informático em larga escala
• Ataque informático a empresas portuguesas terá tido origem no Brasil
• A Massive Ransomware 'Explosion' Is Hitting Targets All Over the World

Curiosidade do dia

Já começou. pic.twitter.com/jGSlcqqUGP

— InsóniasEmCarvão (@insoniascarvao) May 12, 2017

Acerca da Educação em Mongo (parte II)

Numa caminhada antes do jantar de ontem li "Why Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Google, and a Harvard Expert Say Colleges and Universities Are Broken". Depois, ao jantar celebramos a conclusão pela minha filha de um curso sobre programação em Android na Udacity. Às tantas, sem nada combinarmos, acabámos a concordar com o artigo.

"- Os cursos como o meu (área da informática na Faculdade de Ciências) não vão ter grande futuro em competição com os cursos super-práticos feitos via internet."

Alguns sublinhados:

"Google doesn't require a college degree, based on research showing no correlation between academic credentials and performance on the job. And Google has had its pick of top students from top programs at top universities.
...
One student told me that a friend of hers had left Yale because she found the school "stifling to the parts of yourself that you'd call a soul.""

Em vez de regurgitar definições e demonstrar teoremas, o curso da Udacity desenvolve-se ao ritmo de cada um e é uma sucessão de desafios práticos que se têm de cumprir.

BTW,  recordar na Parte I a cena da academia que ainda não ensina os seus alunos a programar para Android porque não saberia o que fazer com os professores que tem no quadro.

Como é que a sua empresa lida com estas mudanças?

"think about selling a transformation"

"The starting point of most competitive analysis is a question: Who is your competition? That’s because most companies view their competition as another brand, product, or service. But smart leaders and organizations go broader.
.
The question is not who your competition is but what it is. And the answer is this: Your competition is any and every obstacle your customers encounter along their journeys to solving the human, high-level problems your company exists to solve.
...
Sure, someone in your company needs to understand the marketplace: who your competition is, what other products are on the market, and how they are doing, at a basic level. But there’s a point at which paying attention to other companies and what they’re doing interferes with your team’s ability to immerse itself in the world of your consumer. Focusing on competitive products and companies often leads to “me-too” products, which purport to compete with or iterate on something that customers might not have liked much in the first place.
...
First, rethink what you sell. Most companies think they sell a product. To transcend strictly one-time, transactional relationships with your customers, your company must think about selling a transformation: a journey from a problematic status quo to the new levels and possibilities that will unfurl after the behavior change you help make happen.
...
Next, rethink your customers. They are not just the people who have purchased your product or the people who follow you on Facebook. Your customers are all the people who grapple with the problem your business exists to solve.
.
Now, focus on their problems. Engage in customer research, online and in the real world, to understand and document their journeys. I don’t mean their customer life cycle with your brand. Map out your (redefined) customer’s journey from having the problem you exist to solve to no longer having that problem. That may be the journey from unhealthy to healthy living, or from being broke to being a good steward of their finances."

Recordar o Dick Dastardly e os observadores de motards.

Trechos retirados de "Obsess Over Your Customers, Not Your Rivals"

"To earn economic profits"

Business strategy is the way in which a firm chooses to differentiate itself from its competitors in a way that results in serving its customers’ needs more profitably than its competitors.
Being more profitable than competitors in a given market is a tall order. It implies earning true economic profits, not simply accounting profits. How are accounting profits different from economic profits?
Accounting profits are those found on the profit and loss statements. They are the difference between a firm’s revenues and its costs. Every firm must achieve accounting profits in order to survive. And while every corporation seeks to survive, survival alone is insufficient in today’s competitive environment.[Moi ici: Recordar "Floating is insufficient"]
...
Economic profits are much more difficult to earn than simple accounting profits. Economic profits imply that the firm is earning a higher return on capital deployed in comparison to all other invest- ment opportunities. In an economist’s terms, economic profits are accounting profits less opportunity costs. Earning economic profits isn’t just about making money, it is about making more money by doing the things the firm chooses to do than by doing anything else. The results of economic profits are either growth opportunities for the firm or higher returns to the investors.
To earn economic profits, the firm must, in some way, be better than its competitors. It must have some form of a competitive advantage that enables it to serve its chosen customers more profitably than its competitors do.
This competitive advantage will be reflected in how the firm interacts with its customers, competitors, and itself."

Trechos retirados de "Pricing Done Right"

Cuidado com a composição dos subgrupos

Há tempos fiz uma auditoria ao sistema de gestão da qualidade de uma empresa. Um dos objectivos da qualidade para 2017 dizia respeito ao preço médio das vendas.

Estranhei que a meta para 2017 fosse inferior ao desempenho de 2016. Perguntei porquê.

- Trabalhamos essencialmente para um nicho. Este ano arranjamos um cliente que não corresponde a esse nicho, com preços mais baixos, um artigo mais simples, para produzirmos numa altura em que temos pouco trabalho. Por isso, é natural que o preço médio de venda baixe.

Recomendação deixada: Não misturar os preços praticados para o cliente de preço com os preços praticados para os clientes de nicho.

Recordar "Interpretar as mensagens das cartas de controlo":

"é importante não inflacionar a variabilidade dentro de um subgrupo, tal consegue-se evitando misturar na mesma amostra coisas que se sabem ser diferentes"

Curiosidade do dia

@pauloferreira1 Sempre. E em Beja o Estado investiu e quem falhou foram os investimentos privados. Para exemplo é mal escolhido. Só isso.

— MCF (@MCF977) May 10, 2017

Já imagino o capitão: a culpa do TGV ñ ter resultado é dos portugueses pq se recusam a usá-lo

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) May 11, 2017

O delirio

Biologia, economia e diversidade

Parte I.

"If we stand back from the evolution of life on Earth and view it as a whole, a number of patterns are apparent.
2.1. DiversificationAn obvious trend is that living processes have diversified as evolution proceeded. When life first began on Earth, it was limited to exploiting only a tiny proportion of available free energy sources under a very restricted range of environmental conditions. From there living processes have diversified progressively as evolution unfolded, spreading across the planet, adapting to an ever- widening range of environmental conditions and exploiting more and more sources of free energy. This trend towards increasing diversification has continued up until the present with the emergence of humans, albeit now mainly through the processes of cultural evolution, rather than through gene-based adaptation and speciation."

O que é Mongo senão uma manifestação desta tendência?

BTW:

Any strategy is (at best) only temporarily correct.

— Clayton Christensen (@claychristensen) May 8, 2017

O século XX e a sua aposta na escala ficará na história como uma espécie de analogia do Jurássico geológico com os seus dinossauros.

Para reflexão

Excelente texto a merecer ser lido por muita gente: "Why CMM, ISO and other Quality initiatives don’t capture the hearts and minds….":

"Many organizations fail in their quest for Total Quality Service, not because their leaders don’t understand the conceptual or technical requirements for achieving it, but because they don’t realize that the heart of the service journey is spiritual rather than mechanical. They will bureaucratize the whole thing and make it look like every other “program.”
.
Too many quality initiatives are sterile, intellectual and administrative from start to finish; they don’t appeal to the human heart. They are based on a view of the organization as an apparatus rather than a society. They don’t start with human energy as the focus of change."

Quando se passa da oposição para a situação (parte II)

Parte I.

Gostava de estar frente a frente com o académico Caldeira Cabral, não com o sofista político Caldeira Cabral, para que me pudesse responder à pergunta:

O que é que mudou desde Dezembro de 2014 para que tenha passado de "o copo está vazio para o copo está a transbordar"?

Em Dezembro de 2014 Caldeira Cabral escrevia "Desaceleração das exportações: negar este problema não é uma boa estratégia". Agora, o mesmo Caldeira Cabral afirma:

• Ministro elogia empresas que fazem "acontecer o impossível"

Também podemos recuar a Abril de 2014 e a "O problema é a procura, não a oferta" e ver quando é que começo a discordar de Caldeira Cabral. Nesse tal frente a frente também gostava de lhe perguntar  como concilia o que defendia com o que afirma agora sobre os resultados das exportações.

É triste a gelatinicidade destas personagens.

Para contextualizar:

• Exportações e importações sobem 17,1% e 15,3% no 1.º trimestre
• Exportações têm margem para continuar a crescer
• Exportações e importações voltam a disparar em Março