Não me admiro!

Quando existiam dinossauros no planeta Terra eu associava a marca Marks & Spencer a tudo menos low-cost. Trabalhava num fornecedor português da marca e associava-a a exigência na qualidade.

Hoje, os fornecedores portugueses da marca queixam-se da exigência paranóica no preço (custo).

Tendo em conta esta evolução:

E a importância do alinhamento entre estratégia, posicionamento da marca e operações, não me admiro com esta evolução "Marks & Spencer confirms expanded store closure programme".

Estratégia a sério implica sacrifício, implica trade-off, não é compatível com ser rico e ter saúde em simultâneo:

"there are no real surprises in Mr Rowe’s new strategy, which includes focusing on the quality and fit of clothing, “sharper” ranges, lower prices but less promotional activity." (fonte)

Estratégias possíveis

Um artigo longo, mas muito interessante, "Your Change Needs a Strategy".

5 tipos de estratégias possíveis em função da situação da organização:

• ‘Planned itinerary’
• ‘River crossing’ ("in certain contexts, we are unable to gain clarity on the means of change. In this case the appropriate change strategy is one we call ‘river crossing’. The end state is clear, but we need an exploratory approach to the path, taking one step at a time while keeping an eye on our destination.")
• ‘Hill climbing’
• 'Scouting and wandering’("There a strategy for change, odd as it may seem, which is organized around neither a clear end state nor clear means. This change is not driven by any immediate moves which seem obviously good, nor by any target state, but by curiosity, of a kind that will be useful in the long run.")
• ‘Escape the swamp’ ("Like ‘search and wandering’, this is not driven by a particular means, and the only clear aspect of the target state is that it must incorporate substantial and urgent change. We can call this ‘escape the swamp’. It applies in pressured situations such as the early stages of a turnaround, where there is limited time or resources to identify specific ends or means, but we are nevertheless driven to change.")

Interessante as possibilidades: ‘River crossing’, 'Scouting and wandering’ e ‘Escape the swamp’.

"imposto revolucionário"

Este texto "Now on Offer at the Supermarket: Freshly Squeezed Suppliers" fez-me pensar num e-mail   que me re-encaminharam recentemente.

Trabalhar para clientes grandes é estar sujeito a "imposto revolucionário".

"O que passa-se?" (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

Começa a ser interessante este aumento na frequência de artigos sobre a produção em Mongo e como se afastam do mainstream. Mais um, "Only Digital Manufacturing Can Create The Smart, Customized, On-Demand Products Consumers Want":

"Ask someone to describe manufacturing today, and they’ll probably describe giant machines operating in tandem along an assembly line putting together a product in vast quantities.
.
But as someone who works in manufacturing today, I can tell you that mass production – which has dominated how we’ve made things since the Industrial Revolution – is no longer the predominant manufacturing model.
.
Consumers today want products that are smarter, more customized and available on demand. The only way companies can satisfy this need is by creating a new business model that applies digital manufacturing strategies. Digital manufacturing – which combines software with physical manufacturing – can help manufacturers iterate faster, customize more, reduce lead times and respond more quickly to market changes."

Qual a direção de Mongo?

"Shorter Product Life Cycles: We may not always need the latest and greatest technologies, but we want them.
...
Greater Customization: Creating customized products is neither efficient nor cost effective with current mass production strategies.
...
Consumers want products that are smarter, more customized and available on demand. But consumer product, manufacturing companies and supply chain partners simply can’t meet this demand using the same business model we’ve used for decades. Instead, we need to understand and apply digital manufacturing strategies and embrace new tools that streamline operations."

Melhorar

De "Google Has an Official Process in Place for Learning From Failure--and It's Absolutely Brilliant":

"1. Identify the most important problems.
.
"A postmortem is the process our team undertakes to reflect on the learnings from our most significant undesirable events,"
...
2. Create a record.
.
"Our next step is to work together to create a written record for what happened, why, its impact, how the issue was mitigated or resolved, and what we'll do to prevent the incident from recurring,"
...
3. Promote growth. Not blame.
.
"Removing blame from a postmortem can enable team members to feel greater psychological safety to escalate issues without fear,"
...
The key is to encourage your people not to play "the blame game." Rather, you want them to focus on improvement and learning.
...
Remember, everyone makes mistakes. The question is, not "what if," but instead, what did we learn?"

E de "Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report":

Aceleração

"Being on trend no longer guarantees sales and profitability in the fashion sector. In minutes, consumers can spot, own, and share a trend on social media, from any corner of the globe. As a result, hits can sell out rapidly, while misses do not move, even with heavy discounting.
.
The traditional product-development model is too slow. How do fashion brands outpace competitors? When we looked at differences between top and bottom performers, we found that top performers routinely use consumer insights very early in the product-design process and can have products ready for purchase in weeks, not months.
.
But established brands have great difficulty doing either well. This needs to change, as up-and-coming brands are breaking the rules and resetting consumer expectations. [Moi ici: Este título diz tudo "The Customer’s Time is The Only Time"]
...
Top performers make speed to market a top priority and get faster and faster. Top-performing companies can deliver product to market in less than six to eight weeks. The typical lead time in the industry is more than 40 weeks—far too long to stay ahead of consumers [Moi ici: Imaginem um empresário, ou um encarregado, habituados a sonhar com um regresso ao passado, às séries grandes, a um ritmo mais lento, ao ler estas linhas...]

Trecho retirado de "The need for speed: Capturing today’s fashion consumer"

E isto também vai ter o seu impacte "What Should French Fashion Do With Its Unsold Clothing?"

BTW,

"Winners have significantly reduced time to market, but they also recognize that not every product requires a speedy supply chain. Leading fashion companies have divided their product lines into the following supply-chain segments, based on sales predictability:
.
Long cycle for basics. Long lead times of six months or more are acceptable for basics and never-out-of-stock items. Optimized sourcing gets the best value for money on these products.
Shorter cycle for the core seasonal collection. Retailers can use advanced visual-recognition tools to identify styles and colors trending on social-media sites.
Express cycle for new in-season products. An even shorter cycle of three to six weeks from design to delivery allows brands to inject novelty or innovation within a single season.
Read-and-react model for new and untested products. Close monitoring of these items during the season (for example, for trending prints and colors) ensures fast replenishment of top sellers and easier cancellation of slow movers.
Test model for the riskiest products. Launching virtual or small test batches of a sharply trending item provides insight into the consumer response before committing fully to a product."

"There has to be enough energy for them to stop something and start something"

"Des: If you’re a startup founder, what’s a single step you can take with Jobs?
.
Bob: The greatest single step you can make is to actually talk to somebody who recently purchased you, and talk to somebody who recently quit you – or quit the competitor that you’re going after. By understanding these switching moments, you’re pulling a thread. And then once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it; you’ll see it over and over again.
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The first step is always a set of interviews. I’m not talking about surveys. Literally get them on the phone and ask the basic question: why was today the day they signed up for this product? The thing you have to realize is that it’s not random, and you have to dig as hard as you can past the bullshit stuff they’ll tell you upfront. There’s always something deeper, because nobody really wants to switch. Habit is the strongest force of all, and people will just keep doing what they’re doing unless something gets in the way or something better comes a long. There has to be enough energy for them to stop something and start something.
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Just go talk to your customers. That’s where this all began."

Trecho retirado de "Bob Moesta on unpacking customer motivations with Jobs-to-be-Done"

"The only reliable way to gather this evidence is by exploring what customers did in the past or will do in the present. Asking them what they’ll do in the future, e.g. “Will you use…”, puts you in the land of biases and should be avoided."

Trecho retirado de "Find Better Problems Worth Solving with the Customer Forces Canvas"

"I only care about what was going on in their life"

"Someone might tell you: “I went to give a report, and all of a sudden my bosses went crazy because it wasn’t the right data, and they made me look bad. So I have to find something better.” It’s usually the things they blame themselves for. They don’t say it’s about the product; it’s a separation between their experiences and product. You have to dig deeper than that: it’s really about seeing how products fit into people’s lives.
.
Trying to look at your customer through your product is like looking through a peephole in a fence. You can only see the little interactions they have, as opposed to getting above it all, looking at their life, and seeing how you actually fit in. That’s where the interview takes a turn, because most people always think you’re going to talk about the product. Instead, you’re talking about them.
.
When a lot of companies first start using JTBD they think, “I need you to ask about this feature and that feature.” I don’t care about any of those things. I only care about what was going on in their life that made them say, “Today’s the day.” Those are the pylons and the foundations by which people do things. They don’t think it’s part of your world as a product person, but they are the actual foundations by which you get pulled into their world."

Trecho retirado de "Bob Moesta on unpacking customer motivations with Jobs-to-be-Done"

Quando as galinhas tiverem dentes... (parte ??)

Esta série começou há quase 10 anos, Setembro de 2008, quando estranhei um défice comercial japonês. Depois, o estranho entranha-se, de Agosto de 2012, para culminar em Janeiro de 2014 num novo normal.

Em Abril de 2013 apanhei o primeiro défice comercial chinês. Em Março do ano passado o @nticomuna pôs o tema no meu radar.

Agora, "China’s vanished current-account surplus will change the world economy":

Arte, sempre a arte

Desde 2011 que defendo aqui que o futuro das PME passa pela arte:

• Qual a alternativa?
• O papel da arte
• A ascensão do artesão e da arte na produção

Entretanto, esta semana descobri o livro "Thinking The Art of Management - Stepping into 'Heidegger's Shoes" de David Atkinson. Nele, descobri um artigo de 1987, "Portrait of the Manager as an Artist" de Vincent Degot:

"A long tradition (in terms of the history of industrial capitalism) tells us that business management is to be considered as a proper subject for "scientific" study. One of the reasons supporting this is that management is based on a rationalistic attitude of mind: to achieve optimum use of resources with a view to maximisation of corporate profits. However, a much older tradition teaches us that it would be unwise, from the scientific and rationalistic standpoints, to assume that the business manager is motivated solely, or even essentially, by the goal of maximum profit. To illustrate and define the ideas we shall be developing in the main body of this paper, let us first take a brief look at a rather different field, often known as the "history of art criticism"...To come back to our starting point, it is clear that, while management can benefit from general techniques, applicable in companies of all kinds and themselves reflecting some changes in fashion, it must make allowance for the conditions prevailing within each particular company. This can be done only through experience, given that classroom tuition cannot cover the whole gamut of combinations of factors which have to be handled in practice. This means that a manager may perform brilliantly in one context but poorly in another (in the same way as some painters are at their best with portraits, others with landscapes, and so on). Consequently, one of the talents of the true manager lies in his ability to discover the working environment best suited to his particular gifts."

E ainda:

"In the first place, it might be said that the work has a more overall dimension that the decision: a decision may form part of a work (just as an iconographic motif may be an integral part of a painting). In that case, we must allow that the decisions are not necessarily of the "hard" type (i.e. based on strict economics), but may be of the "soft" variety we have discussed elsewhere. The work comprises perception of the need for something to be done at some point, evaluation of the right decision needed and, finally, implementation of that decision in practical form. There are of course many decision-theories which make due allowance for these three phases, but what we are more, particularly concerned with here is the extent to which each phase leaves room for personal initiative;
...
The creative work commences when its author starts to realise, on the basis of random information - chatting in the corridor, a glimpse of a computer print-out, a report by a consultant, something said at a staff meeting, etc -, that a specific action of some kind will be called for in due course. The creative manager -displaying one of his characteristics to which we come back later - feels that possibility in the form of an impulse, a violent desire for action. He then has to convey to other people all or part of his initial "intuition" - assuming, of course, that others will have to be involved. To this end, he may have to adapt his project to suit the corporate culture context, and relevant external trends (fashions) which could help to support it. In practice, this process is not so clear-nut and deliberate as thus expressed. Owing to this adaptation, the project may fit in with a prevailing "style" or reflect a local "taste" (cultural segment). One way in which he displays his personal talent is his skilful use of the factors in presence when mobilising his entourage to mete the project feasible. He may, for example, be led to formulate it in rationalistic terms as a means of demonstrating its advantages for the corporation, and this reformulation process may affect his original intention. In the same way, there have been times when external factors (patrons, critics) have affected the composition or the subject of a painting."

Um mundo polarizado (parte VII)

Um mundo polarizado (parte VI).

Na parte II coloquei estes gráficos:

Que corroboram bem "Laureano Turienzo: “El ‘Apocalipsis Retail’ es un mito desde el punto de vista numérico”":

"Cuando se habla del Apocalipsis Retail como una pandemia generalista, no es real. La venta por catálogo ofrecida por retailers como Sears también fue un gran destructor de tiendas físicas. Es absurdo porque en el escenario omnicanal no tiene sentido carecer de tiendas físicas. Alibaba invertirá más de quince mil millones de dólares en empresas de retail físico en los próximos años. Hace poco, el grupo abrió la primera librería en Shanghái sin personal humano. Hay ciertos modelos con retail físico cuyo momento actual no es bueno, sino excelente: los actores premium, el low cost y ciertos retailers de valor medio."

Saliento:

"P.: El Cortes Inglés y Macy’s están subalquilando espacios a terceros en sus centros. ¿Es una buena solución ante el exceso de metros?
R.: Macy’s está convirtiendo todas las plantas bajas de sus centros en puro concepto off-price. Aunque se le conocía siempre como lo más exquisito de la atención al cliente, y ahora los descuentos le están yendo bien, este es el peor negocio que puedes hacer. Porque estás perdiendo el ADN. Yo preferiría alquilar parte de mi terreno a alguien que tiene buena reputación de marcas antes que poner un rastrillo en el seno de mis establecimientos. Los grupos de grandes almacenes también tendrían que empezar a pensar en otros negocios, como pueden ser clínicas de belleza, médicas, escuelas de negocios… ese tipo de formatos que jamás hubiesen entrado en un gran almacén a lo mejor tienen que entrar."

e:

"P.: ¿Qué innovación tecnológica cree que le urge más implantar a un retailer físico de moda?
R.: A largo plazo, visualizo establecimientos con un 50% de retail y un 50% de comunidad, con el sentimiento de plaza del pueblo de una tienda Apple. Lo más efectivo es la realidad aumentada. "

Pensar o futuro

Sem conotações partidárias, recordar:

• "É mais importante contratar mais funcionários públicos do que aumentar os salários"
• Segurança Social tem hoje situação "bastante mais equilibrada", diz Costa

Muitas vezes penso na evolução divergente entre o estado, cada vez mais volumoso, cada vez com mais funcionários, e as empresas privadas, cada vez mais lean.

Depois, recordar que Portugal é um dos países mais idosos da Europa, neste postal de 2015:

Comparar Suécia e Portugal.

Por fim, ler "Look at What’s Going to Happen to Sweden’s Fabled Welfare State":

"Sweden’s got a major supply and demand problem.
.
By 2025, its entire workforce is expected to grow by 207,000 people—yet it needs more than that number just to staff its fabled welfare state. The worker shortfall could crimp services and raise labor costs, especially in a political environment less hospitable to immigration.
.
The mismatch is one of the biggest headaches facing Sweden’s next government."

Faz-me impressão que com tanto computador, tanto simplex, não seja possível fazer reengenharia em tantos e tantos sectores do estado.

"most large organizations can’t and don’t change as fast "

Arrisco enveredar por uma linguagem que não aprecio para dizer que só em Portugal é que se acha que as empresas grandes são eternas, talvez por causa da protecção do estado, talvez por causa do nosso crony-capitalism militante. Ainda há dias, "Empresas. Quando ser grande não impede a queda ou a falência".

"why should great companies falter? This is perhaps one of the greatest surprises in business, for if any organizations should succeed and endure, why shouldn’t it be the ones with the most resources and the largest customer bases, not to mention most cash and the broadest global reach? The answer is that they may not be the ones with the best ideas!
Somehow in the process of becoming successful, large, and global, the policies, practices, and habits that worked so well in stable conditions, and which were quite necessary for largeness, also rendered these organizations non-adaptive. Confronted with rapid change, they are not organized to respond adequately; again and again we have seen companies grow huge and then struggle to sustain their market position because their very hugeness inhibits their ability to adapt.
...
When markets change and new ideas take hold, as they inevitably do, most large organizations can’t and don’t change as fast. Instead, newer, more nimble competitors capture market share by innovating where the entrenched giants cannot. Well, actually it may not be true to say that they cannot. But for whatever reason, and although they certainly could, they usually do not.
...
The most compelling is that there’s a gap between the reality of accelerating change and our understanding of what’s really happening. Simply put, too many leaders have a flawed mental picture of the market because they don’t grasp the magnitude and impact of change, and they underestimate its importance to their own organizations. They manage as though markets were stable when they’re anything but; they create slow, hierarchical organizations that concentrate power, emphasize standardization, and seek conformity, when innovation and creativity would serve them - and their shareholders - far better. And these errors are compounded by an analytical thinking style that promotes fragmentation, and causes them to lose sight of the big picture."

Trechos retirados de "Permanent Innovation" de Langdon Harris.

Partes interessadas e a micro-economia

Dois exemplos do dia a dia de aplicação do conceito de ecossistema de partes interessadas.

"Já se assiste a pequenas revoluções setoriais, como no das pedras ornamentais, em que há já uma integração e colaboração entre os vários intervenientes: por exemplo, entre a empresa que explora, o arquiteto e o aplicador que já definem em três dimensões o que desejam para o trabalho final."(1)

"Para comemorar os 10 anos de vida da empresa e os seus 50 anos de idade, Marcelo Alves Inácio vai dar uma festa na fábrica, em Monção, nos dias 13 e 14 de Setembro, para 150 pessoas, tendo já assegurada a presença de "30 pessoas de 22 nacionalidades diferentes, desde revendedores, arquitectos, decoradores..."" (2)

(1) - Mais de 42 milhões em projetos de I&D
(2) - Marcelo “chega fogo” em Monção para ser líder mundial de lareiras de luxo

Associar coisas a experiências

Acerca da economia das experiências recordar, por exemplo:

• Vai uma experiência? (Dezembro de 2011)
• Desenhar experiências (Abril de 2012)
• assistia do seu acampamento, amedrontado, acobardado, aos desafios arrogantes do gigante Golias e... (Abril de 2013)
• "experiences bring people more happiness than do possessions" (Outubro de 2014)
• A economia de experiências a crescer no Algarve (Agosto de 2015)
• Mongo, experiências, emoções, significados e tribos (Agosto de 2016)
• Serviços vs experiências (Julho de 2017)
• "Experiences won’t just sell products. Experiences will be the products" (Abril de 2018)

Mais um tijolo para esta construção, "Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things":

"Experiences become a part of our identity. We are not our possessions, but we are the accumulation of everything we’ve seen, the things we’ve done, and the places we’ve been. Buying an Apple Watch isn’t going to change who you are; taking a break from work to hike the Appalachian Trail from start to finish most certainly will.
.
“Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” said Gilovich. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”
...
Anticipation matters. Gilovich also studied anticipation and found that anticipation of an experience causes excitement and enjoyment, while anticipation of obtaining a possession causes impatience.
...
she attributes the temporary happiness achieved by buying things to what she calls “puddles of pleasure.” In other words, that kind of happiness evaporates quickly and leaves us wanting more. Things may last longer than experiences, but the memories that linger are what matter most."

Para os fabricantes de coisas, talvez faça sentido associar coisas a experiências, como um souvenir. Até que ponto alguém nas PME está a trabalhar nisto?

Bricolage

"The absence of substantial resource endowments restricts the ability of most new firms to innovate. The majority of new firms therefore never create any discernible innovative outcomes during what are often rather short-lived and mundane struggles to create value.
.
Yet, against these considerable odds, substantial subsets of new firms do manage to innovate. Remarkably little theory or research identifies or explains the patterns of behavior that differentiate new firms that manage to innovate from those that remain largely imitative. ... we know very little about the patterns of behavior that permit some resource-constrained firms to innovate while so many other similarly situated firms languish. In this paper, we draw on recent studies of entrepreneurial “bricolage” to develop and test theory that suggests that by engaging in bricolage, new firms may thereby improve their innovativeness.
...
First, “making do” implies “a bias toward action and active engagement with problems or opportunities rather than lingering over questions of whether a workable outcome can be created from what is at hand.” In a related manner, it implies “a refusal to enact resource limitations,” which means that firms engaged in bricolage are willing to experiment and tinker and try to find ways to accomplish goals without worrying too much about whether they have the “right” tools, resources, or skills at hand. [Moi ici: Fuçar em vez das tiradas da tríade] Whereas resource constraints might cause many other firms to refrain from attempting new activities, firms engaged in bricolage persist in trying to find ways of addressing new challenges. Second, bricolage relies on “the resources at hand,” which includes both the firm’s internal resources and external resources available cheaply or for free. Firms engaged in bricolage frequently find value in inputs that other firms view as worthless, which can be particularly useful when operating under substantial resource constraints.
...
firms engaging in bricolage will tend to create more innovative solutions than firms that do not use bricolage: bias for action, and recombination. First, the baseline expectation in prior theory in entrepreneurship is that many resource-constrained firms behave as if innovativeness requires slack resources. That is, they simply do not even attempt to innovate, but rather choose to do nothing when facing new opportunities and challenges for which an appropriate response would seem to require expensive new investments.  [Moi ici: Recordo Taleb e a frase, "stressors are information" ou "pain is information". Sem dor não há energia de activação para que a empresa passe a um nível superior. Mais uma razão para criticar o activismo dos governos de turno que impedem que as empresas se reinventem] In contrast, firms engaging in bricolage demonstrate a bias for action through a drive to overcome obstacles and a willingness to find ways to make do with the resources at hand. They are willing to treat as resources what other organizations might see as worth- less. This may include material, ideational, or human inputs.A second characteristic of bricolage promoting innovativeness is the recombination of existing elements."

Trechos retirados de "Bricolage as a Path to Innovativeness for Resource-Constrained New Firms", de Julienne Senyard, Ted Baker, Paul Steffens, e Per Davidsson, publicado por J PROD INNOV MANAG 2014;31(2):211–230.

"O que passa-se?" (parte II)

Parte I.

O artigo continua com um exemplo já conhecido aqui do blogue, a Local Motors (postal de 2012, outro de 2016 e outro de 2017).

"A small U.S. startup called Local Motors offers an intriguing glimpse into the future of manufacturing. The company manages five so-called microfactories around the world, which primarily use 3D-printing equipment to produce such modern-day curios as Olli, a self-driving shuttle bus with IBM Watson artificial intelligence that can be hailed via a smartphone app and follows voice instructions; a cargo-carrying drone for Airbus dubbed the Zelator; and the world’s first 3D-printed car, the Strati — road-worthy if not a speedster — built live in 44 hours at the International Manufacturing Technology Show.
.
But the 3D-printing aspect of Local Motors’ business model is just a small part of what makes this company worth examining. The company is also crowdsourcing production designs from a network of global participants,
...
As the microfactory concept evolves, Local Motors will build new plants wherever its customers are located, and each manufactured item will effectively be one of a kind, built to suit the tastes and requirements of individual consumers. Scale is replaced by potential savings from engineering, design, parts, labor, and efficiency in a 3D microfactory. Local Motors describes this approach as making money from scope. In other words, it offers useful, attractive, bespoke products to customers who are within shouting distance of its factories, at a price that matches the distinctive value of the item.
Local Motors is still a nascent business — and may or may not ultimately succeed — but at its core it reflects a vital shift in production dogma that manufacturers of all sizes will have to reckon with in the coming years. After decades of chasing lower production costs and scale by extending factory footprints and supply chains deeper into emerging nations and distributing products around the world in huge quantities over complex logistics networks, manufacturers are finding that their globalized approach is losing its viability. In particular, their centralized management structure, lengthy supply chains, lack of product variety, and long shipping times are impeding regional agility — and, in some cases, placing them at a disadvantage to local competition.
Instead, the new strategic archetype for successful manufacturers will be based on a relatively simple idea: The most efficient manufacturing setup is the one that makes goods in appropriate volumes to meet demand at the point of demand, with plenty of room for local and individual customization. Much of this concept will be driven by advances in technology — 3D printing, factory innovations, e-commerce, data analytics, and the Internet of Things, to name a few
...
Moreover, the impact of the point-of-demand model will not be limited to the business-to- consumer environment. Suppliers in the business-to-business realm will also be under pressure to improve responsiveness as part of the campaign by their customers — that is, manufacturers — to shorten the value chain and more proactively serve the end consumer.
The implications are problematic for some companies: Manufacturers that are today highly invested in a global factory network of multiple large centralized plants, managed by traditional operating systems, organizations, and processes, may find their business models becoming obsolete faster than they ever expected. [Moi ici: Recordar esta reflexão de 2014] However, the nimblest manufacturers stand to reap significant gains from this new model. As their supply systems become more responsive and as customer demand becomes less of a guessing game, inventory inefficiencies and the carrying costs of warehousing products in bulk — only to ultimately jettison some of them as dead stock — will decline. In addition, savings will be generated by the reduction in expensive long-range production planning and supply chain management. And for companies able to outpace rivals in producing products that are best suited to customer needs — making these items available when customers want them — sales margins should rise markedly."

Conseguem imaginar como isto vai mudar o paradigma económico? Conseguem visualizar o fim do mundo criado pelo século XX?

A evolução para a economia de influenciadores

Mais um exemplo a juntar ao rol que este blogue vem acumulando desde Março de 2007, para suportar a importância de trabalhar o ecossistema.

"Brands now shower Instagram stars with merchandise and feature a select few in their own marketing campaigns. Guerra said Target has an in-house marketing team devoted to scouting and recruiting influencers for campaigns.
.
The ecosystem is still expanding, extending beyond the biggest names, with even “micro-influencers” targeted by brands for their often devoted followings. That term has a flexible definition; Bryanboy said his more-than 600,000 Instagram followers made him a micro-influencer compared to celebrities with millions of fans.
...
“Early on for brands, it was about … how we translate our influence into sales,” Mason said. “Now when I’m working with brands, it’s not to sell products… It’s to change their way of approaching a customer or product.”
.
In other words, influencers are no longer just peddling products directly from brands to their followers. They’re creating campaigns around a brand for a company and even creating their own brands, as Mason did.
...
What matters, ultimately, is the credibility of the relationship between the brand or product and the influencer. The extent of his personal experience with brand partners, he said, “goes on from posting a picture on Instagram of me holding a bag to me creating a video of events around the world that they send me to.”
.
“All of this creates an image of me integrating with these brands on a 360 level,” he said.
.
Beyond creating content for brands, another driving force of the influencer economy is the consumer’s hunger for representation."

Trechos retirados de "The Evolution of the Influencer Economy"

"O que passa-se?"

Normalmente aqui no blogue, chamo a atenção para a cegueira das empresas de consultoria grandes, parece que escondem dos seus clientes grandes o impacte de Mongo na sua actividade.

Julgo que é a primeira vez que encontro um texto de uma consultora grande sobre Mongo e as suas implicações na economia, nos ecossistemas e na dimensão das empresas.

"In the next manufacturing revolution, spurred on by technologies that reinvent the way a factory can create products, such as 3D printing and robotics, companies will also need to rethink what they make and where they make it. Products will come off the assembly line in small, highly customized batches, like a high-tech version of old-fashioned craftsmanship. [Moi ici: Digam lá se isto não é uma entrada à matador com Mongo em toda a linha!!! Desde os pequenos lotes até aos artesãos tecnológicos longe das máquinas-monumento tão queridas dos que pensam que o Normalistão do século XX automatizado será o paradigma produtivo do século XXI]
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The revolution is on its way, and within the next five to 10 years, manufacturers in all industries will find themselves in a race to efficiently produce products at the point of demand — that is, where their customers are — and to deliver these items when their customers want them, personalized to their customers’ individual tastes. They will have to make strategic choices to stay competitive, investing in technology that allows them to continually analyze data about their customers’ preferences and buying habits so they can adapt quickly to changes in market conditions. Factories will be smaller, [Moi ici: Imaginem os cromos da Junqueira ao ler estas blasfémias!] operating with minimal lead times and shorter value chains. Management will be decentralized, the supply chain will be simplified and shortened, and the distance separating the manufacturer from its customers will be sharply reduced.
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Although technology will enable this new manufacturing model, customers will compel its adoption. In emerging markets as well as developed regions, customers increasingly expect products that match local cultural preference rather than homogeneous global brands and business-to-business services. The auto industry pioneered this localized model as long ago as the 1980s, when Japanese automakers entered the U.S. market with cars tailored to American tastes. But only recently have other industries taken up this approach — with refrigerators, toothpaste, furniture, clothing, and software that are designed for each region. The popularity of e-commerce has changed the customer experience, giving people more information about products and competitors’ products, pricing, and, through peer reviews, quality. For the first time, customers can reasonably demand from mass producers products that look and feel like they were made next door.
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Nimble manufacturers will reap significant gains from the point-ofdemand model. As their supply systems become more responsive and as local customer demand becomes less of a guessing game, inventory inefficiencies and the carrying costs of having to warehouse products in bulk will decline. The expense of supply chain management and production planning will drop as well. And companies able to produce personalized products that are best suited to customer needs when customers want them will enjoy higher sales margins. By contrast, as point-of-demand manufacturing takes hold, companies that operate global factory networks with large centralized plants, managed by traditional operating systems, organizations, and processes, may find that their business models are outmoded."

Ao chegar aqui recordei, "Pedro Nuno Santos quer Estado como motor do desenvolvimento", porque estava a nascer em mim um outro pensamento, o oposto... o que esperar de um contrarian-militante! O que seria a orientação geral de um governo para facilitar a transição para este tipo de sociedade?

Empresas pequenas, DIY, empreendedorismo verdadeiro não treta para sacar Portugal 2020, fiscalidade normanda, legislação laboral, democratização da produção.

Esta transição vai acontecer, inevitavelmente, pedida, ordenada pelos clientes, pelas tribos de Mongo. E teremos governos cada vez mais incapazes de perceber o que se passa, questionando-se, "O que passa-se?", cada vez mais crentes nas virtudes do Normalistão, num mundo que se afasta cada vez mais desse paradigma.

Trechos retirados de "Manufacturing’s new world order: The rise of the point-of-demand model"

Effectual Logic

Muitas vezes dou comigo a regressar a este postal de Outubro de 2015, "Do concreto para o abstracto e não o contrário". Pensar estratégia para PME deve ser diferente de pensar estratégia para empresas grandes. As PME têm de partir do que têm e não se podem permitir entrar em ilusões de rico, ""analisamos os meios que temos e imaginamos futuros possíveis" (parte II)".

"Causation is when actions are made based on predetermined goals and focuses on the selection between available means to achieve those goals. It begins with the identification and exploitation of opportunity in the existing market, followed by a series of tasks that include extensive market study and detailed competitive analyses to develop a business plan. In order to implement the plan, resource acquisition and interaction with different stakeholders by developing partnerships takes place.
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In contrast, effectuation focuses on choosing between possible objectives that can be created with the set of available resources (who I am, what I know, whom I know). Who I am includes these characteristics; for example traits, preferences, skills, abilities, passions, assets; what I know consists of prior knowledge including; education, training and expertise, knowledge from life, and informal learning. Lastly, who I know includes the social and professional networks. [Moi ici: Tudo isto tem a ver com a importância da idiossincrasia] Those goals are constructed and evaluated within affordable losses rather than expected returns. Effectuators then seek to co-create those goals through negotiating with various stakeholders who are willing to make actual commitments. These commitments add new resources to the pool of means to achieve new goals (markets, products, and firms). Effectual logic is focused on co-creating the future by the use of intangible resources, utilising co-creation of value and relationships. Effectual and causal logics are different in terms of having two different processes at their foundations.
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when an individual uses causal logic they begin with a given goal, decision-making is based on expected returns, execute competitive advantage and conduct comprehensive market study, exploit pre-existing knowledge and try to predict the future. Whereas individuals uses effectual logic begin with a given set of means, decision making based on affordable loss, emphasize strategic alliances and exploit contingencies, and seek to control and embrace unpredictable future.
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“Bricolage” is “making do by applying combinations of resources at hand to new problems and opportunities”
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Effectuation is characterized by flexibility, experimentation and affordable loses. Those characteristics allow service innovation to take place. In causal approach, outsiders are perceived as competitors or threats, while in effectual approach, customers, suppliers, workers even competitors are perceived as potential partners who can help in crystalizing the service by adding new means or goals. [Moi ici: Os meus queridos ecossistemas] Bricoleurs involve customers, suppliers and other parties to solve a problem or launch/improve service innovation. Collaboration expands the pool of available resource and helps to broaden ones expertise."

Trechos retirados de "Causation and Effectuation in the context of Service Innovation in small, independent firms - Integration and management of resources and capabilities"