"their business model is fundamentally broken"

O mundo está em permanente mudança, mudança que acelerou nas últimas décadas com a disseminação da internet. Enquanto as mentes dominadas pelo locus de controlo externo apelam ao papá-estado e ao seu apoio pedo-mafioso, a minoria, com o locus de controlo interno, olha as coisas de frente e procura construir uma alternativa.

Em "Perilous Times" encontramos um bom exemplo dos que experimentam coisas novas e dos que esperam que o mau tempo desapareça, por artes mágicas, como aquela empresa em 2007:

"But the real challenge facing many colleges and universities at the moment is that their business model is fundamentally broken. “Business model” isn’t a popular phrase in higher education, either, but all colleges have one. When we use the term, we are referring to the revenue that an institution must take in to support the resources and processes it uses to deliver on its value proposition.
.
Many colleges and universities are increasingly unable to bring in enough revenue to cover their costs.
...
What makes this even worse is that the natural pressure in higher education is for costs to increase -- thanks to the lack of economies of scale and the complexity of higher education operations. A major reason for the complexity of those operations is that many colleges and universities have multiple value propositions with multiple business models for multiple stakeholders. Managing that complexity has driven up the cost of administrative overhead over time.
...
First, in the competition to attract students, colleges and universities will continue their arms race. For many, that will mean adopting copycat sustaining innovations -- more faculty, more extravagant facilities, more administrative positions -- that add cost. But this will further strain their business model, because they are already struggling to bring in enough revenue from a mixture of tuition, government funding, endowment returns and donations. For those institutions that are largely dependent on tuition for revenue and have small endowments, they will be in big trouble.
.
Second, for those that can’t keep up and those that experience enrollment declines, their large fixed costs -- thanks to tenured faculty, debt payments associated with financing their many buildings, and associated building-maintenance costs -- place them in peril without an easy ability to adjust.
...
But standing still, avoiding innovation and trying to be many things to many people is a nonstarter. We look forward to many individual colleges innovating, defying the odds and proving our predictions wrong."

Quem pensa no depois de amanhã concentra-se nisto:

“Against this backdrop, it is true that the emergence of the first disruptive innovation in education since the printing press -- online learning -- will also play a role as more students enroll in online learning experiences. The full impact of disruption in higher education will take at least a generation to be felt, however, not overnight. … the opportunity to carve out a specific focus around a meaningful “job to be done” -- the progress that an individual is trying to make in a particular circumstance -- in the lives of its students.” 

E imagina um mundo de oportunidades muito para lá dos estudantes, pensa num mundo que exige mais informação e formação, pensa num mundo onde essa informação até está disponível gratuitamente, mas pensa na curadoria necessária para filtrar o trigo do joio, pensa na necessidade de confiança e de experiência, pensa na necessidade de interacção. Será, no entanto, um mudo que não vai ser para professores de carreira, formados em pedagogia e sem experiência da vida...

"Successful businesses know exactly who their target customers are"

"Successful businesses know exactly who their target customers are. They strive to cater to specific and strategic customer needs. They focus on the most important customers to the business, and sometimes even refocus on a more lucrative target market. But it’s not uncommon for even successful businesses to become unfocused as they seek to grow by catering to a broadening spread of customer demands. And even with a conscious refocusing there are pitfalls; changing target customer isn’t easy and it doesn’t always go to plan.
...
Of course, it is quite possible to shift customer focus without disastrous results. Some years ago, I was CEO of a company that made trusses and frames for houses. The company was losing money and I had to confront a key business question: Who is our target customer? We had all sorts. Large companies that built hundreds of homes a year; mid-size builders who constructed several homes per annum; and “mums and dads” doing small projects who shopped mainly on Saturday mornings.
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After some agonizing we narrowed our target customer down to “the professional builder.” Out went the mums and dads. They were a distraction. As a result, our product range shrank beautifully. I say “beautifully” because this refocus enabled us to reduce the stock of timber in our warehouse, thereby releasing cash and cutting our expenses. This refocus was one of the key ingredients in the turnaround’s success.
...
when you shift target customer you also shift the competitors you confront.
...
Identifying the target customer is a key part of strategic planning. The choice determines how what you sell, how you brand it, what price you charge, and whom you’re competing with. And as your strategy evolves, you may well discover that the customer focus of your business has shifted as well. It can happen without knowing. You cater for this acquisition here, you adapt to those regional markets there, and soon you’re trying to be all things to all customers. Or, ... you may make a change in customer focus without carefully considering the ramifications, and end up losing a packet because the strategy that goes with your new target doesn’t fit the new market you’re in. Either way, not paying attention to your choice of customer and what it implies is a recipe for strategic failure."

Trechos retirados de "Are You Ready to Change Your Target Customer?"

"Warns of Margin Threat as Niche Brands Disrupt Industry" (parte II)

Há um mês a parte I.

Agora, outro texto sobre os nichos e sobre o seu poder em "Niche is the New Black in China’s Luxury Landscape":

"Over the last few years, a quiet but steady shift has been taking place among Chinese luxury shoppers. Big logos are no longer a priority, and in their place, niche high-end labels and boutique products have been reshaping the retail landscape and are now becoming the new signifiers of luxury consumption.
.
This swing has been propelled by changes within the market itself, which has become younger and increasingly more sophisticated.
...
they’re also looking for authenticity, originality, and a sense of personality. Niche brands often capture all that.”
...
“The smaller you are the easier it is to have a one-to-one conversation,” she said. “As a niche brand, you have to be better than the larger brands at placing the consumer first. [Moi ici: Trabalhar para a miudagem versus trabalhar com o Miguel ou Maria] The more consumer-centric the better. The other very important attribute of being niche is the team you build and how their passion translates into a more special experience for the consumer. [And then there is] the power of the consumers themselves. They have become our most important ambassadors. From the day they discover us, they learn and engage until they become part of who we are.”
...
“Many of the major brands have started looking similar, and innovation has slowed,” she explained, “while smaller labels are offering something novel and exciting to the market. They have a story to share and are captivating customers with that story or journey. Shoppers want more, and niche brands are able to connect on an intimate level with them.” [Moi ici: Este sublinhado final faz-me lembrar este postal ""-Tu não és meu irmão de sangue!""]

Animador

"A study by PwC that reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries and across various industries found that only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects.
McKinsey & Company studied over 5,000 projects and found that 56% delivered less value than expected, 45% were over budget and 17% unfolded so badly that they threatened the company's very survival.
According to Gartner, 85% of big data projects fail to move past preliminary stages." .
A study published by the Association of Spanish Geographers estimates that between 1995 and 2016 Spanish government agencies spent more than €8I billion on "infrastructure that was unnecessary, abandoned, underutilized or poorly programmed". And this figure could surpass €97 billion in the near future, factoring in the amounts that have already been pledged. The report says: "All of it was done without a proper cost/benefit analysis, and often on the basis of estimates of future users or earnings supported by a scenario of economic euphoria that was as evident as it was fleeting." 

Não, não é primeiro de Abril.

Trecho retirado de "The Project Revolution" de Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

Para reflexão

Pensar a sério na mensagem deste postal de Seth Godin, "Busy is not the point":

"No points for busy.
.
Points for successful prioritization. Points for efficiency and productivity. Points for doing work that matters."

Value Chain Marketing (parte II)

Parte I.

Quando faz sentido aplicar o value chain marketing?

Em "Value Chain Marketing - A Marketing Strategy to Overcome Immediate Customer Innovation Resistance" de  Stephanie Hintze pode ler-se:,

"In order to target downstream customers, a supplier firm must offer added value. That is often the only way to create downstream customers’ preferences. If supplier products have no positive differentiation value compared to available alternatives or competition, the prerequisite to pursue VCM is not fulfilled. This implicates that supplier firms would have no ‘sales’ arguments, and downstream customers would have no reason to prefer final products that contain a particular supplier’s material. More to the point, products sold on price like commodities do not provide innovative attributes or distinguishing characteristics which can be promoted down the value chain. By contrast, specialty goods like coatings and sealants often provide a benefit for downstream customers by improving the performance of final products. Still, this benefit must be communicable to relevant end applicators. It implicates that only if they are convinced that using a specific supplier’s material is particularly advantageous, they are willing to change their buyer behavior. To overcome this problem, suppliers can present prototypes, delivers samples, or results of product tests to demonstrate the benefit of their products. Also, suppliers have to ensure the identification of their materials at subsequent stages."

Em "Which types of multi-stage marketing increase direct customers' willingness-to-pay? Evidence from a scenario-based experiment in a B2B setting" de Ingmar Geiger, Florian Dost, Alejandro Schönhoff, e Michael Kleinaltenkamp, publicado por Industrial Marketing Management pode ler-se:

"1) A supplier's offering has to offer superior value compared to competitors or substitutes to some actors down the value chain.
(2) This value needs to be communicable.
(3) The supplier's offering needs to be identifiable in downstream
market stages.
(4) The supplier needs to possess a minimum of relevant marketing
know-how.
(5) There need to be a sufficient degree of certainty that the desired
demand pull cannot be obstructed by opposing measures by intermediate market stages." 

"Sorry folks, but not even one of these responses is a strategy"

"At the start of my public seminars on strategic planning I ask attendees, who rank from board members and CEOs to middle management, to write down an example of a strategy on a sheet of paper. They look at me quizzically at first as they realize that this is a tough assignment. I reassure them that this is indeed a hard question and they plow ahead.
.
The results are always astonishing to me and them. Here are some of the responses from the list I received at my most recent session: actions (“launch a new service”; “review our suitability to the retirement business”); activities (“marketing our products through the right channels”); objectives (“achieve $100m net revenue”) and broad descriptions of what goes on (“planning process from beginning to end of product”; “working for your stakeholders”).
.
Sorry folks, but not even one of these responses is a strategy."

Trecho retirado de "Your Strategic Plans Probably Aren’t Strategic, or Even Plans"

"One must first understand the main source(s) of value"

"One must first understand the main source(s) of value; only then is it possible to have the real value reflected in the price. This statement does not imply that the general model of value leads directly to a pricing decision or that there is some formulaic relationship between value and price, only that once one truly understands the value provided, the pricing potential becomes much more apparent."

Trecho retirado de "Understanding Value Beyond Mere Metrics" de E. M. (Mick) Kolassa

Não é nem roubo nem desigualdade

Recomendo uma reflexão baseada em dois textos de Niraj Dawar.

O primeiro texto é "The Critical Role Of Context In Building Brands" e parte do vídeo com alguns anos, que muitos terão visto, de um reputado violinista a tocar anonimamente no metro de Washington, quando dias antes tinha enchido o Symphony Hall de Boston com os bilhetes a $100. A mensagem de Dawar é: o contexto é tudo.

"But ultimately, where does context reside? In the mind of the customer. By creating context, marketers play with the customers’ mind. They shape it to create the most receptive setting for the brand and the product."

O meu ponto de vista é: não podemos servir todo o tipo de clientes e para alguns, ainda que o nosso produto ou serviço seja de topo, não seremos a melhor solução pois o resultado que procuram obter nas suas vidas pode ser conseguido com uma oferta alternativa, ou mais barata, ou mais fácil, ou mais luxuosa, ou mais amizade genuína, ou mais ...

O segundo texto é "Brands And The Consumer Hourglass Theory" e vai de encontro a muitos desabafos que faço quando vejo empresas a deixarem dinheiro em cima da mesa - Damn! It's not about the price!!!

"Citigroup calls it the Hourglass Theory. As income inequality increases, consumers are polarizing into two groups – the few looking for high-end, highly differentiated and high value-added products, and the many looking for value, and sometimes extreme value.
.
The middle, which was the staple target market of consumer goods companies since at least the mid-twentieth century, has shrunk, and continues to shrink." [Moi ici: Isto faz-nos recuar a 2005 e à polarização dos mercados]

O ponto de Dawar, com o qual estou totalmente de acordo, é que isto, o desaparecimento do mercado do meio termo, não acontece por causa do aumento das desigualdades económicas. Quantas pessoas conhecem com um bruto carrão, e que não têm onde cair mortas com dívidas? Quantos estudantes não querem gastar um cêntimo em livros e propinas, mas não hesitam em ir à discoteca da moda derreter dinheiro? [Apesar desta linguagem não faço julgamentos de valor, cada um é livre de decidir onde e como gastar o seu dinheiro, a menos que depois eu tenha de contribuir para fazer o bail-out de uns quaisquer lesados-[colocar nome dos maus de turno]]

"But while the data on income inequality are incontrovertible, there is another explanation for the hourglass that marketers should not rule out: attention scarcity.
.
What if the scarce commodity at the source of the hour glass is not so much consumer income or spending, but consumer interest and attention?
.
Consider for a moment that consumers now make thousands of purchase decisions in hundreds of product categories every year. They can’t possibly be experts in all of these product categories, nor do they have an interest in optimizing their choice in each product category. They just want something that will do the job."

Acredito profundamente nisto que se segue:

"for most of the thousands of choices consumers make, they merely want a reasonable product – give me something that works at a price that makes sense. This is the very definition of value.
Some consumers are willing to spend the time to learn about product categories about which they are passionate, and are usually also willing to spend more money on the better products in those categories. For all other product categories, they couldn’t care less.
...
So the bifurcation of the market into what looks like an hourglass occurs, but due to attention disparity, not income disparity.
.
If it is interest and consumer attention that are creating the hourglass"

Por isso, tento convencer os empresários que quando um concorrente conquista um cliente que entra num mercado pela primeira vez, o mais certo é que esse cliente ainda não esteja no patamar [de atenção] que os torna como a oferta mais adequada. O seu interesse e conhecimento vai ter de aumentar porque, por exemplo, querem subir na escala de valor, só nessa altura estarão maduros para uma outra oferta.

E no seu caso, como é?

Value Chain Marketing

O que tenho feito nos últimos 15 anos com tantas empresas, quando trabalhamos o ecossistema da procura.

"To deal with the consequences of derived demand, he argues that B2B sellers need to consider not only the next immediate customer in their marketing plans but also aim their marketing activities at subsequent stages.
...
VCM goes beyond traditional marketing, missionary selling, as well as primary demand stimulation. It represents a holistic marketing strategy which covers the entire marketing mix and thus encounters the complexities of the value chain in which a firm operates. As mentioned before, the pull strategy is frequently limited to the promotional part of the marketing mix. The author uses the term VCM “to refer to the practice of influencing an entire industry value chain for the benefit of the marketing function”. The ultimate goal of VCM is to develop comprehensive marketing intelligence and to promote innovations across all levels of the value chain. To stay competitive in the market, B2B marketers have to cover a broader framework to analyze the chain. They “must understand not only the cost and revenue dynamics of its intermediate target buyer firms, but also the cost and revenue dynamics facing the buyers’ buyers, from whose demand the demand of the immediate market is derived”. [Moi ici: Recordar "aplicar a análise Value Stream Mapping o fizessem à utilização do produto durante o ciclo de vida do utilizador final,"]
...

This mapping process requires a high degree of market orientation. [Moi ici: O trecho que se segue parece tirado aqui do blogue. Basta recordar a figura deste postal] Also, they should integrate influencers like procurement and engineering consultants, industrial designers, experts for complementary products, lawyers, or architects when mapping the value chain. Their special characteristic is to influence both the buying decision of immediate and downstream customers. They are well- informed on present upstream and downstream marketing projects and are open to innovative ideas. Furthermore, influencers establish relationships to manufacturers and applicators and are able to get them interested and to induce them to stimulate demand for supplier innovations.

...
Instead of relying on just one marketing strategy, VCM comprises push and pull marketing equally and covers the whole marketing mix. It includes the kind of product, how it is promoted to customers in a value chain, the method for distributing products to customers, and the amount the customers are willing to pay for a product. The crucial point is that in VCM the adapted and tailored marketing activities of the push and the pull strategy complement each other and are incorporated into one universal marketing strategy.
...

...
First, VCM reduces the risk of substitutability of suppliers’ materials or product inputs by demonstrating their importance for the end product. This means that suppliers no longer operate anonymously and address customers down the value chain directly. They create problem awareness among downstream customers by presenting the distinguishing features of their innovative products. As VCM allows a two-way communication, it increases the efficiency of the entire marketing mix. It implies that suppliers receive unfiltered feedback from downstream customers and the chance to better solve their problems in real time. As a result, suppliers gather valuable market information and translate this information into product improvements or innovations. If suppliers succeed in positioning and differentiating their products in a favorable way, substitutability becomes less likely. By creating preferences at the stage of downstream customers, VCM assures suppliers’ sales-political independence in the vertical production and distribution process. VCM allows suppliers to strengthen their position in a value chain and motivate downstream customers to invest in long-term partnerships. In consequence, suppliers are able to enhance control over different value-chain activities and anticipate fluctuations in demand more readily."

Trechos retirados de "Value Chain Marketing - A Marketing Strategy to Overcome Immediate Customer Innovation Resistance" de  Stephanie Hintze,

"creative destruction means that low productivity plants are displaced by high productivity plants"

O Nuno enviou-me um artigo que me pôs a pensar. Vários tópicos positivos e um sinal de preocupação.

"A TrimNW foi criada em Março de 2015 na sequência do fecho da antiga Ipetex do Cartaxo, que abriu insolvência nesse ano. Vários trabalhadores acreditaram na mais-valia de uma das áreas de negócio – a do sector automóvel – e avançaram por sua conta e risco, sendo bem sucedidos.[Moi ici: Este parágrafo faz-me lembrar Maliranta e Taleb. A empresa fechou e foram os trabalhadores num novo projecto, com skin in the game, que encontraram uma resposta para o aumento da produtividade necessária]

...
A empresa produz para nichos de mercado e tem vários clientes importantes, incluindo marcas de automóveis de luxo do Reino Unido, para quem chega a produzir séries limitadas de até 10 mil peças por ano.
.
A experiência e conhecimento adquiridos ao longo dos anos, juntamente com a qualidade dos seus produtos e da prática de preços competitivos, fazem da TrimNW um nome forte na Europa na produção daqueles materiais. [Moi ici: Este é o trecho que me deixa alguma preocupação. Se trabalham para nichos e fazem séries limitadas o preço não devia ser um factor crítico]
...
Os negócios fazem-se desde que a gente corra atrás deles. Se ficarmos aqui quietos à espera que venham ter connosco eles não vêm. O nosso material é muito específico, temos de procurar os nossos clientes, procurar as oportunidades que eles nos possam dar."[Moi ici: Proactividade, uma postura tão necessária nos tempos que correm]

Nunca esquecer:

"It is widely believed that restructuring has boosted productivity by displacing low-skilled workers and creating jobs for the high skilled."Mas, e como isto é profundo:"In essence, creative destruction means that low productivity plants are displaced by high productivity plants." Por favor voltar a trás e reler esta última afirmação. Pensem nos teóricos que dizem que a produtividade só cresce com mais educação académica.

Trechos retirados de "TrimNW é uma empresa de Santarém à conquista do mercado europeu"

"suppliers are in a weak position in the value chain and operate anonymously"

Há cerca de 15 anos que comecei a ajudar empresas a fugir do push marketing:

Há cerca de 15 anos que comecei a trabalhar o conceito de ecossistema porque acredito que é fundamental para subir na escala de valor, para aumentar preços, para aumentar a produtividade sem ser pela via cancerosa do crescimento a todo o custo.

Ontem, ao ler os trechos que se seguem, retirados de "Value Chain Marketing - A Marketing Strategy to Overcome Immediate Customer Innovation Resistance" de  Stephanie Hintze, estava sempre a pensar: está aqui muita da razão porque temos uma produtividade tão baixa. Como não temos marcas somos fornecedores de materiais ou produtos que outros vão ainda processar e/ou vender e continuamos anónimos, sem capacidade de intervenção e com pouco reconhecimento:

"By solely relying on immediate customers, suppliers are faced with the problem of limited and distorted information and are also confronted with a loss of control over their product quality. More to the point, immediate customers withhold information about application trends and needs. They act as gatekeepers by controlling the types of information the supplier receives. Their aim is to remain the channel of communication between the supplier and the end applicator and thus stay in control of the business relationship. For that reason, supplier firms are unable to anticipate change and plan product improvements or new ideas. Due to isolation from the application market, suppliers are in a weak position in the value chain and operate anonymously. Even if they develop innovations, these rest with the intermediaries, i.e. the manufacturers, as the former are often unwilling to promote supplier innovations aggressively. That is why suppliers cannot demonstrate the importance of their product inputs for the final product. Manufacturers prefer to wait until they receive strong signals from their customers indicating the need for an innovation. They do not want to jeopardize their goal of efficiency. As a result, only standardized and highly substitutable materials that restrict suppliers’ profits and margins are sold in the value chain. Instead of pursuing a proactive product innovations management, suppliers are forced to be reactive. Due to the absence of suppliers’ contact with end applicators, the distance to the application market remains big. Suppliers have no chance to build long-term relationships with downstream customers which could reduce their dependence on manufacturers."

Curiosidade do dia

Dois exemplos de como Mongo vai ser um mundo de diversidade:

• Book sales are up this year over last year, and physical books are thriving
• Back to the future: cassettes launch comeback tour

From pull to Value Chain

"In pull marketing, the second dominant marketing strategy for dealing with derived demand, suppliers no longer restrict their marketing activities to those who apparently make the procurement decision. By stimulating downstream customers, suppliers try to pull their innovative products through the entire value chain. They bridge the gap to the application market and gather valuable information regarding downstream customer needs. This supports a supplier’s proactive innovations management. As a result, the supplier is able to reduce his dependence on the manufacturer.
.
In this marketing strategy, the role of the manufacturer tends to be passive but the applicator’s role becomes very active. The supplier tries to generate demand at the stage of applicators through extensive advertising and personal selling activities...
Thus, applicators become more informed about the available products and solutions that might be applicable to their business. Instead of pushing the product to immediate customers, suppliers make downstream customers request it.
...
With a pull strategy, the supplier does an end-run, circumventing the more direct value-chain actors, concentrating on those further down the value chain.
...
the objective of a pull strategy is to establish a bottom-up demand base so that the immediate customer has little choice but to adhere to these demands and to place orders with the respective supplier
...
Involving downstream customers like in pull marketing leads to another marketing strategy that addresses an even bigger audience. This strategy is called Value Chain Marketing (VCM) and describes the practice of influencing the entire value chain to succeed in marketing innovative products. It requires a firm to have a deep and complete understanding of the value chain in order to maximize marketing effectiveness."   

Trechos retirados de "Value Chain Marketing - A Marketing Strategy to Overcome Immediate Customer Innovation Resistance" de  Stephanie Hintze.

"value, like price, should be deduced, and not calculated" (parte II)

Parte I.

"The most important questions the pricer can ask are, “What problem does my product solve, and who owns that problem?” Answering those questions is the first step in understanding and clarifying value. For any new product or service, the value will be determined in the context of current options. I argue that value is comprised of multiple components, including both negative aspects of value (such as risk in use) and positive aspects (such as the incremental benefits of the product) that drive the value of the product.
...

...
Put another way, value is determined by the interaction of the utility of the product (as defined in the model) moderated by the risk (also defined in the model) in using it; ... The implications of this relationship are fairly straightforward: increasing the utility of a product or decreasing the risk in its use can both result in increased value, which can translate into either a higher price or an enhanced value proposition in which the buyer understands that the price paid is far below the value received.
...
The positive aspects (or sources) of value begin with a determination of the need for the product or service, which is driven, or moderated, by the criticality of the situation in which it is needed or used and the number and quality of alternatives that are available.
Criticality is the urgency of the need for the outcomes of the use of the product. This urgency is not strictly temporal but also captures the likelihood and severity of the negative consequences if the product is not used or acquired. Higher levels of criticality will positively affect the level of need. Criticality is moderated by a number of alternatives in that the level of criticality of the situation is a key driver of value, while the availability of alternatives can mitigate the level of need."

Trechos retirados de "Understanding Value Beyond Mere Metrics" de E. M. (Mick) Kolassa

"you have to find a niche market and work to be the best at it"

Leiam o que se segue e comparem com o que este anónimo da província escreve por aqui há milhares de anos:

"The economy is changing and we will see increasing market fragmentation. The only ones who will win in mass markets will be the big platform owners.
...
It seems that to be successful in the network era you have to find a niche market and work to be the best at it. Ross Dawson makes a strong point by stating that “in a connected world, unless your skills are world-class, you are a commodity“. Expertise, relationships, and innovation will mark the successful people in the emerging network era economy according to Ross.
...
It’s not easy finding new market niches but that seems to be the only option for most of us who are not in Silicon Valley building the next social media platform. The only way to make our talent profitable in the network era is to turn it into a highly specialized capital asset. Feeding crowd-milking platforms is not a sane small-business operating model. It’s better to find your own cow than be milked by someone else."

Trechos retirados de "Crowd-milking"

"value, like price, should be deduced, and not calculated"

Em Maio de 2007 - "Value is a feeling not a calculation, o poder de perguntar porquê?".

"I first wish to assert that value is not a simple monetization of the benefits of a product, but, in fact, encompasses much more. Value cannot be reflected totally in dollars and cents, despite what many may prefer or even claim. Attempts to calculate value solely in monetary terms ignore important aspects of human behavior, as well as the various ways price influences purchases, regardless of value. Many aspects of value defy monetization: no useful metric exists that can be applied directly to the happiness or emotional fulfillment that a buyer receives from certain purchases. This statement applies equally to consumer purchases as well as many B2B situations. Rather than attempting to measure precisely the value of a product or service and then set a price based on that information, we must first seek to identify and understand the sources and importance of the many facets of value, without economic blinders, and understand how that will enhance or support pricing decisions.
...
“Mathematics has given economics rigor, but alas, also mortis.” The economist or pricer who believes that value can be understood through mere mathematical calculation and the manipulation of sets of numbers misses the subtlety of value, and its many forms, by foregoing the rigor of investigation and relying on the mortis of metrics.
...
value, like price, should be deduced, and not calculated.
...
The most important questions the pricer can ask are, “What problem does my product solve, and who owns that problem?” Answering those ques- tions is the first step in understanding and clarifying value."

Trechos retirados de "Understanding Value Beyond Mere Metrics" de E. M. (Mick) Kolassa

Curiosidade do dia

The Crab of Europe pic.twitter.com/CtOKkNCiGe

— Antonio N Leite (@AntNLeite62) March 24, 2019

Remember 2008 - A caminho da Sildávia do Ocidente, 2010, 2018

Fábricas flexíveis, fábricas para Mongo

O meu parceiro das conversas oxigenadoras chamou-me a atenção para este artigo "Inside Toyota's Takaoka #2 Line: The Most Flexible Line In The World":

"Ever since the first cars rolled down Ford’s assembly line a little more than 100 years ago, a Gordian knot strangulated carmakers the world over: Assembly lines are fast, but inflexible. After pulling a few strings to get into the Takaoka plant, you will see the Gordian knot become untied.
...
Why would you want a flexible car plant? Isn’t it enough that the damn thing spits out cars in ever increasing numbers?
.
Did we just hear “ever increasing numbers?”
.
Assembly lines are great at building cars in great numbers and at relatively high speed. At the same time, assembly lines abhor change. Assembly lines pretty much have two speeds: On, or off. They hate to go much faster, or much slower, than their rated speed. Try introducing a new car model to the assembly line of old, and you sometimes face months of retooling. When demand for the car increases, customers sometimes must wait months for the long-tailed assembly line beast to catch up. When demand slackens, plants often must be idled. Takaoka is a marvel of production engineering that solves all that, and then some.
...
“Alright,” you say, “you replaced a robot with a human, but how does this make the line flexible?”...
For other automakers, substantial increases or decreases in capacity often mean building new factories, or idling current ones. At Toyota, it can be done over the weekend. Workers lay down cable trays on a flat shop floor. Instead of a mess of cables, only one fat cable is connected. Where cables must cross the line, a gate shaped cable tray on casters is rolled into place. Platforms are set down left and right to guide motorized dollies for cars in nascent state. Formerly fixed stations are rolled in place down the line, and on Monday, the plant has a completely different capacity than what it was on Friday. In the course of a year, this magical capacity conversion can happen several times."

Bem na senda de "O que protegerá Portugal dos robôs?"

Os artistas, os paraquedistas, os feiticeiros e os malabaristas (parte II)

Ao ler o título "Canis cada vez mais sobrelotados após lei que proíbe abate de animais saudáveis. Bastonário critica pouco combate ao abandono" sorri.

Há muitos anos que detectei a tendência dos políticos espertos para darem cada vez mais ênfase aos temas em que as consequências das suas decisões só podem ser avaliadas muito mais tarde, para não apanharem surpresas.

Por exemplo, a preocupação com as alterações climáticas.

Este caso dos cães e dos canis foi uma argolada que cometeram pois foge da regra. Rapidamente os factos da realidade emergem como uma parede contra a qual a argumentação dos políticos esbarra violentamente.

Quando um cidadão ou um opositor diz que uma dada medida está errada é uma opinião, quando a mesma medida aparece esmagada no pós-choque com a realidade ... não há desculpas.

Imaginem a malta que faz asneiras deste calibre, que acredita que a transmutação do ouro é possível, que acredita que o TGV serve para transportar carvão ou madeira de eucalipto, que acredita que os comboios de mercadorias devem circular a 300 km/h, que acham que um TGV pode funcionar como metro de superfície, que diziam que a Portela estava esgotada. E não esqueçam os copos menstruais. E já agora a falta de noção da realidade.

Como não se pode duvidar da capacidade intelectual das pessoas que acreditam nestas petas, "A revitalização do território e o papel da indústria". As pessoas reais, as que não estão nas listas de ajustes directos dos governos e autarquias, e as empresas sem ligações aos corredores, carpetes e biombos do poder, sabem que tudo o que vem das mentes destes seres na assembleia, são mais um escolho que vão ter de considerar no caminho árduo que trilham diariamente.

BTW, João Cravinho teve azar, disse e defendeu as SCUTs com argumentos que poucos anos depois caíram sobre ele como uma bomba... o que o deve ter salvo no carrossel das nomeações políticas foi o ter informação comprometedora sobre alguém, só pode.