"The inner game"

"Every game is composed of two parts, an outer game and an inner game. The outer game is played against an external opponent to overcome external obstacles, and to reach an external goal. Mastering this game is the subject of many books offering instructions on how to swing a racket, club or bat, and how to position arms, legs or torso to achieve the best results. But for some reason most of us find these instructions easier to remember than to execute.
It is the thesis of this book that neither mastery nor satisfaction can be found in the playing of any game without giving some attention to the relatively neglected skills of the inner game. This is the game that takes place in the mind of the player, and it is played against such obstacles as lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and self-condemnation. In short, it is played to overcome all habits of mind which inhibit excellence in performance.
...
Victories in the inner game may provide no additions to the trophy case, but they bring valuable rewards which are more permanent and which can contribute significantly to one’s success, off the court as well as on."

Trechos retirados de  “The Inner Game of Tennis” de W. Timothy Gallwey.

Function, organizational knowledge and competence (part II)

Part I.

One part of the picture above is abstract and the other is very tangible.

Performance and context can act on both parts:

Context and performance is what is behind what I use to say:

"What is true today tomorrow is a lie and vice versa"

To be continued.

 

Por cá, iluminados

 Ontem de manhã, enquanto fazia a minha caminhada matinal por entre vinhas por vindimar e kiwis por apanhar em Lousada, fui encaminhado para esta página "Germany: Guidance on temporary VAT rate reduction, through December 2020".

O comentário que me invadiu foi logo este:

Uma das medidas na Alemanha para combater a crise: baixar o IVA
Malditos alemães. Porra! Por que teve de nos calhar o costa e o costa silva?

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) September 29, 2020

Entretanto, à hora do almoço viajei até Coimbra e aproveitei o sistema de audio do carro para ouvir uma série de artigos no Pocket. A certa altura ouvi "Experience strategy needs to be oblique" onde apanhei este trecho:

"Probably the most well known examples of applying direct approach are modernism in architecture and communism in governance. As a person growing up in communist Poland I still remember how regulation of pretty much anything: from work, to food, to travel, to education was a seriously bad idea for successful living."

No fim de semana passado tentei explicar à minha mãe que ninguém, nem os governos, nem os "sábios", nem os economistas, nem os engenheiros, sabem o que é que no futuro vai resultar. 

Por isso, em "Torrar dinheiro em hidrogénio e outras cenas não me assiste"(Julho último) escrevi:

"Acreditar em planos de iluminados, de esquerda ou de direita, seria um sacrilégio para um fanático como eu, segundo o ministro (por ter votado Iniciativa Liberal) por acreditar no "Deixem as empresas morrer". Então, o que fazer com o dinheiro da UE? Eu não decidiria o que é melhor ou pior, eu usaria o dinheiro para baixar impostos, para baixar as barreiras à entrada de quem se quer estabelecer em Portugal, seja nacional ou estrangeiro."

Até o Público vai dando um ar da sua graça, "O perigo de esperar que o Estado nos salve". 

Imaginem o impacte disto nas PMEs portuguesas na área da moda

 Imaginem o impacte disto nas PMEs portuguesas na área da moda:

"But what does hibernation mean for fashion on the shop floor? These will be items that never made it as far as stores in the first place, so you will probably not be able to tell whether something that you’re looking at in a shop in 2021 was originally intended to be sold in 2020. 

...

A possible negative impact of stock hibernation (aside from the costs associated with storing a large quantity of product) may be that jobs are lost throughout the manufacturing process as a result. From designers who are no longer needed to create a new spring 2021 collection, to factories which will no longer receive the orders, implications would arise from ‘skipping’ a season - problems which are simply a delayed result of the initial store closures."

Trechos retirados de "Retailers are 'hibernating' their unsold stock for next summer" 

Calçado e Inovação -KPIs no setor do calçado

"É costume dizer-se que o que não se pode medir não se pode gerir. Quando uma empresa começa a medir, descobre que pode medir muita coisa. E se medir muita coisa corre o risco de se perder no meio de tantos sinais, de tantas mensagens. É o que se chama ficar paralisado pela análise. Assim, há que escolher quais os indicadores, quais os sinais mais importantes para gerir uma empresa, executar a sua estratégia e avaliar os resultados. Ou seja, as empresas precisam de escolher um conjunto de indicadores-chave, um conjunto de indicadores fundamentais, aquilo que em inglês se chama de key permance indicators, KPIs, indicadores-chave de desempenho. 

.

O CTCP promoveu a criação deste guia do empresário, designado de: Calçado e Inovação -KPIs no setor do calçado,  que apresenta um conjunto de KPIs para medir a execução e a eficácia de uma estratégia baseada na inovação.

.

Começa por fazer um enquadramento do sector e evolução histórica e a inevitabilidade da inovação, apresenta alternativas de inovação, algumas sugestões  sobre o cliente do futuro e formas de medir a inovação."

Function, organizational knowledge and competence

Some time ago, when carrying out an audit, I again found a situation unfortunately too common.

After reading a training procedure, I asked for the annual training plan. I selected a training course and asked what were the competence gaps that the course aimed to fill.

Silence....

It seemed that I was speaking Chinese or Greek.

- Competence? We ask managers what training needs are and it is based on the responses that we prepare the training plan.

I tried to approach the situation in another way:

- Do you have a document describing the competence profile of a job?

- We have! - they answered

- Can I see it?

The document, however, only linked the names of people to a list of activities that they could perform more or less frequently.

- Have you any document that describes what a person has to master to perform a function autonomously?

- No!

- How do you show that a certain person is competent?

To be continued.

Struggles and progress

 "sales isn’t about selling what you want to sell, or even what you, as a salesperson, would want to buy. Selling isn’t about you. Great sales requires a complete devotion to being curious about other people. Their reasons, not your reasons. And it’s surely not about your commission, it’s about their progress.

...

Everyone’s struggling with something, and that’s where the opportunity lies to help people make progress. Sure, people have projects, and software can help people manage those projects, but people don’t have a “project management problem.” That’s too broad.

...

People struggle to know where a project stands. People struggle to maintain accountability across teams. People struggle to know who’s working on what, and when those things will be done. People struggle with presenting a professional appearance with clients. People struggle to keep everything organized in one place so people know where things are. People struggle to communicate clearly so they don’t have to repeat themselves. People struggle to cover their ass and document decisions, so they aren’t held liable if a client says something wasn’t delivered as promised. That’s the deep down stuff, the real struggles."

To say that our product is the best because technically it is the best in terms of specifications, is to forget that people like me drive a Fiat 500, not an Audi or a BMW, by conscious choice.

People don't buy products, they hire products to do a service for them. And that service may have nothing to do with the technical specifications.

Trechos retirados de “Demand-Side Sales 101: Stop Selling and Help Your Customers Make Progress” de Bob Moesta. 

"Do we feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?…”

 Ao ler isto: "Salário mínimo europeu vai criar concorrência mais justa na União Europeia", senti-me invadido por um sentimento de ironia

A frase foi proferida por Nicolas Schmit, o comissário europeu do Emprego. Um salário mínimo europeu aplicado em Portugal teria um impacte arrasador:

Mas adiante. O ponto que quero salientar aqui é este:

Este senhor está a fazer o mesmo papel que a CIP e outras organizações patronais fazem nas reuniões da concertação social. Pensam neles e como criar barreiras aos pequenos. Afinal, é a Primeira Lei Arroja da Concorrência: “A concorrência é boa e desejável em todos os sectores de actividade, excepto no nosso”.

Delírio

Em Agosto passado no JdN, no artigo "Postais de verão", encontrei um trecho revelador de que é preciso mais, muito mais reflexão sobre os caminhos para a reindustrizalização da Europa antes de se escrever:

"No imediato, por questões de vantagens competitivas, os salários relativamente mais baixos dos novos entrantes no mercado de trabalho podem favorecer a reindustrialização da Europa;"

Reindustrialização da Europa com base em salários baixos é delírio.
Os jovens europeus estão disponíveis para isso?
Os imigrantes africanos estão disponíveis para isso?

Depois no Jornal Económico, no artigo "Apostar na formação para se poder reindustrializar":

"“Se não competimos com baixo salário temos de competir com produtividade”, frisou João Duque ao JE, lembrando ainda que os portugueses são considerados “pouco produtivos”. [Moi ici: Pouco produtivos porque produzem artigos de baixo valor acrescentado]
O economista acredita que “os países do Leste da Europa que aderiram à União Europeia são os grandes concorrentes, os países que mais facilmente vão poder arrebatar os novos projetos de reindustrializaçao”, isto porque “têm uma tradição industrial, uma mão de obra que muitas vezes é mais barata que a nossa”. [Moi ici: Tudo coisas que têm impedido a Irlanda de liderar este campeonato] “Vamos ter dificuldade em entrar neste campeonato contra o centro da Europa”, referiu João Duque" 

E volta e meia aposta-se na caridadezinha:

"“Não podemos apostar numa reindustrialização se o sistema de ensino quer ao nível básico e secundário ou de ensino superior não estiver alinhado com as necessidades do mercado”, sublinhou ao Jornal Económico (JE) o presidente do Conselho Coordenador dos Institutos Superiores Politécnicos Pedro Dominguinhos""

Com o sistema político e económico que temos, quanto mais formação damos às pessoas mais as apoiamos a fazerem o melhor para a sua vida: emigrarem.

Abençoada pandemia

 “General Motors started Maven, a car-sharing service, in 2016 but had scaled back the effort significantly by the middle of 2019. It started Book by Cadillac—a car-swap subscription service where you could get a Cadillac for a fixed fee of $1,800 a month—but closed it soon after. Walmart bought Jet.com at $3.3 billion and then folded it into its e-commerce business after it got relatively little traction. It’s hard, if not impossible, for the big bus to become a bike or scooter. These companies have big investments in physical assets, such as stores and warehouses and facilities. They have long-standing, fixed relationships with suppliers, dealers, and business partners and are part of existing networks for infrastructure, “logistics, technology, and payment. They have relationships with governments or other public institutions that are difficult to change or break. They have brand equity decades in the making, reputations to protect, and expectations to be filled. And they have organizational structures that are very good at protecting, defending, and perpetuating themselves.”

Organizações que sobrevivem à custa de planos desenhados por amigos em lugares de influência e poder e pagos por dinheiro impostado a saxões contribuintes desgraçados. Organizações que no seu íntimo agradecem: abençoada pandemia!

Trechos retirados de “The Interaction Field” de Erich Joachimsthaler. 

"only about one quarter are truly profit-oriented"

 "“No company has ever failed from making a profit. Most companies are revenue driven, market share driven, sales driven and only about one quarter are truly profit-oriented.”

So if you want your company to not just survive the Coronavirus pandemic but thrive long into the future, you need to understand that pricing isn’t about the price per se, it’s about value.

More importantly, price is about the value your customers place on your product or service.

“Pricing is about value, or more precisely, the value perceived by the customers. If the customer perceives a high value, he or she is willing to pay a high price. If the perceived value is lower, you have to offer the product at a lower price.”"

Trecho retirado de "Why Pricing Is Not Primarily About Price with Hermann Simon" 

Guideline for the future

 Yesterday had an interesting phone conversation with a client about its quality policy. He sent me a first draft and I said I didn't like it. It was a text full of vague statements, applicable to any company in any sector of activity. So, I got back to the charge with my approach. A quality policy can be much more useful if it states:

• Who we are and what we do
• Who we work for
• What do we have to be really good at.

At one point I said to him:

Look at current customers, I know that organizations want to serve all types of customers, which is a mistake, but look and choose 3 or 4 who are the ones that represent the ideal customers, you may not send any customers away, but you want everyone to be like these 3 or 4.

Now tell me, why do these 3 or 4 customers work with you? What attracts them? What should your company bet on to make a difference with these customers?

It was then that the answer really surprised me ...

We are new in this area, we know that we are in an evolutionary path and now we really have no customer like these...

I soon jumped to seize the opportunity.

- So even more important is doing the exercise. Which 2 or 3 customers would you like to win over the next 3 to 4 years?

And my mind was full of metaphorical images developed in more than 30 years of work... like the children in the playground. I think that companies see their customers as children in a playground. They only see the collective and forget that at the end of the day each child goes home to be a singular person to its parents. 

The customer, even if it is a corporate, must be seen as a unique entity that we can, we should look into the eyes.

Another feeling before the end of the meeting was that my client found something that made sense, something to help, to guide his company in the journey to a desired future state.

Quando o mundo muda - o imperativo de fuçar

 Lembram-se de Abril passado "for at least the next couple months every organisation in the world is a startup"? Quando o mundo muda é perigoso manter o pensamento que gerou o sucesso no mundo anterior. Há anos que escrevi esta série "Parte VI – Zapatero e os outros".

"Firms that apply planning strategies (i.e., elements of causal behavioral logic) with a focus on accurate predictions and analysis of changing situations tend to outperform those that do not. With its emphasis on actions guided by predefined goals, causation helps firms to efficiently manage scarce resources that are of particular importance for firms operating in emerging market contexts.

...

Yet, in emerging markets during adverse economic conditions, which are, by nature, extremely turbulent and uncertain environments, formal planning activities fail to produce the desired results. The future stops being predictable enough for forward‐looking analyses, and the conventional strategic and marketing analytical tools fail to provide a robust basis for an effective decision‐making process. As such, in the crisis context, prior plans become largely obsolete and ineffective. Following them leads to SMEs' incapacity to adapt and be flexible in the fast‐changing environment; indeed, in extreme cases, the firms might be better off abandoning any pre‐planned actions altogether, as implementing them are unlikely to lead to an improvement of the situation. This negative effect of crisis on causation's effectiveness gets even more pronounced in the sample of firms that are particularly affected by a macro‐level crisis, which shrinks their resource base while also preventing acquiring the resources in the market. In other words, a severe level of crisis impact on a particular firm might deprive it of the resources needed to implement the pre‐planned activities, thus eliminating the possibility of a positive performance pay‐off from causation.

Moreover, the organizational crisis reduces the scope of possible actions that get into the plans because of the threat‐rigidity reaction. That is, the quality of the causation‐based planning is likely to suffer for the SMEs affected by a crisis in an emerging market. In particular, a crisis limits the decision‐makers' ability to conceive of actions that are different from traditional ones, constraining the scope of analyzed alternatives to only familiar solutions. Firms become strategically “rigid,” choosing to perpetuate established routines and leverage existing competencies, even though they are likely to turn obsolete, leading to the firm‐level crisis in the first place. Thus, in the contexts of major crises, planning‐based logic leads to rigidity that blinds the decision‐makers to emerging opportunities and unexpected courses of action; it inhibits the flexibility and adaptability that are of particular importance for SMEs while they help to eliminate their deficiencies in the midst of crisis.

...

The effectual behavioral logic, [Moi ici: Recordar "The effectual Logic" que traduzo na minha linguagem mais colorida como "fuçar" e na "A vantagem da ignorância" ] on the other hand, imposes losses on a firm in emerging market contexts under low crisis (when planning seems to be a preferable strategy), yet becomes a driver of performance in situations characterized by high levels of crisis. With respect to performance variability in an emerging market, effectuation acts as a “booster” in low‐crisis conditions yet stabilizes the performance in high‐crisis times."

Trechos retirados de "Navigating the emerging market context: Performance implications of effectuation and causation for small and medium enterprises during adverse economic conditions in Russia" 

 

A receita irlandesa

Ontem ao final do dia apanhei este tweet na minha timeline:

O que é a produtividade?

A produtividade é uma espécie de função, é uma espécie de alavanca que transforma entradas em saídas:

Por entradas entenda-se recursos, entenda-se investimento, entenda-se custo.

Por saídas entenda-se produtos/serviços, retorno financeiro, valor monetário, ganho.

Outra maneira de olhar para a coisa é:

Como se pode aumentar a produtividade?

1. aumentando a quantidade de unidades de saída por unidade de entrada - aumentando a eficiência
2. aumentando o valor unitário de cada saída - produzindo saídas diferentes

A opção 1 é praticamente a única que as empresas conhecem. O problema da opção 1 é que tem um poder de alavancagem muito baixo, como aprendemos com Marn e Rosiello. Dizer, como no tweet acima, que as empresas têm de se organizar para aumentarem a produtividade significa confiar na opção 1. 

Quem só conhece a opção 1 e compara a produtividade entre Portugal e países como a Irlanda ou a Holanda não percebe como é que eles trabaalhando menos horas conseguem ser mais produtivos. O erro é não perceber que eles não produzem  o mesmo que nós. Esse é o ponto da opção 2. 

Em vez de correr numa corrida de ratos para conseguir mais 0,1 unidade de saída por unidade de tempo, a opção 2 passa por um outro tipo de corrida, desenvolver artigos com cada vez mais valor unitário associado. 

É facil? Não! É impossível? Quase! Porquê? Porque para dar o grande salto que precisamos, a nível de país, temos de dar grandes saltos a nível de saídas. (Portugal produz em média 23 €/h enquanto que a Irlanda produz mais de 83€/h) E aí o problema é o dos macacos não voarem!

Como se dá o salto? Volto à minha tese, aplicar a receita irlandesa.

Não adianta chamar brutos aos patrões portugueses, esses dão o seu melhor. Quem achar que sabe fazer melhor que avance e lhes coma o negócio. Aqui o tema é como o cão dos Baskerville, não é quem está, é quem não está que é relevante. Acham que a produtividade irlandesa foi obtida à custa de patrões irlandeses e marcas irlandesas?

Para uma empresa em particular, a sua opção deve ser baseada sobretudo na opção 2 à sua maneira, ao seu ritmo. Uma empresa em particular não tem de pensar na produtividade do país, tem de pensar na sua própria produtividade.

A defesa da suckiness

 Acompanhei com um sorriso irónico  a leitura deste artigo "Why the American Consumer Has Fewer Choices—Maybe for Good":

"Some IGA Inc. grocery stores now offer only four choices of toilet paper. A few months ago, before the coronavirus pandemic, IGA’s 1,100 U.S. stores typically carried about 40 varieties. Harley-Davidson Inc. has cut some models from its motorcycle lineup. Outback Steakhouse has stripped roughly 40% of its menu, is studying whether customers care, and may drop some items for good even after the pandemic.

Consumer-oriented companies spent the past decades trying to please just about everyone. The pandemic made that impossible, and now some no longer plan to try. Sellers of potato chips, cars, meals and more have been narrowing offerings since the coronavirus snarled supply chains and coaxed consumers back to familiar brands.

Some executives said they plan to stick with fewer choices when the pandemic fades, saying it forced them to reconsider whether American consumers need such vast choices that sometimes overburden factories and stores.

...

Executives at Kraft Heinz Co., Coca-Cola Co., Hershey Co. and other food giants have said they are trimming less-efficient and less-profitable products, while shelving some in development. [Moi ici: Eheheheh Kraft Heinz... a lutar contra Mongo, a defender a suckiness]

...

Steven Williams, CEO of PepsiCo Inc.’s North America foods business, said the company stopped producing a fifth of its products during the Covid-19 crisis, including lightly salted Lay’s potato chips. He said he and his colleagues spoke with grocery executives as the pandemic deepened, determining that PepsiCo should focus on its fastestselling products.

PepsiCo is starting to bring some items back, but Mr. Williams said he expects its Frito-Lay snacks business to emerge from the pandemic with 3% to 5% fewer products. The company is taking the opportunity to discontinue some items that have few fans or are complicated to produce, he said, making its factories and distribution network more efficient."

Bom para startups surgirem e fornecerem a variedade para as tribos cada vez mais exigentes. 

 

Para reflexão

 "Given how much our culture depends on finding out what’s new, it’s surprising that few have figured out how to be smart about it. If you’re a creator, the truth remains what the truth has been ever since Yahoo tried to sort the web by hand: the best way to make a hit is to build something for the smallest viable audience and make it so good that people tell their peers."

Trecho retirado de "Who is good at discovery?" 

Que sensação de schadenfreude...

 No país onde se espalharam estes cartazes:

No país onde se teimou em fazer dos cidadãos, obedientes seguidores das orientações superiormente pensadas e decididas pelos xamãs (ministros, autarcas, ...).

No país que agora reconhece que afinal, tal como o Brasil, não tem economia para suportar um confinamento quanto mais dois, a maioria dos eleitores, pela idade ou profissão, não depende da iniciativa privada, e pretende jogar bilhar como qualquer amador: "Novo confinamento está a ganhar adeptos".

Que sensação de schadenfreude...

Jorge Marrão começava a sua crónica no JdN do passado dia 15 com esta frase: “Os fundos europeus serão o remédio para manter uma doença incurável da sociedade.”

Talvez um segundo confinamento tenha o dom de acabar com este regime para espanto à posteriori dos defensores desse mesmo confinamento. Quantos direitos adquiridos sobreviveriam a um segundo confinamento?

"Supporting people rather than jobs"

Em Dezembro de 2008 escrevi: 

 "Eu, que não tenho a informação que têm os governos, e que não tenho medo de eleições que não disputo, proporia uma receita diferente.

.

Apoio mínimo às empresas de qualquer sector, os consumidores que decidam quem tem direito a sobreviver como empresa.

.

Em contrapartida, apoio máximo às pessoas e sobretudo aos desempregados."

Julgo que já escrevi aqui no blogue algo do mesmo tipo este ano por causa da pandemia. 

Agora no FT apanho "Support people rather than jobs for a more resilient post-Covid economy":

"What should we protect during the coronavirus pandemic: jobs or the people who hold them? Different answers to this question largely explain huge variations in unemployment figures around the world. In the years ahead, they are also likely to distinguish between successful and sluggish recoveries from the crisis.

European countries have generally focused public support on jobs. Various job retention schemes and short hours programmes have kept employees attached to their employers and off the unemployment totals.

The EU unemployment rate has risen only a little,

...

By contrast, generous US support in the form of enhanced jobless benefits has been given to individuals, until this fell victim to political infighting. With the support attached to the person rather than the job, the US unemployment rate leapt from 3.5 per cent in February to 14.7 per cent in April before falling to 8.4 per cent in August.

The underlying conditions in the European and US labour markets were similar, but the type of support had vastly different effects on the unemployment statistics. More importantly, the gulf between the policy approaches will have meaningful and lasting economic effects.

Early in the pandemic, there were many advantages in the European approach. When coronavirus lockdowns appeared to be a short-term emergency response needed to buy time to beat the virus, job subsidies were a smart way to minimise disruption and eventually allow a return to normal. This sort of public insurance works best when the crisis is short, the affected companies require skilled workers and the jobs at risk are high value.

The longer the world has to live with social distancing and the more sectors are unlikely to return to their former glory, the more important it is to find a different solution. In that case, we need to support workers rather than jobs, helping them find alternatives rather than simply waiting and hoping that their old jobs come back. The US strategy now seems preferable.

Supporting people rather than jobs also works better when the roles at risk are lower skilled because fewer months of training are lost when people switch to other positions. With the pandemic disproportionately hitting the lower-skilled and worse-paid retail, hospitality and travel sectors, it is increasingly workers who deserve our support more than their employers.

...

Europe, meanwhile, should now begin to switch away from keeping people attached to jobs that will not return quickly and towards supporting workers find new employment. As time passes, job retention schemes will, in any case, become more and more unfair, because they provide much greater support for those who previously had jobs than for young people who are entering the labour market for the first time.

Recognising that the pandemic has moved into a new phase, the OECD this week urged all its member countries to adjust their responses to Covid-19 “gradually to support workers rather than jobs”. This was not to cut costs, the international organisation emphasised. Rather, governments should be seeking to give people the best possible chance at maximising their earnings over time by helping them find new roles now."

Claro que em Portugal seremos vítimas de algo ainda pior, os delírios hidrogénicos, as maravilhosas novas pilhas de Baalbek ou ...

"To everything - turn, turn, turn"

Interessante notícia, "Vinyl records outsell CDs in US for first time since 1980s":

"Vinyl records have outsold CDs in the US for the first time since the 1980s, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

.

A report on the first half of 2020 across the recorded music industry reads: “Vinyl album revenues of $232m were 62% of total physical revenues, marking the first time vinyl exceeded CDs for such a period since the 1980s.” The report acknowledged that vinyl records accounted for only 4% of total recorded music revenue.

...

US listeners are also increasingly willing to pay for premium services to listen to music ad-free, up from 58.2m in the first half of 2019 to 72.1m in the same period this year.

.

Vinyl’s popularity also continues to grow in the UK, with sales increasing in 2019 by 4.1% on the previous year, though the rate of growth has slowed following the “vinyl revival” boom in the middle of the last decade."

Registos de um percurso:

• Retratos de uma revolução - (Fevereiro de 2011)
• We will be weird (Julho de 2013)
• To everything - turn, turn, turn ... (Dezembro de 2014)
• "Analogia para muitas PMEs" - (Janeiro de 2016)
• Analógico e inteligência emocial - (Dezembro de 2016)

Is the customer always right?

 "The reality is that we are in an era ruled by uncertainty. In one recent survey, more than 80 percent of business leaders said that they were likely to make significant and long-lasting changes in how they organized work and interacted with and served customers. [Moi ici: Remember the punctuated equilibrium and sudden shifts] Opportunities to redesign the business and do something substantially different usually come only after an event such as a merger or when a startup suddenly scales. But the wide-ranging effects of the coronavirus pandemic give all businesses the impetus for change.

.

How do you as a company leader design for this different world? When the ground shifts beneath you, the first thing to do is find a solid place to stand — and that is your value proposition. Customers come to you for a reason: because you’re innovative or top-quality, because you’re a one-stop shop, or because you build deep relationships.

...

1. Segment your customers. “The customer is always right” is one of the oldest and most misleading adages in business. The customer is always right only if you have the right customer. [Moi ici: Something that we defend here long time ago: here and here] Has your “right customer” changed? [Moi ici: Something we spoke about last Monday] Through no fault of yours, businesses you’ve worked with or customers whose needs you successfully met may have temporarily retreated or changed to a new model. How can you still be “right” for each other?

.

Consider Panera Bread — a fast-casual restaurant chain, meaning it’s a cut above fast food but is not at the level of waitstaff service. Panera’s value proposition emphasizes food made fresh from sustainably sourced ingredients. Its right customers have traditionally been office workers: individuals picking up a bagel and coffee for breakfast or meeting a colleague for lunch; groups for which it caters a selection of sandwiches and salads for meetings. That right customer is no longer in the same place; she is probably working from home now, and is likely to continue doing so at least some of the time for the foreseeable future. Lunch around the conference table? Well, maybe next year.

...

You might also find that your company has new right customers: These might be people or companies that have changed in ways that could benefit you if you design ways to connect with them, or that have been stranded by the incapacity of others, or that are worth your attention now although they weren’t before."

Excerpts taken from "Forget about the “new normal”: Design something different"