Algo não me soa bem

"Sonae recruta líderes empreendedores"
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"Todos eles procuram uma oportunidade de emprego no universo Sonae. Mas só 20 serão escolhidos."
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Quais são os critérios de pré-selecção?
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E será que líderes verdadeiramente empreendedores procuram oportunidades de emprego? Não será antes: líderes verdadeiramente empreendedores criam os seus próprios empregos!!!
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Talvez fizesse falta ao universo Sonae esta leitura "Yes, A Business CAN Disrupt Itself".
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"“Good management” isn’t a solution

In the 13 years since then, we have learned that “good management” isn’t a cure: in fact, as Alan Murray has pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, it’s actually “good management” that accelerates death."
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O que procuram?
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A sério, o que procuram? Líderes empreendedores ou gestores?
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Os textos que se seguem servem para mim, servem para os deolindeiros, servem para as PMEs:

• "Screw Your Career Path. Live Your Story" (um must read)
• "Live Your Story and Shift Your Story Arc #story10 #reinvention"

E aí para vocês so-called "líderes empreendedores que procuram emprego": "newsflash #2: you can’t game your career development while following someone else’s rules.

Ever.

You will lose, because in this game, the people who determine your success are the incumbents who get displaced when you win. This isn’t conspiracy theory stuff. It’s human nature."
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"When we go along with prefabbed career paths, we lose—entirely—this test-your-mettle half of the development equation. Courage only gets tested in the face of doubt, but when everything is organized as it is with a career path, there is no doubt. Career paths may present tests and choices, but these are bounded, controlled. They are not the tests that can teach us to stick to our guns in the face of grave doubts—the guard rails of these programs prevent us from ever failing spectacularly.
...
Our leaders—those with power—cannot help us with these lessons of courage any more than my dad could help me that night of our fight. It’s not because they’re not rooting for us; they often are our biggest cheerleaders. It’s because they are the incumbents who we must displace.

Their role changes from protector to tester.

They become dangerous adversaries with advantages in both knowledge and experience. And once they switch roles, they cannot take it easy on us. Which is OK: we need to know where we stand when the only thing holding us up are our own two legs. Greatness is not a club that lets us in. We have to earn our way in, and those inviting us to apply are often the very same ones guarding the gates."
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"But I do know this: humans are not meant to follow career paths. We are not built to follow guide wires. Birds are. Fish are. Ants are.

Humans. Are. Not.

We are meant to live our stories. It’s when you let go of trying to control the path and simply live the story ahead of you that—win, lose, or draw—you ensure your own success."
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Também não se perde nada a ler "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education" com este teaser:
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"But if you’re afraid to fail, you’re afraid to take risks, which begins to explain the final and most damning disadvantage of an elite education: that it is profoundly anti-intellectual. This will seem counterintuitive. Aren’t kids at elite schools the smartest ones around, at least in the narrow academic sense? Don’t they work harder than anyone else—indeed, harder than any previous generation? They are. They do. But being an intellectual is not the same as being smart. Being an intellectual means more than doing your homework.
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If so few kids come to college understanding this, it is no wonder. They are products of a system that rarely asked them to think about something bigger than the next assignment. The system forgot to teach them, along the way to the prestige admissions and the lucrative jobs, that the most important achievements can’t be measured by a letter or a number or a name. It forgot that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers."

Mambo jambo de consultor ou faz algum sentido?

Ontem, a seguir ao almoço, a caminho de uma reunião numa empresa de calçado, passo por um antigo cliente. Uma fábrica de sucesso que terá crescido a sua facturação 7 ou 8 vezes desde que começámos a trabalhar juntos.
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A quinta-feira deles é a sexta-feira de quase todas as PME portuguesas. Sem falsa modéstia foi uma das ideias que ajudei a introduzir na empresa. Carregar os camiões para exportação à quinta-feira é uma vantagem, por exemplo, a pressão sobre toda a cadeia de fornecimento começa mais cedo e não há "concorrência". As empresas com as calças na mão para fechar as expedições à sexta só vão atacar à ... sexta-feira. Também, a sexta-feira, já é tempo de planear a próxima semana. Mas adiante, o tema não é esse. Num dos cais de embarque estava um camião com uma lona fazendo publicidade da empresa. Além das cores, do logo, havia uma frase:

"Come and win with us"

Voltei a concentrar a atenção na estrada mas a frase não me saía da cabeça...
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Quando cheguei à empresa, disseram-me que o empresário ainda ia demorar um quarto de hora. Sentei-me à mesa da sala de reuniões, abri a minha agenda, escrevi aquela frase, acrescentei um VS e uma nova frase:

"Let us win with you"

Agora que recordo isto, julgo que é o resultado da combinação da leitura de:

"So two years ago, they launched a new brand aptly called NoBull. "Our mentality is that our shoes are not going to make you fitter, jump higher, or run faster," Wilson explains. "The only thing that will make you fitter is you working hard every day.""

Trecho retirado de "Does The Sportswear Industry Ignore Serious Athletes? These Entrepreneurs Think So", artigo citado na parte I da série "Ilustração da narrativa de Mongo"

Com a leitura de "Customer-dominant logic: foundations and implications", citado em "Um ponto de vista diferente":

"In the CDL perspective, firms should be concerned with how they can become involved in customers’ lives instead of figuring out how to involve customers in the firms’ business: “There is a need to contrast the established provider-oriented view of involving the customer in service co-creation with a more radical customer-oriented view of involving the service provider in the customer’s life”."

Que acham disto? Mambo jambo de consultor ou faz algum sentido?
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Em vez da mensagem, "nós somos vencedores, venham também vencer connosco", a alternativa "deixem-nos ajudar a sermos vencedores convosco"

"You don’t win by focusing on your competition"

"Most of us work in mature industries that are overcrowded, where we are perceived as commodities (even when we are not), and where competition is ferocious. We work in industries where growth requires capturing market share from our competitors, and in many cases requires that we take their clients from them while they attempt to take our clients from us. How else do you grow by 12 percent in an industry that is growing by 2.7 percent annually?...
Your company goes out into the market to win new clients. You believe that what you sell—and how you sell it—is better than what your competitors sell. Your intention is to better serve those companies and customers that are not getting what they really want or need.
...
You don’t win by focusing on your competition. What makes you a dangerous competitor is how you play the game. Let’s start by eliminating the things that your competitors routinely do in an attempt to cause you problems and take your business, the things that make them weak competitors.
Some of your competitors compete on price alone, offering a poorer service than you do at a lower price point, while falsely promising the same results you can offer. They will win the most price-sensitive customers in the market, many of whom will live with their shortcomings for much longer than you might imagine. While these competitors usually win clients who perceive only the lowest price as value, they will occasionally win good clients, clients who will stick with them until you find a way to displace them. Know that you cannot do anything about a competitor with an irrational pricing structure. It doesn’t change your pricing model or strategy, so your only response should be to compete in a way that allows you to win with a higher price."

Trechos retirados de “Eat Their Lunch” de Anthony Iannarino.

"you need to enter their personal story"

"Your customers care a whole lot more about themselves than they care about your products or your messages.  That’s why your marketing and sales communications shouldn’t focus on your products.  They should focus on your customers.
...
Every person you come in contact with greets you with a rich personal narrative going on in their mind, not a blank slate. If you want to get their attention and have them value the encounter, you need to enter their personal story, not force them into your story."

Como não recordar:

"Come and win with us" vs "Let us win with you"

Trechos retirados de "It’s not about Michael Jordan. It’s about you."

Practicing the noble art of cheating (part II)

Parte I.

Let us consider the case of a for profit organization.

What do we want for our organization?
We want our organization to be successful.
What will be the consequences of being a succsseful organization?
We will get good financial results.

Where do these financial results come from?
Saving money is not the same as earning money. The money earned will come from the customers pocket. Of course, this statement is increasingly simplistic these days. And as you can see in the third video in this series, to be published in October, it is becoming increasingly relevant to work with stakeholders, not just customers.

An organization may receive money from a customer while considering and acting with other interested parties as the real target of the business. So we get into the logic of the strategy map of a balanced scorecard:

Financial results come from satisfied customers.
Satisfied customers are the result of critical processes excellently operated. Beware of using the word excellent. We are not talking about whole excellent companies, we are talking about critically operated critical processes. Whole excellent organizations are very expensive and customers don't want to pay that cost.
Superbly operated critical processes require aligned resources and infrastructure. As I exemplified in Part I, it makes no sense to choose to work with customers who want flexibility and then to have a super efficient, single-product, rigid production structure.

Choosing strategic goals from a financial perspective, I risk writing, is the easiest, it's a matter of looking inward and understanding how to best measure the statement: sell more and spend less (sales and productivity).

When we come into the customer perspective I propose to think of three aspects: an organization needs to gain new customers; an organization needs to satisfy its customers; and an organization needs to maintain and/or develop relationships with current customers.

Why do I separate each of these aspects?
Because each of these results requires specific actions.
Winning a new customer implies making the company and the offer known, enticing seducing that potential customer with a promise that meets what he or she seeks and values. It also means working to know and minimize their fears and concerns, which can create friction and prevent them from trying the new option and sticking to the current solution.

Now, let's go to the whiteboard and look into the name of the best customer (the one mentioned on Part I) and fill the figure:

Try putting on this client's shoes, remember the conversations with him, remember the problems with him ...

Why can a potential customer who has never worked with your organization take a risk and work with you?

What could help developing the relationship with this customer X?

So, the big picture is:

Your organization's satisfied customers with their word of mouth help you win new customers. Satisfied customers have the potencial to become loyal customers.

Can you now unzoom and instead of customer X, characterize the segment where it belongs?

They are international brands of medium-high quality with quantities between A and B units per season. Most likely they are based on German or Nordic markets.

The ideal scenario will be having  3-4 anchor customers and complement production with emerging, growth potential brands requiring between C and D units per model and 1-2 models per season.

You know who are your target customers, you know what they want and expect.
Now, you need to know what does the organization have to focus on and be excellent at.

Each outcome in your clients' lives must be a perfectly normal product of the organization's work. The figure above speculates which internal work objectives are crucial to being able to aspire to succeed. An organization, any organization, has a lot of things to do but the most critical are the ones that contribute to win, satisfy and retain target customers.

For a full strategy map what is still missing is the resources and infrastructure perspective (yes, I don't follow the standard name of "Learning and growth").

In this particular case with the development of the strategy map so far we already had a good idea about what to include in the resources and infrastructure perspective: some investments in machines and some investments and changes with people.

A way of developing the strategy without theory and abstractions, just focus on a particular client.

Stay with me for the part III of this series to see how we develop the strategic initiatives and how I normally, develop the resources and infrastructure perspective.

Locus de controlo no interior é a base do sucesso empresarial (parte II)

Costumo chamar a atenção para a importância do locus de controlo. E, sobretudo, para a sua localização:
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Qual a sua localização? Está no interior ou no exterior?
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Ainda há dias relacionei locus de controlo com o optimismo e com a capacidade de olhar mais para as oportunidades do que para as ameaças.
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Por outro lado, considero importante a visão de longo-prazo, como relatei acerca da bosta e das corridas de trás para a frente.
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Assim, como não apreciar esta reflexão:
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"In times of high uncertainty, we all have a natural tendency to magnify risk and discount reward.
...
What's the consequence of this risk/reward bias? We dramatically shorten our time horizons.
...
As we shorten our time horizons, we become prisoners of a zero sum mindset. If we only focus on the short-term, we must accept things as they are. There's a given set of economic value – it's a fixed amount. If we only have a fixed amount of economic value, then we start to focus on who will get what share of the pie. If you get a larger share, then by definition I'll get a smaller share. You win, I lose. If I win, well then you must lose.
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Creating new economic value takes time and requires a longer-term horizon. A positive sum view of the world, one where we can increase overall value by working together, only becomes viable if there's time. And time becomes much too uncertain when risk and return perceptions magnify risk and discount returns.
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Here’s the really bad part. This zero sum mindset folds back on our perception of risk and reward and the shortening of our time horizons. If there are only a fixed set of rewards, then we must move quickly to grab our share. We have no time to lose. Our time horizons become even shorter.
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But, there’s more. Zero sum mindsets naturally lead us to focus on threat, rather than opportunity. If there’s only a fixed set of resources and rewards, there’s limited upside. Our attention shifts to protecting what we already have, however little it might be. In a zero sum world, we are constantly vulnerable to the efforts of others to grab our share of the pie.
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Threat based narratives take root – enemies are gathering force and intent on destroying or appropriating what we have. We need to be vigilant and band together to protect our interests.
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Threat based narratives again have a pernicious effect – they reinforce our tendency to focus on the short-term. They lead us to further magnify risk and discount potential rewards. The threat is imminent – we must focus on protecting ourselves now from the enemies gathering force. We can't afford to be diverted by longer-term issues – the battle is here and now. If we don’t win today, we will have no tomorrow.
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Threat based narratives lead to a further consequence.They motivate us to seek out those who agree with us. We can't tolerate divergent views when we are under attack."
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O resto do texto pode ser encontrado aqui "Cognitive Biases in Times of Uncertainty"

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Há tempos aqui no blogue reflecti sobre quem devia estar à frente das associações sectoriais ... quem está habituado a olhar para a frente, para o novo. Quem está habituado a descobrir, a perseguir oportunidades em vez de defender o status-quo... quem vive narrativas de oportunidades e não quem vive narrativas de ameaças.

How does the strategic direction of your organization influence or frame your quality management system? (Part I)

ISO 9001:2015 mentions "strategic direction" in clauses 4.1, 5.1.1b), 5.2.1 a) and 9.3.1.

How does the strategic direction of your organization influence or frame your quality management system?

ISO 9000:2015 defines strategy as "plan to achieve a long-term or overall objective". Also, ISO 9000:2015 defines policy as "intentions and direction of an organization as formally expressed by its top management".

Not very helpful.

If we think on an abstract ladder we will get:

How does the strategic direction of your organization influence or frame your quality management system?

What is an organization?
An organization can be viewed as a set of interrelated processes:

Where C's are customers at different stages of their relationship with an organization as set of interrelated processes (P).

If we choose an economic sector and compare performance among organizations we will see a lot of variability. There is more variability among organization within the same economic sector than between economic sectors:

So, same economic sector, same country, same rules, same people, ... what is different?

Something inside the organizations: strategy.

Let us make a comparison with sports.
When I was a small boy I watched in TV the Olympics at Munich in 1972. I remember this champion, Vasily Alexeyev:

Look into his body, a system prepared to compete and win.

Then came the 80's and there was a champion in athletics, Carl Lewis:

Look into his body, a system prepared to compete and win. A system very different from Vasily's.

Each sport requires a different set of skills, requires a different kind of body. Even in the same sport, like running, 100 m champions are different from 10 000 m champions.

What happens when an athlete wants to be good at everything?
Let us go again to the Olympics and to Montreal 1976.

Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the decathlon, setting a world record. Bruce was a generalist among generalists and that year he was the best. For example:

• He run the 100 m in 10.94 seconds
• He pushed the shot in shot put at 15.35 m
• He threw the javelin at 68.52 m

When you're a generalist competing with other generalist the competition works at a certain level.

In the same Olympics there were specialists running 100 m, pushing the shot or throwing the javelin and the gold medalists had this performance

• Hasely Crawford  run the 100 m in 10.06 seconds
• Udo Bayer pushed the shot in shot put at 21.05 m
• Miklós Némete threw the javelin at 94.58 m

Bruce Jenner, a champion among generalists wouldn't had a chance against the specialists (Valery Borzov was bronze medal at 100 m with 10.14 seconds)

I believe that in every economic sector we are seeing more and more specialists, salami slicers. Organizations that don't pretend to win, to serve all kinds of customers. They pick one niche, one tribe and they become specialists in serving them, generalists have no chance.

Picking a strategic direction is deciding to be a specialist, is deciding whom and where to serve. It makes no sense speaking about process benchmarking in general. Will an organization compare its processes with another organization that serves different customers from a different segment and with different priorities and expectations?

According to your organization's strategic direction the quality management system can be like Vasily Alexeyev or Carl Lewis or ... 

Part II will be about different kinds of customers.

Part III will be about interested parties and ecosystems.

Pois...

"Estudantes preferem um emprego por conta de outrem do que abrir a sua própria empresa".
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A economia do futuro, e a economia do futuro já anda por cá, ainda que distribuída de forma muito anormal, é que pode precisar de cada vez menos funcionários.
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As máquinas substituirão os funcionários, como varreram os portageiros do mapa.
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Este trecho retirado de "The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies":
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"To Switch the Skills, Switch the Schools
Education researcher Sugata Mitra, who has showed how much poor children in the developing world can learn on their own when provided with nothing more than some appropriate technology, has a provocative explanation for the emphasis on rote learning. In his speech at the 2013 TED conference, where his work was recognized with the one-million-dollar TED prize, he gave an account of when and why these skills came to be valued.

I tried to look at where did the kind of learning we do in schools, where did it come from? . . . It came from . . . the last and the biggest of the empires on this planet, [the British Empire].
What they did was amazing. They created a global computer made up of people. It’s still with us today. It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine. In order to have that machine running, you need lots and lots of people.
They made another machine to produce those people: the school. The schools would produce the people who would then become parts of the bureaucratic administrative machine. . . . They must know three things: They must have good handwriting, because the data is handwritten; they must be able to read; and they must be able to do multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in their head. They must be so identical that you could pick one up from New Zealand and ship them to Canada and he wo uld be instantly functional.

Of course, we like this explanation because it describes things as computers and machines. But more fundamentally, we like it because it points out that the three Rs were once the skills that workers needed to contribute to the most advanced economy of the time. As Mitra points out, the educational system of Victorian England was designed quite well for its time and place. But that time and place are no longer ours. As Mitra continued:

The Victorians were great engineers. They engineered a system that was so robust that it’s still with us to day, continuously producing identical people for a machine that no longer exists. . . . [Today] the clerks are the computers. They’re there in thousands in every office. And you have people who guide those computers to do their clerical jobs. Those people don’t need to be able to write beautifully by hand. They don’t need to be able to multiply numbers in their heads. They do need to be able to read. In fact, they need to be able to read discerningly.

Recordar:

• Quanto mais anos de escolaridade mais "planning mindset" mais certezas e pré-conceitos;
• O futuro do emprego passará pelo auto-emprego;
• Not to dare is to lose oneself;
• Why being human is the only way to win;
• Education Is Not Important For Success;
• Criatividade e Mongo;
• Enredados no politicamente correcto

Num cenário polarizado ...

Há muitos anos que aqui no blogue, praticamente desde a primeira hora, escrevo sobre a importância de seleccionar os clientes-alvo e trabalhar para eles. Por exemplo, em 2006 escrevia sobre o perigo de ser uma Arca de Noé:

• Deixar de ser uma Arca de Noé
• Porque não podemos ser uma Arca de Noé!

A reforçar esta mensagem de focalização nos clientes-alvo, tenho desenvolvido aqui também a metáfora de Mongo, um mundo pleno de variedade e de tribos numa paisagem enrugada:

• 1 Origem de uma metáfora
• Criatividade e Mongo
• Covid, empresas, estratégias e paisagens enrugadas

Às vezes criticam-me porque supostamente no mundo actual as empresas tanto podem servir em simultâneo gregos como troianos. No entanto, continuo na minha, ainda na semana passada li, "Why Mushroom Leather (and Other New Materials) Are Struggling to Scale":

"Compare the number of venture capital firms funding software to the number of venture firms specialising in material innovation or fashion. There are far fewer.

The reasons for the chasm are structural. Once a software solution is invented, the marginal cost to distribute the second, third and one millionth sale are close to zero. By contrast, once a new material is invented, the marginal costs for subsequent units are nearly the same. It is only with learning and scale that costs begin to decrease.

At the same time, building the capacity to produce new materials often requires considerable capital expenditure to build out infrastructure."

Entretanto, ontem li "The Myth of the Mainstream":

"Chasing the mass market is a losing proposition for marketers in a polarized culture. Allying with the subculture that loves you is the best way to drive brand success.

...

For years, McDonald's seemed to embody everything that was wrong with the American diet. The brand had become a symbol of food choices that were driving escalating rates of obesity and hypertension.

The company spent more than a decade trying to fight this perception among American consumers by targeting them with messaging about its updated menu, which offered healthier alternatives more in line with contemporary diet trends - but to no avail. Year over year, McDonald's sales declined, and its brand perception continued to spiral downward.

...

Finally, the company decided to go on the offensive. Instead of combating the opposition's hate and attempting to win over those in the middle, McDonald's decided to focus on its fans - the people who self-identify as McDonald's devotees despite the vitriol directed at the brand. 

...

In doing so, it tapped into what these devotees love about McDonald's and not only activated their collective consumption but also inspired them to spread the word on behalf of the brand. The result of this strategy was a 10.4% increase in global revenue for McDonald's from 2018 to 2021 and the return of dormant customers: more than a quarter of those who came in to buy the Travis Scott meal, for example, hadn't visited the chain in over a year. Seemingly overnight, McDonald's went from being a cautionary tale to the darling of brand marketing and a case study for advertising effectiveness.

If you want to get people to move, you must choose a side. The notion that you can win by playing to the middle is a misleading myth.

What's going on here? Conventional wisdom would tell us that in a world of increasingly polarized opinions, our best bet is to appease the middle, if only because that's where the majority of the market is. That also seems like a safe bet to many companies, as a middle-of-the-road position is less likely to alienate potential customers.

...

The middle doesn't adopt new products with any urgency. They are not the first to respond to marketing communications, nor are they likely to weigh in on a debate between advocates and detractors. They mitigate their own risk of moving out of step with what might be considered generally acceptable by stepping back and observing other people's responses first.

The red herring is that we perceive this indifference as an opportunity to persuade them to one side or the other. But the truth is, they are not typically convinced by any marketing communications. Instead, they, too, take cues from other people - sometimes those who are for you, and at other times those who are against you.

Our chances of successfully influencing behavior increases when we choose to address the people who are most likely to take action.

With this in mind, it becomes abundantly clear that in a polarized scenario, the chances of marketers getting people to move are far greater when we activate the collective of the willing as opposed to trying to convince detractors or even persuade the indifferent."

Sobre a polarização do mercado, recordo Polarização do mercado ou como David e Golias podem co-existir. 

How can we use the process approach (part II)

Part I.

3. The process approach – a quality management principle

The process approach is one of the seven quality management principles included in ISO 9000:2015. Let us see the statement of that principle:

Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.

It is easy to relate those “Consistent and predictable results” with the objectives referred to in the definition of a management system. 

And what does the same ISO 9000: 2015 say about what a process is? 

set of interrelated or interacting activities that use inputs to deliver an intended result

So, we may see an organization as a coherent system made of a set of interrelated or interacting elements called processes, and it is through those processes that an organization achieves its intended results, its objectives.

At a first glance, we have: 

The intended results may be: 

Now, let us zoom the organization to find out which processes are present and how they interrelate.

 For example, the processes may be:

 

When this organization wins a new project, they have to start ordering resources needed to provide the service. At the same time, winning a new project means developing a new service, new resources need will be determined, and service preparation may start. Then, at an agreed date the service provider may start.

Let us go back to the management system definition:

System to establish policies and objectives, and processes to achieve those objectives

Now, our system is our set of interrelated processes, and it through those processes that you try to meet intended results. Processes are like variables in a mathematical equation that we operate in order to meet our intended results: 

Let us go back again to ISO 9000:2015, clause 2.4.1.3, where we can read:

These processes interact to deliver results consistent with the organization’s objectives and cross functional boundaries. Some processes can be critical while others are not.

When we model how an organization works, we include in the model a set of processes. Those processes are needed, but not all processes have the same impact or influence in meeting each objective or intended result.

Just as an example, let us consider this matrix that relates processes and objectives:

 Processes are where the rubber meets the road. Whatever an objective the management wants an organization to achieve, it is only a dream if one or more processes of the organization are not mobilized and changed to that. In the matrix above, meeting objective “Better sales” requires working on the process “Win project”. Meeting objective “Less complaints” requires working on processes “Prepare service” and “Provide the service”. Meeting objective “More satisfied customers” requires working on processes “Develop a new service”, “Prepare service” and “Provide service”. 

Now, look into the process “Maintain equipment”. It must exist but does not contribute directly to any overall objective. These processes are tricky. If you are excellent in these kinds of processes, they will be expensive but will not contribute to customer satisfaction, but if you make a mistake in these processes, they can contribute to customer un-satisfaction. 

No one says: we are very satisfied with our electrical power supplier because at the end of the day there were no power failures. We say, it is the minimum someone can expect, no failures 

Next: Process and strategy

How can we use the process approach (part III a)

 Part I and part II.

In the last part, I wrote that this part would be about processes and strategy. However, let me make a small change and first address the modeling of an organization, based on the process approach, before relating processes to strategy.

4. Modelling an organization – mapping processes

ISO 9001:2015 clause 4.4.1 states that an:

Organization shall determine the processes needed for a quality management system. 

How can that be done?

We need to develop a model of how the organization works having as its building blocks what we call processes.

4.1 What is a model?

“A model is an external and explicit representation of part of reality, as seen by people who want to use the model to understand, to change, to manage and control that part of reality”

 Michael Pidd in “Tools for thinking - Modeling in Management Science” 

Remember, we don't draw a model to answer ISO 9001:2015 requirements, and please auditors. We draw them because we want to understand, to change, to manage, and control our organization's present and future.

Models are always a simplification and an approximate representation of some aspects of reality, models reduce complexity, simplify the original or the future to be built, to reduce the noise produced by reality, and thus highlight, distinguish the critical factors, for the object of study concerned. The model does not show all the attributes of the original, it only illustrates those attributes that are relevant, or suitable for the observer/creator/user of the model to manipulate. Models do not need to be accurate to be useful, models are simplifications, and their usefulness lies precisely in that approach.

The task of the observer/creator/user of the model is to collect the visions, the perceptions, even if ill-defined and implicit of reality, and to shape them in a sufficiently well-defined way to be understood and discussed by other people. A model is a representation of reality. 

With Deming I learned:

All models are wrong, some are useful!

The reality is composed of a set of objects that constitute a system, at a conceptual level we design a model capable of illustrating the system, the reality. Armed with the model as a work unit, we can perform simulations to perceive reality and influence it, the simulation uses the model to perceive and anticipate the dynamics and behavior of the system.

4.2 Modeling an organization as a set of processes

To build a model of an organization, it is necessary to have a clear definition of its purpose, now an organization exists only because there are customers, they are its raison d'être! 

An organization, the organization object of our study, is an entity, it is a system, which transforms, that converts “potential customers with needs” into “customers served”. 

4.2.1 Step 1 - Identify the different types of customers 

Customers are not all the same, it is possible to identify and isolate different types of customers, this activity is important because different types of customers may require, different processes and may mobilize different actors, may involve different inputs and different outputs. 

4.2.2 Step 2 - List the inputs and outputs of the model

Distinguish the different states of the customers and identify all interactions (inputs and outputs) between the organization and its customers! How do we get in contact with potential customers? How do we collect information to develop new products and services? How do we receive orders or requests for proposals? How do we deliver our products and services? 

4.2.3 Step 3 – Determine the core, the heart of the model

Let us track the route, from inputs into outputs. Let us zoom in on the organization. Let us open the black box! 

For the purposes of this blogpost, we select a certain type of customers and then start to dive inside the organization  (for someone implementing a quality management system for certification, this could be a management system scope option)

I gather a set of people that know the organization, each from a different perspective and give them sticky notes and markers. Then, I post two sticky notes that represent the responsible for major input in the system and the receiver of the major output of the system.

I ask; what actions, what activities do you do when going from one extreme into the other? People use sticky notes to write things that they remember. I set a rule: one sticky note must have one verb and one noun like “Receive Request For Proposal”, like “Write Proposal”, like “Budget Proposal”, like “Present proposal”, like “Negotiate proposal”.

After that kind of brainstorming one can start to aggregate sticky notes that belong to a flow of activities. For example, I can replace these 5 sticky notes above by saying that they belong to the same process called “Win order”. Repeating the technique for other sticky notes we develop the central sequence of processes.

When designing the road from the inputs into the outputs, do not dive into to much detail! 

Let us look at a high level of abstraction and consider 3 to 6 entities (each entity represents a process, a set of activities) And let's number the processes sequentially! 

We can do a mental exercise: "If we were riding an order, what would we see from the reception to its delivery?" Do not register departments or functions, but state changes, the main tasks! ”

4.2.4 Step 4 – Name each process

 

Designate each entity (each process)! Start with a verb that illustrates the transformation that takes place inside! Avoid references to departments, to avoid confusion remember:

• processes are not departments, 
• the organization chart is not a process map, 
• the vertical and horizontal views of an organization are very different.

I like to designate a process by relating its name to the main output of that process. 

While certain processes seem to be clearly determined, based on a physical flow (production, logistics, distribution, transport) or a flow of information (design/development, closing accounts, invoicing, payment), certain activities of an administrative nature seem difficult to integrate into a “process” view. 

There may then be a strong temptation to group them by function analogy and to baptize these groupings as “human resource process” (in which recruitment, training, communication, payment of wages, contract management will be mixed) work, social dialogue, without the slightest logical link or the tangible outputs that characterize such a process appearing), “accounting and financial process”, etc. Performing more or less arbitrary functional groupings is of no interest from the point of view of process management, because it will be difficult to draw interesting conclusions as to the coordination and chaining modes. 

In the next part, we will continue with the modeling of the public works company as a basis for modeling an organization. 

"pitching a win-win-win “story”

Três ideias fundamentais retiradas do primeiro capítulo do livro SMASH: Using Market Shaping to Design New Strategies for Innovation, Value Creation, and Growth de Kaj Storbacka e Suvi Nenonen. 

Os mercados são mais do que para trocar valor, também servem para co-criar valor:

"The Function of a Market System Is Exchange, for the Purpose of Value Creation 

Specifically, markets are CASs of exchange, for the creation of value. And we do need to be very specific about that. Common definitions which include exchange but omit use-value and the value creation aspect sound curiously zero-sum, as though the same resource is simply being shuffled around the system in a grand version of the children’s birthday game pass-the-parcel.

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Just as markets divide into supply and demand, so does value divide into exchange value to the supplier and use value to the customer/user. In a firm-focused, production-centric view such as the traditional business strategy approach, value too easily comes to mean what is really only exchange value - the value to the producer or seller - or, worse still, the price.

…

A user will willingly pay a higher price if she can get more use value out of the product. So use value should be integral to the firm’s market view, and any way to increase use value offers potential gains in exchange value right back. This is where co-creation comes in. The firm’s product is only one component in the customer’s use value."

Os mercados não são um dado, são uma variável:

"Markets Are Socially Constructed, so You Can Reconstruct Them, too

Markets are social systems.

…

The key point for us is that, being socially constructed, markets can be consciously reconstructed. Because humans can be persuaded, incentivized or, where laws or sheer market power are involved, coerced by other humans, the firm has a means of influencing the human agents and their creations. This is how you can turn social reconstruction to your advantage. Fundamentally, viewing markets as shapeable systems suggests that opportunities are not precursors of strategy; rather they are outcomes of deliberate efforts to shape markets. ... We should not make strategy for a company - we should make strategy for the system. [Moi ici: Isto é tão bom!!! Urdir um ecossistema. Daqui: "

Uma empresa que trabalha com o BSC começa por determinar quem são os clientes-alvo! Uma empresa que trabalha com o BSC e comigo, para além dos clientes-alvo tem também de determinar qual é o ecossistema da procura."] Furthermore, strategy ought not to be viewed as winning a zero-sum game; nor ought the focus to be on competing. On the contrary, it should clarify how the company can engage in collaborative activities with market actors (suppliers, customers, and partners) in order to improve the creation of the use value. Companies that can promise improved value creation for several actors simultaneously are the ones most likely to be successful in shaping their respective markets.

The job of the market leader is not to increase own market share at the expense of others, but rather about creating a positive sum game where many market actors grow the market together.[Moi ici: Maximizar o valor para todos os que estão no ecossistema]

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The pay-off to all the theory above is that it enables you to become a market shaper.

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“What is this market shaping that you are so worked up about?”

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Changing the definition of markets from mere exchange mechanisms to a system fostering value creation is not just semantics or purely academic debate. Think about the implications. We’re claiming that, like any other human-made systems, market systems can be changed by companies, governments, and even singular individuals" 

 

Os mercados podem ser trabalhados e manuseados:

"Building on the theoretical insight that, unlike poets, markets are not only born but also made, this strategy takes a new product or service and aims to consciously attract or build the elements of a fully functioning market around it.

…

What are the main ingredients for shaping markets? This is a question that it takes the rest of the book to answer fully. There is no single formula and no linear progression of steps. It’s about a continuous cycle. And there’s a degree of art to it as well as science. Broadly though, market shaping begins with re-focusing your business definition, which also acts as your frame on the market, so that you can see the rich reality of your market system and training it on the slice of the universe of possible markets which you want to start with. You then need to envisage a new shape for that market system that would benefit your firm more, by capturing a share of extra use value you’ll help create (in other words, co-create) for customers. Whichever other players it requires to effect the change, you’ll need to appeal to them by offering a share in the value creation as well. This involves pitching a win-win-win “story” or narrative about your proposed new shape. [Moi ici: Há anos que prego isto. Por exemplo: "Ganhar-ganhar-ganhar porque passa por orquestrar uma relação que traga vantagens não só à clássica interacção diádica, cliente-fornecedor, mas também a outras combinações"] And you’ll need to time the whole intervention to strike when the market is “hot” and malleable.

…

Which firms could practice market shaping? … You don’t need market power in the traditional sense of monopolies and oligopolies. In fact, being big can hinder creative thinking of the kind a new strategy requires if the great idea gets tangled up in the red tape of internal processes. However, you need a good idea _ a vision about how to shape your market into a better re-incarnation of that market - because market shaping works only if you are truly able to improve the market. And remember, “improving” means improvement to others as well, not just to you."

Acerca do Estranhistão e a cegueira do mainstream

O Estranhistão segundo Plantes em "Business-to-individual business models will win out in the Connected Customer Era"

"you must redesign your business models, processes, systems and even culture to serve each customer as a market of one – an individual that you know versus a member of a uniform target market described by its averages. (Moi ici: Recordar o que escrevemos sobre os fantasmas estatísticos e o olhar olhos nos olhos. Enfim, sobre a miudagem)
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Customers have always preferred personalization, but it was too expensive. Their desire for personalization is finally realistic because software solutions enable organizations to know each customer as an individual, and software and manufacturing technologies enable us to customize the offering and experience at every customer touch point. Just as companies that stuck with poor quality and historic business models in earlier eras got disrupted, companies that continue to treat a customer as a non-differentiated member of a uniform target market will be disrupted in the new era.
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value promises must be tailored to the customer’s unique needs and revenue models and value chains individualized to maximize customer value at every customer touch point, leading to loyalty-building customer experiences.
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The cultural demands of the Connected Customer Era will be great. Each employee and customer becomes a vital component in personalized value chains, demanding far more collaboration internally and with customers than in years past. (Moi ici: Aqui está o potencial para uma grande vantagem competitiva para as PMEs, a facilidade no tratamento individualizado, personalizado, pessoal) All employees, not just the sales and marketing department, are now part of the marketing message. Furthermore, with customers having more of a window into companies, and the ability to share positive and negative reviews with others through social media, a company’s culture must authentically align with its brand promise.
The need to become a B2I – Business to Individual ­– company holds true even if, as a B2B company, you have a small customer base. You must engage in two-way conversations with a larger set of decision makers, influencers and users in your target market about broader topics, (Moi ici: O ecossistema da procura) surfacing fresh ideas about unmet needs and opportunities. You prevent disruption by designing individualized value propositions and value chains that maximize value at every touch point."

 Isto é um festival para a batota da concorrência imperfeita.
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Infelizmente, o mainstream continua a querer combater as batalhas do século XX... eficientismo, escala:

"companies that continue to treat a customer as a non-differentiated member of a uniform target market"

Recordo "O gozo do puto anónimo de província" e "Mas claro, eu só sou um anónimo engenheiro da província"

De volta à velha Atenas, a minha previsão

Nem de propósito. Ontem à noite, já depois de ter escrito "Cuidado com as previsões", encontrei "Learning to Become Athenians":

"After two or three centuries during which manufacturing consolidated into larger and larger enterprises, technology is now restoring opportunities for the lone craftsman making things at home—with extraordinary consequences for careers and lifestyles.
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In classical Athens, with no industrial machinery and much of the work done by slaves whose maintenance costs were identical and whose capital costs reflected their skills, it was not possible to get an advantage in costs or in capital utilization. To compete successfully, you had to differentiate your product to make it worth more than your competitors’.
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The nature of a society in which most households participate, at least occasionally, in making goods is radically different from the world we are used to.
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The industrial revolution changed the economics of manufacturing by creating new forms of advantage based upon operating costs and capital investment. Starting in the eighteenth century, the lower costs offered by mechanization, mass production, and shared information drove production into fewer and larger units, and the amateur craftsman in the family workshop was squeezed almost out of existence.
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The nature of a society in which most households participate, at least occasionally, in making goods is radically different from the world we are used to. For citizens in ancient Athens, casual manufacturing was a vital income-earning component in a portfolio of activity. The industrial revolution changed the economics of manufacturing by creating new forms of advantage based upon operating costs and capital investment. Now, though, the information revolution is reversing the consolidating effect of the industrial revolution.
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After two or three centuries during which manufacturing consolidated into larger and larger enterprises, technology is now restoring opportunities for the lone craftsman making things at home—with extraordinary consequences for careers and lifestyles. The powerful trends toward making things oneself and choosing freelance careers over full-time employment recreate some of the economic and social dynamics of Athens between 500 and 300 B.C.—and pose important challenges to businesses and society. If we understand the forces behind the changes in industry structure since those times, we will have a better sense of how and why the dynamics of that structure are reversing and what that might mean for our daily lives.
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To build a large business, you have to win more volume than others in a competitive marketplace; this means having an advantage your competitors cannot match. For a competitive advantage to be of value, it must be manifested in one of the elements of return on capital: revenues, costs, or capital employed. In classical Athens, with no industrial machinery and much of the work done by slaves whose maintenance costs were identical and whose capital costs reflected their skills, it was not possible to get an advantage in costs or in capital utilization. To compete successfully, you had to differentiate your product to make it worth more than your competitors’.
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For a huge range of other products, which made up most of consumption—such as everyday clothes, basic ceramics, simple metalwork, and carpentry—there was no basis for differentiation. Almost all Athenian citizen households would have family members or slaves who made clothes. Some might make a surplus to sell; other households would have to buy some clothing. Many would have made simple wooden, ceramic, or metal objects for their own use and sometimes to exchange with neighbors or sell in the marketplace.
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The nature of a society in which most households participate, at least occasionally, in making goods is radically different from the world we are used to. ... By reducing their expenditures and bringing in some income through making simple household products, Athenian citizens managed to enjoy a rich and varied life. They had time to go to the theater and games, and some evidently had time to philosophize.
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The implications for the individual, for society, and for manufacturing companies are significant. For the individual, the restoration of competitive equality between the home craftsperson and the large factory creates real opportunities for the freelance lifestyle that many young people aspire to. As Forbes reported last year, 60 percent of Millennials in the U.S. stay fewer than three years in a job and 45 percent would prefer more flexibility to more pay.  In a recent survey, 87 percent of UK graduates with first- or second-class degrees saw freelancing as highly attractive, and 85 percent believe freelancing will become the norm.
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Some manufacturing businesses will face a completely new challenge, one in which the stock weapons of increasing efficiency and reducing costs will be of little use. Few makers will recognize the opportunity cost of their time in a very businesslike way, given the psychic rewards they find in exercising their craft. Now that the other components of cost (procurement of raw materials, training and product development expenses, marketing investment, and energy) are available at rates not much different from those achieved by large enterprises, would-be makers will not be deterred by price cuts from established players."

Parece que o BCG andou a ler este blogue!!!
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Está aqui tudo!!!
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Amostra:

• Indie capitalism e Mongo!!! (Dezembro 2011)
• Um mundo de artesãos... (Janeiro 2012)
• Alfaiates e modistas: o modelo de negócio do futuro (Dezembro 2012)
• Pós-industrial vs industrial, com uns laivos de pré-industrial (Janeiro 2013)
• O regresso lento mas persistente do semi-industrial (Fevereiro 2014)
• Interessante, nestes tempos de Amazon, Mongo cresce (Janeiro 2015)

Conseguem imaginar as implicações desta mudança? Na educação, na cobrança de impostos, no retalho, nos transportes, nas comunidades, na humanização do mercado, no cálculo e interpretação das estatísticas, na circulação do dinheiro, ...

Construir um mosaico coerente

O número 61 da revista strategy+business inclui um interessante artigo de Cesare Mainardi e Art Kleiner "The Right to Win" de onde destaquei alguns trechos:
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"The phrase right to win may strike some observers as arrogant. After all, no company has this kind of assurance handed to it. But that’s precisely the point. The right to win cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned. You earn it by making a series of pragmatic choices that align your most distinctive and important capabilities with the way you approach your chosen customers, and with the discipline to offer only the products and services that fit. At Booz & Company, where we call this approach a capabilities-driven strategy, research and experience have led us to conclude that only high levels of coherence — among market strategy, capabilities systems, and a company’s portfolio of offerings — can give any firm the right to win. (Moi ici: outra linguagem para transmitir a mensagem habitual deste blogue, concentrar uma organização no que é essencial. Construir um mosaico de opções e acções coerentes que se reforçam sinergicamente)
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All corporate strategies are at heart theories about the right to win.
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The first reality is that advantage is transient."
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