As ideias vivem em bandos
Um novo livro do escritor de ciência Steven Johnson afirma que a inovação não é coisa de gênios. Ela nasce de um ambiente que favorece a comunicação
ANNA CAROLINA LEMENTY. RODRIGO CUNHA (ILUSTRAÇÕES) E PEDRO SCHIMIDT
PROVOCADOR
Steven Johnson, autor de Where good ideas come from (De onde vêm as boas ideias). Se o FBI fosse um lugar bom para ideias, teria evitado o ataque de 11 de setembro de 2001
Com um pequeno esforço de memória, qualquer um pode listar alguns nomes de pessoas que considera geniais. Gente que revolucionou seu tempo com um pensamento original ou com invenções que transformaram a vida da humanidade, como Leonardo da Vinci, Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier, Charles Darwin, Alberto Santos Dumont, Albert Einstein... Mas o que terá tornado essa gente excepcional? O escritor americano Steven Johnson, especializado em divulgar estudos sobre a sociedade, a ciência e as ideias, faz uma proposta ousada em seu mais recente livro, Where good ideas come from – The natural history of innovation (De onde vêm as boas ideias – A história natural da inovação, ainda sem data de lançamento no Brasil). Para ele, a genialidade é uma ideia romântica. Momentos de iluminação individual seriam raríssimos. Lembramos deles apenas porque resultam em histórias agradáveis sobre o progresso.
O caminho que leva à inovação, diz ele, é outro: longo, descontínuo e errático. Percorrê-lo com sucesso significa principalmente conectar ideias – as próprias e as alheias, as novas e as antigas –, em vez de se isolar à espera de sacadas extraordinárias. E essa conexão só acontece em ambientes em que as pessoas possam interagir como se fossem os neurônios de um grande cérebro coletivo. “Não é que não existam pessoas extraordinárias, mais espertas que a maioria de nós”, afirmou Johnson em uma entrevista por e-mail a ÉPOCA. “A questão é que os talentos podem ser aperfeiçoados (ou reduzidos) dependendo do lugar onde estejam. Se tentássemos colocar a mente de Steve Jobs (presidente da Apple) para trabalhar em empresas convencionais, desconfio que ele não se sairia tão bem.”
Saiba mais
»Steven Johnson: "Suas ideias não são só suas"
»10 dicas para criar um negócio promissor
»Vídeo: Sete dicas para ter boas ideias
De acordo com essa tese, a genialidade seria a capacidade de destilar, aos poucos, o melhor do caldo das ideias existentes. Não é que não exista a descoberta, o “eureca!” (descobri, em grego antigo) que o matemático Arquimedes teria gritado, saindo pelado da banheira, quando lhe veio à mente o conceito de empuxo. É que ele faz parte de uma cadeia de outras descobertas, menores, às quais geralmente não damos valor. Fascinado pela evolução das ideias – dois de seus seis livros anteriores abordam o assunto –, Johnson estudou o contexto que levou ao desenvolvimento de várias ideias na história. E propõe um caminho para alcançar o pensamento inovador e transformar organizações em ambientes criativos. A seguir, alguns dos principais modos de fazer isso, segundo ele.
1. A GESTAÇÃO DEMORA
Uma impressão ou uma intuição precisam de tempo, pesquisa e observação para virar uma ideia. Johnson chama essa gestação de “slow hunch”, o “palpite demorado”. É corrente a ideia de que Darwin, ao ler a teoria de Thomas Malthus sobre a disparidade entre a produção de alimentos e o crescimento da população, teve um estalo e formulou a teoria da seleção natural. Johnson desmonta essa análise superficial, mostrando que Darwin era um homem rigoroso em suas anotações. Durante anos, registrou observações, citações, ideias improvisadas e rascunhou diagramas. Estava constantemente relendo suas notas e questionando suas implicações. Os principais pontos da seleção natural estavam em seus cadernos. O “insight malthusiano” veio só depois e o ajudou a completar o raciocínio.
2. A IDEIA TEM VÁRIAS MÃES
Uma pessoa inovadora é aquela que consegue combinar e recombinar ideias anteriores. Ao formular a teoria da relatividade, em 1905, o físico Albert Einstein usou estudos do matemático Jules Henri Poincaré. Daí a importância de um espaço livre para ideias: mesmo as mais loucas podem um dia servir. Poincaré formulou em 1904 uma conjectura que só foi demonstrada em 2002, pelo matemático Grigori Perelman. “As pessoas costumam pensar que fazemos uso só do conhecimento e dos cálculos e, com isso, chegamos às teorias”, diz Jacob Palis, doutor em matemática pela Universidade da Califórnia e pesquisador do Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (Impa). “Longe disso. Nós perseguimos palpites. Há casos em que tenho sucesso e há casos em que a pergunta fica no ar, até que outras pessoas se interessem por ela.”
3. O GRUPO INOVA MAIS
“A ideia não é uma coisa só. Está mais para um enxame”, afirma Johnson. Quando a informação circula, criamos uma rede fluida, inteligente, receptiva a novidades. É principalmente essa a razão por que as grandes cidades são ambientes mais férteis à inovação em comparação com as pequenas. “A densidade das redes formadas nas primeiras cidades propiciou a circulação de ideias. Elas transbordaram e, por causa disso, foram preservadas para as futuras gerações”, escreve Johnson. Em ambientes menores, como empresas, também é possível formar essas redes de ideias. O jeito mais simples de fazer isso é permitindo um espaço para conversas informais. É mais eficiente do que reuniões de brainstorm (em que todos são instados a dar palpites absurdos, na esperança de surgir uma ideia genial), segundo Johnson, porque as ideias não respeitam cronogramas. A arquitetura também influi. Ela precisa unir as pessoas, em vez de separá-las em grupos fechados. Esse pensamento inspirou a Microsoft a construir espaços físicos mutáveis, das mesas às paredes, em sua área de pesquisa. A Apple faz isso nos projetos de trabalho em grupo: favorece o contato franco e intenso entre todo tipo de profissional, todo tipo de inteligência.
4. PRESTE UM POUCO DE DESATENÇÃO
Muitas vezes, esquecer o problema ajuda a achar a solução. As ideias se beneficiam de uma dose de dispersão. Elas podem vir durante o sono, no banho, numa caminhada ou na prática de um hobby. Um exemplo ilustre é do matemático francês Jules Henri Poincaré. Ele passou 15 dias tentando provar que as funções propostas pelo matemático Lazarus Immanuel Fuchs não existiam. Um dia, saiu da rotina e tomou café preto, algo que não costumava fazer. Sem conseguir dormir, começou a ter alguns palpites promissores. No dia seguinte, percebeu que estava errado e provou as conjecturas – a que generosamente chamou de fuchsianas.
5. O VIZINHO PODE EMPRESTAR
Algumas das melhores ideias já existem – só precisam de alguma adaptação. Foi o que fez, por exemplo, o obstetra francês Stephane Tarnier, em 1870. Em Paris, naquela época, um em cada cinco bebês morria poucos dias depois de nascer.Um dia, passeando pelo zoológico, ele notou que os pintinhos eram mantidos em recipientes aquecidos. Se o princípio era bom para os pintinhos, por que não para os humanos? Ele criou então a primeira incubadora, colocando recipientes com água quente embaixo das caixas de madeira que serviam de berços.
6. A AJUDA DOS ERROS
Uma ideia inicialmente promissora pode chegar a um resultado ruim. Isso se chama erro. E ele é útil. O ambiente inovador tolera os enganos, estuda os resultados indesejados e os transforma em aprendizado, em benefício das ideias seguintes. Johnson cita o exemplo do teólogo britânico Joseph Priestley. Ele tinha o costume de fazer experimentos científicos para provar suas crenças teológicas. Um dia, colocou uma planta em uma jarra, privando-a de oxigênio. Esperava que a planta morresse, mas ela continuou viva. O resultado o encorajou a continuar suas pesquisas. Esse experimento levou a outros, de outros cientistas, e assim se descobriu o processo da fotossíntese.
7. A OBSESSÃO COM NOTAS
A insólita jornada da inovação depende da profusão de informações – uma espécie de bagunça organizada. Era assim que Darwin fazia em seus cadernos, repletos de rabiscos, desenhos, pensamentos. Ordenar essas ideias pode atrapalhar mais que ajudar, porque engessa o raciocínio. Anotações esparsas facilitam a recombinação das teses, o olhar com nova perspectiva. Mas há um risco oposto: anotar, anotar, e não parar para ligar os pontos. Essa foi uma das falhas que impediram a polícia federal americana, o FBI, de prevenir o ataque terrorista de 11 de setembro de 2001. Em julho, um relatório do agente Ken Williams alertava sobre seguidores de um certo “Usama Bin Laden” que faziam cursos de aviação civil. Williams entrevistara alguns deles e descobrira que tinham ligações com movimentos islâmicos radicais. O documento foi classificado como um “palpite especulativo, não significativo”, e permaneceu no limbo do FBI. Outro relatório ignorado dentro do FBI mencionava que um certo Zacarias Moussaoui, aluno de aviação, tinha intenção de jogar um avião contra o World Trade Center. As informações não se encontraram, o FBI não agiu e os aviões pilotados por terroristas atingiram seus alvos meses depois.
Nesse caso extremo, um processo mais acurado de ligar informações poderia ter salvado a vida de cerca de 3 mil pessoas. Em outros casos, o prejuízo é um invento que deixa de ser feito, um trabalho que fica pior, um paciente que deixa de ser tratado. É fácil perceber a falta de conexão no FBI, mas quanto nós mesmos não trabalhamos isolados? “Um dos maiores problemas das empresas é que elas dividem as pessoas em silos – engenheiros aqui, o financeiro ali”, disse Johnson a ÉPOCA. “O pensamento inovador frequentemente vem quando as ideias cruzam fronteiras.”
Epoca.
sábado, 27 de novembro de 2010
quinta-feira, 21 de outubro de 2010
The business of sharing
The business of sharing
What do you do when you are green, broke and connected? You share
Oct 14th 2010
WHY buy when you can rent? This simple question is the foundation stone of a growing number of businesses. Why buy a car (and pay for parking) when you can rent one whenever you need to load up at IKEA? Why buy a bike (and risk having it stolen) when you can pick one up at a bike rack near your home and drop it off at another rack near your office? Why buy a DVD when you can watch it and return it in a convenient envelope?
Renting is not a new business, of course. Hotel chains and car-hire firms have been around for ages, and the world’s oldest profession, one might argue, involves renting. But for most of the past 50 years renters have been conceding ground to owners. Laundromats have been closing down as people buy their own washing machines. Home ownership was, until the financial crisis, rising nearly everywhere. Rental markets grew ossified: hotels and car-hire firms barely changed their business models for decades. All this is now changing dramatically, however, thanks to technology, austerity and greenery.
The internet makes it easy to compare prices, which makes rental cars and hotel rooms cheaper. It also allows new ways of renting and sharing to thrive. For example, car-sharing is booming even as car sales languish. Zipcar, an American firm, has 400,000 members who pay an annual fee and can then rent cars by the hour. They log on to find out where the nearest Zipcar is parked, and return it to one of many scattered parking bays rather than a central location. Netflix, a film-rental firm, made $116m last year by making it easy to hire movies by mail. Governments are joining in: London is one of several cities that rent bikes to citizens who take the trouble to fill out a few forms.
Trendy folk are applauding. “Sharing is clean, crisp, urbane, postmodern,” says Mark Levine of the New York Times. “Owning is dull, selfish, timid, backward.” (“Crisp”? Never mind.) The sharing craze has spawned two new books: “What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption”, by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, and “The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing”, by Lisa Gansky. The first book is much the better of the two. But the second, written by an internet entrepreneur, contains some valuable practical advice.
People are renting things they never used to rent, such as clothes and toys. Bag Borrow or Steal, for example, applies the Netflix principle to posh handbags. The firm boasts that it allows women to avoid “the emotional and financial sacrifices” of “the endless search for the ‘right’ accessory.” Rent-That-Toy does the same for trikes for tikes. TechShop, in Menlo Park, California, rents tinkering space and equipment to amateur inventors.
Other pioneers of “collaborative consumption” have dispensed with inventories and act purely as brokers. Some help people sell their spare capacity in everything from parking spaces to energy. CouchSurfing connects people who have a spare sofa with travellers who wish to sleep on it, on the tacit understanding that the travellers will do the same for someone else in the network some day. There are 2.3m registered couchsurfers in 79,000 cities worldwide. Other groups have created barter economies. thredUP specialises in exchanging children’s clothes, but also has exchanges for everything from make-up to video games. Freecycle helps people give things away so that they do not end up in landfills: its website has 7.6m members.
The moguls who run Zipcar may have different motives from the greens who run Freecycle, but they share the same faith: that access often matters more than ownership, and that technology will make sharing more and more efficient. The internet has always been good at connecting buyers and sellers; GPS devices and social networks are enhancing its power. GPS devices can connect you to people around the corner who want to share rides. Social networks are helping to lower one of the biggest barriers to “collaborative consumption”—trust. Couchsurfers, for example, can see at a keystroke what others in the network think of the stranger who wants to borrow their couch. If he is dirty or creepy, they need not let him in.
People are growing impatient with “idle capacity” (ie, waste). The average American spends 18% of his income on running a car that is usually stationary. Half of American homes own an electric drill, but most people use it once and then forget it. If you are green or broke, as many people are these days, this seems wasteful. Besides, “consumer philandering” sounds fun. “Today’s a BMW day,” purrs Zipcar, “Or is it a Volvo day?”
New ways to show off
Attitudes to conspicuous consumption are changing. Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term, argued that people like to display their status by owning lots of stuff. But many of today’s conspicuous consumers—particularly the young—achieve the same effect by virtual means. They boast about what they are doing (on Twitter), what they are reading (Shelfari), what they are interested in (Digg) and whom they know (Facebook). Collaborative consumption is an ideal signalling device for an economy based on electronic brands and ever-changing fashions.
There are obvious limitations to this new model. Few people, besides tramps and journalists, will want to wear recycled underpants. Returning Zipcars on time can be a hassle. But the sharing stampede is nevertheless gathering pace. Zipcar has imitators in more than a thousand cities. Every week sees the birth of a business describing itself as the Netflix of this or that. Collective consumption is also disrupting established business models based on built-in obsolescence. The internet may be synonymous with novelty, but by encouraging people to reuse the same objects rather than buy new ones, it may revive the old virtue of building products that last.
What do you do when you are green, broke and connected? You share
Oct 14th 2010
WHY buy when you can rent? This simple question is the foundation stone of a growing number of businesses. Why buy a car (and pay for parking) when you can rent one whenever you need to load up at IKEA? Why buy a bike (and risk having it stolen) when you can pick one up at a bike rack near your home and drop it off at another rack near your office? Why buy a DVD when you can watch it and return it in a convenient envelope?
Renting is not a new business, of course. Hotel chains and car-hire firms have been around for ages, and the world’s oldest profession, one might argue, involves renting. But for most of the past 50 years renters have been conceding ground to owners. Laundromats have been closing down as people buy their own washing machines. Home ownership was, until the financial crisis, rising nearly everywhere. Rental markets grew ossified: hotels and car-hire firms barely changed their business models for decades. All this is now changing dramatically, however, thanks to technology, austerity and greenery.
The internet makes it easy to compare prices, which makes rental cars and hotel rooms cheaper. It also allows new ways of renting and sharing to thrive. For example, car-sharing is booming even as car sales languish. Zipcar, an American firm, has 400,000 members who pay an annual fee and can then rent cars by the hour. They log on to find out where the nearest Zipcar is parked, and return it to one of many scattered parking bays rather than a central location. Netflix, a film-rental firm, made $116m last year by making it easy to hire movies by mail. Governments are joining in: London is one of several cities that rent bikes to citizens who take the trouble to fill out a few forms.
Trendy folk are applauding. “Sharing is clean, crisp, urbane, postmodern,” says Mark Levine of the New York Times. “Owning is dull, selfish, timid, backward.” (“Crisp”? Never mind.) The sharing craze has spawned two new books: “What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption”, by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, and “The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing”, by Lisa Gansky. The first book is much the better of the two. But the second, written by an internet entrepreneur, contains some valuable practical advice.
People are renting things they never used to rent, such as clothes and toys. Bag Borrow or Steal, for example, applies the Netflix principle to posh handbags. The firm boasts that it allows women to avoid “the emotional and financial sacrifices” of “the endless search for the ‘right’ accessory.” Rent-That-Toy does the same for trikes for tikes. TechShop, in Menlo Park, California, rents tinkering space and equipment to amateur inventors.
Other pioneers of “collaborative consumption” have dispensed with inventories and act purely as brokers. Some help people sell their spare capacity in everything from parking spaces to energy. CouchSurfing connects people who have a spare sofa with travellers who wish to sleep on it, on the tacit understanding that the travellers will do the same for someone else in the network some day. There are 2.3m registered couchsurfers in 79,000 cities worldwide. Other groups have created barter economies. thredUP specialises in exchanging children’s clothes, but also has exchanges for everything from make-up to video games. Freecycle helps people give things away so that they do not end up in landfills: its website has 7.6m members.
The moguls who run Zipcar may have different motives from the greens who run Freecycle, but they share the same faith: that access often matters more than ownership, and that technology will make sharing more and more efficient. The internet has always been good at connecting buyers and sellers; GPS devices and social networks are enhancing its power. GPS devices can connect you to people around the corner who want to share rides. Social networks are helping to lower one of the biggest barriers to “collaborative consumption”—trust. Couchsurfers, for example, can see at a keystroke what others in the network think of the stranger who wants to borrow their couch. If he is dirty or creepy, they need not let him in.
People are growing impatient with “idle capacity” (ie, waste). The average American spends 18% of his income on running a car that is usually stationary. Half of American homes own an electric drill, but most people use it once and then forget it. If you are green or broke, as many people are these days, this seems wasteful. Besides, “consumer philandering” sounds fun. “Today’s a BMW day,” purrs Zipcar, “Or is it a Volvo day?”
New ways to show off
Attitudes to conspicuous consumption are changing. Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term, argued that people like to display their status by owning lots of stuff. But many of today’s conspicuous consumers—particularly the young—achieve the same effect by virtual means. They boast about what they are doing (on Twitter), what they are reading (Shelfari), what they are interested in (Digg) and whom they know (Facebook). Collaborative consumption is an ideal signalling device for an economy based on electronic brands and ever-changing fashions.
There are obvious limitations to this new model. Few people, besides tramps and journalists, will want to wear recycled underpants. Returning Zipcars on time can be a hassle. But the sharing stampede is nevertheless gathering pace. Zipcar has imitators in more than a thousand cities. Every week sees the birth of a business describing itself as the Netflix of this or that. Collective consumption is also disrupting established business models based on built-in obsolescence. The internet may be synonymous with novelty, but by encouraging people to reuse the same objects rather than buy new ones, it may revive the old virtue of building products that last.
domingo, 19 de setembro de 2010
Time wasters
The Real Cost of Time-Wasters
Susan Kuchinskas
Sep 15, 2010 -
Some days, it seems like everything is a priority. When you wear several different hats in your company, you end up competing with yourself for your time. How do you figure out what to do right now and whether that will get your business where you want it to go?
One reason prioritizing is so difficult is because it's not a single conversation, according to David Allen, consultant and author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. He says there are six levels of priorities, from your life's purpose (the highest), through your core values and what you want to accomplish in the next one to two years, down to ongoing maintenance and steps toward finishing longer projects. Finally, the most immediate level is, "What do I need to do right now?"
Allen says most people have between 150 and 200 of these immediate tasks to prioritize -- in any one moment.
You might think you should start with your life's purpose and work backward, but Allen says, "If you wait to figure that out before you do anything, you'll be dead." And what about prioritizing those 150 immediate tasks? "There's nothing wrong with writing the four things down that you'd love to tackle; just be prepared to tear it up over and over."
Instead, figure out which priorities conversation you need to have with yourself. Maybe you need to clarify your two-year goals or maybe you're in startup mode and really do need to put out fires. Just make sure to look at your priorities from all six levels; Allen advises reassessing progress on year-long goals at least once a week.
Here are some other tips from top experts:
Follow the money: Gary Stauble, author of Done by Noon, says, "Do the closest thing to money first. What's going to actually turn into someone giving you their credit card number?" Usually, only a few of the things you do lead directly to revenue.
If you're in sales, those closest-to-the-money activities will be obvious: making calls, sending out invoices. For other business owners, getting closer to the money requires identifying some key performance indicators. A general contractor might use the number of proposals submitted each week, while a psychologist might track the number of appointment hours per month.
Once you've identified your key performance indicators, analyze your activities to discover what average performance is. When you exceed your previous average, you should make more money. On the other hand, when you spend more time on those other, "urgent" activities, you may be dinging your bottom line.
Embrace processes: "If you do something more than three times, you need a process," says Peggy Duncan, a personal productivity expert and author of The Time Management Memory Jogger. "Take a look at something you dread doing, and think of a faster, better way to do it." For example, one client routinely sent out an email with several attachments. Duncan advised her to combine the attachments into one PDF, create the email and save it on her desktop as a message. "Now, she can be on the phone talking to somebody, and before they hang up, she's already sent them the email."
Make a to-don’t list: Craig Jarrow, author of Time Management Ninja, suggests coming up with a list of your obligations outside work. "If you only have a couple and they're within your time budget, okay. If there are too many, you might have to whittle those back or even give some of them up," he says. "You're deciding what's more important -- running your business or volunteering at the soup kitchen. It can be tough." You can still volunteer, but limit the amount of hours, or, instead of showing up there, take on a larger project for the charity that's in line with your company's operations.
WIG out: Identify your Wildly Important Goals, and make sure everyone in your company has bought in. That's the advice from experts at FranklinCovey. "The clearer you are on the top three most strategic things you can do in a timeframe like a year or quarter, the more likely you can execute," says Leigh Stevens, FranklinCovey senior product architect. Hold WIG meetings once a week with your staff; once you've identified the wildly important goals, these can take as little as 15 minutes.
Says Jeff Anderson, FranklinCovey productivity practice leader, "If you're reviewing those goals every week and something comes up -- which always happens -- you have a common framework that lets you can prioritize on the fly. Without the shared mindset, it's very easy for everybody to be pulled from project to project."
Image credit: Redvers
Susan Kuchinskas is the author of Going Mobile: A Guide to Building the Real-Time Enterprise with Mobile Applications That Work. As a founding editor for M-Business from 200 to 2002, she tracked the early development of the mobile Internet. She's a correspondent for Telematics Update and reports on technology and business for a variety of publications.
Tags: gary stauble, best practices, time management, david allen, craig jarrow, susan kuchinskas, franklincovey, peggy duncan
Susan Kuchinskas
Sep 15, 2010 -
Some days, it seems like everything is a priority. When you wear several different hats in your company, you end up competing with yourself for your time. How do you figure out what to do right now and whether that will get your business where you want it to go?
One reason prioritizing is so difficult is because it's not a single conversation, according to David Allen, consultant and author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. He says there are six levels of priorities, from your life's purpose (the highest), through your core values and what you want to accomplish in the next one to two years, down to ongoing maintenance and steps toward finishing longer projects. Finally, the most immediate level is, "What do I need to do right now?"
Allen says most people have between 150 and 200 of these immediate tasks to prioritize -- in any one moment.
You might think you should start with your life's purpose and work backward, but Allen says, "If you wait to figure that out before you do anything, you'll be dead." And what about prioritizing those 150 immediate tasks? "There's nothing wrong with writing the four things down that you'd love to tackle; just be prepared to tear it up over and over."
Instead, figure out which priorities conversation you need to have with yourself. Maybe you need to clarify your two-year goals or maybe you're in startup mode and really do need to put out fires. Just make sure to look at your priorities from all six levels; Allen advises reassessing progress on year-long goals at least once a week.
Here are some other tips from top experts:
Follow the money: Gary Stauble, author of Done by Noon, says, "Do the closest thing to money first. What's going to actually turn into someone giving you their credit card number?" Usually, only a few of the things you do lead directly to revenue.
If you're in sales, those closest-to-the-money activities will be obvious: making calls, sending out invoices. For other business owners, getting closer to the money requires identifying some key performance indicators. A general contractor might use the number of proposals submitted each week, while a psychologist might track the number of appointment hours per month.
Once you've identified your key performance indicators, analyze your activities to discover what average performance is. When you exceed your previous average, you should make more money. On the other hand, when you spend more time on those other, "urgent" activities, you may be dinging your bottom line.
Embrace processes: "If you do something more than three times, you need a process," says Peggy Duncan, a personal productivity expert and author of The Time Management Memory Jogger. "Take a look at something you dread doing, and think of a faster, better way to do it." For example, one client routinely sent out an email with several attachments. Duncan advised her to combine the attachments into one PDF, create the email and save it on her desktop as a message. "Now, she can be on the phone talking to somebody, and before they hang up, she's already sent them the email."
Make a to-don’t list: Craig Jarrow, author of Time Management Ninja, suggests coming up with a list of your obligations outside work. "If you only have a couple and they're within your time budget, okay. If there are too many, you might have to whittle those back or even give some of them up," he says. "You're deciding what's more important -- running your business or volunteering at the soup kitchen. It can be tough." You can still volunteer, but limit the amount of hours, or, instead of showing up there, take on a larger project for the charity that's in line with your company's operations.
WIG out: Identify your Wildly Important Goals, and make sure everyone in your company has bought in. That's the advice from experts at FranklinCovey. "The clearer you are on the top three most strategic things you can do in a timeframe like a year or quarter, the more likely you can execute," says Leigh Stevens, FranklinCovey senior product architect. Hold WIG meetings once a week with your staff; once you've identified the wildly important goals, these can take as little as 15 minutes.
Says Jeff Anderson, FranklinCovey productivity practice leader, "If you're reviewing those goals every week and something comes up -- which always happens -- you have a common framework that lets you can prioritize on the fly. Without the shared mindset, it's very easy for everybody to be pulled from project to project."
Image credit: Redvers
Susan Kuchinskas is the author of Going Mobile: A Guide to Building the Real-Time Enterprise with Mobile Applications That Work. As a founding editor for M-Business from 200 to 2002, she tracked the early development of the mobile Internet. She's a correspondent for Telematics Update and reports on technology and business for a variety of publications.
Tags: gary stauble, best practices, time management, david allen, craig jarrow, susan kuchinskas, franklincovey, peggy duncan
domingo, 25 de julho de 2010
Perguntas sobre planejamento
Can You Answer These 10 Planning Questions?
Jul 21, 2010 -
How well are you managing your business? Is your planning helping you steer the business well? Are you controlling your own destiny? Are you satisfied with the business as is, or do you think you can do better?
Starting, growing and even surviving in business is a matter of navigating through the tough times and steering in the right direction. And that's planning.
It may not be a formal business or marketing plan document, but it better be planning and tracking and reviewing; or else you're not really managing.
With that in mind, test yourself on your planning and planning process by answering these 10 questions for your business. And unless you're a one-person business, ask yourself whether all the key players will answer these questions:
1. How do you define success?
Seems simple but it's critically important and often forgotten. Success might be growth or sales or profits or being able to take off at 3:30 p.m. to coach the kids' soccer team. Fame, fortune, independence, proving yourself right, controlling your time... they're all images of success. Some conflict with others. Do you know what success is for you?
2. What's your strategic focus?
Business strategy is like sculpture: it's about what you take away and what you leave behind. It’s as much about who isn’t your target market as who is. And as much about what you’re not doing as what you are. How are you different? What would your customers say? Do you know your strategic focus, and do your team members know it?
3. What are the main tasks?
You could call it tactics, business activities, programs, priorities or something else; what’s important is that you know what’s coming up and why. Strategy means nothing without concrete specific business actions to implement it. Do you know what’s next? If you’re part of a team, does the whole team know?
4. Do you have task dates and deadlines?
Sorry, but it’s simply human nature; things are more likely to happen right when somebody assigns dates and deadlines. People need to have concrete goals and they need to know results will be tracked.
5. Does every task have an owner?
You need to assign responsibilities to specific people, not groups or committees. Do you really know who’s doing what? Does everybody on the team know? Is peer pressure in operation, with metrics that measure performance, and that, preferably at least, all the key players can see? We’re looking at accountability here, and that’s vital to management. Business needs owners, owners need metrics, and metrics need tracking.
6. Do you know how to measure task results?
This is about metrics. Metrics and tracking generate accountability and management. People like metrics to work on. A good check on tasks is whether or not results can be measured. At the very least, a yes or no on completion. But the ideal is a performance metric like dollars, presentations, trips, proposals, closes, page views, subscriptions, calls, minutes per call, Klout score, etc.
7. Are you forecasting the critical numbers?
Don’t kid yourself. You need to estimate future sales, costs and expenses, and then track cash flow to manage a business. If you’re just watching balances, you aren’t managing that well. You’re risking surprises and losing opportunities. Business life blood is cash, and that’s about forecasts and following up.
8. What are your main assumptions?
We have to make assumptions because we can’t manage without them. But assumptions change. Keeping track of your assumptions and how they change is crucial.
9. When is your monthly review?
You can’t really manage and steer your company without a planning process that includes a regular monthly review. You have to schedule reviews in advance, stick to the schedule, review your assumptions, and make changes to reflect changing assumptions, results and needs. Without regular reviews, your planning is just a plan, use once and throw away.
The key is plan vs. actual review. Not just the numbers, but the trends, performance, and lessons in the numbers.
10. What needs to change?
Planning is about managing change. The business environment is about constant change, and you need the planning process to manage that change. With planning process, tracking, plan review, plan vs. actual analysis, you end up steering a company towards its goals. It’s navigation. And the planning process isn’t just a map; it’s a map beneath a GPS locator with real-time traffic and weather updating.
Cash flow is critical. Everybody knows it, sure, but how can you manage cash flow without planning? It’s not intuitive. People think in terms of profit and loss, but cash flow can be radically different from profits. Profitable companies run out of money. The profits don’t include timing of getting the money from sales, spending the money on goods to sell, buying other assets repaying loans. Planning needs to manage cash flow.
Tim Berry is Founder and President of Palo Alto Software, Founder of bplans.com, and co-Founder of Borland International. He is a Stanford MBA, and principal author of Business Plan Pro. He blogs at Planning Startups Stories.We could call that strategy, and then add the reminder: strategy is focus.
Tags: success, management, cash flow, duct tape marketing, tim berry, time management
Jul 21, 2010 -
How well are you managing your business? Is your planning helping you steer the business well? Are you controlling your own destiny? Are you satisfied with the business as is, or do you think you can do better?
Starting, growing and even surviving in business is a matter of navigating through the tough times and steering in the right direction. And that's planning.
It may not be a formal business or marketing plan document, but it better be planning and tracking and reviewing; or else you're not really managing.
With that in mind, test yourself on your planning and planning process by answering these 10 questions for your business. And unless you're a one-person business, ask yourself whether all the key players will answer these questions:
1. How do you define success?
Seems simple but it's critically important and often forgotten. Success might be growth or sales or profits or being able to take off at 3:30 p.m. to coach the kids' soccer team. Fame, fortune, independence, proving yourself right, controlling your time... they're all images of success. Some conflict with others. Do you know what success is for you?
2. What's your strategic focus?
Business strategy is like sculpture: it's about what you take away and what you leave behind. It’s as much about who isn’t your target market as who is. And as much about what you’re not doing as what you are. How are you different? What would your customers say? Do you know your strategic focus, and do your team members know it?
3. What are the main tasks?
You could call it tactics, business activities, programs, priorities or something else; what’s important is that you know what’s coming up and why. Strategy means nothing without concrete specific business actions to implement it. Do you know what’s next? If you’re part of a team, does the whole team know?
4. Do you have task dates and deadlines?
Sorry, but it’s simply human nature; things are more likely to happen right when somebody assigns dates and deadlines. People need to have concrete goals and they need to know results will be tracked.
5. Does every task have an owner?
You need to assign responsibilities to specific people, not groups or committees. Do you really know who’s doing what? Does everybody on the team know? Is peer pressure in operation, with metrics that measure performance, and that, preferably at least, all the key players can see? We’re looking at accountability here, and that’s vital to management. Business needs owners, owners need metrics, and metrics need tracking.
6. Do you know how to measure task results?
This is about metrics. Metrics and tracking generate accountability and management. People like metrics to work on. A good check on tasks is whether or not results can be measured. At the very least, a yes or no on completion. But the ideal is a performance metric like dollars, presentations, trips, proposals, closes, page views, subscriptions, calls, minutes per call, Klout score, etc.
7. Are you forecasting the critical numbers?
Don’t kid yourself. You need to estimate future sales, costs and expenses, and then track cash flow to manage a business. If you’re just watching balances, you aren’t managing that well. You’re risking surprises and losing opportunities. Business life blood is cash, and that’s about forecasts and following up.
8. What are your main assumptions?
We have to make assumptions because we can’t manage without them. But assumptions change. Keeping track of your assumptions and how they change is crucial.
9. When is your monthly review?
You can’t really manage and steer your company without a planning process that includes a regular monthly review. You have to schedule reviews in advance, stick to the schedule, review your assumptions, and make changes to reflect changing assumptions, results and needs. Without regular reviews, your planning is just a plan, use once and throw away.
The key is plan vs. actual review. Not just the numbers, but the trends, performance, and lessons in the numbers.
10. What needs to change?
Planning is about managing change. The business environment is about constant change, and you need the planning process to manage that change. With planning process, tracking, plan review, plan vs. actual analysis, you end up steering a company towards its goals. It’s navigation. And the planning process isn’t just a map; it’s a map beneath a GPS locator with real-time traffic and weather updating.
Cash flow is critical. Everybody knows it, sure, but how can you manage cash flow without planning? It’s not intuitive. People think in terms of profit and loss, but cash flow can be radically different from profits. Profitable companies run out of money. The profits don’t include timing of getting the money from sales, spending the money on goods to sell, buying other assets repaying loans. Planning needs to manage cash flow.
Tim Berry is Founder and President of Palo Alto Software, Founder of bplans.com, and co-Founder of Borland International. He is a Stanford MBA, and principal author of Business Plan Pro. He blogs at Planning Startups Stories.We could call that strategy, and then add the reminder: strategy is focus.
Tags: success, management, cash flow, duct tape marketing, tim berry, time management
Reenergizar a vida
10 Tips for Re-energizing Your Day, Every Day
Jul 23, 2010 -
When he wrote his 2004 bestselling book The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, wrote for 10 to 12 hours at a time, as he had done in writing his previous books.
He never finished a book in less than a year. For his new book, he wrote using a “pulse” method, working without interruptions for three 90 minute periods, and taking a break between each one. He had breakfast after the first session, went for a run after the second, and had lunch after the third. He wrote no more than 4 1/2 hours a day, and finished the book in less than six months.
The question, of course, is why change something that works? The short answer is in the book’s title: because his way of working wasn’t working... at least not nearly as well as it could. The longer answer is a bit more scientific.
By limiting each writing cycle to 90 minutes and building in periods of renewal, Tony was able to focus far more intensely and get more done in far less time. Again, why? Because numerous research studies show that our bodies operate by 90 minute rhythms during the day. When we’re awake, we move from higher to lower alertness every 90 minutes.
And here’s the thing: our bodies clearly signal that rhythm, in the form of restlessness, hunger, drowsiness and loss of focus. Generally we either ignore or override those signals, because we have a lot to do and many ways to artificially pump up our energy with various supplements. The problem is that after working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes, our brains begin to shut down. We become more reactive and less capable of thinking clearly and reflectively, or seeing the big picture.
According to Tony, the working world is facing a new kind of energy crisis—and this one’s personal. We aren’t designed to operate like computers—at high speeds, continuously, running multiple programs at the same time—but we do. The consequence is that we’re increasingly distracted, exhausted and demoralized, especially in a recession-driven world that forces us to get more done with fewer resources.
In fact, human beings are designed to pulse, to move between spending and renewing energy to meet our four key needs: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This flies in the face of prevailing work practices, which are in reality built on a few myths, which Schwartz easily busts with research:
Myth: Great performers get by on less sleep.
Reality: Research suggests just the opposite. Across disparate fields, elite performers sleep an average of 8 1/2 hours a night, compared to the 6 1/2 hours that the average American sleeps.
Myth: A little anxiety and fear help motivate us when we’re facing tough deadlines.
Reality: In fact, negative emotions of any kind consistently undermine high performance. The better we feel, the better we perform.
Myth: Multitasking is a key to getting more done in a world of relentless demand.
Reality: Numerous studies have shown that when we juggle multiple activities, the time it takes to finish any given one activity increases by an average of 25 percent.
Tony argues that we “should try to get things done in bursts of intensely focused activity, interspersed with periods of rest and recovery.” Here are 10 tips for doing just that:
1. Make sufficient sleep your highest priority. After breathing, sleeping is our most fundamental need. It’s also the first thing we’re willing to give up in an effort to get more done. Begin quieting down at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep. Avoid anything stimulating, such as the Internet, mysteries, and intense conversations. Wind down with mellow music, a bath, or herbal tea.
2. Exercise begins with the First Step. If you’re struggling to find the time or motivation to start an exercise routine, buy a pedometer and record the number of steps you take every day. Shoot for 10,000—the recommended daily number of steps to ensure you are getting enough movement in your day to be fit.
3. Prioritize your tasks the night before. The number of potential distractions, interruptions, and fatigue tends to increase throughout the day. Do the most important work of your day first, before checking email, if possible.
4. Become a Type A Eater. Decide in advance what you’re going to eat, in what portions, and at what intervals. That’s the best way to avoid endless temptations, unconscious cues, and “that-looks-good!” surprises that override our self-discipline and cause us to veer off track.
5. Breathe deep. If you feel negative emotions coming on, or when you feel frustrated, annoyed, or anxious, simply take a few deep breaths. Extend the exhale to decrease your physiological arousal and quickly restore a sense of calm.
6. Give Thanks. Write a note of appreciation to someone in your life once a week. We’re far quicker to notice what’s wrong than to celebrate what’s right in others. You might be surprised to discover how energized and inspired people are when they feel recognized and appreciated.
7. Log Off Your Email. Try turning off your email completely for at least one hour a day. Use that time to devote your full attention to a significant task or larger challenge you’re facing.
8. Daydream for Breakthroughs. Schedule at least one half-hour a week to brainstorm around some issue at work. You can help access your right hemisphere by doodling, listening to instrumental music, going for a long walk—anything that lets your mind wander.
9. Take a break. Taking time to renew every 90 minutes keeps your body in alignment with its natural rhythms. Much as we cycle through stages of sleep at night, so we go through a similar cycle every 90 minutes throughout the day, moving from a state of higher energy slowly down into fatigue.
10. Accentuate the Positive. Make a list of activities that you enjoy most and that make you feel best. Intentionally schedule at least one of these activities into your life each week.
Tony argues that, “To build a competitive advantage, organizations must help employees to cultivate qualities that have never before been critical—among them authenticity, empathy, self-awareness, constant creativity, an internal sense of purpose, and, perhaps above all, resilience in the face of relentless change. And whatever our employers do, we serve ourselves well to cultivate these same qualities in order to be more effective and more satisfied, both on the job and off.”
You can find The Energy Project team on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @energy_project.
Matthew E. May is a design and innovation strategist. You can follow him on Twitter @matthewemay.
Tags: matthew e. may, the energy project, the power of full engagement, time management, in pursuit of elegance, tony schwartz
Jul 23, 2010 -
When he wrote his 2004 bestselling book The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, wrote for 10 to 12 hours at a time, as he had done in writing his previous books.
He never finished a book in less than a year. For his new book, he wrote using a “pulse” method, working without interruptions for three 90 minute periods, and taking a break between each one. He had breakfast after the first session, went for a run after the second, and had lunch after the third. He wrote no more than 4 1/2 hours a day, and finished the book in less than six months.
The question, of course, is why change something that works? The short answer is in the book’s title: because his way of working wasn’t working... at least not nearly as well as it could. The longer answer is a bit more scientific.
By limiting each writing cycle to 90 minutes and building in periods of renewal, Tony was able to focus far more intensely and get more done in far less time. Again, why? Because numerous research studies show that our bodies operate by 90 minute rhythms during the day. When we’re awake, we move from higher to lower alertness every 90 minutes.
And here’s the thing: our bodies clearly signal that rhythm, in the form of restlessness, hunger, drowsiness and loss of focus. Generally we either ignore or override those signals, because we have a lot to do and many ways to artificially pump up our energy with various supplements. The problem is that after working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes, our brains begin to shut down. We become more reactive and less capable of thinking clearly and reflectively, or seeing the big picture.
According to Tony, the working world is facing a new kind of energy crisis—and this one’s personal. We aren’t designed to operate like computers—at high speeds, continuously, running multiple programs at the same time—but we do. The consequence is that we’re increasingly distracted, exhausted and demoralized, especially in a recession-driven world that forces us to get more done with fewer resources.
In fact, human beings are designed to pulse, to move between spending and renewing energy to meet our four key needs: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This flies in the face of prevailing work practices, which are in reality built on a few myths, which Schwartz easily busts with research:
Myth: Great performers get by on less sleep.
Reality: Research suggests just the opposite. Across disparate fields, elite performers sleep an average of 8 1/2 hours a night, compared to the 6 1/2 hours that the average American sleeps.
Myth: A little anxiety and fear help motivate us when we’re facing tough deadlines.
Reality: In fact, negative emotions of any kind consistently undermine high performance. The better we feel, the better we perform.
Myth: Multitasking is a key to getting more done in a world of relentless demand.
Reality: Numerous studies have shown that when we juggle multiple activities, the time it takes to finish any given one activity increases by an average of 25 percent.
Tony argues that we “should try to get things done in bursts of intensely focused activity, interspersed with periods of rest and recovery.” Here are 10 tips for doing just that:
1. Make sufficient sleep your highest priority. After breathing, sleeping is our most fundamental need. It’s also the first thing we’re willing to give up in an effort to get more done. Begin quieting down at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep. Avoid anything stimulating, such as the Internet, mysteries, and intense conversations. Wind down with mellow music, a bath, or herbal tea.
2. Exercise begins with the First Step. If you’re struggling to find the time or motivation to start an exercise routine, buy a pedometer and record the number of steps you take every day. Shoot for 10,000—the recommended daily number of steps to ensure you are getting enough movement in your day to be fit.
3. Prioritize your tasks the night before. The number of potential distractions, interruptions, and fatigue tends to increase throughout the day. Do the most important work of your day first, before checking email, if possible.
4. Become a Type A Eater. Decide in advance what you’re going to eat, in what portions, and at what intervals. That’s the best way to avoid endless temptations, unconscious cues, and “that-looks-good!” surprises that override our self-discipline and cause us to veer off track.
5. Breathe deep. If you feel negative emotions coming on, or when you feel frustrated, annoyed, or anxious, simply take a few deep breaths. Extend the exhale to decrease your physiological arousal and quickly restore a sense of calm.
6. Give Thanks. Write a note of appreciation to someone in your life once a week. We’re far quicker to notice what’s wrong than to celebrate what’s right in others. You might be surprised to discover how energized and inspired people are when they feel recognized and appreciated.
7. Log Off Your Email. Try turning off your email completely for at least one hour a day. Use that time to devote your full attention to a significant task or larger challenge you’re facing.
8. Daydream for Breakthroughs. Schedule at least one half-hour a week to brainstorm around some issue at work. You can help access your right hemisphere by doodling, listening to instrumental music, going for a long walk—anything that lets your mind wander.
9. Take a break. Taking time to renew every 90 minutes keeps your body in alignment with its natural rhythms. Much as we cycle through stages of sleep at night, so we go through a similar cycle every 90 minutes throughout the day, moving from a state of higher energy slowly down into fatigue.
10. Accentuate the Positive. Make a list of activities that you enjoy most and that make you feel best. Intentionally schedule at least one of these activities into your life each week.
Tony argues that, “To build a competitive advantage, organizations must help employees to cultivate qualities that have never before been critical—among them authenticity, empathy, self-awareness, constant creativity, an internal sense of purpose, and, perhaps above all, resilience in the face of relentless change. And whatever our employers do, we serve ourselves well to cultivate these same qualities in order to be more effective and more satisfied, both on the job and off.”
You can find The Energy Project team on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @energy_project.
Matthew E. May is a design and innovation strategist. You can follow him on Twitter @matthewemay.
Tags: matthew e. may, the energy project, the power of full engagement, time management, in pursuit of elegance, tony schwartz
sábado, 3 de julho de 2010
Preço e valor
Melhorar a gestão e não reduzir o preço
Publicado em 5 de 30 de junho de 2010 às 04h44 por Fernanda Peregrino
Como um armarinho pode enfrentar a concorrência sem baixar os preços dos produtos? É o que o empresário Rodrigo quer saber. “Meu concorrente vive botando o preço das mercadorias mais baixo que o meu. O que eu faço? Vou baixando o preço também ou mantenho os meus preços?”, escreve o empreendedor para o blog Faça Diferente.
Há 2,5 anos, Rodrigo tem uma loja no Rio de Janeiro e vende aviamentos, linhas, barbantes, agulhas etc. Seis pessoas trabalham no comércio.
Confira as dicas do Consultor Sebrae:
Inovar na gestão
O marketing do preço menor é um sistema predatório, e que no final em nada lhe será bom. Antes de pensar em baixar o preço, é preciso inovar e melhorar a gestão do negócio. A empresa pode se tornar competitiva investindo em planejamento, posicionamento de mercado e gestão de custos e de capital de giro.
Para conquistar a clientela, a empresa pode adotar diversas estratégias de posicionamento, destacando: atributos específicos do produto, ocasiões de uso do produto, classes de uso do produto e em contraste aos concorrentes.
Neste caso, o posicionamento por atributos específicos do produto e em contraste aos dos concorrentes são as melhores estratégias para conquistar mercado. Enfatize os atributos específicos do produto, como a qualidade, o custo-benefício e o desempenho. Também mostre que o seu produto tem, em contraste ao da concorrência, mais qualidade e vantagens. Valorize o diferencial dos seus produtos,
O mais importante para escolher e implantar uma estratégia de posicionamento é identificar as vantagens competitivas do seu empreendimento e produto. Ponha-se no lugar do consumidor! Como os compradores escolhem produtos que lhes ofereçam maior valor, você deve compreender as necessidades dos clientes e os processos de compra melhor do que seus concorrentes. Só assim poderá oferecer mais valor/vantagens para sua clientela.
As suas vantagens competitivas podem ser preços baixos, oferta de mais benefícios que seus concorrentes, qualidade nos produtos e serviços, bom atendimento, funcionários eficientes e ambiente organizado e atrativo.
Depois de definir o diferencial do seu negócio, é hora de investir em divulgação. Comunique a sua clientela e potenciais clientes quais a vantagens de comprar no seu armarinho. Lembre-se que o preço dos seus produtos é justificado pelos diferenciais da sua empresa. Se você oferece mais produtos e serviços e mais qualidade no atendimento, poderá precificar de maneira diferente da concorrência.
Planejamento
O Plano de Negócio (PN) é uma importante ferramenta para o empresário. É por meio dele que o empreendedor demonstra a viabilidade da empresa e como as metas estabelecidas serão atingidas. O PN é o guia do empresário! Sua aplicabilidade é tanto para o lançamento de novos empreendimentos quanto para o planejamento de empresas já estabelecidas.
O sucesso é alcançado mais fácil e rapidamente com o planejamento. Se sua empresa ainda não tem um PN, então procure o Sebrae mais próximo de você e peça ajuda para um consultor. Isso será importante para que metas e estratégias sejam estabelecidas para o seu negócio.
Você ainda pode elaborar o seu PN por meio de um software desenvolvido pelo Sebrae. Acesse.
Capital de giro
A gestão de capital de giro (CG) também contribuirá com o sucesso do seu armarinho. Segundo o Instituto de Estudos Financeiros (IEF), “o capital de giro representa, em média, 30 a 40% do total dos ativos de uma empresa”. O CG precisa de acompanhamento permanente.
Preventivamente deve ser formada uma reserva financeira para enfrentar as mudanças inesperadas no quadro financeiro da empresa. Para isso, leve em conta o grau de proteção que se deseja. O IEF sugere uma análise do tipo “o que aconteceria ao capital de giro se…” para se formular a estimativa do volume da reserva financeira.
Outra forma seria encurtar seu ciclo econômico que se resume no tempo necessário à transformação dos insumos adquiridos em produtos ou serviços, que no seu caso representaria aumentar o giro dos estoques ou diminuir o ciclo de compras.
Você poderia ainda melhorar seu capital de giro com a redução da inadimplência dos clientes (se for o caso melhorando sua concessão de crédito) e com o não endividamento a qualquer custo (comprando o estritamente necessário). Outra opção seria alongar o perfil do seu endividamento, implantando um programa de redução de custos e substituindo passivos com a troca de uma dívida por outra de menor custo financeiro.
Gestão de custos
Por último, estabeleça uma boa e eficiente gestão de custos. Lembre-se que, em tese, não é possível repassar, aos preços finais de produtos e serviços, eventuais ineficiências, desperdícios e excessos que se verificam na organização bem como uma eficaz gestão de preços. Então, o lucro depende de adequado e rigoroso acompanhamento dos dispêndios e o estabelecimento de um preço de venda que atenda ao consumidor e as necessidades empresariais sem perder de vista a concorrência.
A melhor opção para sobrevivência no mercado é a obtenção de um adequado controle de custos dos produtos, mercadorias e serviços vendidos pelas empresas, de forma a permitir a formação de preços de vendas.
Confira modelos de monitoramento dos custos nos sites Portal da Contabilidade e Via6.
Publicado em 5 de 30 de junho de 2010 às 04h44 por Fernanda Peregrino
Como um armarinho pode enfrentar a concorrência sem baixar os preços dos produtos? É o que o empresário Rodrigo quer saber. “Meu concorrente vive botando o preço das mercadorias mais baixo que o meu. O que eu faço? Vou baixando o preço também ou mantenho os meus preços?”, escreve o empreendedor para o blog Faça Diferente.
Há 2,5 anos, Rodrigo tem uma loja no Rio de Janeiro e vende aviamentos, linhas, barbantes, agulhas etc. Seis pessoas trabalham no comércio.
Confira as dicas do Consultor Sebrae:
Inovar na gestão
O marketing do preço menor é um sistema predatório, e que no final em nada lhe será bom. Antes de pensar em baixar o preço, é preciso inovar e melhorar a gestão do negócio. A empresa pode se tornar competitiva investindo em planejamento, posicionamento de mercado e gestão de custos e de capital de giro.
Para conquistar a clientela, a empresa pode adotar diversas estratégias de posicionamento, destacando: atributos específicos do produto, ocasiões de uso do produto, classes de uso do produto e em contraste aos concorrentes.
Neste caso, o posicionamento por atributos específicos do produto e em contraste aos dos concorrentes são as melhores estratégias para conquistar mercado. Enfatize os atributos específicos do produto, como a qualidade, o custo-benefício e o desempenho. Também mostre que o seu produto tem, em contraste ao da concorrência, mais qualidade e vantagens. Valorize o diferencial dos seus produtos,
O mais importante para escolher e implantar uma estratégia de posicionamento é identificar as vantagens competitivas do seu empreendimento e produto. Ponha-se no lugar do consumidor! Como os compradores escolhem produtos que lhes ofereçam maior valor, você deve compreender as necessidades dos clientes e os processos de compra melhor do que seus concorrentes. Só assim poderá oferecer mais valor/vantagens para sua clientela.
As suas vantagens competitivas podem ser preços baixos, oferta de mais benefícios que seus concorrentes, qualidade nos produtos e serviços, bom atendimento, funcionários eficientes e ambiente organizado e atrativo.
Depois de definir o diferencial do seu negócio, é hora de investir em divulgação. Comunique a sua clientela e potenciais clientes quais a vantagens de comprar no seu armarinho. Lembre-se que o preço dos seus produtos é justificado pelos diferenciais da sua empresa. Se você oferece mais produtos e serviços e mais qualidade no atendimento, poderá precificar de maneira diferente da concorrência.
Planejamento
O Plano de Negócio (PN) é uma importante ferramenta para o empresário. É por meio dele que o empreendedor demonstra a viabilidade da empresa e como as metas estabelecidas serão atingidas. O PN é o guia do empresário! Sua aplicabilidade é tanto para o lançamento de novos empreendimentos quanto para o planejamento de empresas já estabelecidas.
O sucesso é alcançado mais fácil e rapidamente com o planejamento. Se sua empresa ainda não tem um PN, então procure o Sebrae mais próximo de você e peça ajuda para um consultor. Isso será importante para que metas e estratégias sejam estabelecidas para o seu negócio.
Você ainda pode elaborar o seu PN por meio de um software desenvolvido pelo Sebrae. Acesse.
Capital de giro
A gestão de capital de giro (CG) também contribuirá com o sucesso do seu armarinho. Segundo o Instituto de Estudos Financeiros (IEF), “o capital de giro representa, em média, 30 a 40% do total dos ativos de uma empresa”. O CG precisa de acompanhamento permanente.
Preventivamente deve ser formada uma reserva financeira para enfrentar as mudanças inesperadas no quadro financeiro da empresa. Para isso, leve em conta o grau de proteção que se deseja. O IEF sugere uma análise do tipo “o que aconteceria ao capital de giro se…” para se formular a estimativa do volume da reserva financeira.
Outra forma seria encurtar seu ciclo econômico que se resume no tempo necessário à transformação dos insumos adquiridos em produtos ou serviços, que no seu caso representaria aumentar o giro dos estoques ou diminuir o ciclo de compras.
Você poderia ainda melhorar seu capital de giro com a redução da inadimplência dos clientes (se for o caso melhorando sua concessão de crédito) e com o não endividamento a qualquer custo (comprando o estritamente necessário). Outra opção seria alongar o perfil do seu endividamento, implantando um programa de redução de custos e substituindo passivos com a troca de uma dívida por outra de menor custo financeiro.
Gestão de custos
Por último, estabeleça uma boa e eficiente gestão de custos. Lembre-se que, em tese, não é possível repassar, aos preços finais de produtos e serviços, eventuais ineficiências, desperdícios e excessos que se verificam na organização bem como uma eficaz gestão de preços. Então, o lucro depende de adequado e rigoroso acompanhamento dos dispêndios e o estabelecimento de um preço de venda que atenda ao consumidor e as necessidades empresariais sem perder de vista a concorrência.
A melhor opção para sobrevivência no mercado é a obtenção de um adequado controle de custos dos produtos, mercadorias e serviços vendidos pelas empresas, de forma a permitir a formação de preços de vendas.
Confira modelos de monitoramento dos custos nos sites Portal da Contabilidade e Via6.
Fuja do preço
4 Pricing Strategies to Promote Value
Jul 01, 2010 -
You know the value of your product—the benefits and innovations that set your products or services apart from the rest.
You want your customers to think about these factors when they weigh your product against competing selections, but odds are that they won't. Of the many options on the shelf, customers are likely focusing on the price tag.
Don't think lowering your prices is the best route to take, though. Consistently undercutting your competitors will get you more customers at first, but if that is all you do, you can kiss your brand equity and profit margins goodbye.
Don't get sucked into a price war. Instead, change the way your customers view your products. Convince them that your product isn't just a commodity that can easily be substituted by the next, cheaper item on the shelf. Marco Bertini and Luc Wathieu describe four strategies to stop customers from fixating on price. Your main weapon? The price.
1. Specify Pricing by Value
Paradoxically, the best way to draw customer attention away from price is to revise your pricing strategy.
One option involves changing the way you present the prices of your various offerings. Divert their focus from the price itself, and specify the value you're offering.
Goodyear did this with great success. The tire company had a hard time convincing their customers that their tires were worth the premium price. So they began to base the pricing on how many miles they're expected to last. Instead of using a lot of engineer speak and going into the complexities of their innovations, they figured out a simple way to communicate their premium value (thus the reason for their premium pricing).
That's the kind of value customers are willing to pay for.
2. Raise Your Price
In a price-conscious market, consumers usually pick the product with the lowest price, if they think the products are of equal value. Throw in a price that's unusually high, and you'll grab a second look. Take advantage of the curiousity and convey benefits that they hadn't considered before.
For example, Burt's Bees priced their personal care products at 80 percent to 100 percent over competing, nonnatural brands. Customers were shocked by the unusually high prices, but they also wondered what made Burt's Bees' products so special.
They discovered that Burt's Bees' offerings were made with natural ingredients by a socially responsible organization. And to many customers, this mattered.
3. Offer Menu Pricing
Allow customers to select parts or services for their individual needs. Breaking down the prices can help customers focus on value rather than the lump sum total. It also allows price conscious customers to opt for basic services while those who are willing to pay for value will upgrade.
Bertini and Wathieu conducted several experiments to test this strategy.
In one experiment, the participants were asked to choose between a $165 non-direct, no-frills flight and a $215 direct flight with meal service and in-flight entertainment. They created two levels of amenities for the $215 flight on the assumption that better quality would convince more participants to choose the higher fare, but it turned out that quality didn't matter when the fares were presented as a lump sum. Rather, it was when the fares were itemized and the quality of the amenities made explicit that more participants opted for the higher fare.
While price partitioning is a great way to highlight your competitive advantages, this strategy often backfires when companies itemize fees for standard, unavoidable, or mandatory features—like check-in and baggage handling.
4. Offer Personal Relevance
This strategy is effective when customers are presented with several options designed to appeal to different tastes. With price differences out of the picture, customers will need to discover which option suits their needs best. It compels them to base their purchasing decisions on the differentiating features of your products and not solely on the price.
One example of this strategy is Apple's initial decision to sell every track available on iTunes at the uniform rate of 99 cents per track. Steve Jobs was criticized for not taking advantage of the fact that high-demand products can carry a higher price and for disregarding the conventional practice that lower-demand products must be priced lower. As it turns out, this was a profitable move for Apple. When customers shop on iTunes, they're less fixated on price, more sensitive to the selection and their own musical tastes, and more willing to buy more tracks.
Wise Bread is a leading personal finance community dedicated to helping people get the most out of their money. Get daily money tips by following Wise Bread on Facebook or Twitter.
Jul 01, 2010 -
You know the value of your product—the benefits and innovations that set your products or services apart from the rest.
You want your customers to think about these factors when they weigh your product against competing selections, but odds are that they won't. Of the many options on the shelf, customers are likely focusing on the price tag.
Don't think lowering your prices is the best route to take, though. Consistently undercutting your competitors will get you more customers at first, but if that is all you do, you can kiss your brand equity and profit margins goodbye.
Don't get sucked into a price war. Instead, change the way your customers view your products. Convince them that your product isn't just a commodity that can easily be substituted by the next, cheaper item on the shelf. Marco Bertini and Luc Wathieu describe four strategies to stop customers from fixating on price. Your main weapon? The price.
1. Specify Pricing by Value
Paradoxically, the best way to draw customer attention away from price is to revise your pricing strategy.
One option involves changing the way you present the prices of your various offerings. Divert their focus from the price itself, and specify the value you're offering.
Goodyear did this with great success. The tire company had a hard time convincing their customers that their tires were worth the premium price. So they began to base the pricing on how many miles they're expected to last. Instead of using a lot of engineer speak and going into the complexities of their innovations, they figured out a simple way to communicate their premium value (thus the reason for their premium pricing).
That's the kind of value customers are willing to pay for.
2. Raise Your Price
In a price-conscious market, consumers usually pick the product with the lowest price, if they think the products are of equal value. Throw in a price that's unusually high, and you'll grab a second look. Take advantage of the curiousity and convey benefits that they hadn't considered before.
For example, Burt's Bees priced their personal care products at 80 percent to 100 percent over competing, nonnatural brands. Customers were shocked by the unusually high prices, but they also wondered what made Burt's Bees' products so special.
They discovered that Burt's Bees' offerings were made with natural ingredients by a socially responsible organization. And to many customers, this mattered.
3. Offer Menu Pricing
Allow customers to select parts or services for their individual needs. Breaking down the prices can help customers focus on value rather than the lump sum total. It also allows price conscious customers to opt for basic services while those who are willing to pay for value will upgrade.
Bertini and Wathieu conducted several experiments to test this strategy.
In one experiment, the participants were asked to choose between a $165 non-direct, no-frills flight and a $215 direct flight with meal service and in-flight entertainment. They created two levels of amenities for the $215 flight on the assumption that better quality would convince more participants to choose the higher fare, but it turned out that quality didn't matter when the fares were presented as a lump sum. Rather, it was when the fares were itemized and the quality of the amenities made explicit that more participants opted for the higher fare.
While price partitioning is a great way to highlight your competitive advantages, this strategy often backfires when companies itemize fees for standard, unavoidable, or mandatory features—like check-in and baggage handling.
4. Offer Personal Relevance
This strategy is effective when customers are presented with several options designed to appeal to different tastes. With price differences out of the picture, customers will need to discover which option suits their needs best. It compels them to base their purchasing decisions on the differentiating features of your products and not solely on the price.
One example of this strategy is Apple's initial decision to sell every track available on iTunes at the uniform rate of 99 cents per track. Steve Jobs was criticized for not taking advantage of the fact that high-demand products can carry a higher price and for disregarding the conventional practice that lower-demand products must be priced lower. As it turns out, this was a profitable move for Apple. When customers shop on iTunes, they're less fixated on price, more sensitive to the selection and their own musical tastes, and more willing to buy more tracks.
Wise Bread is a leading personal finance community dedicated to helping people get the most out of their money. Get daily money tips by following Wise Bread on Facebook or Twitter.
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