Proactive Companies: How to Anticipate Market Changes

249 Pages·2012·1.47 MB·English

by  Leonardo Araújo

PROACTIVE COMPANIES
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PROACTIVE COMPANIES
How to Anticipate Market Changes
LEONARDO ARAÚJO
Professor of Marketing, Fundação Dom Cabral
ROGÉRIO GAVA
Associate Professor and Researcher, Fundação Dom Cabral
© Leonardo Araújo & Rogério Gava 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-28922-2
Translated into English by Francisco de Assis de Souza Barros Carvalho
(www.textotr.com.br)
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The author have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978-1-349-33090-4 ISBN 978-0-230-36301-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-36301-4
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Dedicated to Adriana and my children Bernardo and Júlia, with love and
admiration. May this book inspire them to create their future.
Leonardo Araújo
Dedicated to my children João Pedro and Anna Laura, source of all meaning and
happiness, to my wife Clarisse, for her support on this long journey and to my
parents, Enio and Dione, with admiration and respect.
Rogério Gava
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Contents
List of figures and tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xv
Introduction: A model for market proactiveness 1
Our approach to market proactiveness 2
A word about this book 5
PART I UNDERSTANDING MARKET PROACTIVENESS 7
1 MARKET PROACTIVENESS: ANTICIPATING MOMENTS ZERO 9
Market reactiveness: the company reacts to the environment 10
Why are companies reactive? 11
The sources of market reactiveness 12
Strategy reactiveness 12
Marketing reactiveness 13
Innovation reactiveness 14
Market reactiveness is not enough any more 14
Anticipation: the essential element of market proactiveness 15
Moment zero 16
The two types of anticipation 17
Companies and the moment zero 18
The proactive company 21
2 ACTION TOOLS AND MODELS: THE DNA OF MARKET
PROACTIVENESS 23
The DNA model 24
Dimensions of market proactiveness 25
Why three dimensions? 26
Levels of market proactiveness 27
Market proactiveness actions 27
Proactiveness actions concerned with the organization’s offer 29
Proactive actions concerned with the industry 31
Proactive actions on customers 35
The moment zero matrix 37
vii
viii CONTENTS
PART II MANAGING MARKET PROACTIVENESS 41
3 ORGANIZING THE COMPANY FOR MARKET
PROACTIVENESS: THE CAPACITIES OF A PROACTIVE
COMPANY 43
The capacities of a proactive company 44
Market proactiveness management 46
The four dimensions of proactive management 48
The diagnosis of capacities 50
4 FUTURE-TODAY MANAGEMENT: BELIEVING IN WHAT
DOES NOT EXIST (YET) 51
Visualizing future realities 52
Tracking the undetermined reality 53
Exploring the uncertain reality 57
Building images of the future 58
The construction process 60
Defining instigating questions 61
Mapping influential factors 62
Identifying critical uncertainties 65
Designing images of the future 66
Generating potential moments zero 67
Managing short-term pressure 70
Equipoise: the management balance 71
Create a long-term culture 76
Long-term indicators 77
Long-term incentives 78
5 UNCERTAINTY MANAGEMENT: LEARNING TO DEAL
WITH RISK AND ERROR 81
Dealing with risk 81
Overcome the security fallacy 82
Learning about risk 85
Dealing with error 86
Eliminate the boundary between success and failure 87
Practice having the freedom to make mistakes 88
6 PROACTIVE INNOVATION MANAGEMENT: INNOVATING
TO CHANGE THE MARKET 92
Innovating proactively 93
Focus on radical innovation 93
Do not make innovation subordinate to the market 97
Flexible management 101
Overcome the “control versus empowerment” dilemma 103
Overcome the “competition versus cooperation” dilemma 105
CONTENTS ix
7 PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT: DEVELOPING
PERSONAL PROACTIVENESS 107
The capacity for leading proactively 107
Lead proactively 108
Encourage a proactive way of acting 110
The capacity for identifying and developing proactive people 112
Identifying personal proactiveness 114
Developing personal proactiveness 116
PART III EXECUTING MARKET PROACTIVENESS 119
8 BUILDING A PROACTIVE MARKET STRATEGY: HOW TO
PUT MARKET PROACTIVENESS INTO PRACTICE 121
The four steps of a PMS 124
Map realities and market moments zero 124
Analyze proactive actions on each level 124
Pick promising alternatives 125
Evaluate the feasibility of the strategy 126
9 OFFER PROACTIVENESS: CREATING A MOMENT ZERO
FOR AN OFFERING 129
The standard offer and complementary offer: synergies and
opportunities 130
Responsive anticipation and creative anticipation in the offer
dimension 132
Responsive anticipation 133
Creative anticipation 135
How did Fiat anticipate a change in offer, in introducing its new
light-off-road car concept to the Brazilian market? 137
Interpreting the environment and detecting signs 138
Developing the new off-road-light concept 139
Sustaining the proactive market strategy 140
The competition’s reactiveness 141
Using capacities to anticipate change 142
Reaping the fruits of anticipation 144
10 INDUSTRY PROACTIVENESS: CREATING MOMENTS ZERO
IN COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENTS 145
Responsive anticipation and creative anticipation in the industry
dimension 150
Responsive anticipation 150
Creative anticipation 155
How industry proactiveness boosted the growth and profitability of
Localiza Rent a Car 157
Analyzing growth alternatives 158