ECONOMY
by Hélio Mendes and Luiz Bittencourt
Hélio Mendes 
Luiz Bittencourt
INNOVATION OR DEATH
Recently, a video showing an extreme action in Argentina went viral. It was a massive discard of a truck filled with cowhide.
This dramatic event marks the end of indulgence to the vile and unjustifiable censorship against leather.
Indignation must prevail inside the sector, feeding its soul and strengthenningits responses to effectively recover leather’s image.
Surely, the tanning industry, regardless its nationality, used the Strategic Planning in the not so closed past, as well the Michael Porter’s concepts – and other authors – on Sector Analysis, Value Matrix and other evaluation tools, to identify its future in an organized fashion.
All the models, indistinctly, consider new incomings, substitutes, competitors, suppliers and global competitive strategies. But it seems that the resultant orientations did not receive the due attention, probably because of the conservative culture prevailing in agribusiness community, allowing the scenario to be transformed into a disruptive change, unfortunately detected too late.
This results in disastrous impact on the leather industry which now watches its feedstock being treated like garbage.
We know that there is no industrial segment safe from non-republican practices in the global competition.
A recent example is the use of distortions on environmental matters to win disputes in the market. It seems that the art of war was not yet introduced to many sectors.
On the other hand, critical view on the leather sector has revealed that the industry prioritized the production and commercialization instead of innovation and, as a result, it forgot the necessary proactive attitude, accepting passively leather to be bought, and not sold.
Worried about keeping itself in the comfort zone, the industry wasn’t able to realize that the consumers, voluntarily or persuaded, was changing their habits, opting for disposable and low-cost products.
This analyse try to summarize the genesis of the crisis that consumes the leather sector, demanding organization to face it. Let’s remember that it’s not enough a couple of regional and fragmented responses against such global and orchestrated attack.
Time is running and the found alternative is to immediately stablish a Crisis Committee to evaluate and define a global competitive strategy, emphasizing innovation, in order to reinvent the sector. Otherwise, no sound future will be available to the leather industry.
Hélio Mendes – Government and Business Consultant – www.institutolatino.com.br
Luiz Bittencourt – Metallurgical Engineer/UFF/RJ/Brazil; Master of Engineering./McGill University/Montreal/Canada; Postgraduated in International Trade /UniversidadeMackenzie/SP/Brazil – [email protected]
www.revistadiaria.com.br
