Evaluating stocks involves two types of analysis: fundamental and technical. The former is all about number crunching while the latter uses up-and-down squiggly lines to chart a stock’s course. In the end, it’s all about being right more often than wrong. Investment professionals are constantly looking for that slight edge over the competition. One place they might easily overlook (but shouldn’t) is within the realm of qualitative analysis, a subjective area that is sometimes referred to as soft metrics. This refers to aspects of a public company that aren’t quantifiable or easily explained by numbers. In general, it’s an underappreciated and underutilized side of fundamental analysis.

When conducting qualitative analysis of a company, most investment professionals look at the business model, competitive advantage in the industry, management and corporate governance. This helps to determine how a company makes money, its uniqueness versus the competition, which people are making the decisions and how they treat ordinary shareholders. Gathering all of this data can provide a better idea of how a company intends to grow its business while rewarding shareholders. However, it isn’t the entire picture. Touchy-feely subjects like satisfying the customer, rewarding employees and maintaining excellent supplier relationships matter.

Understanding the qualities that make a company great involve more than a simple SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)–that’s business school 101 stuff. To evaluate a company’s intangibles, one must dig below the surface and beyond the 10-K. Satisfaction is the key here and successful businesses have it in abundance.

If a company fails to satisfy employees, suppliers and customers, in this order, it’s only a matter of time before its stock price implodes. Arguments exist for both sides of the discussion. Some academics believe that customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction aren’t mutually exclusive. Just because employees are happy doesn’t guarantee customer loyalty.

Any company that’s truly interested in customer satisfaction must first meet the needs of its employees; otherwise, it’s putting the cart before the horse.

Employees are the face of any brand. The quickest way to destroy brand equity is to disrespect them. Once you’ve lost trust, it’s only a matter of time before you lose the customer. Without customers, you have no business! “If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company … At the heart of this unique business model is a simple idea: Satisfied employees create satisfied customers.” Public companies are no different.

No matter how vertically integrated your company is, you will always have suppliers of one kind or another and those relationships can positively or negatively impact the quality of your final product or service. The marketing profession has tried for years to quantify customer satisfaction in a way that lends itself to clarifying a brand’s equity or worth, companies that please their customers are shown to create four times the wealth.

Investors tend to spend most of their time worrying about quantitative analysis. Ratios like price-to-earnings and price-to-book get all the attention while numberless intangibles like customer satisfaction are left to annual surveys that are quickly swept under the carpet, never to be seen again. Let’s face it: we live in a quantitative world. Everything we do revolves around top 10 lists of one kind or another. We want a shortcut and lists meet this need. Qualitative analysis, on the other hand, is tricky stuff, and most Warren Buffett wannabes find it too subjective. However, any business whose stock price has risen consistently over time has surely satisfied all its stakeholders.

Improvisation is the process of devising a solution to a requirement by making-do, despite absence of resources that might be expected to produce a solution. In a technical context, this can mean adapting a device for some use other than that which it was designed for, or building a device from unusual components in an ad-hoc fashion. Improvisation in the context of performing arts is spontaneous performance without specific preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines.

Big design firms such as IDEO and Smart Design have made millions on their “design thinking” and “human-centered design process.” Which is good for them, but doesn’t necessarily teach you how to crib their mojo for your own endeavors. Peter Robie, an Engineering professor at Dartmouth, has an answer that would make Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott: Copy improv comedy classes.

Apparently, in his Design Thinking course, Robie has students act out how people use the objects around them. It’s a technique learned from experience. According to The Dartmouth Engineer:

“This class on improv is a tool for brainstorming,” he explains. “I’ve always thought that the quickest and smartest folks at the brainstorming phase of design have been those who do standup and improv. They never say no. They never miss a beat. Improv requires players to accept what they are given, build on the ideas of others, and encourage wild ideas…”

…”Everyone thinks that they know how to brainstorm, but in fact, brainstorming is usually plagued by problems like self-censoring, competitiveness, and ridicule,” says Robbie. “Improv is a great way for students to learn to defer judgment.”

Why Design Matters

According to Robbie, design is crucial for engineers. “Design begins with the recognition of need and follows an intentional process by which you apply knowledge and actually make products to effect change,” he says. “It is central to innovation. It essentially is the process of innovation.” Not all design is created equal, however. In addition to the aesthetic side of design, Robbie distinguishes between technology-driven design and human-centered design. “Technology-driven design often results in products looking for a need. Human-centered design always keeps the needs of end users in mind,” he says. “Design for humans needs to begin with developing understanding and empathy for human experience. It applies science and technology but also includes insights from the humanities and the social sciences. Engineers often love to jump right into making things, but early in the design process it’s often preferable to focus on deeply understanding the needs of end users.”

Design is a Process

“The most surprising thing to me about design is the fact that you can learn it,” says engineering major Francis Fortin-Houle ’10. “When I first came to Dartmouth, I thought it was a skill that you either have or that you don’t have. Little did I know how wrong I was.”

Robbie demystifies design by breaking it into systematic steps. “I believe it’s important to create classroom experiences that will increase students’ confidence in their own creative design abilities,” he says.

Using improv to get students comfortable with brainstorming is a case in point. “Everyone thinks that they know how to brainstorm, but in fact, brainstorming is usually plagued by problems like self-censoring, competitiveness, and ridicule,” says Robbie. “Improv is a great way for students to learn to defer judgment.”

The process of design thinking is increasingly critical for meeting the ultimate need of humanity: finding ways to live sustainably. “Everything that’s man-made has to go through some design process,” says Robbie. “The world is at the point where we can’t just keep doing things the same way. There’s going to have to be more emphasis on rethinking the design of everything with a focus on life-cycle analysis and searching for radical new solutions.” Engineering students equipped with both comprehensive technical knowledge and creative design abilities will be in great demand — and will have wide-open opportunities in the next wave of technology innovation. “Going forward, these students know that they’ll be required to rethink assumptions about how we make everything in the built environment,” says Robbie. “It’s going to require an enormous creative effort.”

Modèle de réflexion pour une place industrielle suisse compétitive sur la base des projets de numérisation et de réseautage d’Industrie 4.0

L’expression « Industrie 4.0 » a été influencée en 2012 par l’initiative allemande du même nom et s’est établie au niveau international. Toutefois, la présence élevée de ce thème dans les médias, sur des outils de marketing et lors de nombreuses manifestations a donné lieu à diverses interprétations. De plus, diverses tendances parallèles (telles que Internet of things, additive manufacturing, etc.) ont contribué à une plus ample dilution de la réflexion de base d’« Industrie 4.0 ». Raison pour laquelle il est déterminant pour procéder de manière commune de mettre sur pied et d’établir une vision uniforme et supérieure d’« Industrie 4.0 ». La charte « Industrie 2025 » en constitue un outil. Il faut la comprendre comme un modèle de réflexion comprenant vision et champs d’action. Elle s’oriente sur la place industrielle suisse en se basant sur des approches liées à la numérisation et à la mise en réseau d’« Industrie 4.0 ».

Dans l’espace économique globalisé, la Suisse se voit confrontée à de nombreux défis. Pour continuer d’agir avec succès et compétitivité, ainsi que pour assurer des emplois en Suisse, il est nécessaire d’agir : la nouvelle orientation engagée dans le monde entier vers des chaînes de création de valeur numérisées et en réseau doit aussi être poursuivie dans l’industrie suisse de manière judicieuse et conséquente – aussi bien dans les processus existants que dans les nouveaux développements. C’est ainsi que la place industrielle suisse est renforcée par l’innovation permanente et le développement de savoir-faire. L’industrie suisse s’engage avec ses associations pour l’application du modèle de réflexion « Industrie 2015 » – avec l’intention de maintenir le bien-être de l’ensemble de la population suisse avec une place industrielle suisse forte.

La vision de chaque entreprise se base sur quatre piliers :

Les investissements et les mesures en suspens se basent sur quatre champs d’action :