16 February 2010

Value - Only Word That is Cheap

Value is by far the most misused word in corporate world. When you are running a business, it makes sense when you say you want to create value. "Value" is a key ingredient to be successful. For me the term value in business is this. You and your customer did not sign something as a part of your contract, stated objectives or none of your competitors do that. When it becomes part of the contract or objectives it is no longer a value and when your competitors also create "value" the value that you create becomes basic expectations.

If you are so serious of creating value, it has to be part of your strategy, you have advertise it among your employees who eventually create value for your customer and you have to execute and review the progress sensibly. As "value creation" is over and above your base deliverable, during the inception phase, do not push things too much. Also, do not overdo things and particularly overdoing here will hurt.

Last but not least. When you create value, it is visible to the customers. You don't need to put them in every slide that you run in your organization. Do not blow things up. If there is no reaction from the customer, stop talking non sense and move on. When it comes to "value", what the customer experienced because of the value is more important than the value.

It is highly important that we understand "value" else the value becomes cheap.