More value is created by others for you than what you can create for yourself. Many people are of the view that they can create value for themselves without creating value for others. Take a student. He (or she) can only create that much value for himself by learning from books. He learns more by creating value for others, interacting with others, learning from others, and receiving the value they create for him, which is greater than what he can create for himself alone.
Take two singers. One is excellent, the other not as good as the other. But she is picked up by audiences or by a talent scout and more value is created for her (than for the first one) and she becomes a well known singer. The difference for the two is the value created by others for the second singer. Others make you more valuable!
Another example is that of Ray Kordupleski, the father of Customer Value Management with a customer based market research program to figure the value the client company creates for his customers versus the value the competition creates for its customers. This is called Customer Value added and is used both for B to B and B to C. Examples of B2B include Castrol Industrial Lubs, Godrej, Tata Chemicals, Tata Power, GE Capital, various banks, telecom companies, power companies like Wisconsin Energies, 3M etc. and many B2C companies like Coke, telecom companies, insurance companies, banks etc. The technique is equally applicable to both.
Customer Value Added = The Value you Add to your Customers
The Value your competition adds to its Customers
The point I want to make when researchers talk about customer value, the closest they come to is Bradley Gale, who was better known than Ray. Researchers talk about many people, including Gale, Kumar, Sheth, Gronroos and others, but there is no mention of Kordupleski.
Yes, he did create value and the Customer Value work is outstanding. But it was not picked up by others who spoke about him and exalted him. So limited value was created for him by others. Had others talked about him, promoted him, they would have created much more value for him. His value remained mostly hidden and limited to what he created for himself. Thus you do not hear about him much.
This is true of the Creating Value movement where leaders are not promoted or talked about by others. So the value the leaders can create is limited.
All this is true at work. If you, the employee create value but are not recognised or supported or promoted, little value is created for you. Yourvalue is undervalued.
There are many selfish people who care about themselves and their needs. They do things that suit them, whether travel or shopping or eating. They do not care if others with them are enjoying this or the effect of the time they spend on themselves (in the thought this will create value for themselves) will have on others. They are destroying some value for others while creating limited value for themselves. In the end, they lose out because the great amount of value others could create for them becomes limited. The respect and love and esteem they get is limited. The I don’t care attitude except for myself creates less value.
Giving is the greatest gift one has, and giving with no notion of getting something in return eventually creates the most value for you. Taking creates less value.
You can see this in
There are many looking for instant gratification. Shor termism is a form of instant gratification, which is for here and now. You create value but it is not long lasting and solid. To create value for yourself you have to think of others and your stakeholders and create value for them.
Ernst and Young says long-term value is created by focusing on a broad set of stakeholders, with a distinct purpose in mind, to sustain a business for the long term.
More and more studies show creating value for others is what creates long term value. Rather than just thinking of yourself think of others. They will come back and create value for you.
Best,
Gautam Mahajan, President, Customer Value Foundation
Founder Editor, Journal of Creating Value jcv.sagepub.com
New Delhi 110065 +91 98100 60368
mahajan@customervaluefoundation.com
http://www.customervaluefoundation.com
Twitter @ValueCreationJ
Blogs: https://customervaluefoundation.wordpress.com/
Author of Value Creation, Total Customer Value Management, Customer Value Investment, How Creating Customer Value Makes you a Great Executive, The Value Imperative, Value Dominant Logic, Customer Value Starvation can Kill
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