Creating a value proposition is part of business strategy

I would venture to guess that most CEOs do not have the courage to challenge their strategies.

In this recent article from strategy + business, two significant questions are asked:

1. What distinctive capabilities make the company better than any other at how it adds value to its individual businesses, and how those businesses meet their promises to customers?

2. Are changes happening in the company’s world that could render its distinctive capabilities obsolete or insufficient?

One of the most difficult tasks we take companies through is creating or recreating their value proposition. Many times, they’d just rather have us do it, but that’s not meaningful. It’s important for the leadership team to create, own it and carry it throughout the organization.

People seem to have different meanings for the term, Value Proposition, and it’s become a little overused, but your value proposition is the solution to your customer’s problem. It goes hand-in-hand with the problem you are solving. I am the customer, I walk in with a problem, I walk out with a solution. The solution then is NOT your product or service, but the solution your product or service provides, i.e., the end result, the value given to the customer.  And part of that Value Proposition has to include the emotion you want your customers to feel when they experience your value.

Creating a value proposition is part of business strategy. Kaplan and Norton say, “Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation.
Continuing to keep your value proposition in the forefront, making sure it’s still relevant, and asking the questions posed above, can help you avoid some of those sinkholes.

As a friend of mine says, “Don’t believe everything you think.”  Challenging yourself, your thoughts and most certainly your strategy, will be time well spent.