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By Mario Martinez, PhD, ServiceElements Facilitator
Do you know what value your department or company provides? Do you communicate that value to others, inside and outside of the company? Most people do not spend enough time reminding themselves of how important their jobs, their departments and their companies are in meeting the needs of those who use their very products or services. Companies must develop value propositions so that executives, managers, and employees can clearly articulate the importance of what they do. A value proposition is simply a statement that conveys why your product or service is important—the value that it provides in making this world a better place. If you are serious about doing this, you should do three things: review your mission statement, extract the values that underlie that mission statement, and develop value proposition statements.
The Mission Statement
The mission statement is the starting point for developing your value propositions. You should look at your organization’s mission statement. Does it resonate with you? Do you believe it? Let’s look at a couple of examples of mission statements that may lie outside your reality, just to think outside the box for a moment:
* Provide reliable, high quality service that enables our customers to do business anywhere, anytime
* Deliver training and education in an informative, entertaining way that enhances the lives of our customers and our team members
These mission statements are loaded with meaning. The meaning is in the values that underlie the statements…
What Are Our Core Values?
Values define the direction in which you are heading. Values are like a compass, and the goal, as Stephen Covey says, is to find “True North.” What are the values that underlie your mission statement? Perhaps the better question is what do you think your values ought to be? Famous management author Gary Hamel says that values like efficiency and diligence are products of the 20th century classic organization. We have entered a new world, and those things can be contracted out and do not add to the true value of the successful, future organization. Some of the values that are embedded in the mission statement examples above are:
* Quality
* Reliability
* Entertainment
* Education
* Enhancement (of customer and employee lives)
The Value Proposition
Values are the materials that go into building the value propositions. The value propositions, in turn, explicitly give the mission statement life by declaring what we do and why we do it. Here are some examples of value propositions:
* Our emphasis is on quality and reliability, which leads to higher margin customers for our clients
* We help organizations build a true customer service culture, through education and training, that results in tangible return on investment for you and your customers
Value propositions obviously sound very lofty. They should be! Our value propositions should communicate what it is we are striving to accomplish every single day. Our value propositions should make promises. If you haven’t made a promise to anyone, then you are probably not trying to live up to anything. Today, more than ever, it is critical that we make promises and work to keep them. There is risk in that—but there is also tremendous reward.
As you saw in the President’s letter in this issue, it is more important than ever before for those of us in business aviation to communicate value. There is no better way to do this than to create specific, clear value propositions. By doing so, you will help everyone in your company and department get on the same page. A message must be constantly and consistently repeated for it to stick, and if you are willing to take the time to develop meaningful value propositions that bring your mission to life, then you are on your way.
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.”
–Washington Irving
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