Make Value, Not Money ...And Definitaly Not War!

Business is all about people creating value - the difference between what you sell a product for and what it makes you to create it.  This also works with people...the difference between their ability or CV after they work for you compared to when they joined. Have you added value to their career?

People talk about making money, but as a Chartered Accountant (!) I think that is wrong. You can make money in the short term but in the long term it is about creating value - for employees and consumers a like. 

Value brings engagement, engagement brings value, value brings loyalty, loyalty brings engagement!

It is a wonderful smiling vicious circle :)

Businesses that think about value as a differentiator, value as a "given" in order to be successful, create a brand rather than a commodity. If we think of money as an exchange of value, it illustrates the need for you to create a valuable product for people to want to exchange their money for...do your products create value or merely cost to buy?

It reminds me of my good old dad who used to say to me..the quickest way to gain promotion or to get a pay rise is not to have those as goals...instead create value in other people's lives and the outcome will be financial success. Darn it, another time he was right.....

Ma

Comments

[Eamon]

Anna,

Was it difficult moving on from accountancy into marketing, or do you think that there is nothing much to 'move on from'?

I guess, at a senior level (and all levels), accountants have to have a solid understanding of their company's brand values.

[Anna Farmery]

Sallie - you are right it should read a smiling virtuous circle and I agree often we forget to show the value great point.

Luke my pleasure..I don't think that we can ever remind ourselves too often about the need for value..hope this provided value to you :)

[Luke]

Wonderful! I shall stock this away in my treasure trove of wise advice to follow. I have heard it before, but this is well put.

Before you can expect to receive value, you must provide it. This ultimately gets a beneficial loop going where you're providing one type of value and receiving another.

[Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with]

The positive inverse of a vicious circle is a "virtuous circle." Sounds kind of silly, but "vicious" comes from "vice."

Now and again, of course, it may be necessary to draw people's attention to the value we have created...

[Anna Farmery]

Anderson

Think you are right...fear is a HUGE part. Fear that we get it wrong...as if doing nothing will not be wrong. I think social media can really help with that fear...it can increase your ability to experiment, increase your network to learn more about what works, increase your ability to ask more questions so that you do understand more. Great comment, haven't read the book so will go and check it out

Anna

[Anderson]

Here is a word that is so underVALUED despite the fact it is so overUSED in our profit-driven world. It's indeed used and applied quite widely but nothing more than purely rhetoric. It's indeed all about creating value Anna. There is a good book from Richard Barret (Liberating the Corporate Soul) which deals with this topic, you might well know it, I like the fact he starts with value-based leadership, it all begins here, with the leaders. He says that "the world is searching for a new type of corporate leadership". What prevent us from moving into this new arena of value-driven business is fear, and mostly fear of losing control. There is only one thing more powerful than fear and that is the only way to create and add real value in other's people's lives, but I will leave here... agree 100% with you dad!