ValueSpace: Winning the Battle for Market Leadership

Author Answers to FAQs

ValueSpace? What is it? What does it do for my business? We are constantly asked these questions. They are best answered in our preface, excerpted below. ValueSpace-it is to us the be-all and the end-all of all business activity; the only purpose of all businesses; the only justifiable goal of all reengineering, organizational renewal, entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. It is the only path for sustained growth; for winning the battle for market leadership. It is the space where true market value is created. For shareholders; for employees; and, most of all, for customers. We present in this book a blueprint on how companies can build enduring ValueSpace for their customers. We set out to understand what constitutes value for customers and how companies can create it. With financial support from the Marketing Science Institute (a Cambridge-based nonprofit research organization), we studied 11 Fortune's Most Admired Companies. ... Our framework, comprising the components of ValueSpace and its drivers, is quintessential-no matter what else you do or do not do, you must create these value components. It is enduring- not the 'project of the month'; long after the current fads have vanished, you must still build the value components we describe. Our framework is universal-it applies to all companies: manufacturing and service; small business or global enterprises, business-to-business or business-to-consumer; physical or digital; dot-com or not-com. We intend this book to be a blueprint for thought as well as practice. We present conceptual framework to help you plan; we provide a self-audit form that you can use to assess your company's current standing in the ValueSpace; and we present case histories, stories of the most admired companies... It is a hands-on guide to launching your journey into the customer ValueSpace. VALUESPACE FOR BUSINESS EXECUTIVES How You Can Use the Book: Knowledge is the foundation for all strategy and sound executive action. This book will give you: a. A Perspective: A framework for thinking about your customers' ValueSpace, and indeed about your business itself. b. A Strategic Planning Tool. An audit self-survey both for nine ValueSpace components and 40 driver processes. You can use this tool to assess your company's current standing and then plan action to move forward in the ValueSpace. c. As an Account Planning Tool. For each major customer, you can identify the gaps in the ValueSpace you can fill. d. As an Executive Training Tool. As a platform for Executive Training, the book can inform, guide, and frame the continuing education experiences in corporate universities and in-house Executive training centers. Once you adopt the ValueSpace thinking, the potential to explore avenues of value creation are limited only by your creativity and vision. IN CONCLUSION The reinvention of oneself as a corporate being, a customer-centered adoption of a new self-identity, the constant contemplation of the customer¿s ValueSpace -this is what it takes to be a market leader. We hope you enjoy the book. We will certainly be grateful for your feedback: BanMittal@MyValueSpace.com. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.