Achieving Results

Book excerpt: Chapter 1 Towards value leadership: Presents the case for value leadership by examining the advantage of rational thinking in decision-making. It discusses how systems develop in paradigms and perspectives. It also discusses how a global economic system is emerging, and how 'Old World' economies are being forced to change as customers and fund managers gain more power over the aims of organizations. Chapter 2 The context for value leadership: Provides an overview of how to develop a competitive advantage model in the context of the organization. It also provides an insight into the way decision-making processes can be articulated in terms of the people involved and the stages they work through. Chapter 3 Towards objective value in organizational decision-making: Looks at some of the practical issues a value leader must face. It discusses the need to have an organizational framework for value creation, and builds the case for a rethink of organizational design, so that it is more focused on results rather than on the supply-demand-production logic that lingers from the industrial age. Chapter 4 Structuring a value creation programme in an organization: Explores the relationship between value creation and a value creation template or blueprint. It provides a value-creation template that is based on a model commonly used by multinational companies to benchmark their projects' performances. Chapter 5 Towards technological advantage with value engineering: Considers value engineering alone as a key methodology for achieving technological value leadership from projects and organizations. If companies exist to do something that people value, then they should be capable of doing it. If they can perform the same functions better than their rivals, or offer more functions than their customers are paying for, they will have a competitive advantage. Therefore, any methodology that helps an organization to improve the way it provides value will be at the core of its strategic competitive advantage. This chapter explains how you can develop a methodology for your organization.