Have you ever taken the time to think about who the employees are within your organisation that create the most value for customers? Who are the people on the front line doing the actual work of supplying the goods and services that customers buy from you?

These are the people who make up the key members of the teams that do the real work within the organisation – serving customers, delivering products and working through problems. The work of these people is the value the company offers to customers. Taken together, they create the value zone within the company. Without them, the company would have nothing but a shell with layers and layers of management and administration with controls and processes that had nothing to offer to customers.

Management is not usually in the value zone

An interesting realisation is that management staff do not often form part of the value zone. In fact, it is often the case that management gets in the way of creating value by wasting precious time and energy requiring value creators to make endless presentations to them about irrelevant things and write reports about what they have or have not done. Not only does management need to stop wasting the time of value creators, but it needs to find a way to put the value zone at the centre of the organisation.

The traditional hierarchical structure does not acknowledge or support the importance of the value zone.

Most organisations have a traditional hierarchy structure, with few on the top and most on the bottom. The value zone, where the essential work of the company is accomplished, usually lies between middle management and the bottom rungs of the business. This is the area of major importance in delivering an effective product or service to clients, but is often the least powerful part of the organisation.

True value creation is no longer about products and services but about how they are combined and applied to meet the client’s needs.

What leaders need to realise is that true value creation in today’s fast paced integrated economy no longer lies in the technology or specific pieces of the products produced by the company. Customers can choose from many technologies and products from a variety of suppliers. The value zone now lies in the way the products, technologies and services are brought together and implemented – the how of your product offering. This combination and implementation relies directly on the staff in the value zone that do the actual work of delivering to customers. But usually, these people are not properly respected or supported within the archaic pyramid structure that was designed to exalt those with hierarchical power rather than those who created customer value.

Find a way to serve the value zone in your organisation

Today’s companies need to find a way to move the focus away from their product offering to the how of delivering value, and find a way to serve the value zone in their organisation, instead of the other way around. This happens by inverting the organisational pyramid, and making management accountable to the value zone.
Managers can do this first by:

•  Acknowledging the importance of these key people in the business;
•  Finding ways to support them in what they do;
•  Provide them with access to information that will empower them to make informed decisions and find solutions to problems;
•  Make sure they are not hampered by admin and support functions that will stifle their ability to meet the needs of the clients.

This kind of transformation will set a company apart from its competitors, by becoming more engaged with its employees and releasing the true potential of the individuals in your company’s value zone.

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