Creating Value In Everything You Do

We all love Value. The concept is all around us. The most valuable product, the most valuable brand, the most valuable player in a team, the most valuable company and so on – the list is simply endless. It is our aim to add value to everything we do in business and in life. Everyone wants to be a value creator. It gets you a job, a better job, a promotion, riches and fame.

But what is this value that everyone wants to create and how do we create it? What is it that makes an individual or a company or a team valuable? Is it a skill that can be learnt? Look around at any great culture that has produced what the world values – the Japanese electronics industry (well, it is a bit old news but the example is valid), the German car industry (still valid), the French fashion houses, the Swiss watch and banking industry or the Internet companies of the US. What is it that makes them special and their work so valuable?

Or think of any instance when you interacted with a supervisor you admire or a subordinate you respect – who you think can add ‘value’ to a meeting or a workshop or a work setting. Think of the roadside food vendor who is selling his goods a bit further down the street but whose food you like much more than the vendor’s ware who is just around the corner. Or think of the barber who cuts your hair much better than all others and whom you are willing to tip just a little bit more. What makes them valuable according to you?

I believe the core factor that defines how a person, a team, a company or a nation creates value is through a simple mindset it has. This Value Mindset is – find out the best around you and then set a higher standard for output. People with this mindset consistently create value. You put them in any situation and they will churn out value from whatever they are doing. At times, they may not even need a benchmark. They create their own and continuously improve it. A workman making a piece of jewellery, a software coder writing code, a team of animators making a movie or engineers designing a car, a call centre handling calls for a telecom company – all of them could be value creators by the standards they hold for themselves. If that standard is higher than the existing one, we see value in them. If not, we don’t. We park them as commodities in our mind, like everything else.

Additionally, this elevated standard is in their subconscious – so they stick to it automatically. If anything below is trying to sneak out, they will clamp it down. It is like a software programme that doesn’t spit out the wrong answer, no matter what.

So that’s what you got to do. In everything that you do, set a standard higher than what you see around you. Put a measure, any comparative for that matter – better, faster, cheaper, bigger, smarter, cleaner or smoother – which applies to your specific case. Think of it, visualise it and infuse it into the depth of your mind. Make reminders of your higher standard and stick them to your system or your book or whatever tools of the craft or activity you are using.

Then don’t compromise or accept something lower in any setting. Persist in that office meeting, politely or vigorously, where someone is beating your standard down. Revel in it when the deadline is pressing, knowing you will not let bad copy or a bad piece of code or a bad support call or a bad design of a car go out with your name on it. Study that article a bit longer and research it a bit more because you need to go deeper. Clean that presentation once more because you want to be more precise. Analyse that spreadsheet more because you have to be perfect.

Once you form this habit, you cannot fail to create value. The overall success might be based on a host of other factors, but you would have created value and that is something. Remember value is a perceived benefit. Once people perceive that you stand by some standard and it is higher or better than others and you imbue that in what you do, they will come.

Try it!

About the author: Rupesh is a typical corporate honcho who also loves design, innovation and management. He has worked across India, Europe, China and the US for 15 years.