In This Issue of The Thinker What are your values?
What are your values?
We hear it every day: 'what is the value of this?', 'how do we deliver value?', 'what are our values?' and so forth.
Some organisations put a high price on "living their values" and post it all over for all stakeholders to see. In some cases (most!) employees can even recite the organisation's values statement like programmed robots. On the other side, there are organisations that don't even know what their values are and or don't even know what a value is.
Either way, we cannot discount the important role values play in doing business.In this issue of The Thinker we take a look at why values and creating value is important, and what can be done not only to articulate values but also how to make values the basis for decision-making and action.
........Zander Powell, BDE, de Bono Business Solutions It's a common business question - what is our value proposition? What is our value added?
Value is fast becoming the differentiator in business today. Adding value, delivering value and designing compelling value propositions lie at the core of decisions and competitive advantage.
But knowing that value is important is not enough according to Dr. Edward de Bono, author of Six Value Medals and world leader in field of conceptual and creative thinking:
"It is not enough to know that values are important. We need better ways of perceiving values, talking about them and assessing them. That is the best basis for action of any sort."
Too often, organizations cannot articulate the basis for their decisions. As a result, they may fail to notice and resolve conflicts in values that have a negative impact on employees, the organization, clients, community relationships, and more.
Until now there has not been a concrete way to assess the impact that a decision may have on our attempts to create and protect value. When employees can scan, identify, and prioritize values, they become vital partners in growing your business.
As Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, puts it,"The only thing that works is management by values. Find people who are competent and really bright, but more importantly, people who care exactly about the same things you care about."
Values are the building blocks of an organisation's culture. Much depends on laying a solid foundation on which to build a healthy culture and if not managed correctly can lead to dire consequences for the organisation.
Ultimately, an organisation's culture will determine how it is viewed by the public. According to an article in the Gordon Institute of Business Science's Review newsletter, the bottom line is: if you don’t have a good reputation, you don't have a business (www.gibsreview.co.za).
Renowned businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffet coined a phrase which has become the mainstay of corporate reputation management:"If you lose money for the firm, I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless."
Considering values should be our first priority if we want to design and create strategic value. We have to think differently about what our values are, why they are important to us, what values we are giving up in order to attain desired outcomes and all of this will influence our decisions and actions.
Learn how to design value with Edward de Bono's Six Value Medals™ training course ONLY available in South Africa from de Bono Business Solutions.Visit www.debono.co.za contact us on +27 11 884 9001 or mail info@debono.co.za for more information or to book
Back to Top ........ "Price is what you pay, value is what you get" - Warren Buffet
"Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them"
- Stephen Covey
"Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality."
- Peter F. Drucker"The value of achievement lies in the achieving."
- Albert Einstein"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business"
- Henry Ford
Back to Top 04 Six Thinking Hats® Train-the-Trainer
Bookings now open!Your chance to become part of a global network of certified trainers!
ACCREDITATION in Dr Edward de Bono's SIX THINKING HATS® programme is now available to South African Trainers, Innovators and Consultants.
Expand your networks, your knowledge base and your mind by getting involved in one of the fastest growing training courses in the world.
A note from your Master Trainer - Nicola Tyler - personally trained by Dr Edward de Bono, Nicola has earned an enviable reputation around the world for bringing the value of de Bono Thinking to businesses and individuals. Now, you can benefit from her 15 years plus experience. Here's what Nicola has to say:
"The demand for de Bono Training has never been so high! Six Thinking Hats® remains the top selling programme world wide and is now used by many of the Fortune 500 companies around the world. Here in South Africa we have worked with most of the Top 100, actively using the method in strategic workshops, innovation forums and decision making processes. While many people use the hats, few people are really skilled in their application. Its one of those tools that appears easy, and is, but the application and value can only be realized with proper training. Many people are using the Hats process without being fully certified or trained in the process. Our goal is always to turn interest into talent, and to deliver value to our clients. The Six Thinking Hats® programme is over 20 years old, and with that track record comes experience, value and a technique that really does work. Its popularity is what has earned its reputation and, like never before, we intend to take the value of this product into South Africa."
7 - 10 December 2009, Sandton, (JHB)
Early Bird Special Offer - Book and Pay before 01 November 2009 and ONLY pay R 35 995.00 plus VAT of
R 5 039.30 = R 41 034.30 per delegateNormal Fee - R 39 995.00 plus VAT of R 5 599.30 =
R 45 594.30 per delegateNon-profit Organisations and Group Booking discounts available!
Applicants will be selected based on the completion of a formal application and successful interview. Accreditation subject to the entering into a formal contract. Terms and Conditions apply.
Contact us on +27 11 884 9001 or mail info@debono.co.za
for enquiries and bookings.Back to Top 05 Edward de Bono's message ........Three good reasons for new ideas
I believe that an important new profession of the future will be that of 'value designer'. Competence is not going to be enough. All organisations will move towards competence - some more rapidly than others. But there is nothing you can do, short of Sabotage, to prevent a competitor becoming as competent as yourselves.
Information is a commodity. At a price anyone can get almost any information that is needed. Technology has made this possible with both search and transfer excellence.
State of the art technology can be commissioned or bought. Outside a few fields such as pharmaceuticals, technology is not going to be the discriminator. Technology itself can only supply limited value: faster or more powerful - but for what? If you have a very powerful megaphone that does not mean what you say has more value than what you just shouted. The emphasis on technology has largely ignored the importance of value creation. Technologists are not necessarily in the best position to design value because they are impelled by the next step in technology.So 'value design' is going to be a key ingredient in business. As a skill this is not the same as the usual skills of problem solving and standard reactions to standard situations. The skill demands creativity, value sensitivity and concept handling.
Learn how to design value with Edward de Bono's Six Value Medals™ training course ONLY available in South Africa from de Bono Business Solutions.
Visit www.debono.co.za contact us on +27 11 884 9001 or mail info@debono.co.za for more information or to book
For more of Edward de Bono's messages, visit: www.edwdebono.com
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News Flash
Edward de Bono's Direct Attention Thinking Tools™ has changed to The Power of Perception™ - Ten Tools for Making Better Business Decisions.If your team needs to make better business decisions, then you need to contact us for more information on how The Power of Perception™ can help your team to improve!
Visit www.debono.co.za contact us on +27 11 884 9001 or mail info@debono.co.za for more information
03 Course of the Month
1st in South Africa!Edward de Bono's Six Value Medals™ - Design and Deliver Strategic Value
Bookings now open!
"It is not enough to know that values are important. We need better ways of perceiving values, talking about them and assessing them. That is the best basis for action of any sort."
- Dr Edward de BonoPresented by 1 of ONLY 20 Certified Six Value Medals™ trainers in the world, Nicola Tyler and Nigel Smith, you will learn to:
- Increase the value of your organisation by leveraging your existing resources - from customers, to employees, to stakeholders and more
- Beat the competition and become the preferred partner of choice by delivering superior value
- Have your customers pay a premium for your product or service
- Make sound value-based decisions8 & 9 December 2009, Holiday Inn Conference Centre, Sandton
Early Bird Special Offer - Book and Pay before 01 November 2009 and ONLY pay R 5 500.00 plus VAT of
R 770.00 = R 6 270.00 per delegateNormal Fee - R 5 995.00 plus VAT of R 839.30 = R 6 834.30 per delegate
Non-profit Organisations and Group Booking discounts available!
To book, click here to download the enrolment form.
No bookings are confirmed until paid for. de Bono Business Solutions reserves right to deny admission.
Contact us on +27 11 884 9001 or mail info@debono.co.za
for enquiries and bookings.
Published by de Bono Business Solutions
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de Bono Business Solutions is a Division of Business Results Group. Competitive Thinking Company t/a.
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