“A day that starts with a professor on his hands and knees inspecting a carpet to make a point to a group of business owners is almost always going to end up being a wild ride!!”
– Network participant
At the formation meeting of the University of Kent’s Business School business owner network a select group of twelve business owners came together to debate the key challenges that they needed to explore and resolve as they sought to improve and grow their businesses over the next year.
The challenge chosen by the group to explore at the first network session was embedded to the subject of Value Chain Management (VCM). Within this, business owners held a desire to:
- consider how they translate market research into data that can be used to understand the needs of your customers/consumers;
- understand the concept of ‘value’ and how we each create value;
- build a clear and concise (set of) value proposition(s);
- better understand their role in the Value Chain, and the implications this has for the way they deliver their value propositions, and compete;
- develop an initial action plan for improvement.
In November, participants came together with professional facilitators and Andy Fearne (Professor in Value Chain Management), to explore and make sense of the above areas. To achieve this, the day focused on:
- understanding your market: establishing what we (think we) know about our marketplace
- building your value proposition(s): how to build a strong and compelling (set of) value proposition(s)
- delivering your value proposition(s): considering how best to deliver these propositions
We’ll be releasing a blog on each of these areas over the coming weeks, so watch this space!
For those of you who are reading this and are keen to understand how this fits into your broader improvement and growth objectives we would recommend that you refer to The BIG Ten characteristics of success [1]. You may even want to get in touch and take the BIG diagnostic, which will help you to define your personal and business development journey for the coming year.
To read the blogs that form part of a series on Building a Strong and Compelling Value Proposition click on the following links:
- Understanding the needs of customers and consumers
- Defining a Focus for your Value Proposition
- Delivering on your Value Promise: Who is ‘Key’?
For further information on the BIG Network or any of the BIG-related programmes for ambitious owner-managers and their teams please get in touch with Simon on 01227 824740 or S.O.Raby@kent.ac.uk
References
[1] Gilman M., Raby S. and Turpin, J. (2012). The BIG Ten: The Ten Characteristics of
Successful SMEs. Centre for Employment, Competitiveness and Growth, University of
Kent. 56pp. ISSN: 1748-7595. Get in touch with us for your own personal copy!