How Can You Become The Ultimate Value Creator?

The concept of value creation in Optometry has become a hot topic. One way to think of ultimate value creation in Optometry is through the value created throughout a system by reducing the prevalence of diseases like myopia, glaucoma, and retinopathy. We also acknowledge that value creation is obtained through managing the entire continuum of eye health to obtain the highest quality of care at a cost-effective price. But defining value can differ between patients with different cultures. Moreover, what Doctors value does not always match what staff value, and what patients value. We are continuously shifting our incentives away from volume toward value and those organizations that are mastering how to turn the attention of stakeholders toward what value means are gaining a competitive advantage.

In the book co-authored by  Rajendra S. Sisodia “Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose”, we see that the financial performance of firms of endearment dramatically outperforms the market by nine to ten over a period of ten years from 1996 to 2006. Compared with the firm studied by Jim Collins in the book “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t” they outperformed the market three to one over a period of fourteen years based on one criterion which was financial returns. Collins identified different characteristics among them leadership that was the driving force behind those companies going from good to great. Unlike “good to great”, “firms of endearment” is basically about companies that the world love and that it would miss a lot if they didn’t exist. Those companies made the world a better place and eventually made profit and growth too.

If we look at why “firms of endearment” outperformed other companies we can learn a lot about what can be applied in our practices:

1- They aligned the interests of all the stakeholders (customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers);

2- Modest salaries especially for their executives;

3- They operate an open-door policy to top management, so they make sure all ideas are reviewed by top management;

4- High employee compensation, low turnover, and longer employee training;

5- They hire people who are passionate to work with customers;

6- Suppliers for them are true partners with whom they collaborate to improve productivity, quality, and lower costs;

7- They believe that their corporate culture is their greatest asset and primary source of competitive advantage;

8- Their marketing costs are much lower than their competitors while customer satisfaction is much higher.

If we only look at the last characteristic of “firms of endearment” we immediately realize that those companies don’t spend on traditional marketing and advertising because they succeeded to create cult-brand marketing where the customer does all the advertising and marketing because they are always talking about them. The greatest value you can create for your organization’s stakeholders is to get to a certain point where your customers are the ones doing the marketing and not you.