Delivering Uncommon and Unique Value in Uncertain Times

Think back two years in time.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was near its all time high at 13,058 and US unemployment was at a modest 5.50%.  You may or may not have been working in your current job or company but you were probably doing alright given your level of experience and education.  Things were pretty good and you were pretty sure of the value you brought to your job or marketplace.

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sits at 10,174 and US unemployment is hovering at 10%.  Just this week, we saw dramatic swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a 4.18% loss in the last 5 days.  In turn, much sh__ has rolled down hill at you wherever we sit in your company or the marketplace and you are swimming with more responsibilities, more accountability, and more challenges. 

How can you possibly think about delivering uncommon and unique value in these circumstances?  The fact is you can’t afford NOT to invest your time, energy, and resources in delivering uncommon and unique value!  If you don’t, the psyche of your organization and your customers will simply prevent you from succeeding in these continuing troubled times.

Value is defined on Wiktionary as:

• The quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable
• The degree of importance you give to something
• The amount (of money or goods or services) that is considered to be a fair equivalent for something else

Has the quality, degree of importance, or fair equivalent of value changed in your mind as a cons gmer during the last few years?  Has it been a small change in your mind or a large change?  My guess is that you, and most people around you, have experienced significant change in the perceived quality, degree of importance, and fair equivalent.  And given that much sh__ has rolled down hill at you during this turbulent change, you probably have spent a great deal of attention and energy on JUST maintaining value in your daily and weekly activities.

Delivering common and ordinary value is equivalent to a slow and tortuous existence.  You may or may not die but you will certainly be living with a great deal of normalized pain!

All this change requires a different approach!  You must make a proactive and consistent effort to focus on delivering uncommon and unique value.  General commerce has decreased significantly in the last two years.  You can only sustain success through a focused effort on uncommon and unique value!  And this focused effort must transcend the executive meeting room to the entire team throughout the organization.

Commit now to regularly focusing on uncommon and unique value for a few hours a week.  To do that you will to do as Jim Collins suggests and STOP doing something – like focusing on just SIMPLY maintaining value in your daily and weekly activities.   

It is as effort in futility to think you will add the focus on uncommon and unique value to everything else you already do.  So, carve out what you think is needed and immediately STOP doing things that just add waste and time to your efforts. 

In other words, get “Lean” with your current efforts so you can focus on delivering uncommon and unique value.  It is the only way to determine your destiny in uncertain times!

© Copyright 2010 Jon L. Iveson, Ph.D.