Take a Shower!

In Geoffrey Moore's book, Living on the Fault Line, he discusses value propositions and how they lead to sustainable competitive advantage. Geoffrey talks about delivering certain components of value (see previous posts for a description of "components of value") in a superior way and the other components in a reasonable and adequate way. In other words, if you are going to differentiate on convenience, speed, and hassle-free service, then you still have to deliver innovation, cutting-edge performance, and customization reasonably and adequately.

Marco differentiates his fruit stand by providing the best-tasting organic fruits (product leadership) through cutting-edge agriculture and farming methods. However, he also knows that he must deliver on price, selection, and speedy service in ways that will meet the basic standards of the customer. In other words, he must deliver on those non-differentiating components of value reasonably and adequately.

Geoffrey Moore defines these non-core components of value as "hygiene." Essentially, most of us take a shower every day, but we don't get extra credit for it. We must have "reasonable and adequate" hygiene to wander around in society, but nobody pats our backs for it. This is the same with customer value creation. Organizations must deliver two or three components of value in a way that makes them stand out and only maintain "hygiene" standards in the remaining components of value creation.

This can be challenging in the strategic planning process as entrepreneurs and executive teams struggle to keep their decision-making and operational planning aligned with the chosen value proposition.