I went through the idea of value propositions last year on my podcast. I thought the script might be a useful addition to my blog and I hope you agree. I wrote it up around black Friday, so you'll see some of those references there.
Everything we do we typically do because it represents a value proposition we agree with. Most everything can be broken down to risk/reward and this thing we call "value" is no different.
Value = why you want that thing
One thing retailers are pushing hard for the holidays is their value proposition. What value does product x bring to your life or company? The answer is the reason why you bought your new TV despite the crush of people at Best Buy at 7 AM. Why the IT department pulled the trigger on those monitors in the training space. I'm focusing a little on time of year which is really just one piece of the puzzle.
What makes a good value proposition? A few components are necessary for a value proposition to be compelling. The product or service is solving a problem for the customer. The solution should be simple, and the time/sacrifice to get to the result should be minimized.
Value + Quality
What exactly does this topic have to do with quality? Well, a whole bunch. Quality systems must include a value proposition. A quality system accomplishes something for the host organization. What and how this is varies by company. Why is largely the same.
- Quality systems exist to provide a specific function to the business.
- You, as a quality professional, need to have the tools to communicate this value to your customer, your employer.
QMS systems in general have a wide scope of potential value adds. Structure and consistency are one, the ability to potentially achieve a certification of some sort is another. We don’t just throw a system at a problem and call it good though. Just like the marketing push to get more Xboxes in more houses on Xmas day, the organization running the value proposal has to understand the customer.
Let’s start from the top there.
Consistency through growth = value
Structure is essential to ensure your products or services are consistent. Adding process or administrative burden can be a large obstacle, especially in smaller organizations. Many of these have handled things “just fine” without these pieces for some time. The value proposition is one based on consistency across additional employees. At some point, the same person will NOT be doing this operation. Leadership, as a function of their responsibility to the team must understand this need. You, as the quality person may have to present it to them.
Getting started on these early integrations can be simple as taking the time to write up exactly how the best person does it and we call this a process. Ensure you have established some sort of document control scheme prior to embarking on event your first escapade with a new process. It can bite you hard if systems get out of hand due to lack of control. In the event your organization is progressing towards some sort of certification, the delay can be torturous.
Once you have some structure, even minimally, the time is set to work on larger scope value propositions. Starting with the first few systems you may integrate to your QMS, an overall structure direction should be on your mind. Whether you will pursue and ISO or AS certification of some type, this end goal must drive even early considerations of development.
If true certification is not in the immediate or intermediate future, at least loosely conform to the basic framework of your most likely system. It will be much easier to walk into whatever scope you want later if you lay the ground work early.
Meeting expectations = value
Let's talk about products or services now. Your organization solves a problem for a customer. Whatever your solution, adding quality structures ensures your customer will realize the solution with fewer problems. If you are growing, this becomes essential. For product or service, ensuring you do not have rejects or returns or issues with service quality is an obvious value proposition for standardization of practice. The last thing you want is for your output to fail or make the customer problem worse.
Communication of purpose = value
Leadership has to own quality. Ownership includes commitment to quality structures and systems. As quality professionals, one element of our value add is communicating this value proposition to the leadership team. I will talk about being simple and using the simplest of tools. This is not to infer this is an easy task. It is likely leadership may have different understandings. We need to understand the vernacular differences which may exist and address them. In young organizations the idea of "happy customers" and its relationship to quality may not be top of mind for leadership. So to ensure you can facilitate a good "Start Somewhere" point, I have a short list:
Start simple.
- Identify and record best practices from the best employees. Get buy in on a doc control structure and execute it. Simple is fine, but it has to be used.
- Second, drop in traceability and structure mechanisms in the highest value add locations of the process.
- Did I mention process flow mapping things before you start? I didn’t? Well, do that. Having a visual on where to implement things will help your case.
Build on these baby steps. There will be whining and the end result, if you take things in the right direction is to establish systems to ensure what you do continues to be amazing. You will improve your value proposition to the customer because the work output is maintained.
The unsung hero of this post is "communication". Quality often gets a bad rap from operations groups. We have to be our best at communicating the value proposition quality systems provide to internal and external customers. We need to lead by example and help our colleagues at every opportunity. Together, we can raise the bar for every business out there. Let's get going on this project.
Let's Start. Somewhere. together.
