Value in Practice: Spotlighting Value
You've learned about Value creation; time to see how other enterprise leaders get down!
The Value Blueprint is a weekly newsletter for people in business or non-profits (and creative spaces!) looking to make sense of creating and leveraging on Value for success. For engaging and practical breakdowns of Value creation tools every Tuesday, sign up here:
We’re back at it again this week, and this time we’re opening with a jump backwards in time!
Throw your mind allllll the way back, alllllll the way back to our very first edition of The Value Blueprint: you’ll remember we covered the Principles of Value, where we used these principles to get a good grasp on what Value actually is.
(if you haven’t yet gotten the chance to read that edition, go ahead and check it out here!)
In that edition and in pretty much every edition since, the importance of having a solid understanding of Value and a clear approach to creating it within your business, non-profit or creative venture was pretty heavily emphasized; I’d go so far as to say it’s pretty much been in all caps, in bold and italicized!
One more time for the people in the back, for good measure:
It’s vitally important to know and understand what Value is within your enterprise, and to have a clear approach to creating it!
We’ve spent quite a bit of time wrangling with the workings of Value creation, and heck, we’ve even got a solid number of practical case studies under our belt!
But this week we’re doing this a little differently: we’re getting insights straight from the horses’ mouths!
We’re getting insights from a pair of enterprise leaders who are making big moves in their respective spheres and have leveraged their understandings of Value and Value creation dynamics in their work, enterprises and niches to drive success and impact.
Best of all, they’re sharing those insights with you!
Read on to learn more, and click their names if you’d like to see more of their work on LinkedIn!
Tshepo Matjila - IIBA-SA Chapter President
Tshepo considers himself a student of life and process. He derives great enjoyment from listening to people with different experiences from his (as he acknowledges his experiences are very limited in the greater scheme of things!), and learning from them.
His main task as the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) South Africa Chapter President is to create and work with teams to deliver new solutions that create and increase member value. His second task is to ensure that the organization is sustainable in the future.
How have you come to understand Value within the work that you do?
Value, I have come to appreciate, has many dimensions: no two stakeholders look at it the same.
It may be that as a solution designer, there are assumptions and constraints you apply to define the product/service value, but there are still many unintended outcomes that happen in the consumption or utilization of it.
It’s very dynamic, so you need to be deliberate about who your main value stakeholder is and, I have discovered, the secondary and sometimes third stakeholders.
What has been your favourite or most successful way of creating value and delivering it to your organization's members?
Understanding our members' job-to-be-done is by far my favourite tool of value appreciation and design.
Jobs, I have learned, stay stable over time: the difference becomes how you deliver it as the member's sophistication changes. Knowing your member archetypes and sub-types helps you to slice differently as well.
Sometimes the needs overlap, making it easier to massify a value proposition.
As the Chapter, we started the process about 5 years ago to re-orient ourselves with our members and what they need from a professional association. The results have been interesting, but largely positive.
If you had one suggestion to give to enterprise leaders on their approach to impactfully creating and leveraging value, what would it be?
Earlier this year I took time to meet with some of our new leaders and our community members. What I learned from those sessions has been incredible and continues to inspire the work we do as a Chapter.
Nothing beats immersion with your customers; both consumers and non-consumers. Make time to spend time with them. The stories are richer, and they will guide you on how best to create more value for them!
Khayalakhe Matsebula -
Lend a Hand Foundation founder and Executive Director
Khayalakhe Matsebula is a dedicated servant leader, Executive Director, and founder of the Lend a Hand Foundation, an organization focused on combating food insecurity and hunger among university students in Eswatini.
Deeply passionate about student success, he goes beyond academics, empowering students to engage with and serve their community.
As a social entrepreneur, Khayalakhe also runs a gym offering a holistic wellness program for students and the broader university community, addressing pressing issues such as non-communicable diseases. His leadership is rooted in a commitment to service and a vision for creating impactful, sustainable change.
How have you come to understand Value within the work that you do?
In my work, value has multiple facets. I define value as the tangible and intangible benefits we provide to our partners, stakeholders, and most importantly our beneficiaries as a result of our efforts of combating food insecurity.
Providing food is not the only thing that defines value for me: it also involves giving pupils a chance to succeed academically and better the socio-economic background considering that our program focuses on students from less-income households.
Value also also the hope and dignity we give to our beneficiaries. For our team, value is rooted in the impact we create by ensuring that students can focus on their education without the burden of hunger, thus breaking the cycle of poverty.
What has been your favourite (or most successful) way of creating Value and delivering it to your NPO’s stakeholders and beneficiaries?
Our food bank has been our most impactful way of creating and delivering value.
By recycling surplus food from local farmers, wholesalers and retailers, we turn what would have been waste into life sustaining resources for underprivileged university students.
The most successful aspect has been our ability to connect this initiative with our core mission which is supporting students' educational journeys by eliminating hunger as a barrier to success. This approach not only addresses food insecurity but also promotes sustainability and reduces our carbon footprint, creating a holistic value that benefits our community, the environment, and our stakeholders.
We also provide a platform for our stakeholders, particularly local businesses, to fulfil their corporate social responsibility (CSR) through our organisation.
By partnering with us, they not only contribute to a cause that positively impacts our community but also align their CSR efforts with sustainability, education, and social well-being. This holistic approach creates a mutually beneficial relationship where we address food insecurity while helping stakeholders meet their CSR goals in a meaningful way.
In addition to meeting the urgent requirements of food security, we offer value by promoting long-term health, academic achievement, and community involvement. In order to break the cycle of poverty and enable students to concentrate on their studies, our team views value as originating from the effect we make.
If you had a couple suggestions to give to non-profit leaders on their approach to impactfully creating and leveraging value, what would it be?
1. Focus on long-term empowerment, not just short-term relief: While addressing immediate needs is crucial, true value comes from empowering beneficiaries to sustain themselves in the future. This could mean coupling services with education, skill-building, or other long-term solutions that create self-sufficiency.
2. Build partnerships that multiply impact: Leverage collaborations with local businesses, universities, and community leaders to scale your efforts and maximise the value you offer. These partnerships not only extend resources but also create shared ownership and responsibility, amplifying your mission and impact.
How did you find this week’s insights?
(If you enjoyed this edition, I’ve got great news: there’ll be more leader spotlight editions coming preeetty soon!)
Tell me more about what you think, and if any of the pointers Tshepo and Khayalakhe use to leverage Value sound like things you’ve been doing for your enterprise, in the comments below!
Drop me a line on LinkedIn, or if you received this an email, send me a reply!