Uncovering the Value Mapping Framework
And visualising Value creation opportunities anywhere in your enterprise environment
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A couple Blueprints ago, I laid out the whole way of thinking that supports Value creation. I also name dropped the Vivre Value Mapping framework, and promised to get into it a little more in this week’s edition.
If you’re reading this, you know what time it is! Let’s take it from the top!
But FIRST: did you know I have a podcast?
I cover this topic and much more on Value creation, Value Innovation and Value strategy for businesses and non-profits on Inside Value
(available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and YouTube!)
What is the Value Mapping Framework?
Last week I mentioned ‘Value opportunities’ and pointed out how challenging it can be to zero in on them because of how ubiquitous they can be in your business or NPO’s internal AND external environment.
Here’s a reminder of what Value opportunities are:
Value opportunities are “places” or “points” in your internal or external environment where something can be leveraged, improved upon to generate Value.
The Vivre Value Mapping Framework, or the Value Mapping framework for short, is a tool that I use in my Value creation and Value strategy consulting work (over at Vivre Consulting!) to properly visualise these value opportunities.
As you can see, the framework is made up of 4 sectors which are split across 2 categories. Each sector highlights a part of your enterprise’s operations or environment where value opportunities can be found.
The 2 categories at the bottom denote where the mapping is happening specifically:
Value Proposition and Business Strategy sectors fall under Internal Value Mapping, where you’re mapping value opportunities that lie in your internal operational environment (so inside your business or NPO)
Niche Analysis and Value Networks and Ecosystems fall under External Value Mapping, where you’re mapping value opportunities that lie in your external environment (so outside your business or NPO)
Sector 1: Value Proposition
Within the Value Proposition sector, you’re examining the strength and applicability of your value proposition, and the value opportunities that arise from it.
This sector is vitally important in Value Innovation, since the value proposition is your Value Strategy's compass and forms the bedrock of the Value Strategy. How it specifically does this is by being used to scan its internal infrastructure and external environment for value creation opportunities, which I mentioned in last week’s Blueprint.
(Here’s a quote to jog your memory):
The important thing to note about Value Innovation is that the enterprise's value proposition is used to scan its internal infrastructure and external environment for value creation opportunities
The kinds of questions you would encounter here could be:
"Is our current Value Proposition clear?
Does it fully represent our enterprise's objectives?"
Sector 2: Business Strategy
The next sector, Business Strategy, helps establish how each of the components of your business strategy support and enable value creation.
Despite the name of the sector being Business Strategy, this sector still very much applies to non-profits, or enterprises that don’t neatly fall into the definition of being a business. The sector is named this because it engages with the strategies that keep your enterprise ‘in business’.
In this sector, you’re looking into your business or NPO’s business and operational strategies and seeing how they support the Value Proposition and by extension, the value your enterprise delivers, and searching for value opportunities that arise from those strategies you have in place.
You also explore how your Value Proposition infiltrates and informs business strategy and operations.
Sector 3: Niche Analysis
Under Niche Analysis, the focus is understanding the niche the enterprise operates in, and the competitive environment you have chosen to operate in.
This sector is my second favourite sector: we stop looking inside of the enterprise and we begin seeing how it works in context with the environment it operates within. No business or non-profit is an island, and much of an enterprise’s strategic and operational decisions are made in response to outside stimulus.
Niche Value Analysis is the first place where we start taking that outside stimulus into account when we’re discovering Value opportunities and formulating our Value Strategy.
The kinds of questions you’d ask here would be:
"How do we leverage our Value Proposition to powerfully set ourselves apart from everyone else?”
“What is our proximity to our competitors and our target client or audience, and how can we create and leverage value from that proximity?”
“Can we alter the proximity, and will that create more value?"
Sector 4: Value Networks and Ecosystems
The final sector, and hands down my favourite sector in the framework!
In this sector, you’re understanding your business' or non-profit’s value chain with a specific focus on value creation and protection.
The aim of work in this sector is to have it such that nobody can do anything connected with what YOU do in the ecosystem, without involving you, which as you can imagine can have incredible impacts on your competitive advantage and influence on the market you operate in itself.
You’re asking questions like:
”How can we leverage the interactions between us and the players in the enterprise environment to maximize our value?"
And for the visual learners, here’s a single image summarizing everything you just read, as a treat!
How do I even use the Value Mapping Framework?
The answer: “with options, and with ease!”
The framework itself can be used in one of 2 ways:
You don’t have a specific problem to solve via a Value Strategy, but you’re looking out to see where an opportunity to create Value could be.
Here, you’d scan your environment using the framework, going sector by sector to help see where you’ve looked and where you haven’t.
You do have a specific problem to solve via a Value Strategy.
In this case you’d go sector by sector looking for specific Value opportunities that will solve your issue, or you’d zero in on a specific sector to solve that particular problem.
For example, you could be asking yourself as you're using the framework:
"Would my problem be solved by improving my value proposition?
“What about Business Strategy, what value lying inherent to my business operations could solve this problem?”, etc.
And that does it for this week’s Blueprint!
Strategic frameworks can be pretty daunting to find, understand and use (which is why I offer my strategy advisory services over at Vivre Consulting!)
Did this week’s Blueprint give the Value Mapping framework a good first impression? (or n’th impression, if you’ve heard about it before!)
Tell me more in the comments, drop me a line on LinkedIn, or if you received this an email, send me a reply!
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