The World’s First Chief Value Officer Championing Value in Your Firm?

by Ron Baker  

The final question needed in order to come to grips with business purpose and business mission: “What is value to the customer?” It may be the most important question. Yet it is the one least often asked. One reason is that managers are quite sure that they know the answer.

Value is what they, in their business, define as quality. But this is almost always the wrong definition. The customer never buys a product. By definition the customer buys the satisfaction of a want. He buys value.

– Peter Drucker, “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices,” 1993

M y VeraSage Institute colleagues and I have had the privilege of posing this question – Who’s in charge of value in your firm? – to thousands of accountants around the world. We are usually met with a momentary staring ovation, and then someone will inevitably shout out, “Everyone!”

Ron Baker is the best-selling author of Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing, Sixth Edition (CCH, Inc.), and The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). You can reach him at (707) 769-0965 or Ron@verasage.com. to subscribe: 1.800.945.6462 or online at www.hudsonsawyer.com