VALKRE | Value Creation

Customer Value in the Australian Bush

Our Mike Cardinale figuring out "Customer Value" of Animal Health and Crop Science in the Australian Bush. We love it!

BMA Breakfast: Customer Centricity with Andrew Dorn

I just attended the BMA Chicago breakfast where Andrew Dorn of Acxiom presented “Using Data to be a Customer-Centric Company”. The presentation was focused on the B2B side of business rather than B2C. This point alone made the presentation interesting. Acxiom, a giant of data in B2C is now focusing on the B2B conversation. Here are my takeaways:

1. Customer Centric equals Data: To be customer centric you need data about your customer. The data must be used in decision making and problem solving. If this is not happening, then any claim to be customer centric is suspect. The case examples of using data in B2C are well documented and the benefits compelling: Marketing ROI up 15% to 30%, Profitability up 10% to 15%, Pricing Power up 5% to 7%.
2. Wallowing in B2B: It seems like we are still wallowing in B2B when it comes to customer data. I don’t know how else to say it. I think a growing population believes more customer data needs to be used in B2B decision making and problem solving. And I think that same population can see the opportunity new technology tools are creating to capture and use customer data. But in B2B, the concept of customer data is complicated by the number of participants in the value chain. In so many B2B value chains there are four to five companies represented between raw materials to product/service to consumer. If you are 2 steps away from the consumer, then having a big consumer database may not be very insightful unless you can connect that to data about the two companies between you and the consumer. If we have data about the problems and challenges of each of the value chain steps, together with a big consumer database we are set to solve problems. Getting that done is not so easy….but a fun challenge!

It's great to see Acxiom in the conversation. Thanks Andrew! 

Customer Value: Achieving Speed with 'Simple'

There is nothing simple about B2B companies…customers who have complex needs served by suppliers who have complex solutions. There are timeless questions and emphasis on Value Proposition (are you solving problems for your customer today?) and Innovation (are you collaborating with customers to solve tomorrows challenges?). Throw into this mix the conversation we are all having on how Technology and Global competition are changing the “Speed of the Game”. Wholly crap, could we make business any more complicated!? It should cause you to pause.

It causes us to pause every day, and we are in the business of helping companies to better understand Customer Value. We built a software product that sits in the cloud that is called Render. But when we say it is Customer Value software that too seems complicated. So we pause, think about the marketplace and our role in it. We think…Simple. Let’s get back to simple.

If you have followed our blogs to date, Customer Value and Speed are Changing Everything in B2B, Customer Value: What is Scaring Your C-Suite, and "Speed of The Game": Welcome to the New Customer Value Reality, we’ve painted this picture of a changing marketplace driven by technology and global competition. We’ve chatted about the need to understand Customer Value, and move with speed to help your customers solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems. We passionately believe not doing so may well land you in peril in today’s competitive, empowered business environment. We’ve built this picture along the way: 

The 5th Annual Valkre Ski and Trust Trip

This was our second year at Breckenridge. The weather, snow, food, accommodations, and camaraderie were all “the best so far”. When we started doing this trip 5 years ago it was definitely as a reward for hard work and a chance to reflect and unwind from the day-to-day of being entrepreneurs. I think the reasoning has changed since then, at least for me. Now I think it is more about trust and social capital.

“Speed of the Game”: Welcome to the new Customer Value Reality

In professional sports the separation between the pro’s and all others is discussed as the “speed of the game”. Not being a professional athlete, I never thought I would experience the “speed” phenomena first hand. But if you are in business today and your job has anything to do with customers, then you are experiencing a new Speed of the Game. Here’s what I mean:

We will use these highly engineered pictures I’ve carefully crafted just for this conversation.