Building an Edge over others: A Different Ball Game

Well, there are different levels in the Organization which have to be considered while formulating a strategy and lot of review has to be done. The Businesses mainly converge themselves to the profit chain, the value chain in which the customers, sellers, suppliers, vendors, stakeholders everyone falls.
Take for example the case of a Biscuit which serves as a purpose of breakfast for the customer and which quenches his hunger, the value of that packet of biscuit is more for a customer when he is hungry as compared to when he is not and still consuming it. This brings the theory of utility in question which says that utility diminishes as the need reduces. Similar is the case here. The seller sells the biscuit and customer buys it, the seller is charging a mark up on the cost to make a profit chain and in turn adding value to the customer using it. But the value across various customers will vary as some people may not like the biscuit at all and some people like it so much that they eat it daily and some people eat it only when they are hungry.

Some customers of the same biscuit are also stakeholders in the business of the biscuit and they are benefited more if the sales of the company increase because of the value it adds to the customer and not to the people who are not stakeholders in the same business but still consuming it. There is a dual nature which is seen here. But these people may be stakeholders in other businesses and the margin of that business might be different from what is in the biscuit industry, so again there is a variation in the same. While some people are not stakeholders but just consumers and others are neither consumer not stakeholders in any business.

Here in this example , the customer who feels there is value related with the product gets benefited by the business and if he is a stakeholder he gets benefited there also as the dividend pay out may increase and for those who are not stakeholders, if they are stakeholders in other companies, there might be chances that they make up the same there or may be more or less depending on the risk appetite than an individual is ready to take, but if he is not a stakeholder in any other business there is again a probability of loosing or gaining value across others products for which he is a customer. If the customer has perceived value across other products similar in nature to the one received from that biscuit the resultant will be a zero sum. However if the same value addition is not there, he may feel himself at loss.

This are calls for research, say from a sample of products selected how many products add value to customers distinctively made company-wise and on how much he feels he has lost value. This will bring out a clear picture on the relation between the values added services of the various companies i.e. the strategy and process and the Business Margins.