Week 40, 2023—Issue #276
Customer Value, Team Fulfillment, and Business Resilience
Successful organizations do three things: they create more value than they capture, they allow people to find fulfillment through work, and they keep themselves profitable over the long term.
Long-term readers will know that my company — MAQE — uses something called “the trifecta” to pursue long-term success.
Readers will also know that this trifecta consists of three measures and that we must continuously maximize all three to consider ourselves successful.
Last but not least, readers will have noticed that the way I talk about these three measures continues to evolve.
Here’s a snapshot of what it looks like today:
#customervalue
Customer Value
Create more value than you capture
MAQE’s purpose is to change how the world works. That’s what success looks like, and it’s why we exist. How we act on that purpose has and will continue to change over time. But it’s clear that no matter what we do, we’ll never be successful unless we create more value than we capture, ensuring that we leave everyone involved better off. To do this, we are currently pursuing Specialization and Non-Zero-Sumnes. On the one hand, we’re moving from a generalist offering towards a small number of niche businesses that target narrowly defined Jobs-To-Be-Done. On the other hand, we aim to experiment with ways to align our incentives with those of our customers to enable win-win non-zero-sum outcomes. In the end, the goal is to be the best service provider in every business we operate in, as measured by Net Promoter Score (NPS).
#teamfulfillment
Team Fulfillment
Find meaning through work
In addition to providing customer value, we must also provide for our people. Compensation is obviously important (everyone wants to get paid well), but so are impact, learning, and relationships. That’s why “Team Fulfillment” is the second part of the trifecta. It’s like a counterbalance to Customer Value in that neither measure can be allowed to grow at the expense of the other. To do this, we’re pursuing Autonomy and Upside. On the one hand, we want to afford all MAQErs the freedom they need to make decisions on matters that concern them. And on the other hand, we want to structure ourselves in such a way that every MAQER can reap the rewards of their own work. In the end, the goal is to be the best place to work in every business we operate in, as measured by Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).
#businessresilience
Business Resilience
Remain profitable over the long term
Again, MAQE exists to change how the world works. To fulfill that mission, we need to create value for customers and help our people find meaning through work. But that’s not enough. We also need to stick around for a very long time. And that’s why Business Resilience is the last part of the trifecta. It adds an all-important third component to the trifecta. And so, to ensure we have that time at our disposal, we’re pursuing Agility and Solvency. On the one hand, we want an organization that can easily reconfigure itself to changing circumstances. On the other hand, we need financial strength to help us withstand whatever the market might choose to throw our way. In the end, the goal is to be the most profitable organization in every business we operate in, as measured by Net Profit Margin (NPM).
That’s the state of affairs. Importantly, it all contributes to the objective of the trifecta itself, which is to enable us to make progress on our mission to (literally) change how the world works. That’s what long-term success looks like, and our progress should, at least in theory, be reflected in the KPIs we’re using.
Speaking of which: the KPIs mentioned are chosen because they are easy to track and standardized, thus allowing for benchmarking. But they’re too shallow to be of much use beyond providing easy-to-gauge yardsticks. That’s why we have, and will continue to, develop leading indicators that provide the type of insights we need to steer more effectively.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time: Make it matter.
/Andreas
How can we build better organizations? That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for the past 10 years. Each week, I share some of what I’ve learned in a weekly newsletter called WorkMatters. Back-issues are published to Medium after three months. Subscription is free. This article was originally published on Friday, Oct 6, 2023.
