Benefits to Value Chain Labs ® Participants

Economic Benefits

• Helps save customer accounts that might be shopping other suppliers/providers for better value
• Reduces cost of sales associated with identifying & acquiring new customers
• Identifies synergies & process changes that can reduce the cost of doing business with each other
• Surfaces the customer's unstated and unmet needs leading to additional revenue sources
• Differentiates the supplier from their competitors when pursuing new customers or new business from existing customers -- leading to increased revenues and increased market share.
• Strengthens the customer-supplier bond making it more difficult and costly for competitors to lure customers away --protecting revenues and market share.

Other Benefits

• Creates commitment in supplier's people to serve & satisfy the customer
• Sorts out real versus perceived customer expectations & concerns - providing better focus
• Serves as an effective kick-off or extension of TQM/CQI efforts
• Teaches both teams a process that can be applied to other components of the value chain
• Helps identify & institutionalize behaviors and actions needed for mutual competitive advantage
• Exposes both teams to a new way of competing based on rapid learning and change

Benefits to Human Resource Leaders

In customer-driven companies, employees are increasingly organized and deployed around customer processes, needs and outcomes. They are inspired, and shown how, to learn as much as possible about customers and focus on new ways of delivering value to those customers. This represents a unique and powerful opportunity for HR leaders to step up and really play at a higher level. Things like recruiting, retention, cost control, headcount management and productivity gains must still be done - and done well. That won't change. But today's HR leaders need to expand their focus and increasingly look outside of the company for ways to create additional economic value and competitive advantage. Our Value Chain Labs ® provide the HR Leader with the forum and tools for doing just that. Here are some of the benefits we've seen HR enjoy as a result of our total solution:

• HR has a direct and substantial impact on revenue streams & supply chain costs
• A unique, value-added role for HR Leaders as strategist, broker, facilitator & change agent
• A model that can be used in various other settings and applications
• Exposure to breakthrough HR thinking and thought leadership
• Critical business partner and/or external customer input for HR strategy and practices
• An HR strategy and practices that will differentiate the organization in the marketplace
• An HR strategy that is both credible and compelling in the eyes of Executive Management
• Business partner buy-in to the resultant HR practices/changes