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Edward de Bono: Creating Value

Monday 28th November 2011

Edward de Bono

I was invited to the VECCI Business Leaders Luncheon for an interview with Edward de Bono. It was a conventional interview followed by a brief question and answer session with questions from those attending. He spoke about a number of topics but the one that caught my attention was on the Creation Of Value. It was a question from one of those attending that sparked this off. The question was about how we can be more innovative in developing our businesses.

 

Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono

His answer, as usual, showed an amazing depth of perception. Here is how I remember it.

 

The western world, and particularly due to the influence of The Church, has done an excellent job of teaching people how to think about finding the truth. But what we have not done is to teach people how to think about Creating Value.

 

That is a pretty hefty thought and I would have attended the luncheon just for that challenging insight alone. But he followed with this.

 

So when something happens, and particularly when a problem or setback occurs, instead of asking “How do we go forward from here” or “What does forward look like from here”, we get stuck on who is to blame and who did right or wrong instead of focussing on how we Create Value or move forward from here.

 

Double header. Now I am really challenged and encouraged at the same time. My business mentor, Dr Marc Dussault, is on about the same thing; Creating Value. So now I have 3 things to think about:

 

  • “How do I create value”?
  • “What value do I want to create”?
  • “How do we go forward from here”?

 

I am going to be giving that a lot of thought as we prepare for 2012. I encourage you to do the same.

 

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2011 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd

4 thoughts on “Edward de Bono: Creating Value

  1. I am a huge fan of Edward De Bono’s work. I got onto his way of thinking early on in my career and was a big proponent of Six Hats Thinking during my corporate retreats and enjoyed his book on Parallel Thinking. As The Exponential Growth Strategist, I often come across business people and entrepreneurs who have no idea how to create value even though they’ve been in business for years (in some cases decades).

    It’s alarming because it’s not a slogan or throwaway phrase, it’s a way of being that transcends and permeates EVERYTHING you do. It needs to be authentic and congruent with your beliefs its at the core of my coaching and mentoring philosophy.

    Thanks for sharing this insight – it’s probably going to be the source of a lot of distinctions for people who follow my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine!

    Onward and upward!

    Dr Marc Dussault

  2. Wow, that is great. We are a member of VECCI as well, and would have liked to have attended if possible. Creating Value is something we need to put great consideration to as well – I guess most companies should really be thinking about it. It is a way to differentiate oneself, and that is incredibly important in highly competitive / comoditised products supply – such as the packaging industry. It would be great if we could find references to examples – to try and emulate these in our own way. I still feel like there is a lot to learn.

    Shane Young

    Maxpak Australasia Pty Ltd

  3. Creating value is an interesting business challenge for all Businesses.

    The challenge is not just in creating it, but maintaining it. It’s seems that ‘value’ today quickly becomes ‘taken for granted’ tomorrow.

    You’ll work it out Ray, anything is possible.

    The Chinese have even worked out how to drill square holes!

    At the Graffiti Eaters we even now have Invisible Anti Graffiti Coatingsto protect buildings from graffiti vandalism that you can’t see on the building!

     

  4. Creating Value is really important for any business nowadays and if something doesn’t go as expected this could be an IDEAL yet unforeseen opportunity to create value. Planning for unknown and allowing unscheduled time is vital to create these changes.

    As one business system that used to work needs to re-adapt – with the management team allowed adequate time given to focus on:

    Observing and communicating,
    Evaluating what could be improved,
    Planning and implementing changes,
    Reflecting on whether the changes have created enough value or whether some other improvements could be implemented.

    -have the changes improved the value to the client,
    -is the product or service improved,
    – what could of been done better next time,

    Who’s involved and where are the gaps to improve?

    Once adequate time is spent focusing on these questions then the systems and personnel create the changes needed to create value.

    Kananook Heritage House strives to offer more than accommodation and create extra value for travellers by helping to provide a true getaway break – by highlighting the wealth of enjoyable experiences of diverse opportunities and varied natural beauty that is Victoria’s best kept travel secret so clients find the experience interactive and enjoy creating their own daily travel itinerary to suit their needs and lifestyle. This was observed as a “focus” for improving “value” for travellers to make the most of their getaway break.

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