Thanks to Chris Jones of PA Consulting Group in Great Britain for passing this along.
Apparently, Deloitte has a newsletter, The Value Habit. Volume 9 has an article [2], Help Wanted: Chief Value Officer: Creating value is a full-time job.
It's an excellent article, and we believe, an even better idea.
The genesis of this idea was from discussions with Paul Kennedy [3] and the late Paul O'Byrne [4] (sorry, I still choke up writing it that way), of OBK [5].
They made a comment that really stuck with me on a flight back from visiting them in 2004.
They were one of the first firms to have formed a pricing council, probably back in 2001-2002.
After running this council for a year or so, they said that they were becoming too focused on price, and value was being ignored.
I could see how this could happen, and since value determines price, maybe we needed to focus more clearly on the ultimate objective.
I knew there existed among large companies Chief Pricing Officers, Chief Revenue Officers, Yield Management Groups, Revenue Management Groups, even BMW had a Chief Experience Officer.
But I couldn't find any company, anywhere, that had a Chief Value Officer.
Then in 2005, I presented to a firm (Ward Wilson) in New Zealand, strongly advocating they appoint a CVO.
They did [6] later that year, Brendon Harrex, who now has his own firm [7].
In my book, Pricing on Purpose [8], I profile Brendon as the world's first CVO, since I couldn't find one anywhere before this time.
The idea caught legs, and now we know of probably a dozen firms that have appointed a CVO [9].
Who's in charge of value in your firm?
Oh, and here's a question for Deloitte: Do you have a CVO?
If so, why do you still think that time = value?
Links:
[1] http://www.accountingweb.com/blogs/accountingweb/firms-future
[2] http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/newsletter/0,1012,sid=63956&cid=106699,00.html
[3] http://www.verasage.com/index.php/people/C4/
[4] http://www.verasage.com/index.php/people/C4/
[5] http://www.obk.co.uk/
[6] http://www.verasage.com/index.php/community/comments/worlds_first_cvo_is_appointed_chairman/
[7] http://www.verasage.com/index.php/spreadingtheword/brendon_harrex_purchases_gore_practices_from_ward_wilson/
[8] http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471729809.html
[9] http://www.verasage.com/index.php/MainThreads/comments/whos_in_charge_of_value_in_your_firm