To maximize value on a consistent basis, the division of effort to be split between solid value content (including follow-through) and presentation window-dressing is about the same as the Corporate Key Contributor´s relative impact compared to journeyman lackeys in the company, as revealed in Clark & Neill´s The Value Mandate: about 95 to 5.

Don´t get us wrong. No one is arguing for an imprecise or cosmetically unattractive report, presentation or brief. The problem is at the other extreme: when fluff takes over, with massive value destructive consequences.

An example. We were recently asked to try to help salvage the business plan of a company which had digressed into unwise diversification into highly competitive fields where it had no real distinctive advantage as perceived by average customers themselves.

In such situations, the value resurrection imperatives are straightforward. First, move the amateurs who have no past ability and limited familiarity in the unknown field out of harm´s way, for the corporation´s sake and their own. A new, higher risk area of operation is no safe haven to park marginal performers held in low esteem by the rest of the organization.

Second, examine the separate, distinctive markets in terms of where the late entrant might eventually compete, profitably. “Might compete” is the operative phrase, not “dominate” as repeatedly heard within the large company which believes its own internal propaganda too much. An impressive brand name in Market A only means that customers might listen five seconds longer to your sales pitch than a completely unknown new provider. Nothing more.

Next, in those few markets where success is possible, establish an all-new basis of price/performance/quality that makes the entrenched providers sweat. Then advertise the critical advantage, never hesitating to cull overhead staff to pay for key ads and promotions.

Direct. But in this particular pre-mentioned company, something amazing occurred. Managers in the center of the problem spent far more time and focus on the cosmetics of periodic presentations to higher-ups that the clarity and correctness of the underlying strategy.

In one exclamation which has since become infamous, one such future unemployable denegrated the essence of any new value-- what we at VBM Consulting refer to as the Value Business Plan-- as “just the content part.”

With such massive misdirection, the result was inevitable. A year after the fact, no one cares at all whether the margins on Report 116 were one half inch or three quarters, or whether fuscia was used as the lead color rather than black.

What DOES remain stuck in the memory of the institutional value-setters who ultimately own the business is that here were managers who were (1) on the Titanic and (2) faced an iceberg ahead.

But instead of going right full rudder, immediately, these value-destroyers instead merely opted for the management equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs.
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