How The Most Successful People And Organizations In The World Stand Out

You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. Jim Rohn

What do the most successful organizations and people in the world do differently than anybody else? I can think of one thing: they create, add and deliver value in better and unforeseen ways.

I’m sure that they have many other interesting characteristics, but value creation alone makes them stand out of the crowd and explains why they are so successful.

We can argue that every single organization in the world (and, by extension, the people that work for them) exists for just one reason: to create value. The value they create takes different forms and varies a lot among industries. Nevertheless, creating value to their stakeholders is their primary focus.

However, one interesting (sad?) thing happens to many organizations: the very processes, systems and metrics they once created to add value to their stakeholders eventually lose their value (I’m playing with words here) and, instead of helping them achieve the goal, prevents them from doing so. Unfortunately, those processes, systems and metrics remain in place for too long and they are not renewed as should be. It's often too late when the organization realizes that more than the competition or external conditions, it's its own machinery and internal characteristics what destroys it.

I can think of dozens of such processes or systems, but in this post I want to focus in one particular element: the type of people these organizations concentrate their attention.

Let’s explain by using one of the most mainstream examples of someone who created value at the highest levels possible: Steve Jobs.

An example

After inventing Apple, everybody expected Steve Jobs to create great better computers, with fantastic operating systems, that look really beautiful, totally aligned with user-needs and user-experience. We all wanted Steve Jobs to do that at his best capacity, with the best results.

However, nobody expected Steve Jobs to create a small device where you can put “1000 songs in your pocket”. Neither did we expect from him to initiate the smartphone revolution, the app store or many of the innovative things he did.

Steve Jobs’s greatest legacy was not Apple, the iPod, iPhone, iPad or any of the devices or services he created. Instead, his most important accomplishment and legacy is having taught us that it’s always possible to create, add and deliver more value than anybody else (including our stakeholders) expects from us.

Jobs’s story is not unique. The greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists, writers and successful people in the world always create, add and deliver more value than is expected from them. And, as I said at the beginning, that’s one of the reasons why they are so successful and stand out from most people.

Creating, adding and delivering value won’t necessarily make us a Steve Jobs or the most successful individual in the world. However, value is one of the most important components that help us create and leave a great legacy in our professional and personal lives. And creating, adding and delivering value can make a huge difference in having stronger and more sustainable impact in our immediate spaces of influences, particularly in our jobs.

Who are the ones who create value at the highest levels we can imagine

In every organization there are three groups of people:

• Group 1: those who do and deliver what is expected from them with good quality. I would call individuals in this group as those who deliver expected performance.
• Group 2: There is another group of individuals who usually go the “extra mile”. In that group we have those who get good performance reviews, who are visible within the organization and, perhaps, the ones who do their job more efficiently and effectively. Those individuals assume roles or responsibilities that weren’t part of their jobs. Ultimately, they do more and therefore they deliver unexpected performance.
• Group 3: The third group, usually the smallest one (sometimes even “invisible” in some organizations), is formed by people who not only go the extra mile, but who create, add and deliver value at levels never expected or even foreseen by the organization. Individuals in this group have a super powerful mindset of value creation. For them, their job (whether in a formal company, in a startup or even in their leisure activities) is way more than delivering with high quality what is expected from them.

The Super Powerful Mindset Of Value Creation

Individuals in this group find the most enjoyment of their lives in discovering and developing ideas, products or services that will make their organizations and themselves more valuable in the marketplace than anyone else.

Steve Jobs was not just one of the greatest computer minds in the world, but one of the most important innovators of all time. Michael Jordan was not just a great basketball player, but he is the greatest athlete of all times. Mozart was not just a pianist and composer, but he inspired most generations and classical music after him (including Beethoven!). Do you see? That’s what makes them successful!

Organizations Need To Refocus

Unfortunately, most organizations are extremely focused in developing and rewarding people in the second group. They praise this group because people in it add efficiencies to certain processes and make “business as usual” better. But, who really cares now about “business as usual”? No company and no individual will survive the pressures of our times by just doing better “business as usual”.

In this hypercompetitive times, users and customers expect much more from those who serve them. And in order to remain competitive, profitable, sustainable and, more importantly, relevant, organizations need to change their focus from the second group to the third group and make them role models.

Value creators are curious, creative, risk-takers, visionaries, resilient and full of grit. They are the ones who constantly get up from their failures, and try again with more knowledge and information than before. We can expect a value creator to design the best computer ever, and they will do it while also creating an iPod and an iPhone when no one didn’t even think that that was possible.

People in the third group not only create and add value at levels that we can’t even imagine, but they can also become organizational champions to foster a value-creation culture.

An Organizational Culture Of Creating, Adding And Delivering Value

Creating, adding and delivering value is by far one of the most important advantages for any organization and individual. There are two importance pieces in the puzzle of value creation.

It’s difficult to create, add and deliver value. That’s why those who do it are so valuable!

It’s difficult to find areas to add value. It requires a full capacity to stay open-minded and see the opportunities that nobody else can see, without mental limitations, assumptions and preconceptions. And it also requires a full awareness of our talents and abilities, current and potential ones. Creating and adding value usually demand that we step up to another, often more complex, level of skills.

Value created is not static

The second piece in the puzzle is that no value remains relevant forever. In the long run, value is not sustainable as it was conceived in its original design. In other words, value loses its value along time. Therefore, even more important than creating and adding value, is developing the mindset that allows you to do so. That mindset lets you enjoy the temporary success of the value created today, and quickly move on in the quest for more and better opportunities. To remain relevant, it is necessary to constantly shake your assumptions, understanding that what is valuable today will not be tomorrow.

This second piece in the puzzle is the reason why many companies, startups and innovations fail and die. The people behind them often get too comfortable thinking that they own a market, that their competitive advantages will remain relevant and sustainable forever, that the value that was once unique is still important for people.

These organizations halt their value creation mindset, believing their products and services will never get beaten. Well, history has proven otherwise. For example, for how long will the iPod remain relevant in the era of Spotify and Pandora? How about Yellow Cabs in the era of Uber, hotels in the era of Airbnb, rental cars in the era of Zipcar?

Your Challenge

The questions for you: can you see any areas in which you can create, add and deliver value for you and your organization? What prevents you from doing so? What skills, abilities or capacities you need to develop in order to effectively implement that opportunity? What are the kinds of things that created value in the past, and today are not relevant anymore? How can you shake up your assumptions in order to move on to the next opportunity? Are you and your organization open-minded and in total awareness to see the opportunities to create more value for users and customers?

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