RainToday.com Note: This is the first part of a two-part series by Ron Baker. Here Baker will explain the concept of a Chief Value Officer and offer examples of why this position is critical to your firm's success. In the second part next week, Baker will explain cost- versus value-pricing and the great difference it can make.

The final question needed in order to come to grips with business purpose and business mission is: “What is value to the customer?” It may be the most important question. Yet it is the one least often asked. One reason is that managers are quite sure that they know the answer. Value is what they, in their business, define as quality. But this is almost always the wrong definition. The customer never buys a product. By definition the customer buys the satisfaction of a want. He buys value.

––Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1993

My colleagues and I have had the privilege of posing this question––Who's in charge of value in your firm?––to thousands of services professionals around the world. We are usually met with a momentary staring ovation, and then someone will inevitably shout out, “Everyone!”

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