If you are old enough you probably remember the character Gordon Gecko in the movie as a ruthless character, who's only passion is making money.
His famous quote is " greed, for lack of a better term, is good".
I would like to change that a bit to Value, for lack of a better term, is Vital.
The encyclopedia describes vital as: Necessary to a thing's continued existence or operation
I suggest you operate your business with - does "X" activity or decision add value to the enterprise as your core measurement focus. If you do you will have a better business, a more vital one.
Using value, intrinsic value measurement to all of your decision making, top to bottom activities, small and large, you will build and manufacture a more vital business.
This begs the question: How do we measure value?
In short its actually not that difficult, but requires significant change within the operation. Everyone needs to think differently. And secondly, you need a process to be able to measure it in real dollar value terms.
One caveat:
Thinking you have added value because your team feels more aligned and communication has improved is nice, but you have to measure it continually in real life market value terms to really know value is increasing or declining.
That's what we do with clients. We establish a measurement process to verify improvement tied back to market value. Its not a multiple of x formula.
Its is a deeply embedded look, a due diligence if you will, across the entire enterprise, all functional areas.
Once we build the value base case, then we can measure improvement over time, tied back to specific organizational areas within the business.
Try it.