Where does "Value" Happen?

Technology is rewriting the possibilities

“Value” is one of those words that has been captured by economics and shrivelled to fit a very narrow definition: “price equal to the intrinsic worth of a thing”.

I could buy the Daffodils in the picture at a Supermarket for a couple of pounds, but I have been anticipating these - they have a place in the rhythm of the garden, a place in it that is theirs, are part of the ecosystem that is our garden, are part of our relationship with it. In these respects, they are priceless.

The ones we can buy from the supermarket are part of a “value chain” that will measure the cold facts of overheads, labour, distribution and margin but have no inkling of the pleasure that those who buy them might derive from them, whether as a gift, or something to brighten a room.

I think ideas and creativity in organisations resemble daffodils; the pleasure derived from the insight that gives rise to them and the company in which they occur is not visible to those who buy the product or service they have enabled. By the time the idea is bought, it is part of a business model and an architecture of that very shrivelled notion of value.

The specialists needed to get them to market - the marketers, buyers, accountants, quality assurance managers, logistics managers and the rest form a chain of links that make the daffodil a commodity to be measured, weighed and moved without a nod to the beauty it represents. It seems a shame.

Maybe, though, things are changing.

The neat value chains we see in presentations tell us everything except what is important - how the beauty of an idea gets from origin to recipient. In a recent post, Joe Procopio made an observation that resonated regarding the difference between “Knowledge workers”, who know how to do something, and “knowledgeable workers” who know about something:

There are two kinds of salespeople in this world. One kind is people who are good at selling and the other kind is people who are Salesforce Wizards. Similarly, there are two kinds of marketing people in this world. People who are good at marketing and Hubspot Gurus.

You see where I’m going?

To get the real answer to the question, we need to talk about the difference between expendable “knowledge workers” and irreplaceable “knowledgeable workers.”

AI will do the Hubspot and Salesforce work before breakfast, but it can’t discuss the intrinsic value in something or how something feels, looks, or inspires us.

It makes us wonder about how the shape of organisations will change. At one end, we have Capital and its custodians - who do not need to know anything, just provide the money on which they expect to make a handsome return (without actually doing anything). At the other end, you have knowledgeable workers who know about things and how to work with them. In the middle, we have overhead - the knowledge workers whose tasks will likely be replaced or partially replaced by AI, because that is what it is already good at.

Knowledge workers can use AI to make them more efficient. Knowledgeable workers can use AI to make knowledge workers largely unnecessary. It’s a sobering thought.

Artisans, whatever their craft, are knowledgeable workers.

How we use that to advantage in the changes taking place around us is part of this evening’s conversation at 5:00 pm UK on Zoom.

I hope to see you there…..