Value Chain: Where do you stand?

This one isn't for business geeks only. Come to think of it - it is your position in the value chain that matters and nothing else. That value chain might concern business, wherein the margins are the highest at the highest kind of services - finance, and lowest at the meanest kind of manufacturing - agriculture. It might concern your position in an organization, wherein the CEO shall only deal with matters of high value, prestige and not concern himself with the day to day activities and earning handsomely both socially as well as financially. On the other hand, the worker who involves himself deeply in the day to day problems barely earns minimum wages.

Similarly, in the social circle it is your position in the value chain that matters ultimately. The higher up you are, the more power you have, the more insulated you are from the day to day problems/issues of others, and the more respect you govern. Consider the head of a large family. He/She shall make major decisions regarding running of the house. However, petty matters like, maybe, housemaid turning up 10 minutes late etc. on a particular day shall not be of much importance for this person. But, precisely this is what shall always be a matter of concern for someone who has to coordinate with that housemaid and get the food prepared on time for everyone.

But then this does not mean one adopts a fast track approach and direcly aim to become a CEO or a family head on day one. For that, is highly improbably in the first case considering the number of competitors one shall have. Secondly, if one moves up without really understanding the issues that trouble one's juniors to such extent that one can solve them, one can land up into serious trouble. Under such circumstances, one would either quit, or would resort to barking like dog on one's juniors so that they never highlight their problems, do as they are instructed, never strive to improve, and the system ultimately stagnates. Hence, the importance of making one's way up the ladder. This is for all thos high flying youngsters who believe in being hired as CEOs on the first day of campus placements.

Now comes the issue of one's ability. It is one's ability to grasp things and one's attitude to deal with people and issues that largely determines his starting level in the value chain. If one is extremely sharp and has great people skills, he might as well enter the chain at a very high level, and yet be able to understand the issues and his people in a very short interval of time. Hence, gauging one's ability is primary to one's ambitions. Else, dreams shall continue to remain dreams and reality shall never strike you.

With all this comes a striking analogy of a startup. All startups are highly ambitious, and project great ROIs with almost no competition expected. However, one must not forget that even a startup has to go through this value chain grind. One cannot just expect to start a great services company without really understanding the manufacturing and the technology that goes behind those services. One just cannot start a real estate mutual fund without understanding the phenomenon governing land prices, and the issues in land acquisition and ownership in the area of interest. Similarly, a startup company in its initial phases just cannot hope to function like a seamless world class company. In order to be effective, it has to reach the masses first, go through the grind, prove its mettle. Only then can it hope to deal with all issues at its own pace.

All this goes to say that as one rises up the value chain, there shall always be a tendency to relax, to take it easy. A lot of big corporations seem to do that. Their quality of service is pathetic. However, because of the expanse of their infrastructure, they survive. Dunno, whether this is possible in the long run or not. But not many organizations which have slumped into this mode have survived very long.
Anyways, this seems to be like digressing too much from the topic.

Just goes to say that the mantra to one's success is realizing one's position in the value chain, understanding one's abilities and then working on either to plug any gaps that might exist!