by Anthony Orr, (Global Best Practice Director, Educational Services)
In Service Management we hear a lot these days about VALUE. Value Realization, Value Creation and we mainly think about the economic value of services. Especially, since we are usually associating value within the content of Information Technology (IT) and the services that IT enable. Thinking about terms such as ROI-Return on Investment, TCO-Total Cost of Ownership, etc. These thoughts I think resonate in our current economy and the primary focus on just the economic value of a service can be a disservice to society.
ITIL ® V3 Service Strategy Book defines a Service as
Services are a means of delivering value to customers by, Facilitating the outcomes customers want to achieve, Without asking the customers to own specific costs and risks
Wikipedia states - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_theory
Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree humans should value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical investigations sought to understand good and evil, and the concept of "the good". Today much of value theory is scientifically empirical, recording what people do value and attempting to understand why they value it in the context of psychology, sociology, and economics.
Value creation and realization should be done Ethically. Taking advantage of a customer, does not contribute to society but creates a burden. If you think about the current economic crises and the financial investment schemes that we have all been hearing about, economic value was the only factor for the supplier. Sometimes I wonder if the majority of government decisions are based just on economic value which sometimes has negative value for the receiver or the customer of the service. Ethics have to be apart of our decisions for the services and products we contribute to our customers and society.
Why sell a product or service that you know your customer can't afford or will cause hardships?
Why let a consumer consume a product that you know or suspect will cause harm or the negative aspects outweigh the good aspects?
Why take advantage of any person for the persuit of economic pleasure?
