Understanding Value & Context as Basic Steps in Business

It is general knowledge that consumers buy to satisfy a need. However this is largely contingent on the perception of Value/Worth as well as Context.

VALUE is perception of worth. In the context of marketing, it is the extent to which a good or service is perceived by its customer to meet his or her needs or wants - measured by customer's willingness to pay for it. (Business Dictionary)


There is always a demand for products/services that add value to the needs of consumers (e.g. psychological value derived from cosmetics, alcohol, etc. and sociological value from club memberships, social media, etc.). Your job as a savvy businessman or woman is to tap into buyers' needs and offer better or unique value than your competitors for an exchange of money or whatever adds value to your business. This is not a one-off affair since consumer preferences and needs are ever changing & evolving.


It is worthy of note that adding value does not immediately translate to money, although however it is a starting point in building and maintaining a strong seller/buyer relationship - whilst taking consideration of your internal and external business environment (context). Thus in the words of Albert Einstein, "Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value “[and you will be perceived as an indispensable pillar]”.


In Business, CONTEXT refers to the background, environment, framework, setting, location, or situation within which a business operates. It could be the business environment or location within which a business exists. In other words, what may obtain in Europe may not necessarily work in the African continent. What might also work in the banking industry, will probably not be applicable in the oil & gas sector. Company A's formal/structured approach to business may be different from Company B's informal perspective.


Ultimately, businessmen and women need to take into consideration the context within which their business exists before they can effectively add value to the needs of consumers.

By Kemdi Acholonu (Contractor & Certified Business Manager)

Leave your comments below and please forward any contributions to pawpawresources@gmail.com

THE ELEVATOR PITCH

Imagine you are on the elevator going to the last floor, another day of work, tedious meetings, school or whatever your typical busy day is, on the second to the last floor Barack Obama and his entourage walks into the elevator you are still trying to adjust to the fact you are standing next to the President of the United States of America when he turns to you smiles and says, with his hand outstretched “Good day, I am Barack Obama the first black President of the United states of America, I am considered one of the most powerful men in the world given my position and influence, there is a 90% chance I can help you with whatever you need, who are you? What do you do? And how would this meeting be beneficial to the both of us? What would you say?

Now hold on *Take a deep breath* access the situation...Calmly:

• He is obviously stopping on the last floor meaning you have 30 seconds to 1 minute to ‘Wow’ him enough to pursue further interaction and exchange contacts.

• If you say the wrong thing you are going to spend your whole life regretting this moment and your children would forever hear this story.

• If you say the right thing you are going to forever remember this as the moment your life changed and your children will tell this story.

• You need to seize this opportunity because it is never coming again.

• Lastly you need your Elevator Pitch!

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So the question isn’t what is an Elevator Pitch? It is: What is a Good Elevator Pitch?

What you say in the first 30 seconds to 1 minute of conversation on meeting someone is your Elevator Pitch, we all have that one moment when someone walks up to us and introduces themselves and we are thinking on how quick it would be polite enough to excuse ourselves from that conversation because frankly you can already tell the person would not be beneficial to us in any way, so we want to be that person that people say “Wow, that’s interesting, I hope I can get your number or email and continue this conversation” rather than “that is an interesting thing to know, nice having this conversation see you around” Just so you know they won’t see you around, if they do they might be polite and have a conversation that would be unexpectedly cut short and when you have had series of “unexpectedly cut short” conversations without a need to give out your contacts it is time to get a good Elevator Pitch.

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The Elevator Pitch Is:

• An Introduction, a general overview of who you are, or what you have, it might be a product or a service.

• It is intended to capture the undivided attention of a potential investor, client, employer, partner or whatever it is you are looking for in an individual.

• It is neither restricted to elevators (as the name and previous example suggests) nor to strict work purposes, (i.e. If you are looking for a friend or a romantic partner).

• It can be used anywhere that requires a short/concise introduction of yourself.

• It can be modified to fit the various target audience.

• It is basically the first few sentences that comes out of your mouth on meeting someone.

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Why Do You Need An Elevator Pitch?

Simple! One, you can’t make a second first Impression, secondly opportunities comes but once in a lifetime (as the saying goes) lastly (although there are other reasons) you are going to hate yourself if you actually meet Barack Obama and he walks out of that lift with your mouth still hanging wide open dumbfounded and all you get is a pity smile and a tap on your shoulder.


Now the question is: How Do I Know Create A Good Elevator Pitch?
Most important is the timing, the shortest time you have is 8 seconds, that would eventually lead to 30 seconds and the longest you would get for an Elevator Pitch is 3 minutes so tip one: KEEP IT SHORT!

The first 8 seconds is called ‘The Hook’ According to Mel Pirchesky (2012), "The objective of the first ten or fifteen seconds is to have your prospective investors want to listen to the next forty-five or fifty seconds differently, more intently than they would have otherwise”.


What does this mean? It simply means you have to provide adequate and correct information within those two/three sentences so they are aware of:

1. Who you are
2. What you do and,
3. What you want.

What is referencing?

'Referencing' is a key tool that becomes a part of life of every student from their first year at University. Before this, it may be safe to say that a lot of people could care less of what the word itself meant.

As a new student 4 years ago, I remember walking into a compulsory tutorial session that was covered mostly on References. Of course, I was perplexed as I did not really understand what it was or why it was important. The term Harvard style kept being mentioned so much that I was half asleep for the entire session.

Did I regret this? Well yes and no!

Yes because I never really learnt anything during that session and the first term of my first year suffered this; My referencing was awful and this affected my coursework marks. This reason pushed me to work on my referencing skills and in the process, found a great online website that saw me through the rest of my University years with no issues (link provided below). Consequently, this is why I also say No to the question above.

OK, Enough of the life story!. The bullet points below gives a basic summary of what references entails with useful links and examples also provided.

WHAT ELSE IS IT?  

• Referencing enables you to use other people's ideas, theories or information to add onto your work in a constructive way. 
• It involves acknowledging the author's work within the body of your own work or otherwise called 'citing' and including a list of full references used at the end of your work. 

WHY DO IT?

• Gives more depth and reasoning behind your work. I believe you cannot lean on your own understanding otherwise schools will be impractical. 
• Impress your professor, examiner or teacher. Yes, most university scholars get to realise this at some point. Note: The use of academic journals can automatically boost your coursework marks.
• It gives credit to those who has done it before you. Life is a recycling process. A lot of what we are learning today is not entirely new! 
• It also makes your work more presentable. Ever had food with no seasoning ? 

REFERENCING STYLES

• Harvard (most popular) -  Author-date referencing. This has no link with the actual Harvard University by the way. There are different variations of this style (examples below).
• APA (American Psychological Association) - Used commonly by writers, editors and students in the social science subjects. Online tutorial can be accessed via this [link].
• Chicago - Published by the University of Chicago. Tutorial available via this [link].
• OSCOLA - Used to cite legislation and authorities information. Created by the University of Oxford's Law faculty. Follow link and OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide for more information.
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) - Used in the engineering discipline and the referencing guide can be found here.

Examples of Harvard Style Referencing include the following:

• Online - This may include electronic journals, reports or academic journals. Try to avoid using vague websites such as Wikipedia or any unofficial websites.

"One of the major challenges faced today in less economically developed countries can be seen in the power sector (Smith, 2014). However..."

The text in bold above represents the in-text reference or citation and this will be typically used across all reference styles. It can also be written as Smith (2014) and also or otherwise used in starting a sentence. At the end of your work, the full reference can be shown as;

Smith, M (2014) LEDC Issues to the wider world. Available at: www.examplesite.co.uk/pdf (Accessed: 7 June 2015).  This is particularly for webpages. Subsequent examples are general. 

If more than one book is cited in the same year and from the same author, you can use the suffix a,b, c etc, to distinguish this. Therefore can be shown as Smith (2015a).

If more than two authors for the same publication, both their last names should be cited as;

Smith and Jackson (2015).

If there are more than two authors, the first name of the first author followed by 'et al' which means 'and others' should be used. Therefore, Smith et al. (2015).

If a newspaper article is used with no author, the name of the paper can be used. Therefore, The Sun (2015).

If no date is given but we know the author, the prefix 'n.d.' which means no date can be used. Therefore, (Smith, n.d.) or (Smith, no date supplied).

If the exact year of the publishing is roughly known, this can be shown with 'ca' ('circa'). Therefore, Smith (ca 2014).

If multiple authors are making the same point on various publications, they can be cited as (Smith, 2015; Jackson, 2010; Andy and Jackson, 1999).