Value Chain and Customer 360°!

Value chains describe series of activies that are needed to create value-added to a customer.  A value chain can be identified both at industry level between organizations and within an organization.

In early times with long cycles value chains had long stability. VUCA time has changed the situation. A value chain can still have features that remind of the past like physical change in a product process or a customer journey in services, but creation of value added is no longer determined by these. 

In VUCA conditions the basic assumption is that beforehand you don't know for certain what a value chain is going to look like. You have to reinvent it. For example impact of AI can change value chain dramatically.

Middle Customers

An actor in a value chain has an upstream customer that it is serving and at the same time it is a customer for downstream actors. In early times such position had long lasting stability . Corresponding interfaces became specialized and different.

In VUCA time things have changed dramatically. There can be many potential value chain actors, but in the beginning it is to large extent open which actors and at which order will be part of a factual value chain.  

Customer 360

A traditional value chain consist of specific groups (like retailers) and only the member of the group (a specific retailer) is open. VUCA time value chains are created in a space where a value creating member can come from anywhere. Different kinds of partners or even competitors becoming part of the value chain are examples of this. 

During a successsful value chain reinvention willingness and capability of potential actors to serve and be in middle customer positions after change is a key characteristic. It requires tolerance for change and more agility than what was needed in the past.