Summit Partners’ Post

In the last decade, we’ve seen new C-suite titles, #chiefdigitalofficer, #chiefrevenueofficer, and earlier this year, re-shaping the role of the #CFO into #chiefvalueofficer (described in a joint report by ACCA and BDO). On December 15th, the Impact Foundation is announcing the Chief Value Officer of the Year (the first ever prize of this kind).   “Is this a signal of a real #breakthrough in executive boards? Or does it risk that ownership for #valuecreation becomes associated with a single functional area or that it continues to be second to #valuecapturing?”.   In a conversation with Paul Verdin, one of our ELP Network founders, we discussed the importance of executive teams together taking ownership for value creation.    “Value creation for customers and society must go first in a company’s strategy, because you cannot capture value for shareholders, employees and re-investing into growth, if you are not creating value and getting paid for it.”    If the role of the CFO re-shaping into CVO is a sign of focusing firstly on value creation for customers and society, before value capturing for the company, let’s accelerate this transition.    If, however, it is simply a re-naming exercise, leading to delegating all value creation to the ownership of one executive (rather than the team) and becomes a shorthand for value capturing to continue to dominate decision making, it should be challenged.   Paul’s research (together with Koen Tackx) shows that companies who distinguish between value creation vs. value capturing experience longer term, sustainable growth. They generate a #movement and internal dynamic in their company to orient value capturing activities (how we make money) in service to the value created and brought to the outside world.      We typically see that value creation is not present enough in the decision making of executive teams, more often delegated to strategy and/or marketing, where it actually sits at the center of driving the #sustainablegrowth of a business.    How are you talking about value creation and for whom in your company? How is the role of CFO evolving? Which dilemmas do you experience when you distinguish between value creation vs. value capturing?   You can also read a short insight by Paul on value creation and capturing (see link in comments).

In the last decade, we’ve seen new C-suite titles, #chiefdigitalofficer, #chiefrevenueofficer, and earlier this year, re-shaping the role of the #CFO into #chiefvalueofficer (described in a joint report by ACCA and BDO). On December 15th, the Impact Foundation is announcing the Chief Value Officer of the Year (the first ever prize of this kind).   “Is this a signal of a real #breakthrough in executive boards? Or does it risk that ownership for #valuecreation becomes associated with a single functional area or that it continues to be second to #valuecapturing?”.   In a conversation with Paul Verdin, one of our ELP Network founders, we discussed the importance of executive teams together taking ownership for value creation.    “Value creation for customers and society must go first in a company’s strategy, because you cannot capture value for shareholders, employees and re-investing into growth, if you are not creating value and getting paid for it.”    If the role of the CFO re-shaping into CVO is a sign of focusing firstly on value creation for customers and society, before value capturing for the company, let’s accelerate this transition.    If, however, it is simply a re-naming exercise, leading to delegating all value creation to the ownership of one executive (rather than the team) and becomes a shorthand for value capturing to continue to dominate decision making, it should be challenged.   Paul’s research (together with Koen Tackx) shows that companies who distinguish between value creation vs. value capturing experience longer term, sustainable growth. They generate a #movement and internal dynamic in their company to orient value capturing activities (how we make money) in service to the value created and brought to the outside world.      We typically see that value creation is not present enough in the decision making of executive teams, more often delegated to strategy and/or marketing, where it actually sits at the center of driving the #sustainablegrowth of a business.    How are you talking about value creation and for whom in your company? How is the role of CFO evolving? Which dilemmas do you experience when you distinguish between value creation vs. value capturing?   You can also read a short insight by Paul on value creation and capturing (see link in comments).