15. Translating the Principles Into Value Proposals

Principles are all right, but they require specific and practical tools, applied every day, to come to fruition. Definitely, each idea must connect with a specific way to do things and the principles must be translated into specific value proposals, made by the company to his partners, employees and clients, and to society at large. All this makes up the management model. The management model is the building raised on the foundations laid by the values model.

The pieces of such a management model can be set in groups around the four objectives that the value proposal of any company must pursue:

1. The value proposal to the partners
2. The value proposal to the employees
3. The value proposal to the clients
4. The value proposal to society

Let’s see the four proposals in Andersen’s case, but let’s stop before in the components of each value proposal.

The value proposal components

The main component of the value proposal is, no doubt, money. Not to say that would be hypocritical. We are speaking about an economic environment where people relate with their partners, employees or employers, clients or suppliers, because they are trying to earn money with that relationship, because money is needed to live well in a capitalist society.

But this is not just about money. Or at least is not about explicit money. It is about “being well”, “feeling well”, “feeling valued” in the established relationship, even if the background is basically economic.

Behind money, there is health and love. You know the Spanish saying “salud, dinero y amor” (health, money and love).

The value proposal includes also health, no doubt. And companies sometimes play with the employees’, even the partners’ health. At Andersen’s too, with long working days and frantic agendas.

And no doubt it includes also love. Above all the most important element in love in what concerns its influence in the relations with other people: self-esteem. Pride, satisfaction in doing something better than anybody else, been congratulated, feeling part of a select elite, can have as much force sometimes than money itself.

Definitely, the value proposal perceived by a person has the same components anticipated by Abraham Maslow in 1943 in his work, A Theory of Human Motivation, where he proposed what is known as the Maslow Pyramid, i.e. the five level needs that a person has to see fulfilled in order to feel he is realizing his potential, that he is happy:

1. Physical well-being
2. Safety
3. Feeling loved, belonging
4. Feeling respected and valued as a person
5. Feeling realized as a person

Each level is supported by the previous one; it will develop only when the earlier one is covered to at least a requested minimum degree.

The work environment should help people to find their way to personal realization. There is no doubt that the Andersen Culture, well applied, gave support to the five levels, as we shall see.