The document discusses how to generate competitive advantage in an ever-changing environment by creating customer value and leading change. It will cover topics such as the relationship between change and vision/mission/strategy/objectives, the role of internal governance to manage change through project portfolio management, the role of external governance to adapt to external changes, and how to create customer value through communication. The goal is to help professionals understand how to cope with an increasingly fast-paced "brave new world" and changing customer needs by focusing on customer value creation and change leadership.

1. Creating customer
value by leading
change
How to generate competitive advantage
in an ever-changing brave new world
Written by Jan Willem Donselaar and Harrie Kisters
Contributing Co-Author Bob Lindeman

3. Creating customer value by
leading change
How to generate competitive advantage in an ever-changing
brave new world
Written by Jan Willem Donselaar and Harrie Kisters
Contributing Co-Author Bob Lindeman

5. FOREWORD
Preface
‘Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival’
William Edwards Deming (1900 – 1993) was a visionary, whose quest for the ‘truth’ and
unwavering belief in ‘continual improvement’ led to a set of transformational theories
that changed the way we think about quality, management and leadership.

7. Who should read this book
This publication is meant for everyone who is interested in the subjects of creating customer value and leading change. It is in particular
written for those who are involved in strategic or tactical changes of an organization and those who are involved in portfolio, program or
project management and support.
Also, it is meant for students who want to learn from our experiences and ideas. This book will give the professionals of tomorrow
understanding how they can create customer value, and how they can cope with an ever-changing brave new world at the same time.
Édouard Manet – The reader
Édouard Manet can be considered as the father of Modernism. Famous paintings are
Déjeuner sur l’herbe, un bar aux Folies Bergère, and Olympia, just to name a few.
His painting ‘The reader’ is made in a period without Internet, e-readers and tablets.
However, reading a book still is a popular medium for obtaining knowledge!

8. Why you should read this book: Understand how to lead change
We want to help you understand how you can create customer value and cope with an ever-changing brave new world at the same time.
Keep in mind that this one-liner has a strong ethical component because not all change will lead to a ‘better world’. That is why we lend the
notion ‘brave new world’ as something that has a lot of possibilities, but also might bring a number of threats and dangers.
Changes happen in our direct environment. They can be driven by all kinds of motives: economical, technological, political and societal, or
just by the mere fact that you feel that something needs to be changed. In almost all situations this means that you, or the organization you
belong to, will need to work for customers. You need to deliver value, or you will be running the risk that the customer will go elsewhere to
get his value.
Customers can be buyers of products and services, not limited to commercial organizations, and also people that use products and services
from governmental organizations. Customers can be external to an organization or internal members of an organization.
We see many professionals struggle with an ever-increasing speed of change in what they are doing. The world of organizations is becoming
more and more complex, and the risk of fail or even societal disruption, like the financial crisis, is growing. In addition to that, the way people
work will undergo dramatic changes in the coming years. Due to automation of information-intensive activities and robotics, a lot of jobs will
get lost, and new ways of working together will arise. Professionals need to understand how they can cope with an ever-changing ‘brave new
world’.
Aldous Huxley’s novel ‘Brave New World’ (1932) sets in London AD 2540 and anticipates developments in reproductive technology,
sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and operant conditioning that combine to profoundly change society.
So change is an important driver for all our actions. Charles Darwin made this clear once and for all times: ‘It is not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.’

9. We consider the creation of customer value as the underlying driving force for deciding what to change. Of course, organizations want to
survive by not going bankrupt, but the elementary basis for success is to deliver something that someone is willing to provide a financial or
non-financial compensation for. Customer value is the value brought to a customer by fulfilling his needs, in such a way that the perception of
the received value is consistent over a certain period in an ever-changing environment.
Michelangelo – The creation of Adam
This iconic fresco painting
by Michelangelo on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
in Rome shows a final act
of creation: God’s right arm
stretches a finger to a finger
of Adam’s left arm, thus
bringing the ultimate gift of
life to man in accordance by
the Bible book of Genesis.

10. Project Portfolio Management – Theory and Practice
We will show you how Project Portfolio Management can be used together with Operations Management and Enterprise Architecture
Management to safeguard good governance of the mission, vision, and strategy of an organization at one hand, and the customer value
creation process on the other hand.
We as authors bring in a wealth of knowledge in the area of Project Portfolio Management. Knowledge that we want to share because
we believe that Project Portfolio Management is a cornerstone in the knowledge base of every professional that has to cope with change.
Although there are many books with an overwhelming number of detailed technical methods for project, program and project portfolio
management, we see the real need in a publication that focuses on HOW to handle (complex) change.
We will zoom in on the crucial role of projects, programs, and portfolios when creating customer value in a continuously changing world.
As the importance of results of projects, programs and portfolios have grown more and more; organizations have understood the need for
an organizational unit to address administration, coordination, standardization, knowledge and expertise sharing concerning Project Portfolio
Management topics: A Project Management Office (PMO).
Project Portfolio Management is the coordinated management of one or more project portfolios to achieve organizational strategy
and objectives. It includes interrelated organizational processes by which an organization evaluates, selects, prioritizes and allocates
its limited internal resources to best accomplish organizational strategy consistent with its vision, mission, and values. Project Portfolio
Management produces valuable information to support or alter strategy and investment decisions.
The added value of a Project Management Office is to be of assistance to Project Portfolio Management. It is by no means a unit that
takes over and controls the core activities of Project Portfolio Management; it is rather a broker that takes an active role to produce
specific project deliverables and thus creates customer value.

11. Canvas model, communication, leadership, and measurement
The Canvas model (Osterwalder, 2010) is a practical tool that can be used to visualize the way an organization creates value for its customers.
The Canvas model can be used for all kinds of organizations, e.g. corporations, governmental, profit and non-profit. We will use the Canvas
model to describe how a Project Management Office delivers value to an organization.
The Canvas model as a method for business model generation has proved its value when inventing ways to bring (new) products and services
to markets. However, what lacks in the Canvas model is the linkage between all kinds of creative initiatives and a more stable organizational
context.
In addition to the Canvas model, we will bring insights from the Project Management Institute (PMI) in place; insights that are necessary to
understand how real value can be delivered to customers in a sustainable way.
We will bring in practical experiences regarding the communication between people. Communication should especially be dealing with the
human aspects of operations and change. In many publications on change management this element is in our view insufficiently addressed.
People are considered an important factor when creating value, and thus for the resulting performance of an organization. Focus, therefore,
is needed on effective communication, beside procedures, methods, and techniques, standardization, instruments, plans, and templates.
We will zoom in on meeting management as an important tool for efficient and effective communication.
Also, the importance of good leadership when generating changes will be addressed. Leadership styles and the importance of emotional
intelligence will be discussed.
Last but not least we will share our insights on two important instruments to measure whether things are done well are:
 Benchmarking;
 Maturity measurements.
Keep in mind: You cannot manage what you do not measure and compare. And if you cannot manage, then you definitely will have issues
when realizing your vision and mission.

12. Topics that will be covered
We will start with an introduction of our vision on customer value, change, and governance in Chapter 1. In the remainder of the book we will
elaborate on these topics in a number of steps:
 Chapter 2: The relationship between change and the chain of vision, mission, strategy and objectives.
In this chapter, we will discuss vision, mission, strategy and objectives as guiding principles for organizations. An explanation of this
guidance is needed to put our ideas on the internal governance and external governance in its right perspective. In addition to this, we will
emphasize the importance of good leadership.
 Chapter 3: The role of the internal governance that is needed to do the things right.
We will zoom in on internal governance as the coordinated effort to manage change by using Project Portfolio Management, Enterprise
Architecture Management, and Operations Management. We will describe the Project Management Office as an important instrument
supportive to Project Portfolio Management when managing change via the internal governance.
 Chapter 4: The role of external governance that is needed to do the right things.
This chapter will show you how to lead organizations by adapting vision, goals, and mission to an ever-more rapidly changing environment.
This should safeguard that the right things are done. We will decompose this external governance in the following underlying elements:
Self-preservation and Ecology;
Technology;
Information;
Communication.
 Chapter 5: The change engine and the change agent.
Where Project Portfolio Management can be considered the ‘change engine’, a Project Management Office will act as the ‘change agent’.
The Project Management Office is in the center of a network of complex relations that links Project Portfolio Management, Enterprise
Architecture, and Operations Management.

13.  Chapter 6: Customer value and communication with customers.
We will show you how to do this by putting a customer always first, listen to the voice of the customer, describe the customer journey and
demonstrate how value is experienced based on the Peak-End Rule principle. We will also zoom in on communication via meetings.
 Chapter 7: Bringing it all together.
How to establish changes that successfully deliver value. We will also zoom in on a number of new developments in the area of customer
value generation.

14. Changes happen in our direct environment. They can be driven by all kinds of motives: economical, technological, political and so-
cietal, or just by the simple fact that you feel that something needs to be changed. In almost all situations this means that you,
or the organization you belong to, will need to work for customers. You need to deliver value or you will be running the risk that the
customer will go elsewhere to get his value.
Many professionals are struggling with an ever-increasing speed of change in what they are doing. The world of organizations is
becoming more and more complex, and the risk of fail or even societal disruption, like the financial crisis, is growing. In addition to
that, the way people work, will undergo dramatic changes in the coming years. Due to automation of information intensive acti-
vities, a lot of jobs will get lost and new ways of working together will arise. Professionals need to understand how they can cope
with an ever-changing ‘brave new world’.
We consider the creation of customer value as the basic driving force for deciding what to change. Of course organizations want
to survive by not going bankrupt, but the elementary basis for success is to deliver something that someone is willing to provide a
financial or non-financial compensation for. Customer value is the value brought to a customer by fulfilling his needs, in such a way
that the perception of the received value is consistent over a certain time in an ever-changing environment.
So be prepared to learn more about the following:
 The relationship between change and the chain of vision, mission, strategy and objectives;
 The role of the internal governance that is needed to do the things right;
 The role of external governance that is needed to do the right things;
 Customer value and communication with customers.