The document discusses the categorization of customer value in the consulting industry, highlighting two approaches: patterns of strategy and fractal enterprise modeling. It details how different consulting firms deliver varying values based on their strategies and assets such as workforce, methods, and tools. The conclusion suggests future research directions and the practical application of these categorizations to aid both customers and consulting companies in making informed decisions.

1. Value delivered – is it the same or
different?
Ilia Bider, Erik Perjons
DSV, Stockholm University
Presentation at: VMBO 2019
Value Modeling and Business Ontologies
Stockholm, March 2019
Links to the video and article text on Slide 3

2. Background
● In the mid 1990s, many enterprises start to focus on customer
values, and the way this could be created - in business processes
● For example, the BPR guru Michael Hammer (1996) stated: ”The
purpose of the company is to create customer value”
(Hammer (1996) Beyond Reengineering)

3. Background
● Therefore, many industry leaders had the following picture in their
heads around mid 1990s (Bengtsson &Skärvad, 2011):
Processes Customer values
(Bengtsson &Skärvad (2011) Company strategic perspectives (in Swedish)

4. External links
● Link to the video presentation
https://youtu.be/eewTbSAxnc8
● Link to the text of the paper
http://bit.ly/2GJHfgs

5. Background
● Today, customer value is still in focus, for example, when
developing service management and marketing strategies
(Grönroos, 2016)
(Grönroos (2016) Service Management and Marketing)

6. Background
The concept of customer value triggers a number of
questions:
● What is customer value?
● What different customer values exists?
● Are customer values generic or bransch specific?
● How can customer value be categorized - given a certain branch?
● …

7. Question in focus
● How can values among enterprises in the same branch be
categorized?

8. Delimitation
● We focus on one branch – the consultant branch
● We focus on two different approaches to answer/discuss the
question in focus

9. Two approaches
● Two approaches to understand the differences of value in the consultant
branch - and build a categorization:
– Patterns of Strategy (Hoverstadt, Loh, 2017)
– Fractal Enterprise Modelling (Bider et al, 2016)

10. Patterns of Strategy
● Pattern of strategy – define an enterprise strategy in terms of
the way an enterprise is connected to elements/actors in the
environment – that is, the enterprise’s structural coupling
Consulting
company
Customer
Local
government
Supplier
Branch
….
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

11. Patterns of Strategy
● Structural coupling – is a process where an entity interact with
elements in an environment in such a way that the entity changes
its environment and the environment changes the entity
Consulting
company
Customer
Local
government
Supplier
Market
….
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

12. Patterns of Strategy
● The book ”Patterns of Strategy” presents 80 different patterns of
strategies arranged in groups based on the concept of structural
coupling
● We focus on a subset of these patterns, the patterns that are related
to the notion of herd
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

13. Patterns of Strategy - Herd
● Herd – is a group of enterprises in the same segment of a market
producing the same kind of products and services, that is, they
provide the same kind of value proposition
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

14. Patterns of Strategy - Herd
● An enterprise in a herd – can have different positions:
– A leader – defines the direction a herd chooses to follow
– An enterprise in the center
– A laggard
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

15. Patterns of Strategy – Individuals
outside the herd
● Individual enterprises
are not part of the herd
● They provide value to
the customers in a market
segment
● They provide value in
different ways than the
enterprises in the herd
(Hoverstadt & Loh (2017) Patterns of Strategy)

16. Patterns of Strategy – Management
Consulting Bransch
● Different values to be delivered among consultant companies:
Properties of methods
Leader Latest versions. Risky. Expensive.
In the center Tested. Less risky. Less expensive.
Laggard Less valuable. Cheap.
Individual Non-mainstream methods.

17. Fractal Enterprise Model (FEM)
● FEM – is a model that focuses on 1) enterprise processes and
2) assets and 3) relationships between them, and helps to
visualize these relationships
Process
Asset (resource)
(Bider, Perjons, Elias & Johannesson (2017) A fractal
enterprise model and its application for business
development, Software & Systems Modeling 16 (3))

18. FEM – step by step
● To build a FEM, one starts with a process (in most cases a
primary one)
Providing solutions
for customers

19. FEM – step by step
● … then assets that are needed to run process instances are
identified
Providing solutions
for customers

20. FEM – step by step
● … then assets that are needed to run process instances are
identified
Providing solutions
for customers
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure

21. FEM – step by step
● Then for each asset, identify how it is managed (created, maintained and
removed)
Providing solutions
for customers
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure

22. FEM – step by step
● Then for each asset, identify how it is managed (created, maintained and
removed)
Providing solutions
for customers
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure
Tools
acquisition
Tool
maintenance
Phasing out old
tools
Aquire
Maintain
Retire

23. FEM – step by step
● Then for each asset, identify how it is managed (created, maintained and
removed)
Providing solutions
for customers
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure
Tools
acquisition
Tool
maintenance
Phasing out old
tools
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Methods
acquisition
Methods
maintenance
Phasing out old
methods
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Recruiting
Education and
training
Aquire Maintain Retire
Sales and
marketing
Aquire Maintain
Cancelling the
relationship

24. FEM – step by step
● Then for each newly added process, once again, identify the assets that
are needed for running its instances
Providing solutions
for customers
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure
Tools
acquisition
Tool
maintenance
Phasing out old
tools
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Methods
acquisition
Methods
maintenance
Phasing out old
methods
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Recruiting
Education and
training
Aquire Maintain Retire
Sales and
marketing
Aquire Maintain
Cancelling the
relationship

25. FEM – step by step
● Then for each newly added process, once again, identify the assets that
are needed for running its instances
Providing solutions
for customers
Enterprise that
need help in
solving problem
Management
consultant
Method
Tool, including
software
Tools
acquisition
Tool
maintenance
Phasing out old
tools
Beneficiary
Workforce EXT
Tech & Info
Infrastructure
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Methods
acquisition
Methods
maintenance
Phasing out old
methods
Aquire
Maintain
Retire
Recruiting
Education and
training
Cancelling the
relationship
Aquire Maintain Retire
Sales and
marketing
Aquire Maintain
Value
proposition
Attraction

26. FEM – Management Consulting
Bransch
● When an the consulting company is forming its value proposition, the
consulting company needs to focus on one of the three main assets:
– Workforce
– Method (EXT)
– Tools

27. FEM – Management Consulting
Bransch
● These assets can be used to classify the values based on means for
producing values as well as impacts on internal structure
Means for producing values Effects on internal structure
Workforce ”World class” experts Focus on processes for
recruiting and training
Methods (EXT) Well-tested or unique
methods
Focus on processes for
finding and adopting or
developing methods
Tools Excellent tools Focus on processes for
finding or developing tools

28. Combining SoP and FEM
Means for producing values Effects on internal structure
Workforce ”World class” experts Focus on processes for
recruiting and training
Methods (EXT) Well-tested or unique methods Focus on processes for finding
and adopting or developing
methods
Tools Excellent tools Focus on processes for finding
or developing tools
Properties of methods
Leader Latest versions. Risky. Expensive.
In the center Tested. Less risky. Less expensive.
Laggard Less valuable. Cheap.
Individual Non-mainstream methods.

29. Conclusion
● Future research:
– Compare to other existing value categorizations
– Create method for selecting an appropriate value
categorizations
– Categorising existing SME consultant companies
● How to use the result:
– Support customers to select appropriate consultant
companies given the customer’s issues
– Support consultant companies to select appropriate
stategies