Quotes About Value

This is one of the most important discoveries of the lean manufacturing movement: you cannot trade quality for time.

which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful?

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth. In

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth.

What products do customers really want? How will our business grow? Who is our customer? Which customers should we listen to and which should we ignore? These are the questions that need answering as quickly as possible to maximize a startup's chances of success. That is what creates value for a startup.

thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible.

It's also important that the word innovation be understood broadly. Startups use many kinds of innovation: novel scientific discoveries, repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was hidden, or simply bringing a product or service to a new location or a previously underserved set of customers. In all these cases, innovation is at the heart of the company's success.

As Peter Drucker said, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."2

As Peter Drucker said, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.

What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case what did it matter if we did it on time and on budget? When I went home at the end of a day's work, the only things I knew for sure were that I had kept people busy and spent money that day.

You can't take learning to the bank; you can't spend it or invest it. You cannot give it to customers and cannot return it to limited partners.

which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful? This question is at the heart of the lean manufacturing revolution; it is the first question any lean manufacturing adherent is trained to ask. Learning to see waste and then systematically eliminate it has allowed lean companies such as Toyota to dominate entire industries.

Lean thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer; anything else is waste.

Lean thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer; anything else is waste. In a manufacturing business, customers don't care how the product is assembled, only that it works correctly. But in a startup, who the customer is and what the customer might find valuable are unknown, part of the very uncertainty that is an essential part of the definition of a startup. I realized that as a startup, we needed a new definition of value.

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth. In other words, successful pivots put us on a path toward growing a sustainable business.

Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer's problem."4

Startups use many kinds of innovation: novel scientific discoveries, repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was hidden, or simply bringing a product or service to a new location or a previously underserved set of customers.

But in a startup, who the customer is and what the customer might find valuable are unknown, part of the very uncertainty that is an essential part of the definition of a startup.

Qué deberíamos producir y para quién?», «¿En qué mercados podríamos entrar y dominar?», «¿Cómo podríamos crear un valor duradero que no estuviera sujeto a la erosión por parte de la competencia?».[6]

Part of the answer certainly lies in the fact that using software does not decrease its value. Indeed, widespread use of open-source software tends to increase its value, as users fold in their own fixes and features (code patches). In this inverse commons, the grass grows taller when it's grazed upon.

The truth doesn't sell. It is high in supply, but little in demand.

The market is a tool, and a useful one. But the worship of this tool is a hollow faith. Far more important than any tool is what you make with it.

Collectibles have little intrinsic value and are thus subject to the whims and speculations of buyers and sellers.

Chapter 4 concludes by pointing out that an additional incentive can drive individual user-innovators to innovate rather than buy: they may value the process of innovating because of the enjoyment or learning that it brings them. It might seem strange that user-innovators can enjoy product development enough to want to do it themselves—after all, manufacturers pay their product developers to do such work! On the other hand, it is