Unit 1 Assignment
Amber O’Brien
Kaplan University
GB570: Managing the Value Chain
John Craddock
July 29, 2012
The Value Chain in my Life
Introduction
I can very much relate to the value chain in my personal experiences. I feel that my entire progression and growth throughout my career can be directly related to the concepts and flow from a typical value chain. By relating my personal experiences to the value chains that we have begun to learn about, it makes the concepts easier to relate to and understand in an everyday business environment. A value chain is the idea behind increasing value of the business or a product and can also be applied to value of an individual person.
Market Opportunity Analysis
By starting with market opportunity analysis, I can see how I have done this with my potential career options. As a college graduate in a working economy, it was very important that I was able to explore and understand markets that appear attractive. As an undergrad first going out into the working world, I had to evaluate my options and potential career paths. After exploring and understanding what my desired career choices were, I was able to decide to go back to school and gain my MBA in order to increase my value and market opportunities.
Value Drivers
Throughout my journey, I had to not only identify my personal value drivers but I also had to develop a personal value proposition. Customer value drivers are the same as potential employer drivers in the fact that it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of demographics and socio-economics in order to in turn provide the basis for planning an effective product-market-strategy (Walters & Rainbird, 2007). I found my value drivers to be my consistency, hard work ethic, passion for what I do, and my drive to succeed and always better myself. By applying those dynamics to my career path I have been able to work my way up through the banking industry.
References: Walters, D., & Rainbird, M. (2007). Strategic operations management: A value chain approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.