A Value Proposition Framework adopting concepts from the field of Cybernetics

IT services, consulting and business solutions organizations face a continuous demand from their clients to deliver value. The challenge they face is that client business requirements change with the demands of their customers To meet this demand and to deliver value continuously, the authors present a model which establishes a cybernetic bridge between the IT service provider and the client to ensure viability and sustainability for both the entities. In the current business scenario, the clients expect IT Service providers not only to deliver the projects on time, on budget and play the role of an IT service provider but expect them to be a partner who understands their business as well. This entails the IT Service providers build the solutions and services based on the understanding of clients' business. With these developments coupled with rapid advances in enabling technologies and increasing complexity in the business environment, Value Proposition to the client's needs to be looked at in a holistic and interconnected approach. The paper presents a unique model for Value Proposition, ValuePro which has integrated the concepts from the fields of Value and Cybernetics. These include, Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety, the presence of transducers, consisting of amplification and attenuation and the Value Proposition concepts from the value related body of knowledge. Existing models on Value Proposition mostly focus either from the clients' perspective or IT service providers' perspective but rarely take both the perspectives into account. This proposed model is based on Ashby's premise of 'only variety can absorb variety', implying that there needs to be a variety matching between the systems client and IT service provider - to propose value. Only then the proposed value can be viable. In order to meet the variety introduced by the clients, the IT service providers should continuously amplify and attenuate the requirements and value statements. In this paper the authors have described the approach of Cybernetics in understanding the business of the clients and their end-users. They have also captured the reorganization of a large Indian IT services company in 2008 as a case to reflect the adoption of this model in a natural manner.