A distinct advantage of training for value and the Shinsei Method™ is the by-product benefit they both yield. A by-product benefit is a concept coined in the Shinsei Method™ . It is a benefit or a profitable result that derives from following a principle. Following a principle is rarely easy. In life and in business it poses a significant challenge, particularly now as there are strong cultural trends away from business fundamentals toward immediacy and quick returns in earnings, in investments, in relationships, in education, in just about every facet of American culture and perhaps even globally. For example, a by-product benefit of healthy nutrition is a stronger mind and body. A by-product benefit of balanced exercise is also a stronger mind and body. Health is an instructive analogy because it tends to be poorly followed by the general population. Most adults know that health and nutrition are important, yet they routinely order pizza and donuts for office parties, rarely exercise, and often smoke and drink to excess increasingly during work hours. This situation also highlights another important concept coined in the Shinsei Method™: the task of leadership. This example underscores the challenge that an individual faces when choosing a rational, productive course of action. There is a strong cultural trend in America toward treating customers and end users poorly. Sometimes this attitude and training manifests itself explicitly in the off-putting tone of voice or demeanor of sales or customer service staff. Sometimes this attitude shows itself in the way companies design products with inconvenient packaging, functional design, or build quality. This trend also influences the kind of warranties companies offer or the way the honor those warranties, how available they are for customer inquiries, how their websites are designed, and in the way they interface with the public. The Shinsei Method™advocates a total business approach that also emphasizes the importance of value throughout an organization. That means business values are understood, and they are well integrated throughout the organization to such an extent that those values are communicated in everything the company does and by everyone in the company. This establishes policies, practices, and procedures that are consistent with fundamental business values. Consistency is one of the values or principles that the Shinsei Method™ strongly advocates, and it is achieved by ensuring that verbal communications correspond with the actions or practices of the company. This approach toward business and leadership consistency is very much like the health and exercise example. Leaders and employees are trained throughout school in America to seek short term fixes to issues versus a careful, methodical application of principle. As a result people tend to be less willing and less competent in handling basic business or customer concerns. Customers are often put off, delayed, or shockingly ignored, which of course communicates the message that customers are unimportant even while marketing materials make contrary claims. All that really matters in business and to customers is whether or not business delivers on its promises. Business leaders that seek to deliver on promises at every business level may be doing something unpopular or unconventional in the current business climate. However, this does not negate the importance of business fundamentals. If anything, it makes business fundamentals all the more important to adhere to and to implement. Value is a business fundamental. If business managers and leaders establish a business culture of value and for value, people in that culture will naturally seek to follow suit. They will seek value for their work and for their customers both internal and external customers. It will be obvious and easy for representatives to understand that to seek to provide value to customers is the foundation for profit and profitability since customers provide the primary source of business revenue. Therefore, by basic business logic, customers provide the primary source of business profit and profitability. To take care of the customer is to take of the business by taking care of profit and profitability. There parts of business operations, but none more important. Taking on the spirit and attitude of value encourages individuals to be more energetic toward every aspect of the business since everything and everyone in a business contributes to everything else. Business is symbiotic. People do not work in a vacuum. Therefore, the it’s-not-my-job mentality or the nobody-trained-me mentality does not encourage the symbiosis necessary to ensure that basic business values like high customer worth will be integrated throughout the business. At best it will be marketed or promised but not delivered. This will be obvious to customers, and it will negatively impact brand. Training for value then means not just sitting in an automated classroom for two weeks. Training is ongoing and within everything that a business does whether this is intentional or not. The ideal is to make business values intentional, well-planned, and consistently executed. To do that, those business values must be seen to be important, and there must be a commitment to implement them at every level of the business enterprise. This policy, procedure, and practice becomes the training that will help to create a customer-centric business culture despite trends in America to give only lip service to customer service and by implication to business profit and profitability.
