CypherCrescent
Module 8•Unit 3 of 7•11 min

The Three Value Groups

Within its hunting grounds, a business can pursue three fundamentally different value strategies - depending on where a given Foundation of Value sits on its S-curve (recall Module 6). GInI groups the seven Growth Pathways into these three value groups. Understanding them tells you what kind of play each pathway is.

1. Value Extraction

Extracting the maximum possible value from a declining Foundation of Value. Not investing for further growth - just harvesting what remains from a foundation past its peak.

2. Value Capture

Continuing to capture as much value as possible from an existing (growing or maturing) Foundation of Value - nurturing it and applying it more broadly. Sometimes called "stretching the current S-curve".

3. Value Creation

Creating entirely new Foundations of Value. Sometimes called "building new S-curves". Larger investment, higher risk, bigger potential payback - the source of long-term resilience.

Group FoV state Investment / risk / payback
Value ExtractionDecliningMinimal / low / harvest
Value CaptureGrowing / maturingSmaller / lower / smaller
Value CreationNewLarger / higher / bigger
Value Capture (stretching current curves) can grow the business at lower risk - but it is finite. To ensure long-term resilience, a business must, from time to time, invest in Value Creation - building genuinely new foundations of value. Both grow the business, but only creation renews it for the next generation.
Discuss

Across your current innovation efforts, how much sits in Value Extraction, Capture, and Creation? Is any real value-creation happening, or is it all capture and harvest?

Try this at work this week
Sort your current initiatives into the three groups. If Value Creation is empty, that is your resilience gap - and a prompt to fund at least one new-foundation bet, even a small one.

Sources

  1. Global Innovation Institute (GInI), Foundations of Innovation - GInI Growth Strategy Roadmap.
  2. Foster, R., Innovation: The Attacker's Advantage, 1986 (S-curves).
  3. Global Innovation Institute (GInI), body of knowledge.