CHAPTER 1

A Focus on the Customer

The value of all things, even our lives, depends on the use we make of them.1

Value creation is at the heart of an economic enterprise, defining its capability to serve customers and generate profits and growth. This fact has led to an ever-increasing set of tools and techniques that start with customers, focusing on serving their preferences from the very inception of a product until its disposal. Most of these tools and techniques are based in either marketing or product development, with a constant eye toward helping companies capture more of the value created with their industry chains.

The focus of this book is on one specific, and overlooked, perspective on value creation—management accounting. Using ...

Get Value Creation in Management Accounting now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.