Peter Drucker says “Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay for what is of use to them and gives them value.”
Warren Buffet has been quoted as saying “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”
Both suggest value is in the eye of the receiver.
I love these words - if you can be sure of anything you can be sure that whatever follows this phrase will be exactly that. I heard it used most recently at a senior team event I was facilitating when the ‘discussion’ between team members got a little heated. What I then found interesting was that, when the person who said it - and indeed followed it with a personal attack - was challenged on her behaviour, she shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘I was just being authentic’. I realised how easy it is, when under pressure, to misuse such a positive and powerful word - and deliver a devastating personal blow to the receiver.