The hottest Value Creation Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Correct vs Good

General Robots • 383 implied HN points • 11 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Product Development Software Engineering Robotics User Experience Value Creation
  1. Being correct means having a product that works as intended—it's stable, bug-free, and meets specifications. However, it can be very costly to reach near-perfect correctness.
  2. Being good is about providing value and meeting customer needs. There's no limit to how good a product can become, and making something better is always beneficial.
  3. To improve a product, it's essential to iterate quickly based on real customer feedback. This helps in learning what features work best and keeps development moving efficiently.

Against loose feedback loops for young professionals

Optima & Outliers • 179 implied HN points • 24 Jun 24
💼 Business Startups Corporate culture Professional development Value Creation Career Advice
  1. Working at big companies can teach you specialized skills, but they often don't show you how your work contributes to the bigger picture. You might learn things that are valuable in a small circle but not necessarily important for real-world impact.
  2. Starting your career at a startup can be more beneficial for developing broader skills. You'll see the direct results of your work, and it pushes you to understand what really delivers value to customers.
  3. If you want a career where you can make a real impact and create valuable products, it's worth considering spending some time outside of large corporations to gain that experience.

Long-Chain Marketing: How Data Engineering & Data Management Create Value For The Business

High ROI Data Science • 297 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
💼 Business Data Engineering Data Management Value Creation Marketing
  1. Understanding the long-chain in marketing is crucial for connecting business outcomes with data and metrics.
  2. Data engineering and knowledge management are essential for transforming data into valuable assets that can be monetized by the business.
  3. Long-chain marketing involves seeing marketing efforts as part of a longer sequence of actions that lead to business outcomes, rather than standalone events.

Product Delivery Guide

Untrapping Product Teams • 334 implied HN points • 19 Jul 23
💼 Business Product Management Value Creation Team Collaboration
  1. Product delivery is about creating value steadily, not just following a plan.
  2. Key aspects of product delivery include organizing the product backlog, refining tasks, aligning goals, and delivering value consistently.
  3. Be mindful of common traps like treating the product backlog as a wishlist, separating discovery from delivery, and focusing only on output instead of outcomes.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Letter #97: Henry Kravis (2004)

A Letter a Day • 216 implied HN points • 04 Jul 23
💼 Business Private Equity Investing Value Creation
  1. The private equity industry has evolved over the past three decades, facing challenges due to its success.
  2. Private equity firms need to start adding value to their investments from day one, not just in year two.
  3. Success in private equity today requires skilled people, disciplined approach to managing operations, and global opportunities.

Appreciation is scarce

Connecting Dots • 2 HN points • 02 Sep 24
🎭️ Culture Appreciation Community Value Creation Workplace dynamics Human condition
  1. Appreciation is hard to come by in our work and lives. Many people feel unrecognized for their efforts, especially in the workplace.
  2. Creating value for others is important but can be challenging. It often requires understanding their needs and finding ways to meet them.
  3. We should think of appreciation as a long-term goal, like charging a battery. By focusing on the positives we've achieved and building supportive communities, we can keep ourselves motivated.

Ivory towers jeopardize value creation

Ageling on Agile • 59 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
💼 Business Management Collaboration Value Creation Organizational Culture Agile methodologies
  1. Ivory towers in organizations can create conflict and hinder collaboration between teams with different objectives.
  2. To foster value creation, it's essential for individuals in leadership positions to step down from ivory towers and actively collaborate with all stakeholders.
  3. Blocking the learning loop by maintaining ivory towers can lead to wasted time, effort, and money, hindering the organization's ability to adapt in a fast-changing world.

10 Years of Solo Consulting

burkhardstubert • 159 implied HN points • 01 Jun 23
💼 Business Consulting Freelancing Entrepreneurship Work-life balance Value Creation
  1. Going solo as a consultant can be a great decision, leading to better income, work-life balance, and personal fulfillment. It allows for more freedom and opportunities to enjoy life outside of work.
  2. Positioning your services based on expertise rather than price is essential. It helps attract the right clients and reduces competition by showcasing what makes you unique.
  3. Listening to client needs is crucial for success. Asking open-ended questions about their future goals helps identify how you can provide the most value.

Why CEOs are the very last job that AI will replace

The Future of Life • 19 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
💼 Business Management Leadership Strategy Value Creation Corporate Governance
  1. CEOs are more than just financial managers; they serve as agents of the owners and have a broad range of responsibilities. Their main job is to implement the company's mission and make key value judgments that drive the business's success.
  2. AI may become very smart, but it can't replace the human ability to make complex value judgments. For example, deciding which products align with a company's values requires deep understanding and insight that AI doesn't have.
  3. Maximizing profits is not just about cutting costs; it's about pursuing a clear mission. Just like individuals find success by following their goals, businesses need a strong mission to guide their decisions.

Fair Price Theory

Tom Thought • 39 implied HN points • 26 May 23
💼 Business Economics Pricing Market Dynamics Value Creation Labor Market
  1. Every good or service has a fair price, whether it's labor dependent on skill or a product based on cost of parts and labor.
  2. There is no definitive 'fair' price, only the market price determined by what people are willing to pay.
  3. Value of a product depends on consumer demand, not just on the labor or materials that went into it. Pay isn't determined solely by skill, but by usefulness and rarity of the skill in demand.

The Trillion Dollar Question

Venture Prose • 259 implied HN points • 04 Feb 21
💼 Business Venture Capital Market Analysis Technology Companies Revenue Generation Value Creation
  1. Demand can only be served if there is supply. Market issues arise when the supply can't meet the artificial demand.
  2. Venture capital-backed companies in the US needed around $3 trillion in capital to sustain growth, questioning the sustainability of valuations and cash requirements in the tech industry.
  3. The rapid growth of non-profitable tech companies raises concerns about whether the market can support the increasing cash requirements, potentially indicating an unsustainable pace.

The Platformization of Brands

Platform Papers • 19 implied HN points • 09 Nov 22
💼 Business Brands Platforms Value Creation
  1. Brands are facing challenges in maintaining direct contact with consumers in the current platform era dominated by intermediaries like Amazon and Alibaba.
  2. To combat this, brands are creating their own platform offerings to establish intimate relationships with consumers and address their various needs associated with the core product.
  3. Managers transitioning to a flagship platform model must carefully plan their vision, strategic goals, and value creation processes to meet the diverse needs of consumers while relinquishing control in certain areas.

Follow the value: How to sanity check startup ideas

Afridigest • 7 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
💼 Business Startup Ideas Value Creation Entrepreneurship
  1. Value creation is crucial for business success - make things that people want to create value.
  2. Many startups fail because they do not provide value to their customers, leading to issues like market need, product-market fit, and market adoption.
  3. Avoid the mistake of building something only based on what you think users want - ensure that your startup idea plausibly creates value.

New social credit formalizations

world spirit sock stack • 1 implied HN point • 11 Mar 24
📖 Philosophy Trust Status Value Creation
  1. Classic ways to earn social credit include doing favors, being consistent and nice, being impressive, doing things people like, and negotiating relationships with responsibilities.
  2. The concept of owing someone has been turned into a detailed, global quantitative system, leading to significant economic activities.
  3. Other forms of social credit are semi-formalized, such as social media likes and follows, but may not drive the same level of activity as the formalized financial system.

Activist Value Investing: Be your own "change" agent

Musings on Markets • 0 implied HN points • 25 Jun 12
💰 Finance Investing Corporate Governance Stock Market Value Creation Activism
  1. Activist value investing is when investors actively work to change how a company is run in order to increase its value. This approach lets investors feel more in control of their investments.
  2. There are different types of value: market value, status quo value, and optimal value. Understanding these helps investors see how much more a poorly managed company could be worth if it's run better.
  3. If you can't be an activist investor, you can either invest in companies targeted by activists or look for poorly managed companies that might be targeted in the future.

Innovating Means Harnessing Predictability ⌚

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
💼 Business Innovation Product Management Workplace dynamics Value Creation
  1. Product-oriented work requires creating space and time for innovation by understanding and modeling work mix within a team.
  2. Investing time in the innovation quadrant is crucial as it focuses on creating new value for customers, ensuring relevance and competitiveness.
  3. To prioritize product-oriented work, teams can progress by retro-ing emergencies, automating ops tasks, and streamlining housekeeping activities.

Embrace The Journey 🏔

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 29 Mar 22
💼 Business Management Goals Workplace culture Motivation Value Creation
  1. Successful companies are mission-oriented with a relentless focus on ultimate goals, leading to higher alignment and scalability.
  2. Individuals, like organizations, are goal-seeking, and goals require deliberate action for achievement. Goals can demonstrate ability and provide a measure of success.
  3. Balancing goal-orientation and journey-orientation is crucial. While goals are essential for producing value, valuing the journey and inclusivity can lead to meaningful experiences and attract like-minded individuals.