[SOUND] As discussed in module one, the value chain represents the key internal activities that a firm performs to create, deliver, and capture value. So we can think of the organization as a bundle of activities or some may say, a bundle of tigs. These activities are carried out and managed by the individuals in the organization. These activities should be well aligned to support the organizational strategy for its products and/or services. In this module, we will gain an understanding of the complexity of WCSC organization by mapping some of its key activities. The activity map's charge to organizational key activities to illustrate these activities and their linkages to the value chain proposition and as well as to each other. The activities may be those that contribute to creating customer value as well as for cost management. Let us think of the activities map as a visualization tool to help understand the connection between activities that I carry forward to build upon the organizational strategy. The activity map can help you see how well each activity supports, through our positioning of the organization, its products and services in terms of the market need that has been met. The customer that is being served, how the customer's been served, and the profit contribution as a result of transaction with the customer. So how can we build an activity map? So we start with what should make a firm different from any other competitor in the market, its value proposition. The value proposition refers to the an organization that helps a potential customer gets the job done more conveniently, effectively and/or more affordably. What will make a customer buy and continue to use your product and your service? Next to deliver on a value proposition, there are number of key activities that are carried out. Some of these activities could generate cost for the firm, other activities could create high value or could be a combination of both or multiple outcomes. But once the key core values preposition elements are identified, we can then draw those connections between activities in which the firm is engaged, and the value chain elements to understand how they contribute to each other and how they impact one another. So let's do an example. The idea behind value chain in this activity map is not not identified the best activities or those that you only want to highlight, but just try to get a general sense of all activities that the organization is conducting in general. And so in this example, I'd like to have this hypothetical organization, and the first step is to kind of identify what you perceive as the key most valuable elements, the value proposition elements for the organization. So let's imagine this organization has three of those elements. So let's start out. One of those will be corporate funding. And let's say another one is standard setting. Let's say for example that one is attract and hire key experts in the industry. So these make up the key components of the valued proposition elements. So these are connected. These are the elements that the organisation believe as a result of these being at the core they are able to deliver high value to their organisation as well as to their customer base. And so what activities will an organisation engage in to deliver on this value proposition element? And so let's just consider four for this brief example. In this case one could be globally dispersed. Another one for example, long lead term to market. And now another one, broker for contract agreements. And let's have as a final one that their products encapsulate the standards. So you can think of this hypothetical organization, which of these core elements in the middle, these value proposition elements, also corresponds to those key activities? So in the case of cooperative funding, there could be a link between brokering. Or contract agreements, there could be a linkage in that case between perhaps long lead time to market. Those work. And then in the next case where going to look at in terms of there standard setting of value proposition, this might be that the products encapsulate all standards. They are able to be globally dispersed, and if we look at also globally dispersed, we could see it probably connected to the fact that they also have implored all the user service of key experts in the industry. So the idea behind this value map is for you to first map out what you think those core elements are, these first three. The key experts, cooperative fund and standard setting, and then other activities that the core organization might engage in, in terms of the activities that to deliver on that value proposition, which might be the long lead time to market, broker contract agreement, being globally dispersed, and affected their products encapsulate the standards. And so the idea behind value map and activity map that you will be constructing is a look at the documentation that's included in the case. And then go about the process of trying to identify what do you believe are their core value proposition elements that they deliver, and then what different activities do you believe or you assume that they are engaged in, in order to deliver on those. And then connect those elements. And then additionally you can look at the elements themselves, the activities, and say how might they be related? So in terms of long lead time to market, there might be a connection between the fact that those products encapsulate standards. And so as we go through the map, you just try to look at those linkages then and relationships. So there you can, in the analysis phase you can go through and see does this increase cost, does this impact value? And so this process allows us to then look at each activity that organization is engaged, and also to look that the organization's overall strategy. Their value proposition, how do those elements line up to create better profitability and higher organization overall success and performance. So the benefits of the activity map to the value change management is that it allows you to identify strong positive and/or negative interactions and relationships between these activities. To possibly identify any misalignments with the strategy, as well as activities being performed by the firm, and also there's an opportunity to identify those potential missing activities in our relationships. To practice this lesson, we considered the content of the case study, and we built an activity map for WCSC. Be sure to discuss the rationale for your decisions in terms of the value propositions, what you've chosen as key activities, and also how they're connected and linked together. Thank you so much for your time and see you soon.
