Mapping Value to See What Matters
A Room Full of Good Ideas… and Something Still Missing
We had the right people…we had energy…we had ideas…there was experience in the room and a genuine willingness to change. Despite all of that, something just wasn’t clicking.
It was a transition workshop, part of our preparation for a significant shift in how we supported the Royal Navy. Historically, the Ministry of Defence, had led the work. Now, within the Surface Ship Support Alliance, industry partners were taking on increased responsibility. Not just to deliver, but to plan, manage, and improve the overall service experience.
The workshop brought together a diverse group: our internal teams, Alliance members, and MOD stakeholders. Everyone contributed valuable insights, ideas, and frustrations, but amidst the discussion, we were lacking some coherence. Suggestions were plentiful, but there was no real shared understanding of how they connected, or whether they would contribute meaningfully to the overall outcome.
I realised we weren’t short on effort, but we were short on structure. We needed a way to step back and see the work not as a collection of tasks, but as a connected flow: a system where the relationships between parts were as critical as the parts themselves.
Why Value Chains Matter
A value chain is far more than a diagram. Done well, it becomes a way of seeing the organisation as a living system - where value is created not in isolation, but through the coordinated, cumulative actions of many.
The concept has its roots in Michael Porter’s work on business strategy, but its real strength lies in its adaptability. A value chain can help organisations in complex environments move from fragmented activity to coherent outcomes.
Most organisations already have process maps, but they tend to be too granular, reinforcing silos and limiting shared perspective. Teams become experts in their own areas but lose sight of how their work influences others. A value chain bridges that gap. It provides a simplified, consistent map - a central spine - that reveals the broader flow of value.
More importantly, it invites better questions:
Where is value actually created?
Where are the hidden dependencies and handoffs?
Which areas, if improved, would unlock the greatest impact?
Are we addressing symptoms, or tackling root causes?
How do we ensure performance aligns with purpose?
Seeing the Business through a different lens
To answer those questions, I led a series of workshops to co-create a value chain that reflected how our organisation actually worked. It wasn’t about imposing a model from the top. Instead, we brought together engineers, planners, support teams, and customer representatives to create something grounded in day-to-day reality.
What we uncovered was powerful. Instead of seeing the business in parts, we began to see it as a whole. We discovered how decisions made early in the chain directly impacted teams operating much further downstream. We overlaid performance data, tracked the origins of rework, and identified where effort was being wasted, and where there was risk or opportunity. For the first time, we had a tool that allowed us to prioritise not based on guesswork or gut feel, but on a shared view of the system.
Conversations shifted. Functional boundaries began to soften, and the focus moved from “what does my team need?” to “where can we collectively make the greatest difference?”. That mindset shift was one of the most valuable results.
Lessons Learned and Common Traps
There was, understandably, some initial resistance. Each part of the ecosystem saw its contribution as critical - and often, it was. The value chain provided a way to hold those truths together, showing both the importance of individual contributions and the even greater impact of alignment.
But it also taught me something else: the biggest trap is to treat the value chain as a static diagram. If it becomes wallpaper, it loses its power. Done right, it should be a living reference point - something used to navigate complexity, challenge assumptions, and guide decisions.
Over time, our value chain did just that. It didn’t replace detailed process maps, but it gave them context. It helped everyone see where they fit, and why it mattered.
Elevating Value Chains to Strategic Leadership
The true power of a value chain isn’t only in helping teams work together more effectively. At a strategic level, it becomes the backbone - the spine of the business - around which performance, investment, and focus can be organised.
When leaders step back and view the value chain at a portfolio level, the flow of work and the creation of value come into sharper focus. This wider lens enables questions that go beyond operational efficiency to strategic choice:
Where should we build deep expertise - the areas that truly differentiate us?
Which activities might we let go of, or streamline, because they no longer add distinctive value?
Where might partnering create a better business outcome or customer experience than working alone?
How do we align investment in people, systems, and processes so the entire chain performs as one?
This portfolio perspective transforms the value chain into more than a diagnostic tool. It becomes a decision-making framework; a way of ensuring that resources, capabilities, and partnerships are aligned to deliver what matters most, both for the business and for its customers.
More Than the Sum of the Parts
In complex organisations, value isn’t created in isolation. It emerges from the alignment of people, processes, decisions, and systems. Without a shared understanding of how things connect, even the best efforts can fall short.
The value chain gave us that understanding. It became a framework for clarity - a backbone that helped link isolated initiatives and foster a sense of purpose across functions. It enabled us to navigate complexity without becoming lost in it.
And done right, a value chain isn’t just a tool. It becomes a mirror: it reflects how the organisation really works, challenges us to face where it doesn’t, and provides a structure to do something about it.
Closing Reflection
What would change if your organisation viewed value not by department, but by flow?
What new possibilities might emerge if you mapped not just your structure, but how you actually deliver impact?
👉 In the next article, I’ll explore service orientation - a framework that distinguishes between customer-facing and internal operations, and how it can help create clarity in transformation.
