Understanding value

“The cost of something we understand, but rarely the value.”

It was said years ago. I was interviewing Rachel DeLap, manager of Showtime Pizza & Cinema, before the reopening of this rural Midwest movie theater. She was smart, the kind of smart that is experienced, not learned.

I have come back to that statement many times in my life as I’ve watched good people walk away from jobs they love because their company didn’t understand value vs. cost.

“The cost of something we understand, but rarely the value.”

Too often the only focus is the cost without adding to the scale the benefit that person adds to the organization: the value of their historical knowledge, the speed of completing work they’ve rehearsed hundreds of times, the respect for the process and the people, the willingness to go a little bit farther than what is expected, the intuition to know the next right step on their own.

Often the cost for them to stay is simple: a bit more money, a tad more respect, an apology, a thank you, a second chance. Is that really too high a cost?

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” Warren Buffet

This blog originally appeared July 31, 2002 in Tributes by Judy Mae Bingman