Naked Value: Six Things Every Business Leader Needs to Know about Resources, Innovation & Competition - Softcover

Naked value is the ultimate value a product delivers to customers, or the benefits that remain when a product is stripped of most of the energy and material resources required to manufacture and deliver it.

Technological advances, resource constraints, and emerging scientific knowledge are rapidly reshaping business. Future industry leaders will be the companies that succeed in providing the most benefits to customers with the fewest resources.

The authors of Naked Value show businesses how to improve a product’s competitive advantage in a dynamic marketplace, one where companies are delivering light without light bulbs, portable power without batteries, and warmth without insulation. They demonstrate why a company’s success today depends on:

Reducing resource inputs

Identifying unrecognized competitors

Understanding that customers don’t really want products

Naked Value: Six Things Every Business Leader Needs to Know About Resources, Innovation & Competition is a practical guide filled with cutting-edge examples and fresh perspectives on business strategy and sustainable design. It’s an indispensable companion for business leaders,
designers, architects, engineers, and investors.

Howard J. Brown has founded several business ventures to help companies align good business and environmental practices. For more than 20 years as CEO of Resource Planning & Management Systems (RPM), Inc., in New Haven, Connecticut, he worked with major companies such as Duracell, Avery Dennison, Mobil, GE, John Deere, Whirlpool, Warner Lambert, and Pfizer to establish or enhance their environmental practices and performance. His proven techniques are still state-of-the-art at universities and corporations around the globe today, and he continues to push the leading edge with new ideas. He was a founder of The World Game Institute and taught at Yale and at Wesleyan University. Howard was also student and colleague of R. Buckminster Fuller and is an authority on the social and economic implications of Fuller’s work. Kristin Aldred Cheek is a sustainable business practitioner focused on helping businesses identify the benefits customers desire from products and understand the relationship between resources, products, and value. Her experience includes advising companies on energy efficiency and resource performance and managing communications for companies engaged in environmental cleanup projects. She has expertise in social science research and has conducted studies on public participation in natural resource management and on the economic impacts of natural resource use. Kathryn Lewis is an entrepreneur with expertise in business system analysis and performance optimization. Kathryn has written about resources and their relationship to metrics, waste minimization, logistics, and supply chain management and has presented dMASS research and innovations to audiences in Europe and the United States. Kathryn’s previous work includes developing an online network regarding energy harvesting and conducting marketing analyses for a global logistics company.