The ABC of L.O.V.E. (Lots Of Value for Everyone)

The ABC of L.O.V.E. (Lots Of Value for Everyone)

Yesterday I found that my teenage daughter created a sophisticated ABM (Activity-Based Management) strategy for her own life.

About two years ago she decided she wanted to become an IT Engineer. Tough challenge considering the Public University access grades! Therefore, she set her value creation goals accordingly. Pretending she was an organization, the value in tangible terms would be to achieve the highest profit (or grades) and in intangible terms would be to improve efficiency (meaning, to be happy) and raise customer satisfaction (keep us happy).

But, how has she been leading this mission?

Photo credit: https://loveisabella.wordpress.com/tag/ballet/

In recent years, through a process of capturing data from ABC (Activity-Based Costing), she analyzed her own activities, cost drivers and performance. Over time she has gained expertise in identifying the causes of redundant costs (or wasted time) and redesigned the process to become more eficient: she eliminated the non-value-added activity with highest materiality (the two daily hours of ballet she so viscerally hated in the same proportion to how proud we were!...) and put in place value-added activities (capitalize the free time on Instagram). 

Photo credit: https://www.stocksy.com/

WHAT?? 

«Mom, you must realize that I'm interacting with my friends. The mobile phone is just a means! What about the networking, you are always talking about? And how do you think I can become an IT Engineer without technology?», she argues. 

To reinforce her view, she shows the ABM metrics that monitor her performance versus goals set earlier: her average grade of 19/20 has never been so high (check), she's happy (check) and we can only be too (check)!... On top of that, she captured the highest value from “customers” as going out more frequently with friends.

Why do I feel there was some distortion along the way of this ABM system?