The Customer Value Test: Are We Solving Problems or Simply Selling More? by Arnaud Blandin * [56]

 

Ask a business executive how their company creates value, and you will often hear about revenue growth, profitability, market share, or shareholder returns. These are important indicators. But they tell us how much value a company captures, not necessarily how much value it creates for its customers. A customer does not buy a tire. They buy safe and reliable transportation. They do not buy a heating system. They buy comfort at an affordable running cost. They do not buy software. They buy the ability to accomplish something faster, better, or with less effort.

This distinction becomes particularly interesting when we introduce sustainability. For years, companies have approached sustainability – a concept often misunderstood - as an additional feature: recycled packaging, lower carbon emissions, or greener products. The assumption was that customers would appreciate these efforts and eventually pay a premium. But why should customers pay more simply because a company has reduced the environmental damage caused by making its products? What if sustainability was instead a powerful source of customer value creation?

Rethinking Customer Value – How 3 Companies Made It Happen

Ø    > Michelin: Customers Need More Mobility, Not More Tires

A logistics company operating hundreds of trucks is not primarily interested in buying tires. It wants vehicles on the road, predictable costs, fewer breakdowns, and safe drivers. Michelin understood that distinction. Through its connected fleet solutions, the company offers tire monitoring, maintenance insights, and guidance on extending tire life through practices such as regrooving and retreading. Instead of focusing exclusively on selling more tires, Michelin helps fleet operators manage fuel consumption, reduce breakdown risks, and extend equipment life. The environmental benefits are closely connected: fewer premature replacements, lower material consumption, and potentially lower emissions. Sustainability is not a sacrifice demanded from customers. It is part of a better economic proposition.

Ø     > LIXIL: Making Sanitation Accessible

Consider an entirely different customer: a family living in a rural community without reliable sanitation infrastructure. Japanese manufacturer LIXIL developed its SATO sanitation solutions specifically for communities lacking conventional sewerage and running water. Its products incorporate simple innovations, including self-closing trap doors that reduce odors and keep insects away. Certain models use less than one liter of water per flush, considerably less than conventional toilets. For customers, this is not primarily an environmental proposition. It is about dignity, hygiene, safety, convenience, and affordability. Water efficiency matters because water can be scarce, costly, or physically difficult to obtain. Simple installation matters because sophisticated infrastructure may not exist. LIXIL demonstrates that sustainable innovation does not necessarily mean premium products for environmentally conscious consumers. It can mean making essential services accessible to previously underserved markets.

Ø     > Interface: Designing for the Entire Product Life

Interface, the commercial flooring manufacturer, offers another illustration. Traditional flooring can be expensive and disruptive to replace, particularly in offices and commercial buildings. Interface's modular carpet tiles allow customers to replace damaged sections rather than entire floors. The company has also invested in recycled materials and take-back systems. For facilities managers, the proposition is straightforward: flexibility, easier maintenance, less disruption, and potentially lower lifetime costs. For the environment, extending product life and replacing fewer materials can reduce waste and resource consumption. The innovation is not simply a lower-carbon carpet. It is a different understanding of what customers need from a floor over many years.

7 Principles to Reimagine Value Creation

These examples illustrate something I have observed while working with hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs, and investors every year: sustainability becomes commercially relevant when it changes how businesses understand and create value. This observation contributed to my development of the Seven Principles of a Sustainable Business, a framework connecting business performance with human flourishing and environmental responsibility.

The principles offer seven complementary questions:

1. Purpose: What positive contribution does our business exist to make?
2. Growth: Can we grow while respecting planetary boundaries?
3. Stakeholders: Are we creating value with our customers, employees, suppliers, and communities?
4. Environmental footprint: Do we understand and manage the resources we consume and the pollution we generate?
5. Value creation: Are we creating value beyond financial metrics?
6. Resilience: Will our business remain relevant and capable of adapting over time?
7. Impact: Can we demonstrate that our activities genuinely improve lives and environmental outcomes?

These are not seven additional sustainability reporting requirements. They are lenses through which to reconsider business models and strategic decisions. It demystifies sustainability to illustrate that it is a hard set of requirements that act as a compass and not as a binary answer to ‘are we sustainable’?

Michelin illustrates how a different understanding of customer needs can support resource efficiency. LIXIL demonstrates how innovation can combine commercial opportunities with improved human well-being. Interface shows how product design can connect customer experience, lifecycle economics, and environmental performance. None of these examples implies that the companies have achieved perfect sustainability. They demonstrate how specific business decisions can align customer value with wider benefits.

From Customer Satisfaction to Customer Outcomes

There is another distinction worth making. Most companies measure how satisfied customers are. Far fewer measure whether customers actually achieve the outcomes they purchased the product to obtain. Consider a company selling employee training. It may report thousands of training hours, excellent satisfaction ratings, and growing customer accounts. But did employees develop new capabilities? Did their performance improve? Did their organization become more productive? Many companies still report the number of employees taking a sustainability training for instance instead of real and solid outcomes. The same applies to software. The number of licenses sold tells us little about whether customers make better decisions.

Outputs are what companies deliver. Outcomes are what customers actually gain. This distinction should change how managers define success. Instead of measuring only sales, customer satisfaction, and retention, we should ask whether customers are genuinely better off because our products exist. And we should consider the entire experience: acquisition cost, usage, reliability, health, environmental consequences, and long-term benefits. This is where customer value and sustainability converge.

The Next Frontier of Customer Value

We are entering an extraordinary period of technological progress. Artificial intelligence, advanced materials, biotechnology, and increasingly sophisticated data systems offer opportunities to redesign how we satisfy customer needs. But technology alone does not create value. It amplifies whatever objectives we give it. An AI system designed solely to maximize purchases might become extremely effective at encouraging consumption. A system designed to improve customer outcomes might instead help customers avoid unnecessary expenses, use fewer resources, or make better decisions. Both could generate revenue. Their contributions to customer welfare would be very different.

The future of customer value is not simply about extracting more revenue from each relationship. It is about becoming more useful to customers while ensuring that the value created today does not undermine their well-being tomorrow. Perhaps the most important question a company can ask is no longer "How can we sell more to our customers?" Rather, it is: "How much better off are our customers because we exist—and how can we improve that contribution?" Answering that question might be one of the most powerful sources of innovation and durable business growth.

* Arnaud Blandin is an entrepreneur, educator, and author of The 7 Principles of a Sustainable Business: A Decision Playbook for Purpose, Nature, and Long-Term Value Creation (Springer, 2026). He works with executives, investors, and entrepreneurs on building businesses that reconcile profitable growth with positive societal and environmental impacts. He may be reached at arnaud@arnaudblandin.com