Overview

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Creating Customer Value explores how organizations build competitive advantage by increasing customer willingness to pay. Learners are introduced to Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee’s Value Stick framework and discover how creating customer value, making effective pricing decisions, and capturing that value drive business success. Through real-world examples, learners examine strategic decisions that strengthen demand, improve pricing, and create lasting competitive advantage. This course is ideal for professionals seeking to enhance their strategic thinking and customer-focused decision-making.

Syllabus

What Is Value Creation?

Why do some companies consistently outperform seemingly similar competitors? In this module, you will examine how value creation drives competitive advantage and financial performance. Through strategic frameworks, company examples, and financial analysis, you will explore how successful firms increase customer willingness to pay and create superior returns.

Willingness to Pay

Why are customers willing to pay more for some products, brands, and experiences than others? In this module, you will examine willingness to pay as a core driver of value creation and competitive advantage. Through auction dynamics, customer behavior scenarios, and strategic analysis, you'll explore how perceptions of quality, convenience, identity, and competition shape customer preferences—and why understanding willingness to pay is essential for making effective strategic decisions.

The Value Stick

Why do some companies create more value than competitors—even when they sell similar products at similar prices? In this module, you'll explore the value stick, a powerful framework for understanding how value is created, shared, and captured across customers, companies, suppliers, and employees. Through the turnaround of the company Best Buy, and insights from former CEO Hubert Joly, you will examine how organizations can strengthen competitive advantage by increasing willingness to pay, improving margins, and creating value across the broader business ecosystem.

Capturing and Sharing Value

Why do some companies achieve superior performance without charging the highest prices or capturing all the value they create? In this module, you will examine how firms capture and share value through pricing decisions, customer surplus, and supplier relationships. Through examples from Best Buy and other leading organizations, you'll explore how effective pricing strategies, value sharing, and dual advantage can strengthen competitive position and drive long-term profitability.

Conclusion

Why do some companies consistently outperform competitors? In this concluding module, you will bring together the course's core concepts—including value creation, willingness to pay, the value stick, and value capture—to examine how firms build and sustain competitive advantage. Through a final strategic dialogue, you will apply these frameworks to a realistic business challenge, evaluate tradeoffs, and defend recommendations using the principles developed throughout the course.