Chapter 3 : The Leader and the Value Creation
Carlos CONTRERAS
🚀 Business Developer | Logistics & Supply Chain Strategist | Operations Leader | Partnership & Innovation Expert
In business, we often confuse value with results. Metrics like revenue, profitability, growth, and efficiency dominate reports, investor calls, and even internal dashboards. But these numbers are only the surface of something deeper. They are not value in themselves, they are the results of value being created, delivered, and recognized by others.
Real value exists when a product, a service, or a decision actually solves a problem, meets a need, or makes a life easier. In other words, value exists in the eyes of the receiver, the customer who chooses to buy again, the employee who decides to stay and contribute, the shareholder who reinvests in trust.
In The Economy (Oxford), value is defined simply:
“Value is created when goods or services are useful to someone, and that someone chooses to give something in return.”
This sounds obvious. Yet in most organizations, the conversation around value is fragmented. Each stakeholder group, customers, employees, shareholders, has its own definition. And too often, one group’s interests dominate while the others are seen as costs, risks, or constraints.
But long-term, no organization can survive on value that flows in just one direction.
Customers want more than transactions. They expect relevance, ease, and a brand they can trust. Employees want more than salaries. They look for purpose, belonging, and the chance to grow. Shareholders seek more than quarterly returns. They look for strategy, resilience, and consistent performance.
Balancing these expectations isn’t a communication task. It’s a leadership responsibility.
The Leader and the Value Creation
In this landscape of competing definitions and priorities, the leader plays a role no one else can. Not because they have more power, but because they have more perspective.
The leader is the only figure in the organization who moves continuously across levels and departments, navigating between teams, markets, and boardrooms. This unique position offers them the ability to listen to many voices, and to recognize patterns that others don’t see.
Where most people operate inside their function, the leader connects them. They hear what frustrates the logistics team, what excites the commercial team, what pressures the finance team faces, and what concerns investors raise. More importantly, they begin to understand what motivates each group, how each defines success, and where misalignment slows things down.
This gives the leader something critical:
The ability to align people—not by forcing agreement, but by translating priorities.
Leadership, at its core, is not just about setting goals or creating strategy. It’s about making value understandable. And making value understandable starts by understanding people: what they care about, what they hope for, and what they’re afraid to lose.
When a leader takes the time to listen with intent, to truly understand the motivations behind the data, they gain the ability to connect people through meaning.
They don’t just say, “Here’s the direction.” They explain, “Here’s why this matters to us—and to you.”
They don’t impose alignment. They create it.
From Motivation to Alignment: Communicating Value in Action
Once the leader understands what drives people, their vision of value, their sense of what matters, then the next step is to make that visible across the organization. This happens through intentional communication.
Let’s be honest: most organizations are very good at setting KPIs. Goals are defined. Dashboards are built. Progress is tracked weekly. And yes, KPIs are necessary. They provide structure, clarity, and performance visibility. But they are not enough.
Because a number is not a reason. And people don’t give their best for numbers alone.
When performance becomes only about metrics, work becomes a task. And when work becomes a task, engagement fades. People start doing the minimum required. They protect their own lane. They stop asking why, and simply focus on how.
But the best organizations, the ones that outperform, grow sustainably, and attract talent, are different. In these places, leaders go beyond KPIs. They explain the story behind the number. They show who benefits when a goal is reached. They make it personal, and they connect each person’s contribution to something larger than their job description.
When this happens, something powerful is unlocked.
People begin to care more. They ask better questions. They challenge the process to improve outcomes, not just to meet a target, but to increase impact. They go beyond what was asked, not because they’re told to, but because they want to.
This is when value creation becomes a shared priority.
It’s no longer something owned by leadership or strategy, it’s something owned by the entire team.
But for that to happen, communication must go deeper. It must move from instruction to interpretation, from “what” to “why.” And this is where leadership transforms from functional to transformational.
A Leadership Case: Alibaba and the Architecture of Shared Value
Over the past years, I’ve had the privilege of working within Alibaba Group—and few experiences have given me such clarity about the connection between leadership, value creation, and communication.
From the beginning, Alibaba has positioned itself as more than a platform or a tech giant. It was built with a purpose: to help others succeed. That “other” was the small merchant in a remote province of China, the local entrepreneur trying to reach new customers, the business owner who didn’t have access to capital or logistics support.
This mission wasn’t just inspirational, it was strategic. It defined how the company would grow, whom it would serve first, and how it would earn trust in a rapidly evolving market.
Jack Ma captured this priority in one simple sentence:
“Customers first, employees second, shareholders third.”
This is not just a value statement, it is a leadership framework. It guides how the company makes trade-offs, how it communicates internally, and how it builds resilience.
For instance, when Alibaba launched Taobao in 2003 to compete with eBay, it chose not to charge listing fees. It put the needs of small businesses above early revenue. This was not a tactical move, it was a decision rooted in long-term value: if small merchants could grow, the ecosystem would grow. And if the ecosystem grew, Alibaba would grow with it.
The same logic applied inside the company. Communication at Alibaba is clear, honest, and deeply human. People are not just asked to execute, they are invited to understand. Strategy is not hidden behind complexity, it is shared in a way that makes people feel included, even when decisions are hard.
Jack Ma explained it well to his teams:
“If your employees are happy, they will make your customers happy. And if your customers are happy, your shareholders will be happy.”
This mindset creates clarity, and clarity builds trust. Even during the company’s IPO, this principle held firm. In his letter to shareholders, Ma wrote:
“We believe that focusing on customers and employees will ultimately benefit shareholders.”
These weren’t just words. During the COVID-19 crisis, Alibaba waived fees, subsidized logistics, and protected merchants, putting the long-term health of the ecosystem ahead of short-term gain.
But what struck me most as an insider is not just the consistency of priorities—but the transparency around them. Leadership at Alibaba doesn’t pretend to satisfy everyone. It makes priorities visible, explains the reasoning behind them, and invites people to act with purpose, not just compliance.
That, to me, is one of the clearest examples of leadership in action.
Not managing expectations, but shaping shared motivation.
Leadership is not just about building direction, it’s about building meaning.
..... And meaning begins when people understand the value they create.
People want to know that their work makes a difference. That what they do isn’t just part of a process, but part of a purpose. KPIs give structure, but they don’t give soul. When performance becomes just a number, motivation fades. But when people see how their work impacts the customer, the team, and the company’s future, they start to care in a different way.
They go beyond the task. They stretch beyond the goal. They innovate not because they’re told to, but because they believe it matters.
This is the moment when value creation becomes personal. And that’s what the leader must make possible.
The final mission of the leader is not only to define value at the strategic level, but to make it visible to everyone, at every level.
To help people see their contribution.
To remind them, clearly and consistently:
“You are creating value. You matter here.”
#LeadershipDevelopment #ValueCreation #PurposeDrivenLeadership #OrganizationalAlignment
#AlibabaGroup #LeadershipStrategy #CarlosContreras #TheLeadershipCode #EmployeeEngagement
#LeadershipCommunication #StakeholderAlignment
📚 References
• The Economy – Oxford University Press
• Good Strategy / Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt
• Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built – Duncan Clark
👥 Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
If this article resonated with you, I invite you to:
✅ Read the previous chapters in this series:
Humility in Leadership :
Trust as a Leadership Currency :
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trust-leadership-currency-carlos-contreras-bk91e
💬 Comment below: How do you help your team see the value they create?
🔁 Share this post with someone who believes in building leadership through meaning, not just authority.