In the previous post we began to explore the question of “value” as it relates to our practices. We left off a second part of that e-mail exchange with a recent visitor. Today we will explore the other aspect of the exchange. Our visitor stated:

…There are two objectives in business. One is to make money which is directly linked to the metrics. The [other] is employee satisfaction which probably ends up with more profit eventually…

I responded:

I enjoy business philosophy discussions as well.  Our focus of attention (the only real metric we are concerned with) is the “widespread adoption” of the products we build for our clients.  This denotes true value (i.e. we worked on something and someone thought enough about our efforts that they were not only willing to pay money to buy it, but they also found so much value in its use that they actually ENJOYED using it!).  Our assumption is that profit will fall out of this equation as a natural by-product.  So far, so good.  Eight years in business, eight years of healthy profit (in Michigan! with almost entirely Michigan customers! all Michigan-based talent who enjoy competitive pay and great benefits).

To reinforce the above point, I’ve captured below an unsolicited testimonial from the customer of one of our clients. I can’t think of a better way to express value for our efforts than the quote below from a happy user of the Accuri C6 flow cytometer and the CFlow software Menlo created for Accuri.

…You guys have done an AMAZING job so far, the Accuri software is wonderful.  I have passed along some suggestions to Grant as I find little bugs and quirks that need fixing, but as a first time out of the box, it really is a home run.  I’ve been in the field for longer than I would like to admit and have seen some pretty horrible software over the last 25 years!  Please pass on my congratulations to everyone on your team.

Kind regards,
Steve McClellan
Senior Biological Scientist
University of Florida
Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research(ICBR)-
Flow Cytometry Core Laboratories

Thanks to Steve McClellan and Accuri Cytometers for giving us permission to use this quote. Quite frankly, it made our day and we’re glad we can share it with you.