One ever present idea in the mind of an entrepreneur is how to create value for consumers. In the film "Tucker, the Man and His Dream" we see excellent examples of this. Trying to fulfill his dream of creating a modernized and futuristic car, it all centers around value creation for families.
Throughout the movie, Tucker does a phenomenal job creating value. He finds a gap in the market of safe family cars, and is able to create tremendous value for that target audience. There are several times during the film when he demonstrates just how good he is at value creation. A great example of this is his roast beef lunch with the government officials. He is able to cleverly convince them to let him run his manufacturing plant after he shows them image after image of horrific automobile accidents.
However, this is not the most interesting part of the movie to me. The most interesting part is that he ultimately fails. Despite the crazy response that the public has to his car, he gets plagued with bad news after bad news, much of it coming from the government or the big three, all of which are trying to see him fail.
Time after time we are told that if we can only create enough value for the consumer, then we will succeed. Obviously this is not the case. Tucker is seemingly able to create huge advances in terms of consumer value, but this time, society and largely outside forces drive Tucker and his dream into the ground.
Value creation has huge impacts on the society around it. When value is created, especially when that value seems more valuable than the current options, it causes consumers to make choices. Do they stick with whatever they currently have? Or do they make the logical choice and switch to the supposedly better item? The switch can lead to huge potential losses, as no one can perfectly know the future. Just like the company's investors in the film lose out, anyone is capable of making a bad business decision even when value seems high. However, not making the switch to something of higher value means could result in worlds of missed opportunity. The consumer never knows for certain the outcome.
Just like how value creation affects the society around it, society also affects the idea of value creation. We see in the film that the government and the big three don't particularly care for the supposed value that Tucker is creating. They end up having enough sway to get Tucker into legal trouble, and ultimately lead to the downfall of his idea. Even though he was acquitted in the end, the damage was done. The greed and power of certain societies set up a brick wall for Tucker and his idea, not allowing him to create value. (They also ended up stealing may of his ideas for themselves, but that is a topic for another paper)
The interaction then, between an entrepreneur and society, is a constant give and take. The entrepreneur must always create value, and the consumer must always choose the thing with higher value. When consumers are unable to choose the thing with the higher value, problems rise. Innovation then falters, because there is no reason to do anything different. This stifling of innovation can be a killer to society. We know from our discussions about the ripple effect that there is much more happening than just a one time purchase of a single item. Many seen and unseen reactions then sprout forth, which helps a society thrive. Thus we see that it is a necessity that consumers be able to always choose high value goods so that innovation can thrive.
