Cakes, taxes and value

I come from a small town in the Western part of Jutland and aside from red sausages (don’t ask) I was brought up on really good, traditional bakers bread (and it showed).

For the same reason, I have always found Lagkagehuset to be almost a profanity.

I mean: How can someone set up a chain of bakeries in the greater Copenhagen area (and later beyond) offering pretty poor bread at absolut premium prices – and be successful at it?

Lagkagehuset have since been sold to VC funds, moved to a tax haven and are now in the papers for reaching out to get financial aid from the Covid-19 help packages, even though they make their best efforts to not pay tax in Denmark.

As a result people are starting to revolt; not wanting to keep supporting a company who privatizes profit but socializes loses.

Ok.

But shouldn’t you have revolted in the first place due to substandard experiences from over priced products?

I mean: Evading taxes should not have been the real killer in the first place (and quite honestly, I don’t think it will be once the current controversy has died).

Lack of connection between value proposition, quality and price however should.

Lagkagehuset offers a opportunity to study what it really means to have a value proposition and fulfilling a job for the customer. What may be on the face value is not necessarily the real driver.

Obviously, the bread and the prices didn’t matter to customers. If they did, Lagkagehuset would never have become such a success. Maybe behaving responsible does matter? It makes for a funny business and Business Model Canvas, I’ll grant you that.

But maybe it will give some added perspective and perhaps even some pause to how we think about what really drives behaviour and what a great value proposition actually is. It’s clearly not what’s stated in the public Powerpoint deck or on that fancy poster in the shop.

It is both harder, more complex and more irrational than that. Understanding them takes real work.

NB: The cakes on the picture bears no resemblance to those served by Lagkagehuset.

(Photo: Pixabay.com)

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