In history, great wealth has been accumulated by 'gaming' the value chain.

The value chain is the complete set of economic activities that go into providing the goods and services used to satisfy the needs of people and society. Each step in the value chain consumes resources and creates waste while generating the product that goes into the next step of the value chain.

There is value consumption, value creation and valuadd at each link in the chain. Resources are consumed, waste is created and there is valueadd for the product. A certain amount of capital is deployed in each link.

There is also cost, revenue and profit at each of the links, together with capital employed.

Analysis of the value chain produces a value flow through all the activities that make up the value chain and shows the character of the economic activities that constitute the links in the chain.

Value chain analysis shows where profits and valuadd are arising, and where value destruction is most serious. Some links in the chain are profiting at the expense of other links.

Value chain analysis enables a better understanding of the total end to end efficiency of the process and how much profit has been generated.

Please tell us what you know about the economic activities that make up the value chains.