Many companies believe that they can develop a customer-focused organization through a command-and-control approach. The reality is that becoming customer-centered will never happen without a deep-rooted culture that allows it to flourish. Michael Jones, in The Roots of Aliveness, introduces a brilliant metaphor for business success—the ecology of a tree. Here’s how he describes the process […]

One of the essential characteristics that every customer-centric organization shares is a culture of resourcefulness. It starts with the organization’s leaders. Their vision is practical, and even frugal, and it translates into the culture of everyone working there. The message is clear: “Focus on our customers rather than ourselves.” An excellent example is Barlean’s Organic […]

Which phrase is correct—customers or employees first? When employees know that they can act on behalf of the customer, they are happy and are driven to develop creative ideas that customer will value. The customer comes first, but employees follow along naturally when they have the freedom to do the right thing for those customers.

Jackson Pollock said “Every good painter paints what he is.” Customer-centering happens because an organization sees the customer as its purpose and it feels empowered to "paint" that into every action it takes.

Customer 3D™ is the most effective way to make customer-centricity a reality. It establishes a system in which the company can provide solutions to the customer. Customer 3D™ is transformative, resulting in culture change that impacts all employees across the organization.

All customer-centered businesses have confidence in their capabilities and inventiveness. Their leaders educate the organization by modeling creativity and calling on inner resources to take care of every situation.The message is clear: “Focus on our customers rather than ourselves.”

Mature organizations have chosen to center their activities on what is best for the customer. Their primary purpose is customer success and they approach this goal with, as Nietzsche said, the intensity of a child at play.

Customer-centricity will create a new dimension of success that many companies cannot picture because they are being held back by their assumptions. The journey starts with the realization that success will come when a different organizational culture is in place and that it is worth the effort to change.

Instead of fine-tuning the status quo, customer-centered organizations find opportunities to make the process more valuable by solving consumers’ problems.

When the core value of an organization rests on what is best for the customer, a culture is created in which employees are part of a group that has “clicked” by being customer-centered.

Customer-centered organizations create positive customer conditioning through a system that delivers great company-wide ideas, not through transactional courtesy on the part of individual employees.