Organizations that become the “go-to” companies for information and expertise that their customers value are superseding the transaction-based model of customer connections by creating a network effect that is now far more important. That is the space which future customer loyalty will occupy.

When Customer 3D capabilities are in place, employees are prepared to deliver exceptional customer-centered performance when needed. They can draw on a confidence and reserve that 1D organizations simply cannot understand. It is very much a difference-maker.

Ironically, being customer-centered also makes your products better. Why? Because these products and services that you are offering are now being designed based on what matters to your customers.

There is a pattern in all of the four pictures of Matisse, which allows the viewer to recognize him. Likewise, in organizations there is a wholeness, which is recognizable by customers. This wholeness is the real nature that determines everything about the organization.

Much of our client work involves assisting leaders in developing their organizations to become more customer-centered. But what if the leaders don't get it? What if they think they know all the right answers about customers already? A phrase that you hear a lot these days is "They don't know what they don't know". I […]

It's amazing how organizations believe they can become great while ignoring their customers. Jim Collins' How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In builds off of his Good to Great and Built to Last tenets to analyze how successful companies get better, or conversely, how they decline. He describes how companies can under-perform by […]

Short-term thinking has plagued businesses for years, but in today's economic conditions, it is even more dangerous. Now is the time for change, not to stand still. Organizations in a survival mode resort to quick fixes such as downsizing and postponing expenses. Their leaders don't realize that they cannot recycle the ideas of the past […]

Becoming customer-centric is transformational and it requires a change in culture as well as in process design. It demands a long-term commitment that involves everyone in your organization. However, there is one proven method to jump-start the process in a way that will accelerate the company-wide commitment to the journey. The graphic with this article […]

The most important question that every organization must answer is "Exactly how is the customer changing?" Adrian Slywotzky and David Morrison, in The Profit Zone: How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You to Tomorrow's Profits, challenged businesses: "To create a strategic and dynamic perspective on the customer, one must have a clear and compelling point of […]