Growth, profitability, and market share — they
are all, in the end, really determined by
your customers. Customers do or do not buy
a product or service. Customers bid the price
up or drive it down, depending on the value
they perceive from a product or service. No
matter how good a product or how
efficient a company, without customers there
is no growth, profitability, or market share.
Successful companies put the customer at the center
of their business. They understand who their most valuable customers
are, they understand their needs and their buying habits. They target
and tailor their offerings and personalize their interactions with
their customers. Successful companies design and continuously improve
business processes across their entire ecosystem to adapt quickly to
changing customer needs. They strive to become a fully Customer-Centric
Enterprise — not just to know what, when, where,
and how their customers want to buy, but to tune their entire enterprise and
ecosystem to react quickly and efficiently to deliver on those needs, preferably
before the competition even has time to react.