Executives are Customers Too – A place for Personal Values

Mr. Robert’s recent comment inspires me.

I share his passion and feeling that students, especially in Business Schools (in my mind), need to hear this message. Very few Business Schools have curricula on theory, techniques and benefits of Customer Centricity; not for lack of material, knowledge or proven value. As a result, most business executives place much of their focus on the acquisition of new customers with little regard for the inherent value of our current customer base.

I often comment on what I believe are three key powers of influence and control in the world. Government/Education, Corporations/Business and Personal Values.

One of these three has a place in the other two, and is ultimately, the true driver of progress.
Of course it is Personal Value.

There is a place for personal values in Government. It is through our vote that government officials are chosen and driven to act in manners congruent with our values. However, the voice of personal values (customer values) is not so well represented in business, where all too often we see the choice between customers, ecology, and other popular standards take a back seat to the bottom line and shareholder expectations.
Asked to choose between the best short term interest of the customer and the bottom line, the customer is almost always asked to wait. By design, the system usually accounts for the customer only in the most drastic or catastrophic cases or after considerable evolution of mass expectation.

I don’t pretend that we can change the fundamental business drivers of an open economy, which we all know has more benefits than flaws. However, I believe that if we can show corporations that customer satisfaction and loyalty are of greater value than currently perceived, we can begin to make a fundamental shift. Even if XCS enters the board room through the back door, I think it can help to enhance the corporate bottom line as well as improve people’s quality of life far and wide.

Committed to XCS !