Yeah right! I had a really interesting discussion with a prospective client recently. He is the MD of a multi franchise vehicle business. Successful? – no doubt. Customer-Centric? – I don’t think so. Yet he was adamant he had ‘customer-centricity’ under control. They were busy hiring someone who was going to drive this initiative. This is a classic example of a refusal to admit to the current reality. A refusal to fully understand what’s wrong with the current way they’re running the operations. A refusal to really understand what customer-centricity is all about.
Will these refusals lead to business failure? I certainly don’t believe so. But I do know that they will lead to lost opportunity. And what really agitates me is a verbal commitment made to developing themselves as an internationally recognised exemplar of customer experience. How, I ask with tears in my eyes? How are they going to enable disruptive change by doing more of what they’ve always been doing? Time will tell. I only wish that people would stop making bold statements that they’re never going to deliver upon, unless they develop a REAL understanding of their current reality, a REAL understanding of the reality to which they aspire, and REAL capacity for change.
Filed under: 21st Century Organisation, Best Practice, Business Models, Change Management, Competitive Advantage, Customer Experience, customer management, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Retention, Customer Strategy, Frameworks, Innovation, Leadership, Sustainability, Sustainable Business Performance | Tagged: 21st century organisations, Big Thinking, business innovation, business performance, business strategy, company strategy, customer centricity, customer experience management, customer management, customer strategy, Inspiration, leadership, thinking customer |
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