Try conducting your business without a customer!

When the Romans first declared that the voice of the people was the voice of God – vox populi vox Dei – they were referring to democracy as a form of government.

Centuries later, corporations across the globe have embraced the adage in letter and spirit, albeit in a different context – that of customer knowledge.

The customer is the core of any successful business strategy. The rationale is simple – business exists for, and because of the customer. The need to focus on the customer has long been recognized; the best testimony being the growth of the advertising and branding industry.

However, to achieve and maintain strategic competitiveness, organizations need to think beyond merely attracting the customer. Being a market driven organization entails developing a culture of constantly listening to the customer, analyzing competition and defining strategies that fulfill existing, anticipated and even unanticipated needs of the customer. Market and customer intelligence should, in fact, be a core competency of every competitive organization.

Global software leaders like IBM and Microsoft have ongoing endeavors to involve every single customer in decision making. Customer knowledge shapes their business strategy.

Mahindra’s Scorpio has been an exceptional success in national and international markets. The product was conceptualized to meet the market need for an economy SUV. The positioning was based on the results of extensive market visits and customer needs analysis. The customer requirements were translated into product specifications for the new SUV. The process continues for every new edition.

Finally, try conducting your business without a customer!