The Customer-Centered Enterprise

About the Author

Harvey Thompson is the IBM Global Executive for Customer Value Management Consulting. He has led the development and deployment of customer-focused business process improvement approaches within IBM, Fortune 500, and Global 1000 companies worldwide. His expertise and experience provide the foundation for The Customer-Centered Enterprise, which guides businesses on how to achieve extraordinary results by prioritizing customer needs.

Main Idea

The Customer-Centered Enterprise by Harvey Thompson emphasizes the necessity for businesses to become customer-centered to succeed in today’s competitive market. The book outlines strategies for shifting from a product or price focus to a service and value focus, thereby attracting and retaining customers through superior service. Thompson provides a detailed framework for implementing customer value management (CVM) to align business processes with customer needs.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Customer Value Management
• Visioning: Let Customers Set the Goals
• Focus: Listen to the Right Customers
• Scope: Select Highest-Leverage Customer Interactions
• Value: Identify Actionable High-Leverage Customer Needs
• Prioritization: Make Investment Decisions Based on Buying Behavior
• Design: Envision "Ideal" Customer-Defined Business Capabilities
• Implementation and Maintenance: The Holistic Approach
• Sustaining CVM, Always

Customer Value Management

Thompson introduces customer value management (CVM) as a set of techniques, methodologies, and strategies to integrate customer needs into the core business processes. CVM helps businesses understand customer desires and align their operations to consistently meet those expectations. It involves a major shift in strategic thinking from focusing on products and prices to emphasizing processes and services.

"Customer value management provides a rational set of techniques, methodologies, and strategies to weave the needs and wants of customers into the key process designs and management activities of a company." - Harvey Thompson

CVM involves systematically acquiring customer information and linking it to customer behavior. This approach allows businesses to tailor their offerings to meet customer needs more effectively. By adopting an outside-in perspective, companies can transform their strategic thinking and operational processes to become truly customer-centered.

• Identifying target customers and understanding their needs.
• Aligning business processes to deliver consistent value to customers.
• Utilizing customer feedback to drive continuous improvement.

Visioning: Let Customers Set the Goals

Traditional management by objectives focuses on internally defined goals, but Thompson argues for a shift to customer-defined objectives. This involves understanding what customers truly want and aligning the company's vision to meet those needs. Surveys must ask the right questions to gather actionable insights linked to buying behavior.