Dorothy was clearly feeling she had entered an unfamiliar place when she told Toto they were no longer in Kansas. I think companies trying to be more Outside-In, more Customer Centric, while operating on the principle of Customer Value have a lot in common with Dorothy. They are scared of the unfamiliar place and simply want to go home…home to managing from the Inside-Out, everything in their control. So why don’t we change the story, Dorothy stays in Oz, the Land of Customer and Customer Value.
Here are a few things to do if you are planning to find, and stay in the Land of Customer Value:
- “Strategy from the Outside-In”, George S. Day and Christine Moorman. This book will help you to understand there are riches to be found in Customer Value Land.
- “Thinking Fast and Slow”, Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman will help you to understand that your brain is working against you. The brains prepackaged wiring is sometimes not so good for seeing things from the outside-in customer perspective.
- “Daring Greatly”, Brené Brown. Brown will let you know that most of us are not willing to be vulnerable enough to take on the challenge of going to Customer Land in the first place.
Operating Rhythm: All companies have an operating rhythm…annual this, quarterly that. Hopefully your rhythms are speeding up, but that’s a different subject. The idea here is that in order to stay in the Land of Customer and Customer Value, you must find a way to have customers become part of your operating rhythm. What challenges are you solving for your customers, current and future? Having routine work approaches that more effectively and can help you achieve green-light $5 million projects with your CEO because you can explain the value to your customer, be credible in how you arrived at that understanding, and be confident around the value proposition to your customer. These things need to become part of your operating rhythm, part of everyday work and not a PROJECT. Doing Customer Value projects now and again will never get you to Customer Value Land.
I think if Dorothy had had a better understanding and operating rhythm in Oz, she just might have invited Auntie Em to join her. After all, she already had Toto, Scarecrow, Tinman and the Lion at her side. She was close to staying! What is your organization doing to find and stay in the Land of Customer and Customer Value?
Check out Other Blogs in this Series:
- Customer Value: Customer Value and Speed are Changing Everything in B2B
- Customer Value: What is Scaring Your C-Suite
- Customer Value: "Speed of the Game": Welcome to the new Customer Value Reality
- Customer Value: Achieving Speed with Simple
- Customer Value: "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!" <-- You Are Here!
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