Don't listen to your best customer?
One possible reason that market leading companies often fail to see new innovative products is they listen to their best customers. Stick with me; I know this contradicts all we have been taught about good customer service, but it is true. IBM listened to large computing consumers who preferred the massive processing power of mainframe computers. When asked about the personal computer, these customers saw little use for them in their business. It was an emerging market of small business owners and consumers that ultimately became the new market, but IBM didn?t talk to them. They were too busy listening to their best customers. These new users were on the fringe. They were individuals who never had a need for a mainframe computer. Naturally, they never talked to IBM much either. So whats the Leadership Lesson? Innovation happens on the edges of your business. Your traditional customer rarely pushes you to transformational approaches and new products. It is the strange, new, or weird customer requests that point to the new potentials for your organization. For example, what's happening on campus with computer labs that is outside the norm.. maybe that's the future..
Posted at 04:49PM Jun 04, 2006 by mowen in General |