by Charlie Dawson, Seán Meehan & Karine Avagyan
Understanding customers and acting on that understanding is critical to success – so say 62.7% of senior executives. Yet only 24% adopt a customer-led approach to running their business. Our data collected from 454 executives suggests they are either customer-led or efficiency-led and that only the customer-led approach contributes to competitive success. Given the gap between what is said and what is done, we urge executives to challenge themselves and colleagues to be more honest about what they believe really drives competitive performance, so that words and actions are aligned. In addition, we encourage them to recognize that their company’s interests are best served by putting customers first. And we encourage action and learning around initiatives that could demonstrate this clearly. This is what grows shared belief that these less common ways of working lead to success.