Twelve

Attenzi’s strategy was well articulated and well mapped, if lacking what a serious management consultant might call va va voom. The Balanced Scorecard was, in my opinion, well formed to guide organization-wide performance in executing the strategy. And generally most targets were mostly met most of the time. But let me be more exact.

The strategy was, as one would expect of any decent firm, customer-centric in character. The concept of customer-centricity emerged with the advent of integrated marketing communications during the mid-90s, replacing the traditionally inward looking nature of large firms. This new emphasis aimed to place the customer’s concerns and happiness slap bang at the centre of business decision-making.

So yes indeed, Attenzi sought customer insights to inform new product development. It pursued product design that would exceed the customer’s expectations for style, usability and durability. It trained sales staff to match the specific customer’s needs with specific product features. It maintained a CRM system and followed up proactively as best it could post-sale to ascertain customer happiness. It geared post-sales service to cause the customer minimal pain.

And so on.

And so forth.

I know that we’re nearly two decades through customer-centricity, and if you haven’t seen it lived universally, you will have at least heard it spouted universally.