Antonio Arellano

Gestión de Proyectos

It’s About “The Customer” Stupid!

By Jeff Francis, Co-Founder & COO, Published on May 26, 20141

To borrow (most of) a phrase from the ever-entertaining political pundit

James Carville, “it’s about the [customer], stupid!” In the original quote, he
said “economy” instead of “customer” when he was a top strategist for Bill
Clinton’s first presidential campaign. Then-Governor Clinton heeded
Carville’s advice, focused his message strategy on the underperforming
economy and prevailed over an incumbent president — a historically tough
task.

Within the last couple of months, IBM released a report drawn from a
massive collection of CxO interviews — more than 4,000 to be exact. IBM
asked these C-suite executives a bevy of questions about the influence of
technology, customer interaction, etc. and how the executives predict those
factors will impact their respective businesses moving forward. The two most
cited factors to watch moving forward are, not surprisingly, the growing
influence from customers on business strategy decisions because of
improved feedback mechanisms, and the impact of new technologies.

I culled through the 32-page IBM report to pull the best graphics and
provide a little context for you to use in your decision-making. You might
already be on board with all these thought processes, in which case it’ll be
nice to know you’re already on the right path. If you find that other CxOs
have a different perspective than you, maybe this can provide some valuable
information on how you might rethink your business strategies moving
forward.
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Gestión de Proyectos

Technology will change the game

CEOs believe technology will be the most important external force shaping
the future of their enterprise. The rise from the sixth most important factor
in 2004 to the first in 2013 shows the speed of this change.

Not every single CxO agrees with the CEO, but no CxO had technology
outside the top three:

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Likewise, certain CxOs plan to leverage technology, digital innovation and

mobility in outsize proportions to accomplish their strategic goals.

The only CxO more bullish on the importance of technology moving forward
is the CMO:

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In this way, CMOs are way ahead of the pack in their adoption of digital
strategies, technologies and platforms to achieve their key performance
targets. CMOs embraced digital far earlier than other CxOs, which may
explain why so many marketing solutions and mobile applications
outperform their enterprise counterparts from other business units. So often
marketing has better-designed, easier to use and more highly adopted apps
precisely because the CMOs were out front on the importance of digital to
their business unit.

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An overwhelming majority of CMOs see technology playing a major role

within their business unit. The IBM survey really shows how far out in front
CMOs are on this, and there’s a reason marketing apps are generally so
much better than other enterprise applications.

Chief Human Resource Officers are not far behind CMOs when it comes to
leveraging technology to better do their jobs. For CHROs, it’s more about
data analytics than strictly digital advancement. HR officers need the
analytics digital technology can provide to better monitor their employees
growth and performance, or to network and recruit great new talent.

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Gestión de Proyectos

I doubt it surprised anyone that CIOs are chomping at the bit to invest their
respective budgets on digital technologies — that is, after all, a huge part of
their job. But the thing I found most interesting is the places where they
plan on investing those dollars. A staggering percentage of CIOs will be
investing in mobility solutions within the next five years. You simply cannot
ignore 84 percent of all CIOs coming to that conclusion. Like CHROs, they
also want the data and analytics that digital solutions can provide.
Regardless, if you peruse the archives of the Copper Mobile blog, you’ll find
articles addressing every single one of the issues within that graphic.

CxOs of all stripes recognize the significance of technology in shaping their

business strategies of the future. But much of that technology will go toward
one end — getting closer to their customers.

It’s about the customer, stupid!

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It’s no surprise that C-suite executives affect business strategy more than
any other stakeholder. They’re the ones actually making the decisions, so
they see themselves as having the most power (which is almost certainly
true). The thing most shocking about these statistics, though, is that CEOs
see customers as wielding more strategic influence than the board of
directors. That realization came as quite a shock to me. So many people say
“the customer is always right,” but to actually believe that customers affect
business strategy more than the board of directors has to be a major shift in
thinking over the last few years—and, as the graphic on the left shows, that
influence is only expected to grow over the next three to five years.

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That belief isn’t unique to CEOs, though — a majority of all CxOs believe
customers influence their enterprises to a large extent, with an additional 36
percent believing customers have at least some influence on their business.

Most importantly, though, is that working with customers improves the

bottom line. It’s tough to know exactly how IBM quantified “outperformers”
in this context, but whatever the metric, 60 percent of those companies
outperforming the market collaborated with their customers.

Working with your customers isn’t just about providing warm and fuzzy
feelings it’s about your bottom line. And if 60 percent of CxOs define their
company as outperforming because of that collaboration, then you might
want to take note.

All in all, this giant CxO survey yielded two main findings: CxOs across the
board are embracing digital technology to great benefit, and one of the
primary areas of focus within that development is customer interaction and
engagement. By utilizing new technological tools to connect and collaborate
with customers, enterprises large and small can start to improve their
bottom lines. While the technology is certainly important, my take on James
Carville still rings true: It’s about the customer, stupid!