Customer Obsession

  • World’s Best Viral Video?

    I have been reflecting recently on viral marketing and it’s capacity to build global awareness almost instantly… Like every great marketing technique there is a formula: It has to be interesting and in a way that really stands out whether its wacky, creative, controversial, unexpected or inspirational. This is one of my favorites (maybe the… Read more

  • Why culture is critical to being customer-centric

    I came across this short video of Forrester researcher Peter Kim today which outlines their view on what it takes to make customer-centric real: While I agree there are 3 ingredients to making customer centric real for customers, the cultural aspect is by far the largest challenge. Metrics and technology are enablers of culture change… Read more

  • How should companies’ innovate?

    I read an interesting post by Scott Anthony on the Harvard Business Publishing site today called “Better through whose eyes?” He makes the point that innovation needs to be seen through the customers lens. I couldn’t agree more, in fact if it isn’t adding value to the customer then in my view it is not… Read more

  • Best Buy, GE & EMC: Using Social Media to change their internal cultures

    I just read a great post by Jeremiah Owyang that included this video on how best buy are using social media in a variety of ways to positively impact on their culture: I think a key point here is that to be successful in social media, the underlying values of the users need to be… Read more

  • Why culture inhibits social media success in big business

    There was some great discussion last week at the Web 2.0 conference on “Why social media fails and how to fix it”. The panel included Charlene Li, Peter Kim and Jeremiah Owyang all noted thought leaders in this area. The component that stood out for me was the inhibitor of organizational culture. We do a… Read more

  • New Product Update – A new way to measure culture

    Its hard to tell whether an assessment survey has any value at all. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that most are misleading and potentially harmful. Every survey starts with an author writing out questions, hoping that they will measure certain things. Almost always, the process ends there. Who is to know if the question… Read more