There's a lot you can learn from the little guys, and Jim Champy's “Inspire! Why customers come back” (FT Press) proves this with seven stories of entrepreneurial businesses that have thrived in the shadow of large competitors. Champy says they did so by stepping into the breach and succeeding where big business often fail - by bothering to please the very people who buy their products and services.
Hailed as one of the "most influential consultants of all time", Champy is a best selling author (Outsmart!, X-Engineering The Corporation, Reengineering Management, and the Arc of Ambition) and chairman of Dell Services' consulting practice.
In “Inspire! Why customers come back”, Champy shows how to engage a new generation of customers who value transparency and authenticity above all else; how to reinvigorate a company in the face of brutally tough competition; and how to transcend marketing campaigns by instead leading crusades that customers will want to join. He does so with examples from successful, fast growing companies that have connected to sceptical customers with clever strategies.
“Inspire! is the second book in my series about new business models and how companies are beginning to operate in fundamentally different ways. I designed Outsmart!, the first in the series, as a strategy book to help leaders stake out new territory and set new rules for the game,” says Champy. “Inspire! speaks from the customer's perspective. It's about not only attracting customers, but also getting them to stick. And in this economy, there is nothing more valuable than loyal customers.”
Take notes
The information revolution has played a big role in the increasing need for authenticity.
Mandy de Waal, ITWeb contributor
Some of the lessons and stories from smaller companies that are doing business unusual include:
Enlist customers in a crusade:
Ecologist Gary Hirshberg used his unabashed idealism to build Stonyfield Farm into the world's largest maker of organic yoghurt by combining missionary zeal about green business practices with extraordinary quality yoghurt, to create a “handshake with the customer” - a guarantee that the yoghurt is both delicious and made in a way that furthers the cause of saving the planet.
Offer convenience with economy:
Zipcar flourished by understanding its core users and providing them with plenty of cars located in multiple and convenient locations in cities, as a cheaper and more flexible alternative to traditional car rental.
Simplify complexity:
GoDaddy.com bounced back from the burst of the dot com bubble by paring away complexity and relying on basics. It gave customers feature-rich products, low pricing, and great support from real people who are located on-site and rigorously trained to solve any and every problem.
Focus on something people who care about your product care about:
After decades of being lapped by competitors, Jochen Zeitz took the helm at Puma and rebranded the shoe not as a performance shoe, but as fashion for shoe wearers who care about performance. By doing this he built the sports apparel company into the third largest in the world.
One of the key themes Champy addresses in the book is authenticity, which is relevant given the market shift away from crude advertising models based on manipulation, to more meaningful relationships driven by social media. The information revolution has played a big role in the increasing need for authenticity, and for people to be treated as people rather than 'consumers' who contribute to a bottom line.
“The new generation of customers can't be fooled. False promises are everywhere. Although companies' marketing and advertising tout that they can solve problem X or problem Y, they do not deliver on those commitments.” The companies profiled in Inspire! base their business models around truthfulness and authenticity, which speaks to how technology has undermined brash sales, advertising and marketing. “Today, we make decisions based on what we hear about a product from our peers via the Internet,” says Champy.
In a world that's still dealing with the hangover of a greed driven recession, Champy's call to return to the business basics of service customers is refreshing. “Customers are the most crucial element of any business because they pay the company's bills. That means their satisfaction is your first priority. Once your customers are happy, you need to make sure the people serving them, your employees, are also happy. If you take care of your customers and your employees, your shareholders should be ready to reap the rewards of a job well done.”
Business is no longer about building the church of the shareholder. It's about the business of serving customers and caring for the people who help you serve customers. Do that well, says Champy, and the profits will fall into place.
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