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Gutting the Talent Bench

Lead Change Blog

What is your organization’s claim to fame—operational excellence, customer intimacy or product leadership? If your focus is customer intimacy, do the employees who personally excel at operational excellence and product leadership feel engaged or disenfranchised in your workplace? How are you doing in the other two areas?

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The Number 1 Tip to Ensure Returns on Your Firm’s Digital Strategy

N2Growth Blog

Upon review, the provision of a Web-based sales support product was determined to be needed as a condition of project completion; Customer Intimacy Project: A regional financial services firm new it was losing customers because they lacked the necessary tools to give their customers the attention that they sought.

Strategy 191
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The Senior Leader’s Checklist for Shaping Company Culture

Next Level Blog

The authors argued that companies had to pick between one of three paths to value creation and success in the market – operational excellence, customer intimacy or product leadership. Back in my own days as an executive, I was hugely influenced by a book called The Discipline of Market Leaders.

Company 246
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Customer Intimacy, Meet Operational Excellence

Harvard Business Review

As a direct marketer we have been good at customer intimacy. We know a lot about our customers. We have known for a long time that we needed to be operationally excellent, but in the past we''ve fixed problems reactively, after the event, to keep customers happy. But it isn''t easy.

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Creativity - The Key To The Challenge of Complexity for CEOs

Six Disciplines

Key findings from the IBM study: Today’s complexity is only expected to rise, and more than half of CEOs doubt their ability to manage it. The most successful organizations co-create products and services with customers, and integrate customers into core processes.They are adopting new channels to engage and stay in tune with customers.

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Operational Excellence, Meet Customer Intimacy

Harvard Business Review

While a focus on lowering costs, improving quality, and providing consistent, reliable service will continue to be important, I see a shift in the coming decade to combining operational excellence with customer intimacy: tailored solutions for individual customers based on a deep understanding of their needs.

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Are You Leading Cash Registers?

Lead Change Blog

Bar coded packaging today drives inventory control, P&L calculations, and all manner of financial management processes. And, maximizing the clerk’s productivity meant keeping her focused on the rules of the registry more than on the concerns of the customer. We seem to be getting longer on high tech; shorter on high touch.

P&L 150