Reflections on "The Age of Customer Capitalism" by Roger Martin

A great article on the different kinds of capitalism. 1932 with managerial capitalism, 1976 with shareholder capitalism. And now the third era: customer-driven capitalism which aims to maximize customer satisfaction.

He writes about P&G and J&J being customer focused and doing better than GE and Coca-Cola.

Martin says Drucker had it right "that the primary purpose of a business is to acquire and keep customers."

The biggest implication for user experience professionals when Martin calls for "determining what your customers value and focusing on always pleasing them . . . "

He concludes with "if more companies made customers the top priority, the quality of corporate decision making would improve because thinking about the customer forces you to focus on improving your operations and the products and services you provide, rather than on spinning lines to shareholders."

References

"The Age of Customer Capitalism" by Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review January-February 2010. It was brought to my attention by Michael Simborg.

See my HAPPY CUSTOMER diagram about the customer experience life-cycle and how it "earns" money for the business.