Keep up with the changing world

No doubt information technology helps with automation of certain business activities. But when was the last time you matched your IT architecture against the offering of the most innovative industry. Remember, while each need can be addressed with multiple technologies it is key to understand which is best for your organization for now and for the future. Is it hosted or on premise? Is it suites, best of breed or a mix? Does more expensive always mean better? Will open source address your enterprise reliability requirements?

Build your strategy around knowing your Customers

There is no doubt that the key to successful business operation is understanding your customers. But when the number of products in your portfolio grows, when the size of your customer base extends, when there are more and more process complexities resulting in noticeable cost, things get a bit difficult. It is not so easy anymore to collect data from multiple channels, multiple business units and multiple IT systems. And there are multiple stakeholders, who all have different customer information needs.

Who can tell you more than your customers?

The best time to listen to your customer is right on the spot where he interacts with you. Directly in a point of sale or call/contact center. Or indirectly talking to your dealer or even watching your commercial on TV. It doesn't matter. Right then, in that particular moment, he is ready to share his thoughts with you. The emotions are fresh, honest and sincere. Grasp them and you are the winner. Don’t be afraid of what you may find out. Just act upon it.

In real life it always takes too long.

In dynamic, competitive markets time from product idea inception to market deployment is a crucial business performance indicator. The faster you are able to introduce your products the greater competitive advantage you are able to create. Yet, there are always many internal obstacles, from lack of cross departmental communication to IT systems inflexibility.

Do not undermine your investment

Many industries including communications, financial services, automotive, consumer goods have already come to the conclusion that their brand is their biggest asset. Consumers identify themselves with a brand more than with a particular product. So largest pieces of marketing budgets go into brand image creation and are spent mainly on advertisement. The tricky part is to maximize the value of this investment and not to undermine your brand with how you deal with your customer on a daily basis.