The Customer-Centered Enterprise: How IBM and Other World-Class Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results by Putting Customers First

Rating:
Summary: Explanation, instruction, examples
Review: A very solidly written look at the Customer Value Management system-- complete with explanation, examples, and exercises that can be applied by the reader. Thompson makes the critical and, in my experience, all-too-misunderstood point that while using customer input in product development has long been a fact within companies, positioning the things a customer values at the center of developing services and processes is not standard in most industries. And it should be.

The distinction in the Kano framework between basic expectations, satisfiers, and attractors is very well explained here and put in the kind of way that should make consultants and managers alike understand its relevance to their clients and companies. I've far too often seen clients trying to overperform on aspects of service where they just should be looking for parity and the requirements of most projects do not have a good way of seeing the difference between what their customers find simply nice to have and between the aspects of service that will truly drive the decision to buy from or remain a customer of the company in question.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Holisitc approach!!
Review: Mr. Thompson really shows us the whole meaning of Customer Value, teaching about the linkages between customer targeting, process, organization and technology. The way he drives us in the real world while he focus on what is important (high ROI) and what is less important, is a very valuable driver to the correct use of the scarce resources (human, assets and dollars) to sustain and growth the business dramatically. This metholodogy, applied with success in IBM and in many other companies around the world, demostrates that is not a mere theory but a real life experience. Strongly recommended to be used as an educational material and as a base in a your methodological project approach. World class reading.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: The person with the cash in hand is the real boss, according to Harvey Thompson, proponent of Customer Value Management (CVM). You can make your company more customer-driven using CVM, which he developed at IBM and then implemented at other U.S. and international companies. Thompson identifies the customer's vision of ideal value, and tells businesses to use that as their guiding star. If you can integrate the best customer value in every system, your company can retain customers, sell more and increase profits. This is not a new theme, but Thompson takes it a little deeper than most as he discusses ways to strategically incorporate CVM, from top management to the front desk. If we were telling him about his reading customers, we'd ask him to shake some dust off the dense, academic language, but otherwise we... recommend to most business leaders this solid book about strategic customer management.