Everyone Is a Customer: A Proven Method for Measuring the Value of Every Relationship in the Era of Collaborative Business

Rating:
Summary: Reshaping A Business To Meet Customer Needs
Review: "Everyone Is A Customer"(2002) is a companion book to last year's "Collaborative Communities"(2001), which taken together, present a realistic roadmap for companies interested in changing with the times. They build on Peter Drucker's insight that when a business thinks through the relationships that make the most sense, it is the customer they should focus on to increase sales and profits. According to authors Jeffrey Shuman and Janice Twombly with David Rottenberg, This well written and insightful book, takes the reader step-by-step through an understanding of what it takes for a business owner to survive, innovate and prosper in the new era of collaborative business that relies so heavily on the networking of relationships to succeed.

The authors urge business owners to recognize the natural process of change that takes place once a business is started, resulting in the unforseen development of new products,new service, and new customers. They call this process the "rhythm of business." For companies and business owners interested in better understanding the expectations of their customres and what it takes to succeed in today's economy, this book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Reshaping A Business To Meet Customer Needs
Review: "Everyone Is A Customer"(2002) is a companion book to last year's "Collaborative Communities"(2001), which taken together, present a realistic roadmap for companies interested in changing with the times. They build on Peter Drucker's insight that when a business thinks through the relationships that make the most sense, it is the customer they should focus on to increase sales and profits. According to authors Jeffrey Shuman and Janice Twombly with David Rottenberg, This well written and insightful book, takes the reader step-by-step through an understanding of what it takes for a business owner to survive, innovate and prosper in the new era of collaborative business that relies so heavily on the networking of relationships to succeed.

The authors urge business owners to recognize the natural process of change that takes place once a business is started, resulting in the unforseen development of new products,new service, and new customers. They call this process the "rhythm of business." For companies and business owners interested in better understanding the expectations of their customres and what it takes to succeed in today's economy, this book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Business rules are now changing for the better!
Review: Finally, an innovative method for entrepreneurs and business professionals alike. It's about time someone has come up with a method that makes sense.
Shuman and Twombly have developed and innovative method for measuring and managing the value in your business relationships. It sounds obvious at first however; their methodology shows you how to systematically work towards making each interaction a win-win situation.
This method is of significant value for entrepreneurs. In today's economy start-ups are having a hard time obtaining funding. Everyone Is A Customer show how entrepreneurs can start-up a business with less money than one would expect.
Business professionals will also receive value from this as the traditional way of doing business has died. More companies need to be customer focused and this can only be achieve by win-win relationships between your company's community and their customers.
I highly recommend reading this book, as it will open your eyes to a different yet common sense way of doing business.

Rating:
Summary: Business rules are now changing for the better!
Review: Finally, an innovative method for entrepreneurs and business professionals alike. It's about time someone has come up with a method that makes sense.
Shuman and Twombly have developed and innovative method for measuring and managing the value in your business relationships. It sounds obvious at first however; their methodology shows you how to systematically work towards making each interaction a win-win situation.
This method is of significant value for entrepreneurs. In today's economy start-ups are having a hard time obtaining funding. Everyone Is A Customer show how entrepreneurs can start-up a business with less money than one would expect.
Business professionals will also receive value from this as the traditional way of doing business has died. More companies need to be customer focused and this can only be achieve by win-win relationships between your company's community and their customers.
I highly recommend reading this book, as it will open your eyes to a different yet common sense way of doing business.

Rating:
Summary: Breakthrough Perspectives on "The Customer"
Review: Two of the most celebrated teams were comprised of the animators at the Disney Studies who produced the first feature-length animated film (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and the team of physicists at Los Alamos who designed the first atomic bomb (dropped above Hiroshima and then Nagasaki). Most other teams receive no publicity although what they contribute is of great importance to their respective organizations. With the assistance of David Rottenberg, Jeffrey Shuman wrote The Rhythm of Business in which he asserts that each organization evolves in often unpredictable ways and to an extent takes on a life of its own. The challenge for decision-makers is to recognize that "rhythm" and then ensure that everyone involved is in "harmony" with it. Later, again assisted by Rottenberg, Shuman co-authored Collaborative Communities with Janice Twombley. In it, they correctly explain why and how communication, cooperation, and collaboration are essential to the effectiveness of teamwork. No news there. What differentiates their book from so many others is that they define "community" so as to include literally anyone who is directly and even indirectly associated with a given organization.

In this volume, Shuman and Twombley develop in much greater depth several of the ideas which were introduced in the previous book. For example, they explain how and why an organization's effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration can nourish and indeed strengthen its relations with customers. In fact, according to them, literally anyone associated directly or even indirectly with that organization must be viewed -- and treated -- as a customer. Moreover, they introduce and then explain a proven method for measuring the value of every relationship, both within and beyond the organization.

Shuman and Twombley carefully organize their material within three Parts: The Era of Collaborative Business, Purposeful Collaboration, and Choreographing Your Success. They agree with Drucker's admonition that "you increasingly have to think through what relationships make the most sense -- the customer is the most important relationship." The challenge is to identify all customers, classify them according to the nature of their relationship with the given organization, and then determine with meticulous care their relative importance to the organization's own objectives. This is an on-going process, requiring both rigorous vigilance and absolute precision, because the relative value of customers can increase or diminish and do so suddenly and unexpectedly. Shuman and Twombley explain HOW to design, implement, and then monitor this process by guiding their reader through it (literally) step-by-step. Throughout the book, they also provide dozens of "Figures" which graphically support key points. For example, Figure 8.2 illustrates the "Relationship Scenario Matrix" whereas Figure 10.1 illustrates the "Purposeful Collaboration Process." Shuman and Twombley are well aware of all the risks involved. They identify them and then suggest how to avoid them or at least minimize their impact on the value measurement process.

Obviously I think highly of this book. I also have a healthy respect for the difficulty of applying Shuman and Twombley's ideas. My own rather experience suggests that most people do not fear change; rather, they fear the unknown. Hence the importance of effective communications and the even greater importance of getting everyone actively involved in the process, but only after they fully understand what the objectives are as well as why those objectives are important, not only to the organization but also to every individual within that organization. I also agree with Drucker about customer relationships while presuming to suggest that the value of those relationships is almost entirely dependent on those employees (or if you prefer, associates) within the organization who interact with customers.

Near the end of the film Spartacus, the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus (played by Laurence Olivier) and his slave master Lentulus Batiatus (played by Peter Ustinov) walk among the survivors of the defeated gladiator army looking for Spartacus. They are told that unless they identify him or his body, they will be crucified. One by one, they stand up proclaiming "I am Spartacus!" I recalled that scene as I finished reading this book. It is not enough merely to measure the value of customers. That value must also be sustained, preferably increased. When a corporation (let's call it OmniGlobal InternationaI) achieves both, every one of its people can proudly proclaim "I am OGI!"

In fact, from a customer's perspective, anyone with whom she or he interacts in an organization IS that organization, for better or worse.