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Executive Education: Leading Growth through Customer Centricity — India

Establishing a strategic advantage in India's highly competitive marketplace requires a systemic shift in focus—away from selling products and toward meeting the needs of customers. But how many companies are prepared to carry out such fundamental change? By... View Details

07 Dec 2016
News

Anomalie Cuts the Markups Out of Custom Wedding Dresses

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

April 2002
Article

Customers As Innovators: A New Way to Create Value

By: Stefan Thomke and Eric von Hippel

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22 Feb 2011
News

Why Your Best Customers Might be First to Flee

23 Mar 2023
News

Should You Share AI-Driven Customer Insights with Your Customers?

06 Jan 2021
News

Blockchain Is Changing How Companies Can Engage with Customers

Keywords: Blockchain

October 1994 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Ritz-Carlton: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer

By: W. Earl Sasser, Thomas O. Jones and Norman Klein

Explores the interface of an information system that keeps track of guests and their preferences, and the people systems that deliver multiple services at Ritz-Carlton hotels. The luxury hotel chain's unique service credo and commitment to quality principles are... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Satisfaction; Training; Recruitment; Service Delivery; Supply Chain Management; Luxury; Balance and Stability; Information Technology

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20 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

When former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced earlier this year he was thinking about running for president of the United States, it wasn’t a new idea. Past CEOs seeking the White House have included Carly Fiorina, Ross Perot, Herman Cain, Steve Forbes, Mitt... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

06 Jun 2016
News

Know the Job Your Product Was Hired for (with Help from Customer Selfies)

April 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Background Note

Discovering What Has Already Been Discovered: Why Did Your Customers Hire Your Product?

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes a methodology for identifying markets for new technologies and for defining the highest value attributes of new products or services. It helps innovators escape the trap of incremental improvements to established product concepts by asking a straightforward... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Markets; Product; Technology Adoption; Value

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February 2006
Case

Millions of Customers and the Search for a Business: the Challenge of IRC-Hispano

Like many online services, IRC-Hispano, the world's largest Spanish-language chat organization, has many customers but sees few revenues. As an association, its structure presents many limitations and hurdles to overcome involving investing in technology platform... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Spain

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2007
Blog

Harvard Business Online—Marketing Know:How: Customers Demand and Deserve Respect

By: John A. Quelch

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31 Mar 2023
News

What Is the Optimal Pattern of a Customer Journey?

2003
Book

How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Markets

By: Gerald Zaltman

Keywords: Customers; Cognition and Thinking; Markets

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10 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote

public. Boaty blowback highlights the potential danger of giving consumers the power to vote, even though customer engagement is a primary goal of almost every social media strategy. The problem: Even though NERC never explicitly promised... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

February 2009
Background Note

Basic Techniques for the Analysis of Customer Information Using Excel 2007: A Step-by-Step Approach

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

The objective of this note is to provide a set of easy, step-by-step guides for some analytical techniques that are useful in the analysis of cases discussed in the course "Competing and Winning through Customer Information" (CWCI). The instructions that follow use... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

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