|
Although people may like being called customersto foster their sense of importance and self-worthfollowing this well-intentioned fad can lead to an unintended, but insidious, outcome. By labeling everyone a customer, the organization becomes confused about its purpose and whom it is designed to serve. If everyone is a customer, then no one isand focus on the real customer is lost. We made this mistake at Harvard Business School in the mid-1990s when a new administration began telling our students that they were customers. In hindsight, the result was predictable: As paying "customers," students demanded that their professors respond promptly to their preferences. Professors and courses had become products that students were purchasing: If customers were unhappy, they reasoned, the product should be changed. Militant demands displaced an environment of mutual respect and shared learning. Needless to say, the practice of telling students they were customers was quickly stopped. In fact, the customer is too important to follow the practice of calling everyone a customer. |
HBS Working Knowledge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:58:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: HBS Working Knowledge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Newsletter: An Organization Your Customers Understand
![Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Newsletter]()
HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK
An Organization Your Customers Understand
Are You Ready to Fight a Giant?
Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?
Jim Heskett Sums Up: How Can Business Schools Be Made More Relevant?
Plus: Book and Web reports
========================
NEW ON THE SITE
An Organization Your Customers Understand
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4914&t=strategy&iss=y
Defining your primary customer is an ideal "outside-in" approach to better designing your whole organizational structure. In this excerpt from his new book, Levers of Organization Design, HBS professor Robert Simons describes how to do it.
Are You Ready to Fight a Giant?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4915&t=strategy&iss=y
Industry incumbents are surprisingly vulnerable, say two Bain consultants in this article from Strategy & Innovation. Any savvy upstart can successfully challenge a Goliath. For starters: Focus on a powerful customer experience.
Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4916&t=career_effectiveness&iss=y
You are the hiring manager with a nasty decision to make. Would you hire the lovable fool or the competent jerk? This Harvard Business Review excerpt suggests that the decision is complicated. By HBS professor Tiziana Casciaro and Duke University's Miguel Sousa Lobo.
Jim Heskett Sums Up: How Can Business Schools Be Made More Relevant?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4917&t=heskett&oid=4886&rid=4900&hid=4917&aid=-1
Summing up readers' responses to this month's column, Jim Heskett asks (among other questions) which among traditional business schools would be willing to incur the costs of even basic changes to the traditional MBA model.
BAKER LIBRARY SUMMARIES
BOOK REPORTS
Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
by Sam Calagione
Wiley, 2005
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/book-review.jhtml?t=entrepreneurship&id=4912
The craft of draft.
Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization
by Pat Choate
Knopf, 2005
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/book-review.jhtml?t=globalization&id=4913
Counterfeiting as big business and a blot on society.
Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice
by Kimiz Dalkir
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/book-review.jhtml?t=innovation&id=4911
A textbook that combines KM theory and practice.
ON THE WEB
CasePlace.org
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/web-review.jhtml?id=4922&t=strategy
A good place for educators and executives to find case studies on a variety of business topics.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
Don't Listen to "Yes"
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4833&t=leadership
Identify Emerging Market Opportunities
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4903&t=globalization
The $16 Billion Opportunity inTchotchkes?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4904&t=entrepreneurship
Time to Rethink the Corporate Tax System?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4902&t=finance
The New International Style of Management
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4893&t=globalization
NEW RESEARCH AT HBS
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/new-research.jhtml
A listing of the latest research papers, publications, and cases written by Harvard Business School faculty.
BEST OF FACULTY Q&As
The U.S. Patent Game: How to Change It
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/facultyQAs.jhtml?t=facultyQAs
Innovators and society are paying too high a price in the current patent system, says a new book by Adam B. Jaffe and Harvard Business School's Josh Lerner. A book excerpt and Q&A with Lerner.
ELSEWHERE AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
Private Equity and Venture Capital
HBS Executive Education program
http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/pevc/
October 19-21, 2005
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Strategies to Create! Business and Social Value
HBS Executive Education program
http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/csr/
October 23-26, 2005
Changing the Game: Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making
HBS Executive Education program
http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/dm/
October 23-28, 2005
Choices: The Next Chapter of Success
HBS Executive Education program
http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/cho/
October 23-30, 2005
Burning Questions: The Return to Growth
Harvard Business School Publishing Conference
http://www.burningquestions.com
October 5-7, 2005
==============================
ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
==============================
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE INFORMATION
No! t yet a subscriber to this newsletter? Click here to sign up: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/reg/newsletter_sub.jhtml
To unsubscribe to this newsletter, please go to the unsubscribe page: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/reg/newsletter_unsub.jhtml
To change the e-mail address where your newsletter is sent to, please go to the address update page: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/reg/newsletter_change.jhtml
To subscribe to our RSS feed: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pda.jhtml
REPRINTS AND LINKING
If your Web site is interested in linking to stories on our site, go to http://hbswk.hbs.edu/linking.jhtml for instructions and to download the HBS Working Knowledge button for your home page. For reprint permission or to receive a list of linkable articles each month, contact Sara Grant at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PRIVACY POLICY
Read our privacy policy at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/privacy.jhtml
CONTACT US
Have a problem with registration or other customer services issues? Send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Want to provide feedback or make suggestions on the editorial content or design of the site? E-mail HBSWK editor Sean Silverthorne at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Our address is 25 Travis St., Boston, MA 02163.![]()
Yahoo! Messenger NEW - crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail
_______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
- [Assam] Harvard MBA Newsletter: An Organization Your Custome... umesh sharma
- [Assam] Harvard MBA Newsletter: An Organization Your Cu... umesh sharma
