Clients Say the Most Amazing Things: In Uncertain Times Your Customers Often Have the Answers

May 14th, 2014
Written by: TPO

From time to time, TPO posts first-hand C-Level business perspectives, excerpted from an ongoing series of conversations we have with our clients. This one is from an executive in the professional education market.

We are likely to continue in a rather uncertain environment. So the question is, how can a company be better prepared to succeed regardless of economic conditions? One key is to be constantly thinking of your marketplace and customer and their needs differently than your competitors do. It is critical to this innovation cycle and this innovation process. Building that ongoing process of creativity, curiosity and innovation into your company is critical for its success. This does not necessarily mean spending a lot of money on an expensive consultant that helps your company ideate or whatever the term of the day is. You can run pilot programs for new products or service offerings to limit your risk or exposure and investment. You can leverage your best current customer base to test these ideas. Thinking in terms of what true value you can add to the customer is a critical component of driving innovation. Customer intimacy is critical in understanding needs and what we can do that’s different than our competitors, and what we’ve done in the past.