When I ask attendees at my workshop to draw a diagram of their company, listing the different levels of staff like employees, supervisors, managers, executives and the president, they often draw a pyramid with the employees at the bottom (wide part) and the president at the top narrow point. (Interesting that the customer is no where on the chart!) Everyone works for their "superior" - a horrible word we should eliminate from the business community. You have a supervisor or boss but no one at your company is your superior.
I think Peter Drucker, in his book The Practice of Management, did a paradigm shift when he said: "There is only one valid definition of business purpose - the creation of a customer." He turned the company chart upside down and put the customer at the top. The pyramid is upside down with the large width at the top and the point at the bottom. Put the customer at the top of your company chart. Customers sign all the paychecks. Everyone in the organization works for the customer.
Jack Welch, former CEO at GE, is correct when he says, "the only job security any of us have is a satisfied customer."
I plead with attendees (and myself) at workshops to not let the customer become an interruption in our busy day. Customers are the root of business success; profitability is the fruit.
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