Are You One Step in Front of Your Competition?

Posted by Alan See on April 2, 2008

1 comments | 2404 reads

Got HAL? I was reminded this week of an old story that once surfaced about the Heuristically programmed Algorithmic Computer (HAL) in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

The story suggests that HAL was so-named to indicate that he was one step ahead of IBM. Alphabetically "H" "A" "L" precede "I" "B" "M" by one letter. The author of 2001, Arthur C. Clarke denies this legend in his book "Lost Worlds of 2001."

All the same; doesn’t it feel good to be one step ahead? Many marketers’ look for high powered analytics to provide that extra step; but that may not always work because in the customers’ algorithm, it often doesn’t matter.

Are you spending so much time, money and energy trying to predict customer behavior that you’re now lost in space? Today, customers’ actual experiences live in the public domain.

If your product - or service is bad, no amount of spin, marketing or branding will fix it. If your goal is to build a high-performance brand through a differentiated customer experience you may need a new way of thinking, and a new discipline for getting things done.

In the book “Execution” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan the authors point out that a business’ culture defines what gets appreciated, respected, and ultimately rewarded. And the culture of an organization is the sum of its shared values, beliefs, and norms of behavior.

In short, to deliver a differentiated customer experience you may need to start with your organization’s ingrained beliefs concerning the customer and how to perfect the execution of your customer experience strategy.

Alan See

Alan See is CMO and Vice President at MindLeaders. His background also includes time as an associate faculty member at the University of Phoenix where he facilitated courses in Marketing and Management Theory. He holds a bachelor of arts in business and an MBA from Abilene Christian University.

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Daryl Choy

June 2, 2008

The Extra Mile

Walk the extra mile and make little things count for customers then all competitors will lag far behind.

Daryl Choy
Make Little Things Count
wisdomboom.blogspot.com

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