Gurus On Marketing

Closing remarks: A controversy
‘We should not close this chapter without mentioning briefly a major
debate that has taken place within our own ranks. It is our belief,
based on the excellent companies review, that the user is supreme
as a generator and a tester of ideas. Several of our colleagues, on
the other hand, maintain that companies are better driven by paying
attention to technology and competitors. Moreover, Robert Hayes
and William Abernethy, in a widely cited article in Harvard Business
Review have attacked US companies for being too ‘marketoriented’
as opposed to ‘technology oriented.’ They argued that
our short term focus has led us to be captive to the latest consumer
preference polls.
We disagree.’
The 43 companies including IBM did not stay excellent for too long.
IBM nearly disappeared. He later explains what had gone wrong but
he passionately believed in customer orientation and went on to emphasise
the importance of providing service excellence.
The following extracts come from: Tom Peters and Nancy Austin
(1985). ‘A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference’,
Random House.
In this book Peters and Austin emphasise the importance of ‘care of
customers’, ‘constant innovation’, and ‘people’ and the centre of these
is leadership. They write:
‘Obsessive pursuit of the customer and constant innovation mean
adaptation. To pursue the customer and to pursue innovation, are
to be in constant commerce with the outside world, listening and
thus adapting.’
In chapter 8 they spell out:
‘Twenty two aspects of a true customers-first orientation. Almost
all are missing from most management and even marketing texts.
The list is not meant to be exhaustive...’
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