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their customer-centric cultures as keyto their success. That’s because thisdiscipline turns customer experienceexcellence into a habit and makes futurechange easier by creating an ecosystemthat’s receptive to customerexperience improvement efforts.This is the age of the customer.You’re not going to succeed throughmanufacturing strength, distributionpower or information mastery—thosehave all been commoditized.If you want to succeed, youhave to roll up your sleeves and dothe work of building competence inthese six disciplines. That may scareyou. But what should scare you moreis the thought of becoming irrelevantto your customers, which is what willhappen if you don’t take action.Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine are coauthorsof “Outside In: The Power of Putting Customersat the Center of Your Business.” Harley launchedthe customer experience practice at Forrester Researchand has led it for 14 years. He is currentlya vice president and research director. Kerry is avice president and principal analyst at ForresterResearch and the creative force behind the customerexperience ecosystem, a framework thathelps companies diagnose and fix customer problemsat their roots.36 GOLFBUSINESS September 2013