Putting customers before shareholders

Today’s post asks whether an organization’s long term financial health is best served when the organization’s main focus is to increase share price each and every quarter, or if more value is generated by putting the customer their needs first.

Recent literature on the subject implies that the popular trend of the last three decades may not be the best choice – prioritizing share price above all else may actually rob longterm shareholders of wealth that could have been generated with a customer first policy. In the January-February 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Roger Martin (dean of the Rotman School of Management) took a close look at a few companies that put the customer first. Interestingly, many of these companies generated strong shareholder returns compared to the S&P 500 while creating customer loyalty (or because of it).

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Competing with free

Over the past few years, free products have been moving up the stack from tools used by technical staff such as Linux and Apache to services consumed by the general public like Youtube, Pandora and Google news. So in this era of free, on-demand access to information, media and tools how can companies who charge for their offerings compete?
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Snoop Dogg on differentiation and brand identity

Legendary rapper and businessman Snoop Dogg sat down with CNBC to talk a bit about how he created his personal brand and how he differentiates himself from the competition. Although he is not what you would traditionally consider a business icon or mentor, Snoop is very successful in both the music and media industry and as a serial business owner and entrepreneur.
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