IWAS READING a powerful article recently about building a conscious company from a systems perspective. It got me thinking about the idea of how we tend to create success measures.

It matters because those measures drive all behavior in your company.

The question is: What if we would adopt our customers’ measures of success as our own? What would happen?

What does my customer value? Well, their own revenue and profitability, of course. But … how does that help my decision making? Everybody wants that!

Let’s refine the question.

Why is it that my customer would prefer to buy from me? Ah! Now things are opening up!

Imagine that the customer is buying my service because it helps them deliver a more competitive product. I can improve my offering to have some leading-edge attributes in their market, like having a faster turnaround time. Even maybe doing something exclusive for my largest customer, which can in turn let them offer something unique.