Do Business Well

Managers at Ford Motor chose Siebel to provide essential software for a call center that links Ford, its dealers, and its business partners. They report that the reliable Siebel team makes sure that everyone at Ford who needs to understand and feel comfortable with the software does so. The call center’s chief says that if he were really unhappy, he could call Tom Siebel anytime, “and he’d take care of it.” Other customers are just as happy. Lodging giant Marriott International Inc. has used Siebel software for several elaborate programs and finds that Siebel people are always a step ahead of Marriott’s five-year plan. Siebel’s mantra, says a Marriott executive, is “How does what we do help your business?”

For new market leaders, such as Solectron and Siebel Systems, it is not sufficient to fill their customers‘ orders. They are committed to their customers‘ success, determined that the products or services they sell will bring the results that their customers need. There is an old marketing chestnut worth repeating: Customers don’t buy drills, they buy holes. It is results that count. If there is a better way than yours for your customer to get the results she wants, don’t wait for her to find it; show her, and find a way to provide it.

The focus side of the customer-focus equation is equally critical. As detailed in The Discipline of Market Leaders, focus means selecting your customers carefully and calibrating your operating model to their specific needs. Pursue too many customers or those whose needs don’t play to your strengths, and you will strain your operations. Build a general-purpose operating model, and you will be clobbered by more focused competitors who forgo embellishments so they can adhere to precisely what is needed—no more, no less.

Market leaders know that the way to build momentum is to focus ample energy on a well-defined target. Too little energy or too large a target produces a stalemate. Advertisers, politicians, and military strategists have long known that the ability to concentrate resources makes winners, from Alexander the Great to Golda Meir to Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell.

The same logic applies when competition for customers becomes fierce. If two equally matched teams are pitted against each other, the one most focused on the precisely delineated target has the edge: The sharpshooter with a rifle will hit the bull’s-eye far more often than those with a shotgun. Similarly, the capacity to focus, to be single-minded, is what gives upstart companies a fighting chance to upset their established rivals, who may be rich in resources but have diffuse goals and less disciplined operations. Clearly, for Solectron and Siebel, nothing has contributed more to their success than their focus and single-mindedness.

Focus means having clarity of intent and direction. Genuine market leaders know and can express without doubt what they are and what they stand for. Managers who waver when articulating their core strengths or defining what distinguishes them from their competitors usually transmit that sense of ambiguity to employees, who find it confusing if not distressing.

You may remember an article in the October 16, 1995, issue of Fortune, in which both the outgoing and the incoming chief executive officers of Sears, Roebuck and Co. were interviewed separately on the same day and were asked identical questions about the company’s focus and direction. Most striking was that the two men, who had spent several years working side by side to turn around Sears’s sagging performance, had views that, in Fortune’s words, “couldn’t be more different.” It made me wonder how the people further down in the organization made sense of the conflicting visions. Did they take sides? Did they try to reconcile the differences? Did they pay lip service to the dissonance, or simply ignore it? Whatever their reactions, one suspects the conflict did not advance the aim of revitalizing the business. Don’t confuse focus with simplicity. A focused organization such as McDonald’s, in Oak Brook, Illinois, may look simple on the surface, yet underneath, it is an intricate and finely tuned operation that for nearly half a century has defeated competitors’ efforts to dethrone it. Though rivals copy its store operations and menu, mimic its choices of locations and appeal to kids, they have not found a way to make each of these separate elements come together in the focused manner that lures 27 million customers to McDonald’s outlets in the United States every day of the year.

What the new market leaders have accomplished is the elevation of the concept of customer focus. They adhere to four key mind-sets that, together, allow them to break away from the pack, avoid ordinariness, and distinguish themselves in a way that captures customers‘ attention and loyalty. We will come back to discuss each in much greater detail, but here is the overview.

• First, to make sure they don’t get lost in the crowd, the leaders create a larger-than-life market presence. That is, they make sure they get recognized. Becoming a well-kept secret just isn’t their style.

* Second, market leaders seek out customers who stretch their capabilities. To always stay a few steps ahead of rising expectations, they focus not on their average customers but on their most important (and often most demanding) ones. They take all the low-hanging fruit they can reach—but they also make sure to reach for the stars.

* Third, to provide direction and guidance, the leaders make sure customers realize the full value of their products and innovations. Less concerned with offering an abundance of new goods and services and more anxious that their customers “get it,” new market leaders provide whatever coaching and hand-holding they need to reap the new benefits, even when they might seem obvious.

And finally, market leaders act boldly in everything they do. Obviously, this doesn’t mean they are reckless, unprepared, or faddish, and they know the difference. They study their moves, know their markets thoroughly, keep up with the competition, and work out alternative scenarios. Still, faced with a choice between a daring move and a cautious compromise, they invariably choose the more ambitious course. That is their advantage over more timid rivals as they also earn kudos from their customers for their initiative.

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• Lead the Way
• Office Politics, Emotional Leadership Ripple Effect
• Making Sure Customers "GET IT"
• Being the Best and Showing it
• It takes time so have faith: Six simple steps ( 1&2)
• The Customers who can make or Break You
• What's New About Market Leaders?
• Online Marketing, Success in Business, Website Strategies part 3
• E-MARKETING Planning Process (Planning cycle stage 1: marketing audit)
• Online Marketing, Success in Business, Website Strategies part 4

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