So many change agents have wondered about their own science and how awkward change tends to be, as the people, equipment, procedures and the environment morph in a system struggling, but seeking--through them collectively--congruence toward improvement. We do, however, seem damned to change one thing for the better, only to see several things changed for the worse.
Have we entirely missed the point? Why do we change at all? What is the stimulus for change if it’s not market driven? Generally, the stimulus for change is paradoxically driven from the other end, i.e. from the supplier.
“Marketing… is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must, therefore, permeate all areas of the enterprise.”
–Peter Drucker.[1]
This is a paradigm shift; for all change agents to think like marketing executives, asking ‘What does the market want?’
Whatever we want to effect, we must get into the minds and hearts of those at the pointy end of things. If we seek to change, we must make it for a purpose they can identify with and they believe in.
Every organisation, and every individual, should be able to identify with what the end user is thinking and feeling regarding their business, role and input in life. Each one needs a customer-first-focus, if not to be completely directed by, certainly at least ‘to steer by.’
Isn’t it true (or is it?), ‘The customer is always right’?
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
[1] Daniel Kehoe, Leading and Managing Change – Management in Action Series (Sydney, McGraw-Hill, 2007), p. 32. Kehoe cites Drucker’s own book, People and Performance (Harper and Row, 1977).
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