Book

Lead with Your Customer

Transforming Your Culture and Brand into World-Class Excellence

Mark David Jones and J. Jeff Kober

ASTD Publications, 2010

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Editorial Rating

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Many business leaders view their corporate culture and their brand image as two separate entities. To achieve “world-class excellence,” executives should treat these as two sides of the same coin. Former Walt Disney Company executives Mark David Jones and J. Jeff Kober outline their “World-Class Excellence Model,” which encompasses service concepts any organization can use to deliver exceptional customer service and engender employee loyalty. The authors offer case studies from successful companies, including Disney and Apple. These ideas aren’t novel, but getAbstract finds that the book demonstrates how to apply them to your firm.

Summary

Chain of Excellence

All businesses, whether they sell a product or service, or operate in the public or private sector, have one goal in common: to succeed. Each firm struggles with the problems of budget constraints, unresponsive or obstinate leaders, employee disengagement, customer complaints and burgeoning competition. Envision workers and consumers as the same: your customers. Your “internal customers” are your staffers, and your “external customers” are your clients.

Use the four-part “Chain Reaction of Excellence Model” to develop your organization. Each level of success leads to the next:

“Leadership excellence” – Encourage action and promote achievement by communicating a clear vision and creating an environment conducive to success.
“Employee engagement” – Motivated, caring and committed workers are essential.
“Customer satisfaction” – Inspire passion and loyalty from your customers.
“Loyalty and long-term success” – Successful organizations boast customer and employee advocates who generate revenues and value over the long term.

“The Customer Compass”

World-class companies...

About the Authors

Mark David Jones is Chief Operating Officer of World Class Benchmarking, where J. Jeff Kober is CEO.

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E. R. getAbstract 1 decade ago

It is always a pleasure to hear from authors and I wanted to respond to your comment about the ratings. Since getAbstract screens thousands of business books and summarizes only the best, just being abstracted is already like getting an A. Then, we are within a range governed by applicability, innovation and style. This book actually has a very solid rating. It may have lost a point or two on innovation because it compiles known ideas, though clearly in a very useful and smart way. As you can see from the recommendation, we give it full acknowledgment for its many strengths. We appreciate the additional feedback and congratulate you on your fine book. Erica Rauzin, Managing Editor, getAbstract
M. J. 1 decade ago

I don't understand why the getAbstract rating is so low on this book. The content, from a duo of former Disney leaders, is a "one-stop shop" resource that provides insights from numerous world-class companies about how to get sustainable business results. The real breakthrough value comes from how it aligns and integrates many familiar models in a way that allows business professionals to implement a comprehensive, unified strategy. If you want to learn how world-class companies get consistent results every day internally (with their employees/culture) and externally (with their customers/brand), then this book is the guide for you. I know I've distributed it to dozens of leaders in my organization and the results have been amazing!