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Caterpillar, listening to customers
From the Financial Times profile of the new CEO of Caterpillar, Doug Oberhelman:
Mr Oberhelman, who officially took over at the start of July, believes seeing Caterpillar's products being put to use is more instructive than sitting in boardrooms. It reminds people that customers come first, he says.With that in mind, he recently brought the company's entire senior leadership team - some 35 people - on a surprise trip to the Clinton landfill. "We told them to meet in a hotel in Peoria and said: 'Be in your chair at 8am,'" he recalls. "When they got there, there were no chairs. They were told: 'Get on the buses, we're going.'"
At the site, the executives were split into teams and spent time with customers who had gathered there. "We listened to some good things and some bad things," Mr Oberhelman says. "The whole point was: whatever the customer has to say, you'd better be listening."
Emphasis mine. Any company that stresses listening to customers over meetings, and is lucky enough to have a CEO preaching the message, has a killer advantage over its competitors.
(Thanks to Phil for the pointer.)
