Page 6 - Inside Access

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Leadership and Business Lessons
from Top CEOs
The world is changing; the customers are changing; the meaning of health is changing; what we eat is changing; how we dress is changing; purchasing environments are changing — We live in a volatile environment. Companies that manage to adapt to the changes, survive. Some businesses keep running all the time but they stay in the same place, just on the verge of survival. Few leaders make their businesses swim against the tide and keep it moving forward. They pull everyone forward along with them. They aim for a better payoff for all their efforts.
What lessons can we learn from those leaders?
Be the customer
Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi co, asked her employees not to be representatives of customers but be customers themselves. More than saying this, she also led by example. She would visit retail stores in the guise of a customer so she could experience the business from a customer’s perspective. For this reason, she encouraged them to do the same.
Amazon was so successful at selling books because Jeff Bezos was an avid reader. He himself is an extreme user of his product. He knew the desires, needs of his targeted user segment and used this to drive customer experience.
The iTunes store was an essential reason for iPod's massive success. It solved a lot of problems and offered a wonderful experience to music fans. The reason for this, Steve Jobs himself was a huge music fan, a hard core Bob Dylan fan. One of the reasons behind the bond between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak was their common interests in music. They hunted stores together to collect rare music albums. Being an avid user, Steve knew what the real needs of a music listener were.
Harley Davidson promotes a culture where employees are encouraged to become riders so they can understand the customers.
Nike's founders Phil Knight and Billy Bowden were track athletes. They knew the problems faced by professional athletes with the shoes as they had experienced it themselves.
PAGE 6 INSIDE ACCESS | OCTOBER 2020 2ND EDITION