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The Customer Centric Enterprise

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The Customer Centric Enterprise

Abstract

More than two decades later, in 2003, this prophecy is still a vision not only in the clothing business but also in most other industries. What causes the renowned futurist miss the mark? Though we have most, if not all, the necessary hardware, software, powerful computing and communication systems, including laser cutting, high performance sewing etc, we are still not really able to meet the special yearning of human beings, that very important feature that sets us apart from animals, i.e. creativity. We believe the missing gap is the capacity to put the systems, including organization, process and business models together and make them customer centric. Building a customer centric enterprise that places the demands and wishes of each single customer in the center of value creation implies much more than investing in advanced technologies. Firms have to build not organizations and structures to produce customized services, but organizations and structures for customers. With the customers at the center, human beings can then focus on being creative and be isolated from mundane tasks in order to concentrate on expressing themselves more freely.

The most creative thing a person will do 20 years from now is to be a very creative consumer ... Namely, you'll be sitting there doing things like designing a suit of clothes for yourself or making modifications to a standard design, so the computers can cut one for you by laser and sew it together for you by NC machine ...

Robert H. Anderson, Head Information Systems, RAND Corporation, quoted in Alvin Toffler “Third Wave” [1], p. 274

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong

    Prof. Mitchell M. Tseng Ph.D.

  2. TUM Business School, Department of General and Industrial Management, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany

    Dr. Frank T. Piller

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  1. Prof. Mitchell M. Tseng Ph.D.
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  2. Dr. Frank T. Piller
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Knowloon, Hong Kong

    Mitchell M. Tseng Ph.D.

  2. TUM Business School, Lst. AIB, Technische Universität München, Leopoldstraße 139, 80804, Munich, Germany

    Frank T. Piller

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tseng, M.M., Piller, F.T. (2003). The Customer Centric Enterprise. In: Tseng, M.M., Piller, F.T. (eds) The Customer Centric Enterprise. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55460-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55460-5_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-02492-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-55460-5

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