Case Study: Focus on Your Customer… and Still Bankrupt!

Customer-focused work is important, right? Absolutely. When I work with companies on new ideas, I always start from the customer’s perspective. But what if that focus on the customer becomes your biggest pitfall?

Many companies, both large and small, have run into trouble — and sometimes even gone bankrupt — because they only did what their customers asked. They clung to today’s demands, while the market was already shifting toward tomorrow.

Imagine this: your business is growing fast, customers are lining up, profits are rising. A dream scenario, right? Until the focus on cost savings and customer satisfaction stifles any form of innovation. Innovations fail because they don’t bring immediate profit. But then the market changes. New technology disrupts everything. Your customers flock to competitors, and suddenly, your success collapses.

I experienced this myself. In the early 2000s, I saw it happen with the rise of the internet, IP telephony, and WiFi. Major telecom players missed the boat, even though these innovations were sitting in their own labs. Take Lucent Technologies, for example: a world leader, with internet calling technology at its fingertips. But by listening too closely to existing customers and internal politics, they missed the market. The result? Their stock crashed from $80 to $0.80.

If even giants can fall due to excessive customer focus, what does this mean for small to medium-sized businesses? As a smaller company, you have flexibility as your strength. Don’t just listen to customers, but also to your people. They often sense market tremors before the numbers reveal them. That “crazy idea” from your employee? It might just be your next big opportunity.

Disrupt yourself before you get disrupted.

Think the market is already shifting but don’t know where? Let’s talk!