ABSTRACT
Competitive pressures and more empowered customers have made customer experience a critical strategic imperative for every industry and every company. The need for deep understanding about people, their experience, and how they defi ne value has increased as businesses change to become more customer-centric:
Imagine a crazy wonderland where most of what you learned in business school is either upside-down or backward – where customers control the company, jobs are avenues of self-expression, the barriers to competition are out of your control, strangers design your products, few features are better, advertising drives customers away, demographics are beside the point, whatever you sell you take back, and best practices are obsolete at birth; where meaning talks, money walks, and stability is a fantasy; where talent trumps obedience, imagination beats knowledge, and empathy trounces logic.
