Executive Decision Making in a Customer-Centric Organization

 If you read the Gardner Business Index for Moldmaking that we published yesterday, and if your heart fell just a tad because it wasn’t very encouraging (especially given that indicators early in the year told us to expect a rocking summer for US molds and molding), take heart. There are always strategies you can use to try and work around the bumps, chasms and pitfalls in your paths. To help you get your ideas going, this week’s Throwback Thursday blog presents a four-part series MMT published in 2011, when things weren’t going so hot, too, due to the recession.

The series is actually kicked off with an article that addresses (and is titled) The Executive Decision: Starting Point: Know Customer Needs. It was then followed up with three more installments titled Executive Decision Making in a Customer-Centric Organization, which discuss how to incorporate the balance between profitability, prioritization, investment options and timing, with all of these aspects tied to learning from your customers’ voices.

In the Starting Point article, learn how to lower the risk in business decisions through VOC (Voice of Customer). Our author is Ed Baker, who at the time was president and CEO of Quashnick Tool Corp., a moldmaker and injection molder based in Lodi, California. Here, Baker sets the stage for the series and tells readers, “I will show you how to get started painlessly with some useful tools, add structure and depth to the decision-making process, and increase decision reliability by the addition of more data/information.”

In Part One of the ensuing three installments, Baker discusses actual concerns cited by business owners and executives in our industry that he interviewed.

In Part Two, Baker discusses how to avoid the pitfalls that can dramatically limit one’s ability to carve out a niche and stay on the relative curve that is basic to productivity.

Finally, in Part Three, Baker helps readers recognize that it is essential to compete on more than just price. He discusses the challenges that can affect competitiveness in our industry and offers ways to find that “something” that helps set a company apart from competitors based on the customer’s focus.