It's still the customer, stupid

BROUGHT TO BOOK: The Myth of Excellence Why Great Companies never Try To Be The Best At Everything Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews Crown Business, €27.90

The point of this book is a simple one, a wake up call to those who spend millions finding out what customers want and then get it wrong by not listening to them.

The authors describe, how, when they were researching this book, they shook their heads at the responses of the public until they realised that their assumptions were wrong and, as as the old maxim goes, the customer is always right.

Rather than trying to be the best at everything, companies should concentrate on being top class at one thing and as good at everything else as their competitors.

The example given is Walmart, a company on everybody's lips for delivering on its core mission, low prices. And how its arrival in many a town drove local retailers out of business. And these local retailers would have prided themselves on an intimate and enduring relationship with their customers.

Two Irish business get mentioned, Superquinn and Bewleys, and both get praise for delivering on their core areas, service and products respectively.

The book aims to encourage business to become, like Radio Nova, clutter-free, as customer patronage can be only guaranteed by giving them what they want from a particular brand, whether it is price, service or range.