The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

Sarah Jane Gilbert interviewed Ranjay Gulati for HBS Working Knowledge ;

Times are tough for many businesses, yet some are holding their own, even thriving. Best Buy, Cisco, Target, Starbucks, and Jones Lang LaSalle come to mind. How do they do it? According to a new book by Harvard Business School's Ranjay Gulati, it is customer-centric firms—those with a so-called outside-in perspective—that are most resilient during turbulent markets.

An outside-in perspective means that companies aim to creatively deliver something of value to customers, rather than focus simply on products and sales. And Gulati's research, including interviews with 500 executives spanning industries and geographies, asserts that outside-in success is not confined to any one sector.

"I see the move toward customer-centricity as a journey," explains Gulati. "It doesn't happen overnight. Based on my observation of companies for almost a decade, I map out four levels that exemplify distinct stages through which companies may evolve on this journey."

In our e-mail Q&A, we asked Gulati to describe what managers can learn from his new book, Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business (Harvard Business Press). Gulati, whose research explores leadership and strategic challenges for building high growth organizations in turbulent markets, is the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor at Harvard Business School. A book excerpt follows.

Here is the whole interview ...