{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Owl Have You Know","title":"Finding and Perfecting Your Customer-Focused Strategy feat. Professor Vikas Mittal ","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2562,"description":"Most companies think they're customer-focused. Many are wrong.Vikas Mittal, the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at Rice Business and faculty director of the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy, has spent his career helping CEOs, MBA students and others learn the difference between truly serving customers and simply appeasing them. In this episode, Vikas joins host Brian Jackson ’21 to explain why so many corporate strategies fail: the buzzwords, shiny-object initiatives, and mission-statement retreats that produce 50 priorities and zero focus. He shows what it looks like when organizations commit to the one or two things that genuinely create customer value — and stay the course.He also shares how this approach comes to life through his Executive Education course, Strategic Growth Through Customer Focus, and the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy, which produced a landmark report – interviewing over 3,000 customers to reveal what actually drives value across industries and what doesn't.Plus: his famous sneaker collection and why he thinks everyone should write with fountain pens.Episode Guide:00:00 Guest Introduction: Meet Professor Vikas Mittal01:09 From Family Business to PhD03:26 Why Most CEOs Don’t Actually Know What Their Customers Want05:21 Trend Chasing and Misalignment11:28 The Science of Customer Focus17:45 Building The Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy21:20 Executives Unlearning Legacy Strategy32:29 How Colorful Sneakers Changed His Life40:52 Final Focus TakeawaysThe Owl Have You Know Podcast is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:Strategy is an ultimate dark art26:10: Strategy is the way it is done in companies. And I repeat this all the time, it's the ultimate dark art. Nobody knows why we are doing it, but everybody believes we have to do it just because my predecessor told me this is how we should do it. And you ask the predecessor, why are you doing it? Well,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/TJ_bP9v1zp60qvMRjx8jTuTiOVRFDdgjR-9C4xy2Tmg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE1ODMyLzE2MDM5/OTczNzQtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}