The first element is Customer First. Not just a cliché, an objective, a way of life easily chosen yet difficult to follow.
As the story goes, in the early days of the Toyota car company, the founder Kiirchiro Toyoda knew he could make a car but also knew he was not the best car salesman. Kiichiro had befriended Shotaro Kamiya who was the manager of the Tokyo office of General Motors Japan.
Eventually Kiichiro persuaded Shotaro to work for Toyota giving him free rein on building the sales division. His first lesson to Kiichiro was “The priority in receiving benefits from automobile sales should be in the order of the customer, then the car dealer, and, lastly, the maker. This attitude is the best approach in winning the trust of customers and dealers and ultimately brings growth to the manufacturer.”
The meaning of this statement is clear, the ultimate growth and success of a company or your business is only possible if the you never fail to meet and exceed the consumers expectation… Or in the words of the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet….Companies are only successful when they “provide a [product] for the customer that is worth more than the customer pays, because that is the only way you keep somebody over time”
What Toyota does and you must do as well, is make sure your entire supply chain meets this objective; Customer First!
From your suppliers you need the right product at the right time for the right price. Your vendors, galleries, shops must also provide value for your customer. And of course, the product you produce must be value-added as well… “worth more than the customer pays”
