How to Build a Customer-Centric Organization

Guest: Simon Lewis, growth strategist who advised the President of Emirates Group and dnata on change and strategy for 11 years.

Everything created twice
In business, this means having a clear vision of where you want to go, supported by a mission that focuses people’s contribution, and a set of values that brings people together to build a customer-centric culture.

Why vision statements don’t stick
Good vision, mission, and values statements often get written with initial hype, then lose momentum after the launch — the focus needs to be on both leadership and people.

Serve to Lead
From the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst motto — leaders often forget the importance of serving the people they’re responsible for as they climb the organization, focusing on numbers instead of the people producing those numbers.

Listening to the front line
Like a military operation, having up-to-date information from the front line equips you to make better decisions. People feel empowered and important when listened to, and it becomes more powerful when their contribution is turned into action.

The consequence of not listening
If a leader only pushes for sales without listening, teams may hit targets short-term but lose customers along the way as trust erodes — you might win a sale today but not get repeat business tomorrow.

Number one is a moving target
Being number one today doesn’t guarantee being number one tomorrow — leaders need continuous awareness of both existing and future customer needs, feeding that back into the organization for corrective action and innovation.

The origin story: the red book
On his first day at Sandhurst, Simon and his cohort received a small red book with the crossed batons/scepters crest and the words “Serve to Lead” — filled with anecdotes and leadership ideas, meant to be kept and referred to for life, centered on putting others before yourself in order to lead.

The JFK quote
From the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: there are risks and problems to every action, but far greater risks in comfortable inaction. Leadership requires making the decision, but how you reach that decision matters — even in the military’s most demanding roles, leaders consulted their corporals before delivering orders, staying open to being told they’d missed something.

The corporals on the ground
During the Falklands War, once infantry got stuck in, platoon commanders had little effect — it was corporals and lance corporals directing on the ground. The same applies in business: it’s the people closest to the work who actually get the job done, so leaders need to get down to the front line.

The breakfast program
A CEO agreed to have monthly breakfasts with 10-12 people from across the business, answering any (non-confidential) question about the business or his life — but attendees had to demonstrate how they were using the company’s values in their own work to qualify, creating two-way communication and real connection between leader and staff.

Willingness to learn as a leader
Effective leaders are always willing to learn, especially as generational values shift. Just as in a struggling marriage, returning to the values you first aligned on can reveal whether there’s still a path forward — sometimes an outside coach can help identify what small changes would make a big difference.

Delegation vs. abdication
Failing to delegate signals an unconscious lack of trust, and demotivates people who can see what needs to be done but aren’t empowered to act. Delegation paired with support (checking in, correcting course) is real leadership development — it’s an opportunity to grow others.

A pivotal feedback moment
A young corporal named Cristobal Perez once told a 26-year-old leader: “What does it matter what I think if you’re going to do what’s in your mind anyway?” — a powerful lesson about truly listening rather than just letting people talk before doing what you'd already decided.

The black book
Soldiers kept personal notes on their men — family background, hobbies, interests — not to invade privacy but to have reference points for empathetic conversations during difficult moments, opening the door for someone to speak more freely.

Values in performance reviews
Values are rarely actually reviewed as part of performance evaluations. If you set objectives around your corporate values (e.g., customer centricity as a behavior tied to “caring about others”), you make those values live day-to-day rather than just described on a wall.

Levels of customer centricity
Is your service a “me-too” service where staff have no autonomy to solve problems, or does it give the “wow factor” where staff can flexibly maneuver the system to create a genuinely human interaction?

Pay and performance for a top salesperson
Similar math to elsewhere in the field: increasing a salesperson’s pay by 20% (say, from 10,000 to 12,000) in exchange for a 20% output increase (from 1 million to 1.2 million in sales at a 25% margin) delivers 50,000 in extra gross profit for a 2,000 investment — a strong ROI, though harder to apply to support functions like finance or HR where output isn’t as directly measurable.

Values-based pay decisions
A salesperson generating strong numbers but poor on values (rude to colleagues, doesn’t fit the culture) presents a real dilemma — you can measure someone by the values-aligned behaviors they display, since displaying the right “how” typically leads to the right “what” results over time.

The North Star and agile strategy
A standard business strategy sets protracted 3-5 year goals; an agile strategy breaks those goals into smaller elements distributed to people, generating more involvement, innovation, and creativity — like the difference between an oil tanker (needing five miles to turn) and a speedboat.

Closing thought
The only one responsible for your success is you — the way you lead, manage, and set vision, mission, structure, and values, and live by them daily, determines the ultimate destination you take your people to.

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