Strong, sustained growth is achieved through the constant creation of new and differentiated value for customers. Companies that develop the competency to continuously innovate, produce, and deliver the best formulations of customer value, vastly outperform their counterparts in any given industry. When customers bond with providers in vibrant and lasting relationships, they engage and buy, repeatedly spend more, pay premiums, and even become the best promoters of the brand.  These customers are the engines for profit and growth.

Many business leaders pursue this goal but report that they struggle with the development of the "customer-value" competency in their companies. There are challenges to instituting the necessary alignment and management of marketing, channel, product development and customer care functions to focus deliberately, imaginatively, and consistently on the creation and delivery of customer value.  The problem is exacerbated in certain business cultures prone to 'product thinking' (the result of a dominant engineering mentality) or 'competitive referencing' (the result of obsessing with the competition) that typically obscure the customer view. These types of organizations have greater difficulty in finding customer-valued innovation and growth.