Recession Map

(from Economist.com. Click to enlarge)

The Customer

In conversation this week I was asked about my experiences in and around retailers and how a focus on the customer drives the success of one company over another.

It was easy for me to identify the benchmark for customer service. A.G. Russell Knives, originally based in my hometown of Springdale, Arkansas, is a firm I have patronized for 25 years. A.G.'s service credo is simple:

We guarantee total satisfaction. You the customer decide what satisfaction is. You decide how long you are entitled to be satisfied.

This business has come from a minuscule storefront attached to a workshop to become the largest distributor of production and custom knives in the country. I firmly believe a total focus on their customers is the key reason for this success.

Is the customer the center of your business?

What Does Guanxi Look Like?

Poking around the blogs this morning I stumbled upon a set of images created by Chinese artist Yang Liu for a 2007 show. The figures reflect observations of the contrasts between German (blue) and Chinese (red) culture. I think one can extrapolate a more general tongue in cheek contrast between East and West in this series.

Here is the entire run of plates in a PDF file. The titles are in German but you will easily get the point.