Short courses 

• Identify opportunities for new wealth and accelerated growth
• Frame a strategy that makes customers central in an imaginative and disciplined way
• Build the business case for customer centric change
• Execute and accelerate a transformation to a customer culture
• Get an understanding of what it will take to get engagement and alignment
• Build skills for transferring customer focus concepts into their own enterprise

Outcomes - At the end of this programme delegates will be able to:

• Understand why they need to be customer centric, what it means, and what it takes- they will have a sense of urgency and know how to make this infectious in their own setting
• Find and articulate new “market spaces” opportunities in their marketplace
• Use a creative but structured well tested methodology to define and design specific product and service value-add opportunities, and turn these into innovations that bring durable lifetime customer value
• Build a strategic architecture and story that they can communicate and sell inside and outside their company to get buy-in and alignment
• Develop a business case for achieving customer centricity
• Have a route map to implement a customer focused transformation

Programme Outline

Day 1

The Power and Relevance of Customer Focus

• Presenting the alternative customer model as a growth generator
• Creating customer “lock-on” to bring durable returns
• Redefining competition and loyalty
• New definitions of “Market Spaces”
• Broadening boundaries and unifying the customer concept
• Growing and retaining the customer base

How to Discover and Uncover New Customer Value

• Finding value gaps and customer experience planning
• A methodology for identifying new value opportunities
• Translating this into innovations that create wealth
• New ways to eliminate waste and cost
• Breakthrough values that change social practices
• Using the customer activity cycle to build lifetime value and a service culture

Building a Strategy around Lifelong Customer Value

• Formulating a compelling story for our company
• Building the strategy around customers
• Justifying the business case using new economics
• Working on two tracks simultaneously
• Special issue related to customer relationship/account management
• The role of knowledge and new economies

Day 2

Implementing a Customer Focused Transformation

• The phased implementation process with breakthrough points and defining moments
• Determining pace and practicality
• Getting traction and buy-in from customer, employees and partners
• Mobilising and managing energy
• Getting the benefits of the tipping point
• Getting the payoff of lifetime customer value
• Factors that determine success and speed

Working Through an Action Plan Template

• Individual or group work
• Consultations with individuals or groups
• Discussing the next steps to take

Who Should Attend

This programme is for general managers, functional directors, executives, senior managers and heads of functional areas who want to improve their company’s competitiveness by knowing how to make customer centricity work. Senior executives are encouraged to bring a team along with them to allow for implementation of the concepts on this programme.


Faculty

Sandra Vandermerwe

Sandra Vandermerwe is currently a Professor at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, specialising in customer focused transformation, an Associate Fellow at Imperial College Business School London, on executive programmes, and an Adjunct Professor at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) Germany.

Sandra was the Chair in Management at Imperial College Business School, University of London in the UK from 1996 to 2006. Since then she has been a Visiting Professor on their MBA and executive programmes. For a decade prior to that, she was the Professor of Marketing and International Services, at IMD Lausanne Switzerland, on the MBA and senior executive programmes.

Over the years, she has taught a variety of senior executive development programmes at various business schools such as: Ashridge Management College, UK; University of California Berkeley USA; Bradford Business School, U.K; Cranfield School of Management, UK; Columbia University New York; INSEAD Business School France.

She received a Doctorate in Business Administration, (DBA) at the Graduate School of Business, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town in 1974. In 1972 she obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA), at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. Her undergraduate degree in 1966, was a Bachelor of Arts (BA), in Sociology from the University of Cape Town.

Through consulting, she has worked closely with senior management and boards, both private and public, as well as entrepreneurs and new entrants. The emphasis has been on the formulation and implementation of customer-focused and service strategies to achieve sustainable advantage.

Her academic work is based on ongoing, application driven research and collaboration with leading practitioners in global companies. More recently she has been looking at how to deal with ‘bottom of the pyramid’ customers. She has published in numerous academic journals and has been on the editorial boards of various journals. She has also authored a number of books since the 1990s and written over 50 case studies.


Quotes from those who have attended Sandra’s courses in the past:

• “This course is not only about Marketing, it is about working on a strategy to transform a company's focus from a single track mind focused on products, to one that focuses on customers by creating superior value for them. It is a toolkit that must be utilised by companies who want to unlock their full potential.” Diana Tshivhase, Marketing Development Manager, Robor.
• “The course combines innovation, marketing, strategy and entrepreneurship in a simplified and easy to implement action plan. I just can’t imagine any business failing with this approach.” Lebohang Moiloa, Environmental Analyst, Development Bank South Africa
• “Sandra’s approach to understanding the customer and building an overall business strategy around this understanding is unique. It not only opens one’s eyes to what is possible in your current business segments but exposes you to new and exciting business opportunities that you never considered before. This is not a marketing course but rather a business growth and strategy course, one that is suitable, and recommended, for everyone from the Financial Manager to the Sales Rep. This programme comes highly recommended.” James Hickman, Regional Lead: Coastal, Microsoft.
• “The course was very insightful. It is a different methodology to first look at your customer processes –only then do you realise how much additional value you can give customers. In this difficult economic climate only the companies that manage to do this will be able to survive and achieve outstanding results." Suzel Hechter, Head: CVM Card Capability, ABSA

Duration: 2 days


Fees: The fee of R8 200 includes tuition, instruction material, textbooks, lunches and refreshments, and is VAT exempt. No registration will be confirmed without payment. 
 

Cancellation Policy
Delegates who cancel their registration after the closing date for registrations, or where there is no closing date, less than 14 days prior to programme commencement, will be liable for 50% of the programme fee. Those who do not arrive for the programme will be liable for the full fee. Notification of cancellation must be sent in writing either via e-mail or via fax. All who cancel or do not attend must return the course material intact.


Contact Us
Tel: +27 (0)11 771 4313
E-mail: execed@gibs.co.za