Customer Orientation for Managers

Introduction
This seminar is the result of a cooperation between INSEAD and StratX. It has been designed to deliver clear benefits both for the individual and for the company.

For you:
- Better understanding of how customer orientation can help you, with internal as well as external clients.
- Better integration of your function with the rest of the firm.
- Creating value within your function and to your own career.

For your company:
- Customer orientation throughout the company and across all departments
- Company-wide recognition of the necessity to create, select and deliver customer value
- Total employee mobilisation for customer value delivery

Customer Orientation for Managers offers a unique and innovative approach for a well-known crucial business issue by the combination of:
- A senior faculty member with extensive experience in helping companies transform themselves in the area of customer orientation
- The use of a specially designed simulation from the world's leader in the area of market-based simulations, StratX
- The possibility to roll the programme down the organisation with an online solution developed jointly by INSEAD OnLine and StratX

Classroom sessions will give you a better understanding of:
- Why customer orientation is at the heart of great companies
- How you create, select and deliver customer value
- How you move from vicious circles to virtuous circles in serving customers
- How you identify the symptoms of a competitive customer oriented culture
- How you mobilise the organisation for customer value delivery

Simulation sessions will teach how to create and deliver customer value by:
- Investing in innovation to improve the benefits of brands and better satisfy your customers
- Understanding the different customer roles: Influencer, buyer, gatekeeper and end-user
- Understanding the links between customer value, customer satisfaction, customer retention and shareholder value
- Adapting to the evolution of market and competitive conditions

The ValueStrat Business Simulation
The ValueStrat Simulation gives participants the opportunity to develop and practice customer value creation in a highly competitive business environment. Learning is turned into action with the results-oriented simulation tools and live sessions that guarantee a high level of participant motivation.

ValueStrat simulates a fictitious world where several companies market a portfolio of products and brands. Participants work together in small management teams to pilot one of these companies. Faced with intense competition from other teams, participants must analyse their current situation, identify problems, develop customer-focused objectives and implement decisions related to customer and shareholder value creation. Following each decision round, team results are publicised in company annual reports and trade journals so participants can measure their performance goals.

ValueStrat:
- Allows managers to confront market challenges and competition that closely mirror reality
- Is based on actual market data but enables participants to test ideas and learn from mistakes in a risk-free environment
- Spans a series of increasingly complex "decision rounds" which are integrated with concept sessions and exercises that address strategic and tactical issues

Who should attend?
This programme is designed to benefit a broad group of managers who recognise that customer orientation is not only important for their business as a whole but also crucial to the sucessful achievement of their own role in the organisation. It will immediately appeal to companies in the services sector with external Customers, but every organisation can benefit from understanding the concept of internal Customers and how this can deliver greater productivity and enhanced job satisfaction. An admissions committee reviews the applications to ensure the right match among participants in terms of professional background and expectations in order to enhance the educational experience.

Faculty
As a leading businessman, scholar and writer, Jean-Claude Larréché brings a fresh and insightful view to the much-documented subject of strategy through his pioneering approach of looking at the need to improve our personal and business capabilities.

He is the Alfred H. Heineken Professor of Marketing at Insead, where he is recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of strategic marketing. He is the Founder and President of StratX, a company specializing in strategic management development and educational technology, as well as being an advisor to major international companies.

The author of internationally renowned simulations, he has also written numerous articles and several books on strategic marketing. His highly successful video is called "Winning Together with Services". He currently leads the CFGF Research initiative at Insead and produces the yearly "Report on the Competitive Fitness of Global Firms" published by Pearson Education in February.

He has received the "Marketing Educator of the Year" award from Club 55, the European Community of Marketing and Sales Experts, as well as the "Professor of the Year" award by the Insead Alumni.

Professor Jean-Claude Larréché has developed two case studies, Virgin Atlantic Airways and First Direct, which both have received the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) Award for Best Relationship Marketing case, and the ECCH (European Case Clearing House) Award for the Overall Best Case.

If you are interested in discussing the possibilities of having a customized seminar, please Contact Us.