By Fred Johnson
It’s Wednesday morning at CUES’ first Advanced Leadership Institute on the Boston side of the Charles River, and a night of rain and thunderstorms has followed two days of beautiful, spring-like weather. The Harvard Business School has been at this location, eight miles from Boston center, since 1908.
It may have been cool outside, but it’s hot in the classroom. Professor W. Earl Sasser (pictured) has started off today talking about “Putting the Value Profit Chain to Work.” As with all sessions here at ALI and HBS, real-life examples are used to demonstrate business theory–as successes or failures. Sasser describes dictums from company leaders who believe customer satisfaction can be “directed,” as “Kidney Stone Management,” or more colloquially defined by front-line employees as, “This is going to hurt now, but this too shall pass!” The first company Professor Sasser discusses is Intuit, a business software company co-founded by Scott Cook, one of Sasser’s former students.
It’s the third day into ALI and we’ve already heard from four of the five faculty members who make up this distinguished group. The first day, Professor Dwight Crane led discussions on “Designing an Ideal Institution in an Evolving Industry” and “ The Strategic Value Vision for Customers & Employees,” the latter using Edward Jones investment brokerage firm as a case study.
Also on Monday, Professor Peter Tufano described a case study written about Vanguard Group, Inc., a 30-year-old assets management company, in a session called, “Dynamics of the Financial Services Industry: Costs, Competition, and Consolidation.” Crane and Tufano are ALI’s lead faculty.
Professor Gail McGovern spoke authoritatively about “Customer Relationship Management” on Monday, using two case studies from Fidelity Investments and Harrah’s Entertainment. McGovern knows something about CRM, having served as executive vice president of the Consumer Markets Division at AT&T and president of Fidelity Personal Investments, a unit of Fidelity Investments. She was recognized by Fortune magazine in 2000 and 2001 as one of the top 50 most powerful women in corporate America.
McGovern kicked off Tuesday morning with a presentation on “Target Marketing.” Next up was Prof. Sasser, who dazzled the class with a case study on Southwest Airlines, a company he has been following for 30 years. This airline, well-known for its “unusual” service standards, was the centerpiece for Sasser’s sessions, “Maintaining Service Excellence in a Transformed Industry.”
Fred Johnson is president/CEO of CUES.
