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we are best placed to enjoy ever-increasing prosperity in the
future?
There is massive and compelling evidence that makes it clear that lever-
aging the strengths of a business increases profitability far more than even
the most assiduous identification and eradication of weaknesses. If you
have but one loyal customer you have a clear indication that you are doing
something right. Giving people more of what they value is the fastest and
most effective way to build profitable business by attracting other worth-
while customers with similar desires, needs and expectations. Asking the
question as framed by Prahalad and Hamel ensures that you and those
that you influence are concentrating on the important rather than fretting
over any perceived shortcomings most of which have no discernible effect
on the way or the degree to which you delight your customers. “Do what
you already do well only do more of it and do it better” should be the
mantra of all businesspeople. Problems can and will be solved, weaknesses
will be eliminated, but the negatives are most readily dealt with when the
business is generating good profits and clients and customers are express-
ing their delight at the service that they experience day after day. Then the
attitude is one of “let’s get this problem out of the way because we can”
rather than “let’s swap war stories and grievances because it is only being
miserable that makes us happy”.

Research has shown time and time again that firms can spend millions
of dollars or pounds and an almost unlimited number of hours trying to
eliminate every little perceived weakness without increasing profitability
by a single penny. Companies, such as the Figgie Corporation have gone
from prosperity to bankruptcy as they sought out-of-reach perfection,
rather than simply identifying and delivering what the most valuable cus-
tomers wanted. Ask yourself and others the question that will ensure that
you are still there, stronger than ever before, when you decide that the
time has come to deal with every minor flaw.

My small addition to Prahalad and Hamel’s question is aimed at ensur-
ing that no reader falls victim to short-term thinking. Every success that
we enjoy today should be part of a strategic and tactical process to build the
best possible springboard for our future. Every time that you have a great
idea for present action it will almost certainly become a better idea if you
also ask yourself or others “how does this contribute to the future that we
(I) want?” The answer that “it helps us to survive for long enough to enjoy
the future” is fine, but usually it is incomplete. Today’s successes, like
today’s skills, competencies, behaviours, learning and knowledge can, cre-
atively applied, provide a sound platform for future triumphs.

Subsidiary practical questions

n Who, by name are the 20 per cent of customers that provide 80 per
cent of our profits?

xii Introduction