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n What specifically do they tell us that they appreciate about the way
that we serve them?

n What do they see as their key needs for the immediate future?
n What is changing?
n How often do we ask them?
n Where can we find similar customers, equally worthwhile, with

similar needs?
n What do we have to do to win them?
n What do we have to do to keep them?

What new skills and competencies do we have to
acquire to better exploit today’s most
worthwhile markets?

Arie de Geus has shown that the real business survivors, those companies
that prosper for centuries rather than decades, are learning organizations
that attract the best people and practise frugality with their resources.
Considering this question should lead to other, equally valid, questions.

Subsidiary practical questions

n Is it better to develop such skills through training or development
or to buy them in?

n How do we build a real learning community?
n Do we reward the sharing or the hoarding of knowledge and skill

in this company?
n How can we reward the sharing of knowledge and skills?
n How do we ensure that what is learned by our people is relevant to

our business needs and is used rather than forgotten?
n How do we optimize the growth of our people at every level?
n Can we attract and keep the best people?
n Who do we need to attract to get ahead and keep ahead of

competition?
n What is the quickest and most economical way to attack the most

profitable markets?
(For a short cut to some of the most important answers to these questions
you might like to look at pages 250–267 of Key Management Solutions pub-
lished by Pearson under the Financial Times/Prentice Hall imprint.

Introduction xiii