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James Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Leonard
Schlesinger reveal powerful new evidence that paying close
attention to the employee-customer relationship will enable
any organization be a low-cost provider and achieve
superior results --proving that you can have it all, a goal
thought inadvisable just a few short years ago. At the heart
of this bold assertion is the authors' indisputable conclusion
supported by thirty-one years of groundbreaking research:
today's employee satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment strongly
influences tomorrow's customer satisfaction, loyalty, and
commitment and ultimately the organization's profit and
growth -- a quantifiable set of associations the authors
call the value profit chain.
In what may be the most far-reaching study
ever undertaken of the strategic importance of the employee-customer
relationship, Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger offer profound
new insights into the lifelong value of both employees and
customers and the increasingly important concept of emIployee-relationship
management. Readers will discover how organizations as diverse
as aluminum maker Alcoa, travel agency Rosenbluth International,
and the Willow Creek Community Church treat employees like
customers (in the case of Willow Creek, volunteers as well).
Conversely, the authors show how advertising agency Merkley
Newman Harty and financial services provider ING Direct
treat customers like employees, pursuing the ones they want
most. At the Vanguard Group, Cisco Systems, and Southwest
Airlines, both practices are common. The authors explain
how these organizations and many others -- whether large
or small, public or private, or not-for-profit -- achieve
profitability and growth or the equivalent by leveraging
results and process quality to deliver differentiated products
and services at the lowest cost.
Timely, essential, and important reading,
The Value Profit Chain should be readily accessible
on the desk of every forward-thinking manager.
James L. Heskett is Baker Foundation
Professor at the Harvard Business School and co-author with
Earl Sasser and Leonard Schlesinger of the landmark bestseller
The Service Profit Chain.
Earl Sasser, Jr., is United Parcel Service
Foundation Professor of Service Management at the Harvard
Business School and Chairman of the board of Harvard Business
School Interactive.
Leonard A. Schlesinger formerly taught
at the Harvard Business School and was COO of Au Bon Pain.
He is presently chief operating officer of Limited Brands.
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