In the old world, companies had to spend 30% of their energy, time, and money on customer experience and 70% on marketing. But in the new online world, that ratio flips. You should spend 70% of resources on customer experience and 30% talking about the product. You still have to do both — the emphasis just changes. (119p)
From John Byrne, translated by Yu Ji-yeon, World-Changers — Dinner with the Masters (Timebeaz)
Last month Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the storied Washington Post for about 270 billion won. As someone who has worked in newspapers, broadcasting, and internet media all three, watching an internet company acquire a 'representative of the print newspaper' in the middle of a business crisis made me really feel the 'shift of the era' and the 'shift of the market.' Bezos emphasizes that you should "watch with painstaking care where the market is flowing." To do that, at the end of every quarter he leaves the company for a few days of 'thinking time.' He cuts himself off from family too and spends time in isolation, organizing his thoughts. A good practice for reading the shifts. The quote above from Bezos is an important point worth remembering. In the past companies spent 70% of resources on marketing and 30% on customer experience, but in the internet era it's the reverse — 70% on customer experience and 30% on marketing. That's because the internet vastly increased customer power.
▶ Ye Byung-il's Economy Notes — Twitter: @yehbyungil / Facebook: www.facebook.com/yehbyungil
Below are some of the quotes from founders that the author compiled. Hope you find a line or two that resonates.
- What you need to hand to customers is not a product — it's a lifestyle. (Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey)
- Remember the wounds and the humiliation, and never repeat them. (Home Depot founders Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus)
- Judge quickly whether to keep milking the cow or redraw the whole board. (Netflix founder Reed Hastings)
- Decide what to keep and what to discard, wisely but passionately. (Starbucks founder Howard Schultz)
- Watch with painstaking care where the market is flowing. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos)
- Pessimistic in your P&L forecasts; optimistic in your daily life. (Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher)
- Running a business is making your own philosophy bloom in your life. (Apple founder Steve Jobs)
- Every industry is fashion — nothing that isn't sexy grows. (Kohler's third-generation CEO Herb Kohler Jr.)
- Keep changing and changing, and for that, collaborate and listen. (Dell founder Michael Dell)
- Don't exhaust yourself trying to get everything ready — luck finds those who set out first. (founder Reid Hoffman)
- Work with smart people at the center of change — more and more willingly. (Microsoft founder Bill Gates)
- Life belongs to the adventurer — don't live a boring, conventional life. (Virgin Group founder Richard Branson)
- Life grows in proportion to the dreams you dream — predict your own destiny. (Harpo founder Oprah Winfrey)
- Capture a need and turn it into your idea — thoroughly and doggedly. (FedEx founder Fred Smith)
- Aim at the thing you love and can do well but aren't satisfied with. (Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin)
- If you want to change reality, create the system that makes it possible. (Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus)
- Dream recklessly and push it through — you are not small. (Tata Group founder Ratan Tata)
- Start from what you care about and what you can do well. (Nike founder Phil Knight)
- Move fast and break things — grab success faster than anyone else. (Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg)
- With passion fit to burst, make even recklessness a weapon. (EBX Group founder Eike Batista)
