The Value Profit Chain Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees

by Heskett, James L.; Sasser, W. Earl; Schlesinger, Leonard A.

• ISBN13: 9781476799988
• ISBN10: 1476799989
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-10-04
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

James Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Leonard Schlesinger reveal powerful new evidence that paying close attention to the employee-customer relationship will enable any organization to 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 life-long value of both employees and customers and the increasingly important concept of employee-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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART I Achieving Value-Centered Change

1. The Value Profit Chain

2. Rethinking the Business Using Value-Centered Concepts

PART II Getting Management's Attention

3. Measuring and Communicating Customer Lifetime Value

4. Measuring and Communicating Employee Value

5. Mobilizing for Change: Challenging Strong Cultures

PART III Engineering Value Profit Change

6. The Performance Trinity and the Value Profit Chain

7. Employee Relationship Management

Treating Employees Like Customers

8. Customer Relationship Management

Treating Customers Like Employees

9. Managing by Value Exchange

10. Leveraging Value over Cost

PART IV Cementing the Gains

11. Identifying and Revisiting Core Values

12. Developing Value-Centered Measurement and Recognition

13. Hardwiring Performance

14. Leading the Organization to Learn and Innovate

Afterword

Appendix A: Compendium of Value Profit Chain Research

Appendix B: The Value Profit Chain Audit

Appendix C: Calculating the Lifetime Value of a Customer

Notes

Index