Who is really your boss?

In business, the customer is your boss. In fact, the customer is your boss's boss and the person above that person's boss.

In the book The Game Changer, co-author A.G. Lafley of Proctor & Gamble makes this point very clear as it relates to their many consumer products. Much of their success has been based on listening to their boss.

This is critically important in this economy. As we struggle to hold the line on revenues and profits, as we fight against the recession, we can't lose sight of the fact that our products and services are only as important as our customer tells us that they are.

In fact, our part of this downturn might just be accelerated by the changing needs of our customer. Now it is particularly important to understand the customer's changing needs and adjust our product or service to best serve the customer's needs.

We will recover from this recession. But how our business looks on the other side might be quite different from how it looked in 2006, 2007, or even 2008. The recession will be a game changer for many businesses and if our enterprise is to survive and thrive during and after the recession we must listen to our boss.