It all starts with the customer. If we want to be successful business leaders, we need for customers to follow us. But true leaders also follow their customers, because with them it is possible to build a great organization. Prof. Henry Robben, Professor of Marketing at Nyenrode Business University and co-author Prof. Rudy Moenaert, Professor of Strategic Marketing at TIAS School for Business and Society, wrote the book The Customer Leader. “A no-nonsense book full of initiatives," according to Robben and Moenaert.

The book The Customer Leader helps the reader define value, analyze the competition, develop a successful value proposition, and thereby build a customer-centric organization. The book is about leadership, customers, and creating a thriving business.

Explore Your World

In a previous interview, Robben stated: "Your office is the worst place to explore the world. Go outside, talk to customers, analyze data, and find out about the 'job to be done' for your customer. Navel-gazing leads to the accumulation of navel fluff: unfortunately, there is just no market for that.

Many books on leadership look inward with their reflections and models. The Customer Leader pays attention to what is happening outside your organization and connects that with the inside world. The book pays attention to every stakeholder, including the customer, the employee, the shareholder, the partners in the ecosystem, and society. The authors also involve the readers of the book and encourage them to answer the questions in each chapter. After all, you're not talking about but with customers.

Robben and Moenaert: "Simplicity creates magic. Customer Leadership offers the reader both a goal and a privilege. The goal is to create value for others; the privilege is to create value for yourself."