Corporate Objectives and Strategy
Corporate objectives and strategy necessarily guide Chief Customer Officers’ activities. As Chuck Stravin, former CCO of Lightwedge said, “The CCO is not necessarily a maverick, out doing his or her own thing.” The CCO’s behavior is initially driven by company goals and the strategies in place to achieve those goals. As the CCO becomes the ultimate authority on the customer, he/she will then influence the strategy and even corporate direction to best meet changing customer needs. CCOs that are not aligned with these objectives are those that spend inordinate amounts of time justifying their existence. Unfortunately, they also suffer from the greatest fragility in their positions. One of the key objectives of the CCO Council is to clearly define the role, purview, the value, metrics, and measures of the CCO, providing some cohesiveness in the role where today there is very little.