CUSTOMER VALUE - THE NEXT SOURCE FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Driven by more demanding customers, global competition, and slow-growt h economies and industries, many organizations search for new ways to achieve and retain a competitive advantage. Past attempts have largely looked internally within the organization far improvement, such as re flected by quality management, reengineering, downsizing, and restruct uring. The next major source for competitive advantage likely will com e from more outward orientation toward customers, as indicated by the many calls for organizations to compete on superior customer value del ivery. Although the reasons for these calls are sound, what are the im plications for managing organizations in the next decade and beyond? T his article addresses this question. It presents frameworks for thinki ng about customer value, customer value learning, and the related skil ls that managers will need to create and implement superior customer v alue strategies.