Customer centricity: Digital technology and leadership to the rescue

Why is there such a disconnect between customer centricity as a concept and its actual application by firms? Spanning all business model dimensions, our research highlights three traps that cause organizations to lose focus on customers over time: (1) product focalization, (2) rigid organizational boundaries, and (3) a fixed-pie mindset. While these traps are not new, their root causes have not previously been investigated, and we show how firms can use two tools to bridge the disconnect: digital technology and leadership behaviors. These two tools enable firms to develop a constant flow of customer insights (i.e., the value conception dimension), reconsider firm boundaries (i.e., the value delivery dimension), and transparently align firm interests with those of its customers (i.e., the value capture dimension).