In 1909, Harry Gordon Selfridge coined the phrase “the customer is always right” to encourage shoppers in his London department store. Over the last century, this retail slogan has metastasized into a dangerous corporate dogma. It has created a Cult of the Customer that convinces entrepreneurs that the client is the architect of the business. This is a profound strategic error. History shows that while this philosophy may sell gloves, it destroys innovation. If Henry Ford had listened to his customers, he would have bred faster horses. If Steve Jobs had asked users what they wanted, the iPhone would not exist. My analysis posits that the client does not possess the strategic vision to direct your company; they are there because they lack something you have. True business success comes not from obedience, but from Brand Authority.
1. The Etymological Reality: Enterprise is Not Servitude
To understand the error, we must look at the root of the word. Enterprise comes from Latin and Greek roots associated with entrepreneurship—to cling to an idea and develop it. Nowhere in this definition is there a mandate for subservience.
When a company adopts the belief that “if the customer is happy, the business is growing,” they are relying on the subjective indicator “Customer satisfaction,” which is a metric of the present; it is not a predictor of the future.
- The Power Dynamic: The client is defined by a lack. They are the client, user, or consumer precisely because they do not have the solution.
- The Responsibility: The company exists to offer a professional vision that solves that lack, not to let the patient tell the doctor how to perform the surgery.
2. The Misinterpretation of “User-Centric” Design
In the modern Creative Industry, managers have catastrophically misinterpreted the concept of Customer-Centric Design. They believe it means doing whatever the client asks, even if the actual theory dictates designing based on the client’s need or use, not their opinion.
- Research (R) vs. Opinion: Using the R+D+C+f framework, we investigate the root problem (Research), not the client’s desired solution.
- The Danger of Empathy: While Love Marks and Human Brands promote empathy, they often erode corporate integrity to the point where the client knows more than the entrepreneur. This power vacuum leads to stagnation.
3. The Four Archetypes of Corporate Value
Based on Peter Senge’s systems thinking, we can categorize how companies relate to their markets. We must move beyond the first three to achieve the fourth.
- Operational Perfection: Companies that obsess over error-free service to gain trust. This is exhausting and rarely applauded.
- Product Dazzlers: Companies that “fall in love” with their product, forcing the market to appreciate its innovation.
- Customer Intimacy: Companies that create unique, dependent relationships10.
- Brand Value Builders (The Goal): These companies do not depend on the client’s mood. They build an Ecosystem. They own the market share because they have created a “house” where both workers and clients coexist under the Brand’s rules.
In a Brand Value ecosystem, the client clings to the company’s development, not the other way around.
Conclusion:
There is no magic formula for progress, but there is a clear antidote to the paralysis of doubt: Brand Authority. The client arrived seeking a solution to their problem, not to interfere with your corporate processes.
When we allow the client to dictate strategy, we are not showing empathy; we are displaying a lack of organizational intelligence.
We must cooperate, but cooperation requires that the company be the expert and the customer, client, or user always be the one in need.
Recommended Thematic Readings:
- Valverde, J. L. El Culto al Cliente.
- Senge, P. The Fifth Discipline.
- Isaacson, W. Steve Jobs (On the philosophy of not listening to focus groups).
- Roberts, K. Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands.
