What Apple, Vodaphone and Enterprise Have in Common

All three companies do a superb job of growing organically -- i.e., from operations rather than from acquisitions. And Bain Consulting thinks it knows their secret. In a nutshell, what they're good at is listening to customers.

How's a company with a communications problem supposed to know it has a communications problem?

The best example of non-listening is probably the gap between company and customer perceptions as to whether companies deliver a great customer experience. In a Bain survey, 80% of companies said they did, but only 8% of customers agreed.

That's probably why 90% of companies (according to Bain) fail to meet their own growth expectations. Companies who find it difficult to communicate with customers probably don't know it -- since they're not hearing what customers are saying. This goes along with another Bain finding — that most growth initiatives actually achieve the opposite effect by annoying customers.

Here's my big question: How's a company with a communications problem supposed to know it has a communications problem? Unless you are one of the one in 10 companies experiencing high organic growth, the safe bet is that you do have a problem communicating with customers. Acknowledging the problem is at least half the solution. Finding experts qualified to tell you what you should do is the easy part. What's hard is being willing to hear them.

For more on this topic, read "Closing the delivery gap: How to achieve true customer-led growth," by James Allen.