Announcing the Publication of CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 3.0

　ABeam Consulting Ltd. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, CEO and Representative Director: Takahiro Yamada; “ABeam Consulting”)has published CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 3.0: A Business Management Method Shaping the Future of Individuals, Businesses, and Communities in the Data-Driven Era on, August 29.

　During the country’s period of high growth, Japanese companies grounded their businesses in “customer centricity,” an approach rooted in the customer perspective, and achieved rapid economic development by inventing methods for improving operations with a focus on quality and efficiency. These achievements garnered global acclaim, even inspiring books such as “Japan as Number One.” Since the era of globalization, however, companies have grown in scale in line with the expansion of their businesses, while organizations have grown increasingly subdivided and fragmented. This has rendered it difficult to practice such customer centricity in the truest sense of the term.
　This originally Japanese idea of customer centricity has, at the same time, come under renewed focus as a management technique that allows companies to flexibly meet customer needs, as a result of being suitably updated in the context of a modern era of diversifying values and an increasingly complex market. Advances in the application of big data and generative AI have also enabled the data-driven and efficient practice of customer-centric management, granting it renewed potential as an effective approach for once again improving the competitiveness of Japanese firms.

　CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 3.0 explores the origins and evolution of customer centricity as one of the strengths of Japanese companies, and presents “Customer Centricity 3.0” as an approach that bridges corporate and industry boundaries, and positions society as a whole as the customer. Drawing a line under traditional Japanese management, embodied in “life-long employment,” “seniority systems” and “company unions,” CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 3.0 explores a modern version of customer centricity from a “social CX” perspective, aiming to create a better future for regions and society as a whole.
　CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 3.0 leverages the unique perspectives of ABeam Consulting, a global consulting firm originating from Japan, rooted in Japan’s history of incorporating and evolving outstanding knowledge from across the world. We hope that the book will serve as a valuable resource for understanding the essence of Japan and Japanese business, not only to those working at Japanese companies, but to anyone partnering with or considering investing in Japanese companies.

■Table of Contents

【Chapter 1: Are You “Really” Facing Your Customers?】

1.1 Customers are Looking for Something Different and Interesting

1.2 Why a Culture Intolerant of Failure Prevents Unique Value Creation

1.3 Customer-Facing Departments Alone Cannot Meet Customer Expectations

1.4 The Reason Employee Awareness and Satisfaction Levels Don’t Improve: The Company’s “Attitude Towards Customers”

【Chapter 2: The Only Way to Meet Customer Expectations and Continue to Grow Is to Rediscover Japan's Strength!?】

2.1 Western Companies Now Dominating the Market Evolved by Learning Japanese Management

2.2 Advanced Japanese Management Methods Are Being Reimported, Though This Fact Is Not Widely Known

2.3 Japan Still Has Strengths That Have Not Been Absorbed by Western Companies

2.4 Now Is the Time to Rediscover Japan’s Strengths, Forged in the World’s Most Demanding Market

2.5 What Are the Weaknesses Japanese Companies Need to Overcome?

【Chapter 3: The Data-Driven Era Evolves Customer Centricity and Creates Value】

3.1 The Data-Driven Era Helps Overcome Fatal Weaknesses of Japanese Companies

3.2 Recapturing the Customer-Perspective Lost as Business Scaled and Creating Corporate Value 114

3.3 What Are the Practical Levels of Customer Centricity?

【Chapter 4: The Future of Customer Centricity: Creating the Future for People, Companies, and Local Communities with Social CX】

4.1 The Importance of Backcasting Ideas from Several Years into the Future

4.2 Crafting the Ideal Future Rather than Simply Predicting It

4.3 What is Social CX: Co-creating Value with Communities and Society as Customers?

4.4 Addressing Social Issues Such as Declining and Aging Populations