Written by As business owners, we are always learning from the leaders of the biggest brands in the world. Recently I have been studying Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Without any doubt my biggest lesson from Bezos is his complete obsession with the customer.
At meetings, Bezos famously leaves one chair at the table empty to remind everyone who is the most important person in the room, the customer. Customer obsession is a core value at Amazon and has been central to its meteoric success.
So what does customer obsession look like in the IP sector?
Customer experience and customer satisfaction are central to our client engagement at BOSH IP. But as IP advisors with a commercial perspective we aim to do more. Our goal is to help our clients maximise the value from their IP. We obsess about helping our clients use IP to drive value into their businesses.
For us, customer obsession means taking ownership of the IP conversation. Taking responsibility for understanding our clients’ needs and identifying fit for purpose solutions. We lead our clients through the IP discussion by exploring beyond their technology to understand the context around their innovation. Using our IP expertise along with our understanding of our clients’ business, we identify how our clients can use IP to underpin their business model and drive real value to their business.
Often this results in presenting options and recommending actions different from those which the client expected. We have clients which ask for patents for new innovations with a clear scope of protection in mind. On reviewing the client’s situation, business model and technology we often find that an entirely different course of action is more appropriate for them. For example, we may recommend proceeding with a patent with different scope, we might recommend proceeding with a competitor analysis to quantify the risk of market entry, or we may recommend not filing a patent but explore options around confidentiality.
When clients commit to an IP program they understand why they are taking the actions we have recommended and how it will help maximise value from their IP.
Taking ownership of the IP conversation and taking responsibility for finding fit for purpose solutions to drive value from IP is how we show customer obsession. How do you demonstrate customer obsession?
If you would like to find out how we can help you use IP to drive your commercial advantage, please get in touch.