Strategically intelligent firms are far more likely to have a senior level sponsor or champion: 46% of them strongly agree that their company has a C-level evangelist or champion for customer intelligence, versus 20% of marketing intelligence firms and 7% of functional intelligence firms.

FORBES: It's Time For Business Leaders To Embrace Customer Intelligence

While marketing teams and agencies most often uncover the data itself, insights are used in product development, customer experience, sales, and C-level discussions.

FORBES: Three Of Four CMOs Say Social Media Impacts Sales

Perhaps in some slow-moving companies, those hardened-silo outlooks persist, but in top-performing businesses across the world, all C-level execs are balancing their domain expertise with intense focus on customer behavior and other external factors.

FORBES: Can CIO Turbocharge NASCAR Revenue?

So now comes the obvious question: Why did Old Navy make me, the customer, go through six transactions if they were going to let me use all the SUPER C-A-S-H coupons the same day?

FORBES: Old Navy Coupons Gone Wrong

He wrote a plan to improve service in his Greenville, S.C. facility that includes teaching dockworkers to use computers to communicate with customer service reps and keep them up-to-date on the status of freight.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas