Customer Intelligence is a key enabler of customer obsession (watch the video below for more of my thoughts on this topic).

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

The core qualities that cut across each of those positions are a really strong sense of ownership, customer obsession, a strong bias for action and teamwork.

WSJ: What It's Like to Interview at Amazon

But the Santa Cruz, Calif. company wanted to make sure that its target shared its obsession with customer service.

FORBES: The Race To Embrace

Ford was known for his obsession with customer service and efficient use of taxpayer money, and many conservative voters wanted to punish City Hall for gridlock and waste, Nanos said.

NPR: Toronto Mayor Won Post On Conservative Discontent

Plantronics, in Santa Cruz, California (No. 43), a telephone headset maker, had its eye on Clearvox, which produces cellular headsets, but it wanted to make sure that its target shared its obsession with customer service.

FORBES: The Race To Embrace

Everyone in business pays lip service to customer wants, but Cantalupo attached to it an unwavering obsession with quantifying them.

FORBES: You Want Data With That?

By putting the customer, or the employee, first, Ford rejected the obsession with shareholder returns that, much later, brought companies such as Enron to grief.

WSJ: Book Review: I Invented the Modern Age | Henry Ford