If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer.

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One of the things they realized (smartly) is that they needed to start by improving their basic interactions with the customer.

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He said that from the start, Apple has established itself as the more valuable brand in the relationship with an iPhone customer.

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Instead, start-ups need to get aggressive with customer feedback, and understand if the product would sell.

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Andrew Koven: I have a unique 360-degree perspective on the business as I get to see the entire decision making process a customer engages in from start to finish with our brand.

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The premise is that consistently successful companies start with an external market orientation and vigilantly study customer trends in order to design their strategy.

FORBES: The Value Of An 'Outside-In' Strategy

As passenger numbers increase with better marketing and customer-friendly services, even the hurdle of cost should start to fall.

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He told lawmakers on Feb. 5 he would "shred" the bank's self-serving culture by improving ethics, and start linking employee pay with customer satisfaction and other measures.

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