Research has shown that employees who score highly on emotional and social intelligence tests are more likely to display customer-oriented and empathetic behaviors.

FORBES: Give the Holiday Gift of a Remarkable Customer Experience

"When you really analyze it, you don't want the creative person to be more customer-oriented, " Austin says.

CNN: Learning to manage creatively

For CIOs, the answer is simple not easy, but simple: they need to begin rapidly withdrawing themselves and their business-technology teams from the integration business and begin devoting more and more of their time to growth-oriented and customer-centric innovation.

FORBES: The Top 10 Strategic CIO Issues For 2013

In addition, management has worked hard to develop private label fashion merchandise that will appeal to a more value-oriented customer.

FORBES: Good News: Saks Fifth Avenue Is No Longer An Elitist

We offer products which appeal to the aspirational Saks customer who is more value oriented.

FORBES: Department Store Pricing -- No Easy Task (Part 4 Of 4)

The combination of these two will create a very effective funnel for brand advertisers, Elowitz argues, by enabling them to combine broad brand-level messages with much more granular customer oriented ones.

FORBES: Will Facebook Use Lookalikes To Remake Your News Feed Today?

Combined with a new, streamlined organization, a substantially improved cost base, a strengthened capital structure, and a more customer-oriented culture, we have all the right measures in place to create shareholder value going forward.

CNN: Airline SAS cuts 3,000 jobs, announces restructuring plans

And now, China's media strategy in Africa has taken a step further by providing customer-oriented news offerings and poaching some of the best journalistic talents to bring African news to the continent and to the world.

CNN: Chinese media make inroads into Africa

S. Kyoritsu Securities, and he intends to take the same client-oriented approach: higher returns, more disclosure and greater customer participation.

CNN: LEADERS FOR THE MILLENNIUM

For instance, companies are moving away from large functional departments where workers perform uniform tasks, and towards smaller, customer-oriented teams, where people frequently cover for each other and need to be able to perform many different tasks.

ECONOMIST: Why pay is becoming less equal