And if you want to help drive sales, loyalty and engagement metrics provide predictive measures of what customers really want.

FORBES: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Despite its arcane terminology, Scrum is the simplest idea under the sun: find out what customers really want and continuously deliver that to them sooner.

FORBES: The Power of Scrum

Or will the company realize belatedly that it steamrolled history and local pride for naught, and that what customers really want is the quality, value and customer service of yesteryear?

FORBES: Emily Lambert On Retailing

Most companies are not really sure what their customers really want.

FORBES: Checklist for a Great Brand.

He or she is, it is now widely assumed, best able to determine what technology will once and for all identify what customers really truly want, what trends are lurking below the horizon that will impact the company and, for good measure, the meaning of life.

FORBES: Deep Thought of the Day: Who's Really Driving This Digital Marketing Bus?

The single-minded focus on making money turns out to be less successful in making money than a values-based approach that gives the customers what they really want.

FORBES: Gasp! Machines Still Can't Think!

Will customers really want to pay what Apple and O2 are going to charge the iPhone's early adopters?

BBC: Apple's iPhone at its London launch

By assuming you know what customers want, you lose a really valuable opportunity to improve your product or service.

FORBES: Two Ways To Drive Your Customers Crazy

What happens when you look simply beyond employees and into other parties (customers, the public, anyone really) who want to contribute to the work?

FORBES: Building a Shared-Purpose Organization Requires Job Mobility and Flexibility