How Long Before the Customer Is Mentioned in Critical Meetings?

I've recently started a clock timer in meetings to measure one thing: how long it takes before someone even mentions the customer.

We leave in a technology-centric world. Apps, platforms, change, maintenance, contracts, and procurement. If you're making a decision about a platform that maybe one day might benefit the customer if the project doesn't blow up first, don't you think you should be talking about the customer just a bit more?

Executive teams are sometimes dominated by politics -- what projects get greenlit, who owns what projects, what is the CEO's pet project?

I remember being at big companies where in the portfolio steering group, each (of a list of 8) Vice Presidents would bring their pet list of projects.

The company has the capacity for probably about 10 projects.

Want to guess how many projects EACH Vice President brought to the meeting? At least thirty!

No mention of the company's financial priorities. No mention about why customers are preferring competitors. No shared vision in the group for what problem we are solving.

Is it any wonder so many are missing Zero Interest Rate (ZIRP) times? We forgot how to plan. Plans need to connect your company's financial goals and the behavior of your customers.

After all, no profits and cash flow, no business. And if your customer keeps doing the same thing they are doing today, how will that expensive technology project generate any ROI?

CFOs are done with dream business cases. If you are going to talk about how something benefits the customer, you better have some proof how they will respond - not just hopes.

If more customers don't buy, or your existing customers don't change their behavior, then what are we even doing here?

Jeff Bezos used to leave an empty chair for the customer to represent the customer in management meetings. In your next meeting, ensure that on your agenda, who this project is for and how it will benefit them is also front and center.