Bud Taylor is an accomplished speaker and change consultant. After starting his career in Canada, Bud moved to Dallas for a leadership role in the organizational effectiveness practice at Watson Wyatt, a human resource consulting firm. He was later recruited by Deloitte to be its partner in charge of change management in the Southwest. Bud then became senior vice president and director of global consulting services for Synovate Loyalty, a specialty practice within Synovate, a customer research firm. It was at Synovate where Bud recognized the power of customer-driven change: the power of driving internal changes from the outside.

Bud developed the principles of customer-driven change with marquee clients around the world, such as Whirlpool Corporation, Microsoft Europe, Sony Electronics, Southern California Edison, Cardinal Health, Canadian Pacific, and the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. His work takes him from America to Asia, Europe to the Middle East, South America to Africa. Bud's experiences working with international clients are reflected in case studies in his new book Customer-Driven Change: What Customers Know, Employees Think, and Managers Overlook (Brown Books 2009).

In addition to writing and speaking on customer-driven change, Bud maintains his international consulting practice through corporate alliances. Bud is the Director of Consulting for MASMI Research out of London, he also works with Strategos Consulting of Chicago, and ISB Worldwide headquartered in Dallas.

Recent Successful Keynote Programs:

The New Business as Usual
Innovation Through Customer Insights
Customer Driven Change
Innovation When Capital Is Tight
Change Management
Your New Strategic Role

Now that it's over,
... How Will You Win Back Your Customers?

The recession is technically over, but it took its toll on your customers:

• Customers bought-down, stretched out their purchases and have become distrustful of big executive salaries and shareholder profits.

How will you win them back? There seem to be two choices ...

1. Return to the Past: Return to the old ways of focusing on your cost structure and pricing strategy to gain profits, but possibly become commoditized while churning customers; or
2. Create a new Future: Believe that customers want to buy from better companies; those with a commitment to sustain their employees, communities, and the environment. Ethical companies like Whole Foods. Or is Green simply becoming a cost of doing business without an ROI.

The answer isn't clear, but isn't it time you considered the question.

You've cut costs & protected your cash & balance sheet
... Now isn't it time for some new ideas?

The last year hasn't been a lot of fun for you or your customers. Everyone knows that survival was job #1, but that's forced you into short term thinking about your customers.

Customers may be willing to forgive, but they haven't forgotten. Even though they're saving more than before, they want to come back into the market. But they don't want to same-old-same-old.

What new innovation is in your pipeline? Oh, nothing. Well it's time to start. You've got to intersect the following four factors and find some game changing white space for your customers:

• Customer Insights: what are the new "help me" statements that you're hearing from your customers?
• Discontinuities: what are the new "from - to" trends going on globally and in your industry?
• Core Competence: What got you to the present may not get you to the future. What are you good at?
• Paradigms: What business rules have you set for customers that are trapping your business?

Lego saved its whole business by driving innovation around a small customer insight: "fathers buy toys for boys, but mothers buy games for the family."

How are you innovating for post-recession success?

Business as Usual won't be Business as Usual
... you'd better know what your customers know?

We're all looking for economic recovery in the same place - at our customers. Technically the recession is over and capital markets are stable. All we need now is for consumers to get off the sidelines and start buying again.

But what's in the mind of the consumer. Here are some possibilities:

1. Morality in the Boardroom: from misbehavior to benefit shareholders to a new morality to assuage stakeholders
2. Discretionary Thrift: from excessive spending to being perceived to be economical
3. Mercurial Consumption: from customer loyalty to churn due to choices, the internet, & social networking
4. Ethical Consumption: from doing things for profits to doing things because they're right
5. Money, the Root of Happiness: from material consumption to conceptual consumption - in search of happiness
6. Return to Simplicity: from expensive, highly customized products to things that work, at a reasonable price
7. Experience Seeking from a bit of excitement to a constant search for the next thrilling experience

Some of these trends will happen faster than others in different industries, while some may not happen at all.

What does your landscape look like for re-engaging customers?

Change is Inevitable in this new Economic Order
... will you do it right this time?

If you survived the last year, you're going to look back and see it as child's play. Cutting costs and holding onto cash are easy compared to transforming your organization so it's healthy and relevant to meet the future.

Here are five principles of successful change:

• Work on the Right Change: Your organization's DNA and value system will determine your success. Know what it is.
• Have the Right Team: Now is the time to clean out politics. Trust & openness will get the right things done.
• Customers Drive Sustained Change: Look outside breakdown internal silos and engage employees.
• Allocate Resources to the Change: Change doesn't happen in the fringes of your time or by repurposing money. Make a commitment.
• Keep Moving Forward: You'll have to adapt along the way, but don?t give up. Keep the momentum.

Find the Mavericks who will lead you through change.

How many people work for you?
... None! They work for their customers.

We've eliminated the long-term commitment of employees to their organizations. We've cut back on pension expectations, increased employee's contributions to health plans, and removed the expectation of an annual pay increase.

Employees say, "...this is where I work - today!" So how do you get extraordinary performance from a temporary workforce? By connecting employees with what they care about, their customers!

Here are three tips for linking employees to customers.

1. Leverage your Mavericks: Mavericks know what your employees are thinking. Listen and learn.
2. Map you customers: Everyone is connected to the buying customer. Get employees to map their shortest line of sight to who they serve
3. Break down the barriers: Do an authorities audit to see what stands between employees and customers.

Are your employees working for your customers?

Read Bud Taylor's overview for the book, Customer Driven Change

Read Bud Taylor's case study for Microsoft Europe, Customer Metrix

Read Bud Taylor's case study for Whirlpool, Customer Loyalty