While customer orientation is often presented as a global orientation of the company, drawn as a vision or thought of as an intention by the governing bodies of an organization, this book leads us to realize the responsibility of the manager.

Managers’ primary mission is to implement this strategic objective of a customer-oriented company within their own area. Beyond that, in B2B service environments, managers are required to become the creators of this customer orientation. On the one hand, they must promote it to their teams in order to obtain their indispensable support, and on the other hand, they must renew it on a daily basis within their ecosystem. In this sense, customer orientation gives managers an essential position.

Managers are largely defined by reference to the meaning of “managing” in its most common translations, to direct, or maneuver. Managers are, thus, an employee who manages, directs, coordinates, organizes and who is invested with power and responsibility. If we dig a little deeper into the etymology of the word manager, we find, in connection with an Italian root maneggiare, the Latin root manus, “hand”. The hand is the organ of touch and grip, the most active sense. The hand also symbolizes action in one of its meanings (to put one’s hand to work). The intuition of the importance of managers’ handshake, proposed in the very first pages of this book, converges with this short lexicological analysis!

Action is, therefore, a founding mission of managers’ function. Managers must be or become a person of action. In this sense, it is legitimate to ask managers not to limit themselves to being the simple disseminator of customer orientation and also its most valiant actor. Action is to be distinguished from the permanent agitation feared by so many managers. It is distinguished by the thoughtfulness that must guide it. Action must be decided on the basis of an intention. It is this intention that gives meaning to the action, rather than its actual consequences, which can sometimes be far from the intention. Customer orientation, being the search for a balance between the creation of value for the customer, and the creation of value for the company, becomes an intention that carries a meaning shared by the different stakeholders. This distinction between the intention and the consequences of the action should encourage managers to be bold and innovative. The possible failure of an action, one that does not lead to the expected result, should not call into question the meaning of the intention. On the contrary, any action, subject to the hazards of its deployment, should encourage managers to show humility and resilience. In an organizational context, the action must also be explained and prepared (we talk about an action plan). Managers’ action will be reinforced by this necessity: to justify their actions to their hierarchy, and to rally their team around the action in order to make it a real collective project. Customer orientation becomes a solid framework for the managers’ action.

Action cannot really be undertaken without freedom. Managerial freedom is not to be sought in the absence of constraints, which would be futile, but in a capacity to act within these constraints, and sometimes even thanks to these constraints. However, managers must be careful not to confuse the necessary organizational constraints with their own fears, inhibitions or beliefs. From these constraints, managers must free themselves, by maintaining their curiosity, their attention and their questioning. Managers are never as free in their actions as when they manage to understand their meaning and context. Customer orientation, by giving meaning to the managerial action, reinforces managers’ freedom.

Finally, knowledge is the best source and guide for managers’ freedom of action. To truly act in a complex world, managers must acquire knowledge in areas that are often different from their initial training. To be truly customer-oriented, managers must also maintain, often on their own, new skills, especially in soft skills, and keep themselves regularly informed of emerging practices, which are continuously feeding the field of management.

Customer orientation, by giving meaning to managers’ action, by reinforcing their freedom, and by encouraging them to maintain his knowledge, regenerates the managerial mission. Customer orientation thus gathers the necessary elements to maintain, and sometimes regain, the vital energy essential to any manager.