"What's Mr. Smith's condition?" asked the raspy voice on the phone.

"He's recovering so well he'll be going home in a few days," answered the nurse. "Whom shall I say called?"

"This is Smith calling. My doctor won't tell me anything!"

Part of the reason so many organizations aren't really customer-focused is because their managers don't know the difference. They're innocently ignorant. These managers don't understand what intense customer focus really looks like. And they don't fully appreciate the why and how of balancing their focus on the final or ultimate customers with their focus on external partners, such as distributors, retailers, dealers, agents, suppliers, physicians, and such.

The following chart illustrates the vast differences in customer and partner focus. To make our teams or organizations into high performers, we need to get all of our focus and activities into the "Intense" column.

Casual