Web Sight - Let Your Customers Lead

David Siegel is a writer, thinker, entrepreneur, and consultant who travels the world offering advice on corporate strategy, organizational change, and the Internet. But the title on his business card reads "provocateur" -- and he likes to live up to his title.

Consider this scene from a meeting of the Direct Marketing Association that took place last October. In a banquet room in Toronto, before an audience of roughly 2,500 people, Siegel is introduced as one of the world's leading Internet strategists. Rather than begin his talk from the podium or unveil a deck of PowerPoint slides, he walks around the room and asks to borrow a nice watch. A volunteer named Ted offers his Rolex.

"Thank you, Ted," Siegel says, taking the Rolex. "Now, this watch represents your existing business model: It's finely crafted, and it runs like clockwork." Then he takes out a clear plastic bag. "And this, Ted, represents your current distribution network. It completely surrounds the business model." Siegel places the watch in the bag and then places the bag on the stage. Then he puts on a pair of safety glasses and takes out a sledgehammer. "And this, Ted, is the Internet." He asks Ted if he thinks that his current distribution network can protect his business model from the impact of the Internet. Ted reluctantly says no. "Right!" shouts Siegel, as he brings the hammer crashing down. Then he removes his glasses and holds up the bag, which is now filled with hundreds of watch pieces. "Now, what have we learned at Ted's expense?" he asks.

It's a shattering message -- figuratively, at least. But David Siegel, 40, has the credentials to deliver it. For one thing, he wrote the book on Web design: "Creating Killer Web Sites" (Hayden Books, 1996), now in its second edition, became an instant classic and has been translated into 15 languages. He followed it up with "Secrets of Successful Web Sites: Project Management on the World Wide Web" (Hayden Books, 1997), which has been translated into 6 languages. In 1995, he founded a San Francisco-based Web-design firm, Studio Verso
(www.verso.com), which he sold to KPMG, the worldwide consulting giant, last year. He's advised such companies as Cisco Systems, Sony, Lucent Technologies, Computer Sciences Corp., and Office Depot on their Web strategies. In his new book, "Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-Customer" (Wiley, 1999), Siegel takes the focus off technology and puts it back where it belongs -- on the customer.

His argument is as tough-minded and clear as it is disruptive: "The Web gives customers what they've always wanted: a chance to express themselves, to get honest answers to their questions, and to share their interests and passions with other customers. And it requires every company to behave differently -- to let information flow freely, to participate in genuine conversations with customers, and to treat customers not as 'segments' or 'categories' or 'eyeballs,' but as human beings."

In an interview with Fast Company, Siegel offered a short course on using the Web to connect with customers -- and to build a company of the future.

Companies have gone mad for e-commerce. In doing so, what are most of them losing sight of?

Last year, one of the world's largest auto companies called me. Its marketing people wanted me to conduct an analysis of what its competitors were doing online. I asked, "Wouldn't you rather know what your customers want you to do?" They said no. They were mainly concerned with how they rated in comparison with other Web sites. The company's Web team had one basic mission: to make sure that the site didn't make the company look bad. Many car companies are in a similar state of paralysis: They don't want to listen to their customers, because they're afraid of what they'll hear if they do. Because of California's Lemon Law, lawyers advise car companies not to solicit email from customers, since any negative messages would have to be treated as bona fide, actionable complaints.

Why don't companies want to listen to their customers? It's a crazy mind-set. The Internet isn't about incremental tactics; it's about entirely new strategies. It's not about "keeping up with the Joneses"; it's about thriving in a completely new world. It's not about transactions; it's about communications and relationships. E-commerce is a false god. Focusing on e-commerce is one way to deny the new reality of business -- the reality of a more interconnected group of customers, a group of customers with more choices than ever before. E-commerce is about nothing more than automating sales. It doesn't change a company fundamentally, and that's the real problem.