Bill and Janice immediately began focusing their energies on the most important issues. First, they turned to their employees and shared their concerns. Then, they spent a half-day analyzing their customer base. The employees made a list of the customers who were pro昀椀table and great to work with. Then they made a list of the customers who were the opposite — unpro昀椀table and dif昀椀cult. That list was much longer than the 昀椀rst. A hush fell over the group as Janice stood up. “All right, everyone — what does this tell us?” she asked. Hands were raised. Bob, the CFO, spoke up. “It means that most of our attention is spent on customers who don’t make us money.” Ross, their sales manager, added, “And those customers are the toughest to deal with, because we really can’t make them happy.” Janice nodded. “But on the bright side, most of our pro昀椀t comes from a smaller group of customers who love us — those customers are fun and they respect us. These customers don’t expect us to be perfect; they appreciate our passion. That’s why they come here. Wouldn’t it be great to focus on customers like them all day long?” Josh, a quiet, new employee, sheepishly lifted his hand and spoke, “Everyone, take another look at that list of customers. All the best customers have something in common — they have passion. They’re outdoorsy types — they love to 昀椀sh, they love to be out in nature. Our store 昀椀ts them — they share our passion and they feel at home here. The other group is different: all they want to hunt for are…bargains.” 20