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Review of The Ownership Quotient

Jim Tincher Jim Tincher 12/14/2011

The Ownership Quotient by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Joe Wheeler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What if your employees felt like they owned the company? If they were so engaged to be there that they went out of their way to make a difference on a regular basis? Just as importantly, what if your customers felt the same way, and invested the time to help your business grow, giving referrals and great ideas?

These are the central ideas behind The Ownership Quotient. Leading businesses have realized the limitations of satisfaction. Measuring satisfaction does not link to improved business results except at the very low end. The question is: what do we replace it with?

The leading candidate is the Net Promoter Score, which has created great buzz. Other contenders include Emotional Engagement, and Ownership. All do better than satisfaction – which is best depends significantly on your business, and what you are trying to address.

Moving beyond the measurement, though, this book does an excellent job of outlining the steps necessary to increase your customers’ and employees’ sense of ownership in your business. Utilizing case studies from Harrah’s, Apple, Rackspace and others, a philosophy of ownership is outlined that can definitely drive improved business outcomes.

Heskett and company do a great job of showing the limitations of Net Promoter’s one question, capturing the essential emotional nature of ownership. True leaders understand that peak performance requires capturing the hearts of your customers and employees, and this book showcases many best-in-class examples. I particularly like the ING Direct example of how they specifically “fire” customers who do not fit their ideal mode – one of the hardest (yet most impactful) efforts a business can undertake in order to focus on the most engaged and profitable customers.

Driving your employees and customers’ sense of ownership is critical, and this book makes a compelling case, including many great examples used by companies today.

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