Customer-Centric Government

Tom Critchlow recently wrote an essay titled How do You Cultivate Customer-Centric Executives?

He starts off with a quote:

“Many companies describe themselves as customer-focused, but few walk the walk. Most big technology companies are competitor-focused. They see what others are doing, and then work to fast follow. In contrast, 90 to 95% of what we build in AWS is driven by what customers tell us they want.” - Jeff Bezos

And Tom notes:

What makes some companies more successful than others? Is there anything I’ve observed that might predict success?

The answer I’ve arrived at, somewhat surprisingly, is that having a key executive being customer-centric is a key determining factor.

Most companies say they are customer focused, but unless they have an executive actually focused on the customer, it’s all talk.

There is an inherent principal-agent conflict. The same issue is in government.

Congressional approval rates are in the teens while re-election rates are in the 90s.

I wonder if there are pragmatic ways to apply Tom’s essay to politics. The last time I served jury duty, it was a massive waste of time. The day was full of inefficiencies, hypocrisy, and apathy. I was so bored and annoyed that I spent most of the day writing out how to solve the problem. I can’t find it anymore, but I remember most of it was trying to tie incentives the judicial apparatus with those of the potential jury pool.

But nothing will be effective unless people want to make things better. Companies will attempt to become more customer-centric if that leads to greater profits. There’s no incentives for government to work better.