A company's primary objective should be to serve its community.

This isn't some liberal, utopian, socialistic, touchy-feely sentimentality. This is a too little recognized and often overlooked factor in a company's long-term success. The reason it is hard to believe is because we are confronted with daily headlines about greedy CEOs, profiteering multi-nationals and selfish companies of all sizes.

The reason it is hard to follow is because too many business people take short-term views of their business. They don't care what happens to the company, the product or the customer after they're gone. They care about profiting from them all while they're here.

Hey, capitalism rocks! I'm not saying money is the root of all evil. On the contrary, I love money. But the only way to sustain your income (both individual and corporate) is to focus on your community, not the money.

Certainly every successful businessperson knows that you must keep an eye on the bottom line. However, if your head is always down in the financial reports, you will find yourself veering off course. When that happens, you need friends. You can't make real friends if you don't focus on your community and your customers.

Almost all companies espouse the virtue that the customer is always right. Well, that's what they tell their frontline workers anyway. The sentiment in the boardroom is often a bit different. If a board of directors must decide between spending money now or providing a short-term dividend to their shareholders, you can bet that most boards will take the dividend, even if the short-term expenditure would have provided even greater returns for the shareholders in the future. Better to keep your directorship and not rock the boat.

So many companies believe that they must appease their shareholders above all else that it is logical to think that this is the right way to do business. It's not. In fact, your shareholders work for your customers, too, whether they like it or not.

Companies get into more trouble when they forget about the customer and focus on shareholder value. This mentality leads to short-term dividends, but it sacrifices long-term market viability. The trash bin of the business world is full of such companies. Enron, K-Mart, and the list goes on and on.

If you don't continually keep in touch and in tune with your customers, how will you be able to anticipate their needs or remain relevant to their lives? Your ad agency can be a great asset here if you let it.

We live in an instant-gratification age. If you want something now, you can generally get it. If the product or service you use now doesn't keep up, there are at least a dozen others that can replace it. Companies cannot afford to make the products they want. They must make the products their customers want. The old model went something like this: I make a product because I can and because I can do it cheaply. I then push it into the market by convincing people that they can't live without it, even if they frankly can.

The model is more organic and interactive. You must anticipate your customers' needs and create products they want before they are aware that they even want them. To do this, you must really know them. This intimate knowledge of the customer is why the Apple iPod was such a hit.

The bottom line is that you must put your customers' opinions above those of even your CEO, your families and your ad agency.?

This article introduced the seventh of twelve steps. Challenge yourself, your staff and your advertising agency to revolutionize your ad program. If you missed a previous step, contact the author for a complimentary copy. And, remember, every revolution begins with just one step.

Jeff Berney is a freelance idealist, brand evangelist and writer. He can be reached at jeff@jberney.com.

? 2006