A couple months ago, I posted “Who comes first – employees or clients?” I was throwing a question out there but my central belief is that organizations should look at employees as their most important component.  If you take care of your people, they will take care of your clients.  My original post came on the heels of an exercise (and ensuing discussions) that we were undertaking in my company to define our core values.  First, let me update that story… We successfully created 6 core values… chief among them?  “Employees First.”  Now, anyone will tell you that the words only mean something if the senior leadership of the organization actually walk the walk.  I agree.  But we have taken an important first step by calling it out for the entire company to see and buy into.  That’s good stuff.

Shortly after this process concluded, I came across a new book that is right on the money.  As the photo above beautifully illustrates, the book is called Employees First Customers Second (EFCS for short).  In it, author Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, one of India’s largest professional services firms, describes the program he implemented at HCL (‘acronymed’ EFCS) and how it transformed the organization in a way that strengthened its foundation for growth.  He refers to the value zone… where employees meet and interact with customers to create value… as being the most important ‘zone’ for a company.  And he uses this as the basis for needing an Employees First mindset because value is created by them, in the trenches, on the front lines, at customer sites… not by executives and managers sitting, often times, far far away.  The best way to create value for your customers is to enable your employees.  It all rings true… at least from my experience.

I’m only halfway through but I have to admit I felt some level of vindication when I first came across this book.  It was nice to know that my thinking about “employees first” was shared (and with a global CEO and author at that).  And since I’m an organizational change guy, EFCS is already giving me all kinds of great ideas… especially for creating a culture of change – something all organizations are absolutely starving for.

Employees First Customers Second… Is it revolutionary?  I’m not sure.  Could it create a revolution in the way managers think?  Yep, it sure could… and I hope it does.