In what amounted to a master class in the generation of customer loyalty, world-renowned executive educator Peter Wilton brought a wealth of international knowledge, unrivalled global experience and compelling charisma to Griffith University.
A native of Adelaide and former resident of Brisbane, Dr Wilton (pictured) was in Queensland for the first in a series of short executive courses to be run by the Griffith Business School’s new Asia Pacific Management Centre.
Business leaders from the retail, construction, healthcare, government and finance sectors gathered at the University’s South Bank campus for the two-day Customer Loyalty for Competitive Advantage program, and the reaction to his workshop was more than upbeat.
Ryan Ray from Bluecare said it was “very relevant” to the organisation’s future plans.
“I found it really interesting and very relevant to what we are doing right now.
“We are developing a client-centred care model so this concept of tailoring a service to a customer is at the heart of what we’re trying to achieve.”
Michael Hunter from Di Bella Coffee shared these sentiments. “It is all very relevant to us; actually it’s very relevant to any industry. It offers a good balance between theory and practice.”
Using a range of provocative examples from all over the world, Dr Wilton from the UC Berkeley Centre for Executive Education described in real-life detail how a competitive advantage could be struck through the creation of customer loyalty.
With case studies as far apart as Queensland’s mining sector and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, he outlined the importance of providing the best possible data in answering the questions that a business needed to have answered.
He affirmed a theory of reframing which he argued, with shrewd examples, could generate measurable and enduring customer loyalty. In some examples the creation of customer loyalty also saved money in the process.
The education experience for attendees was possibly summed up best by Greg Abbey from Bank of Queensland: “Customer loyalty has been a currency that was talked about but not a currency that was measured.”
Dr Wilton has been named by the USA Business Week magazine as one of America’s top educationalists and he teaches world leading business practice at Stanford, Purdue and Duke Universities.
The APMC has been able to facilitate a unique association between the world famous UC Berkeley Centre for Executive Education and the Australian Institute of Management (AIM).
Dr Wilton will deliver a second workshop for Griffith’s Asia Pacific Management Centre next September, Advanced Strategic Planning and Implementation: A Process Model (UC Berkeley).
To find out more about the Asia Pacific Management Centre go to http://asiapacificmanagementcentre.com/