Finance:Employees First, Customers Second

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Short description: 2010 book by Vineet Nayar
Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Hardcover edition
AuthorVineet Nayar
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese
SubjectManagement; Leadership; Organisational change
GenreBusiness, non-fiction
PublisherHarvard Business Review Press
Publication date
2010
Media typePrint (hardcover); eBook
Pages208
ISBN9781422139066 (hardcover)
OCLC436026620

Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down is a management book written by Vineet Nayar, the former chief executive officer of HCL Technologies, and published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2010.[1][2][3][4]

The book presents a management philosophy that prioritises frontline employees to enhance customer value, based on the Nayar's restructuring of HCLTech between 2005 and 2009[5] The book is a prescribed text at the Harvard University.[6] It was included in a 2016 reading list published by London Business School and curated by Professor Nader Tavassoli.[7] In 2010, the book appeared on The Tribune's non-fiction bestseller list.[8]

Summary

Employees First, Customers Second argues that companies create value at the point of interaction between employees and customers, and that management should therefore prioritize empowering frontline staff over maintaining traditional top-down control. Drawing on his experience as CEO of HCLTech, author describes a series of internal reforms he introduced at the company, including greater organizational transparency, an inverted management hierarchy, and the transfer of decision-making authority to customer-facing employees. One initiative described in the book, the "Mirror Mirror" exercise, involved structured internal reviews designed to build consensus around the need for change. The author presents these measures as incremental steps toward building trust and improving employee engagement, with the broader aim of driving customer satisfaction and financial performance.[5][9][10]

Reception

The book was reviewed in several academic and business publications. A book review published in 2012 by Thomas Bergen in The Washington Post described the book as "thought provoking, entertaining and enlightening", and recommended it to CEOs, managers and employees seeking organisational effectiveness.[11]

Writing in the Journal of Organizational Change Management, Kenneth E. Long praised the book's "clear and direct style" and described it as a "straightforward narrative, told at a rapid pace, rich with insights," recommending it to both scholars and practitioners. Long compared Nayar's leadership style to that of Andy Grove and Jack Welch, and noted connections between the book's themes and established organizational theory, including Peter Senge's five disciplines of the learning organization. Long also noted that the book presents the transformation solely from the CEO's perspective, with limited treatment of failed initiatives, power dynamics, and the challenges of broader applicability.[9]

A review in Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective described the book as "simple and absorbing" and as a credible account of how a price-competing IT services firm repositioned itself as a high-value service provider.[12]

Jon Moulton in its review published on Financial Times described the book as "mostly written in an attractive, uncomplicated and direct style", although he noted that its ideas are not entirely unique.[13] In a 2014 review, Christophe Lachnitt wrote that the book's management philosophy is "brilliant" but added that "the eponymous book is not".[14]

Management author Tom Peters was quoted in The Times of India as stating that the author had "invented a whole new way of configuring and managing an enterprise".[15] A review published in the Adarsh Journal of Management Research by Prof. Geetha V. Sharma of ICFAI Business School, Bangalore described the book as "full of anecdotes and original experiences," noting that Nayar presents the "Value Zone," reverse accountability, and transparency as the underlying themes of HCL Technologies' transformation.[16]

In 2015, Gary Hamel of London Business School included Employees First, Customers Second in his list of '10 inspiring reads', calling it a work that questions conventional management hierarchies.[17] In 2017, Liz Alton, writing for ADP's SPARK blog, listed the book as part of a "must-read books for HR Leaders" series.[18]

The Employees First, Customers Second philosophy is analysed in a chapter published by Cambridge University Press in 2021, which examines it as an innovation model based on value co-creation through employees.[19] In the United States, it appeared on Library Journal's Best Business Books of 2010 list.[20]

The book was listed among non-fiction bestsellers by The Tribune in July 2010.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Hamel, Gary (24 August 2010). "HCL's CEO on its 'Management Makeover'". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-GHMB-193. 
  2. ↑ Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down. Harvard Business Review Press. 2010. ISBN 9781422139066. https://store.hbr.org/product/employees-first-customers-second-turning-conventional-management-upside-down/12330. 
  3. ↑ Hamel, Gary (6 July 2010). "HCL: Extreme Management Makeover". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-GHMB-187. 
  4. ↑ Davidson, Andrew (9 May 2010). "Guru who puts workers first, customers second". The Sunday Times. https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/india/guru-who-puts-workers-first-customers-second-62kzp0tfm28. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down (Book Summary)" (PDF). Business Book Summaries (EBSCO Publishing Inc.). 5 March 2014. https://biblioteca.ufm.edu/library/images/7/71/Employees_First%2C_Customers_Second.pdf. 
  6. ↑ "An airline hijacked". Hindustan Times. 8 May 2011. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/an-airline-hijacked/story-QLPaw7N8ZJMQsYB3JFZvDJ.html. "HCL CEO Vineet Nayar’s book Employee First Customer Second is a prescribed text at Harvard University." 
  7. ↑ Tavassoli, Nader (18 May 2016). "A seven book guide to brand building". https://www.london.edu/think/a-seven-book-guide-to-brand-building. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Bestsellers". The Tribune. 4 July 2010. https://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100704/spectrum/book5.htm. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Long, Kenneth E. (5 July 2011). "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down". Journal of Organizational Change Management 24 (4): 559–562. https://www.emerald.com/jocm/article/24/4/559/244580/Employees-First-Customers-Second-Turning. 
  10. ↑ Mattu, Ravi (7 October 2010). "Give more power to your people". Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/96ee648c-d172-11df-96d1-00144feabdc0. 
  11. ↑ Bergen, Thomas (13 June 2012). "Vineet Nayar’s ‘Employee First, Customer Second’". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/leadership-books/post/vineet-nayars-employee-first-customer-second/2011/03/07/gJQARyynaV_blog.html. 
  12. ↑ "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down". Decision 37 (1). 2010. doi:10.1177/0258042X1103700107. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0258042X1103700107. 
  13. ↑ Moulton, Jon (3 June 2010). "Dancing chief executive makes sense". Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/3b771c22-6e6f-11df-ad16-00144feabdc0. 
  14. ↑ "Book Review: “Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down” By Vineet Nayar (2010, 208 Pages)". 2 August 2014. https://www.superception.fr/en/2014/08/02/book-review-employees-first-customers-second-turning-conventional-management-upside-down-by-vineet-nayar-2010-208-pages/. 
  15. ↑ Mukherjee, Shubham (12 June 2010). "Staff first, customers second for HCL boss". The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/staff-first-customers-second-for-hcl-boss/articleshow/6039039.cms. 
  16. ↑ Sharma, Geetha V. (2011). "Book Review: Employees First, Customers Second". Adarsh Journal of Management Research 4 (1): 86–89. https://www.adarshjournals.in/index.php/ajmr/article/view/88314/67310. 
  17. ↑ "Gary Hamel selects 10 inspiring reads". London Business School. 20 October 2015. https://www.london.edu/think/gary-hamel-book-list. 
  18. ↑ Alton, Liz (July 2017). ""Employees First, Customers Second" — Your Team as Your Most Important Stakeholder". ADP. https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2017/07/employees-first-customers-second-your-team-as-your-most-important-stakeholder.aspx. 
  19. ↑ Davila, Anabella (March 15, 2021). "Innovation from Emerging Markets: From Copycats to Leaders". Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/innovation-from-emerging-markets/innovation-based-on-value-cocreation-through-employees-at-hcl-technologies/BD82535D5AA6099F6A67F2D54F64CEF6. 
  20. ↑ "HCL Technologies CEO, Vineet Nayar, conferred with the ‘Leader in the Digital Age’ Award at CeBIT 2011". HCLTech. 2 March 2011. https://www.hcltech.com/press-releases/hcl-technologies-ceo-vineet-nayar-conferred-leader-digital-age. 



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