The Empty Chair

In his book, To Sell is Human (New York:  Riverhead Books, 2012), Daniel Pink tells this story about the importance of considering the customer's perspective:

"Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, has accomplished a great deal in his 48 years....  And, with less fanfare he's popularized one of the best attunement practices I've encountered.

"Amazon, like most organizations, has lots of meetings.  But at the important ones, alongside the chairs in which his executives take their places, Bezos includes one more chair that remains empty.  It's there to remind those assembled who's really the most important person in the room: the customer.

"The empty chair has become legendary in Amazon's Seattle headquarters.  Seeing it encourages meeting attendees to take the perspective of that invisible, but essential, person.  What's going through her mind?  What are her desires and concerns?  What would she think of the ideas we are putting forward?"

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