The actions flowed from the company credo which is engraved in granite at the entry to company headquarters, which makes crystal clear that customers are fi

The actions flowed from the company credo which is engraved in granite at the entry to company headquarters, which makes crystal clear that customers are first, then employees, and shareholders absolutely last. Why do businesses attempt to create hierarchical order where order doesn't exist? A business with extremely happy customers, happy employees and low return on investment (including other non-monetary value) for shareholders is a failed venture. Ranking stakeholders by their importance makes it easy to create harmful (and often implicit) rules and practices that fail to address the needs of all stakeholders. Companies should instead encourage employees to think about decisions from a wide range of perspectives including customer satisfaction, employee morale and business profitability. Creating a new procedure or rule that employees must adhere to could greatly please customers. However it may create extra menial and unappealing work for employees, lowering morale to harmful levels. It could cost the company a lot of resources that would be better spent elsewhere.