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The Pike Place Fish Market was on the verge of bankruptcy. John Yokoyama, a former employee at the market, bought it for US$3,500 (Bt122,000) in 1965. But within one month, he incurred a loss of $50,000.

"Johnny was about to lose his business," recalled Joseph Michelli, a world-renowned writer who co-authored the best seller "When Fish Fly" with Yokoyama.

Michelli said his first advice to Yokoyama, who came to consult with him, was "the fish smell from their heads.

"As the philosopher Paul Tillich says 'the first act of love is to listen'."

Instead of telling employees how to do things, the consulting team suggested Yokoyama first listen to his staff. At the first meeting, many staff were asked to share their ideas of how to save the market. It was there that Yokoyama received the great idea from one employee who suggested they not only save the business, but make it "world famous".

Obviously, Yokoyama did not have the money to pay Saatchi & Saatchi to make him well known, said Michelli. Therefore, the consultant suggested Pike Place Fish Market adopt a new business model.

"Let's create a business that treats people like they're Britney Speares," Michelli recalled as the conceptual idea for the new Pike Place Fish Market. Customers would be treated as if they were celebrities. When a customer came, the staff would think "My goodness, he's here. Wow!" said Michelli.

The staff were told they didn't have to sell fish. The company would not measure an employee's performance from the number of fish he sold, but from his "conversation with customers" and from how the customers felt they had been treated.

Not long afterwards, the Pike Place Fish Market had become well known outside its Seattle area and is often billed as world famous for its habit of hurling customers' orders. It has changed the way of doing business by introducing their flying fish, games and customer performances.

A typical routine will involve a customer ordering a fish, with their fishmongers in orange rubber overalls and boots calling out the order, which is loudly shouted back by all the other staff, at which point the original fishmonger will throw the customer's fish behind the counter for wrapping.

Michelli points out that Pike Place Fish Market employees were not sophisticated - but they had a clear vision of their goal. Employees did not feel they were working but playing together. They also realised they were not dealing with fish but serving the people (customers).

Pike Place's lesson demonstrates the "progression of economic value" concept that begins from the lowest end of an agrarian economy based on extracting commodities, to an industrial economy based on manufacturing goods, to a service economy based on delivering services, and now to an "experience economy" based on staging experience.

"The fish market, in terms of products is dead; but it has shifted to thrive on customer experience," said Michelli.

At a seminar held recently by the Thailand Management Association in Bangkok, Michelli said he believed the challenge to Thailand is not about cost, but about value.

He suggested Thai businesses "Think through on every touch point you have (with customers). The ultimate customer experience is the desire".

Inward-looking model

Firms which merely "play against statistics" of how much more efficient they are, how much cost they can save further, but neglecting their focus on customers are not going to succeed. Companies that focus more on their business' needs at a cost to the customer are "inside out" - either because they're misguided or they actually lack empathy, added Michelli.

pichaya@nationgroup.com