Organizations work extremely hard to develop a customer base. Yet, with a fast-paced changing world moving all around us organizations need to change rapidly to stay in business. This change could result in a change in customer base. When an organization commits to embracing change and following a paradigm shift, it needs to be aware of all the changes in its customer base as well. The customers a company has worked so hard to develop may completely change, broaden to a large base, or lose some customers and gain different ones. Management training programs should focus on this aspect of change.

Sometimes, a paradigm shift causes a customer base to change completely. Take, for example, Motorola. Motorola was an appliance company, but in 1964, it left that business and gradually became a semiconductor company. Within 10 years, their entire customer base had changed. Motorola made a massive change in how it did business and became an industry leader in a new business. They accepted that a gradual shift in customers was essential to their long-term survival.

Sometimes, a paradigm shift allows a company to keep a portion of its existing customers and gain new customers. Take, for example, a luxury home builder. For decades, they have built luxury homes in a community. Their commitment to quality has given them a loyal base of customers who refer them to others in their social set. Unfortunately, the loss of large corporations in the area and a worsening economy have eroded their customer base. However, they see an opportunity to use their building expertise to take advantage of the need for condominiums and apartment buildings in the area. They haven’t completely given up their customer base, but have developed new customers.

Lastly, a paradigm shift could allow a company to keep the same customers. For this example, we will look at an industry that failed to see a paradigm shift and lost because of it. The Swiss watchmaking industry failed to take advantage of digital technology and lost its customer base to Japan. However, if it had embraced the paradigm shift to digital, it could have largely kept its current customers and taken advantage of the shift.

It’s the simplest fact in business—customers are the reason we are in business. Organizations need to constantly examine how their customer bases will grow and change as a result of paradigm shifts. This factor is possibly the most important aspect companies need to consider as they embrace the changes that are inevitable in their industry.