Leadership and Organizational Culture in Customer Centricity: The Journey of AMK Cambodia

What lies behind a successful customer-centric organization? Certainly, understanding customers and designing responsive services is key. But customer centricity is much more. It requires that a concern for customers be a part of an organization’s DNA and thus reflected in every dimension – staff recruitment, training, performance management, risk management, governance, etc. It’s about the “hard” systems as well as the “soft” processes and organizational culture. Intentionality in leadership is required to achieve it.

This case study looks at the process by which customer centricity has evolved and has been shaped over time within AMK, a Cambodian microfinance institution. For many organizations, there’s a crucial role for leadership in transforming into a customer-centric organization and the change management process that it entails. AMK is a rare example of an organization that has been customer-centric from its inception, with a concern for customers at the heart of its foundation and evolution over the past 14 years. While it is continually evolving, the experience of AMK helps to decode the DNA of a customer-centric organization. This case study focuses on the role of leadership and upper management in building and sustaining customer-centric culture and practice.