Exercise - Getting to know your customer

Split into groups of 3-5 students. Select a company to research. Choose a large, publicly traded, company. The groups will then share their findings and discuss the process of researching.

Assume you need this information to bring with you to a meeting. The meeting could be the first meeting with the potential customer; it could be a meeting with your peers to discuss a potential deal.

Learning Objectives

After completing the exercise, you will be able to:

• Find information about potential customers
• Evaluate the value of this information
• Understand how others might complete the same tasks

Exercise 1: Learn about the customer

Find the following information regarding your selected company. Make sure to take notes so you can share what you’ve found with the larger group. It is not necessary to gather ALL of the items listed here.

This is an example list of key details that can help you better know your customers.

People

Identify three separate c-level executives:

• Name
• Contact info and/or social media
• Prior work
• (Bonus) School background

Corporate

• Identify stock symbol and value
• Locate earnings report/call
• Identify key divisions or lines of business
• Identify headquarters and office locations

Culture/News

• Read recent company press release
• Locate social media accounts-official and unofficial
• Locate what others say about company, news and social. Identify top pain points

Technology

• Do they have any preferred cloud providers?
• Any publicly stated technology preferences?