But as David thought about it, he realized that APL might be able to help. Within his team at APL, David realized, he and his staff probably knew more about each of the branch offices  — what they were producing, how much they were producing, where they were shipping their products  — than any of the individual branch office managers did. His challenge would be to use that knowledge to help his customer coordinate its actions and decisions around the world.

David decided he could use his knowledge and his personal relationships with each of the branch office managers to help the company in its new effort. By helping the branch office managers share information and by serving as a bridge between them, David and his team could help their customer’s branch office managers get to know each other and start working together.

It was a new way to work. David felt a little like a coach sometimes, as he explained to the Hong Kong branch office manager what the Europe branch office manager had meant by a comment, or explained to the U.S. branch office manager a little about the shipping challenges the Japan office faced. This wasn’t the way he usually worked with customers. But it worked! David and his team strengthened their relationships with the company by helping the branch office managers learn more about each other and about how to work as a team. And in the process, he and his staff learned a lot more about their customer and its needs around the world. Their own change in focus from meeting individual managers’ needs to thinking about their customer as a team made up of people around the world had paid off. And, David thought with satisfaction, APL’s ability to truly meet the needs of its customer gave it an edge in the shipping business.