I watched the Forbes.com webcast interview of Dr. Stephen Covey. I feel a few posts coming on.

According to Dr. Covey,

“There are only two roles in business, customers and suppliers.”

Isn’t that a great observation? Doesn’t it simplify life?

The roles are obvious when you buy a product or a service or when you’re selling your product or service to your customer. However, if you can only choose customers and suppliers, in an employee/employer situation, who would be the customer and who would be the supplier? How about interdepartmental within the company, say engineering and purchasing or HR and accounting? Who is the customer and who is the supplier when an entrepreneur talks to a venture capitalist? If you are a customer of the bank, then why do you have to “sell” the loan officer on the idea of giving you a loan?

Interesting twist! Thank you, Dr. Covey.