The CX Imperative: Five Strategic Practices for Renewal of the Customer-Centered Enterprise

by Mark Fithian, Jeff Rosenberg

Overview

A strategic guide to embedding customer experience into all aspects of your business.

For decades, a fundamental flaw has flourished in the strategic operating model of the modern corporation—a Great Distancing from the needs and expectations of customers.

For some, such as Blockbuster, AOL, and Kodak, this flaw has been disastrous. Meanwhile, those that have woven the customer deeply into their culture have prospered—with increased revenues and more fulfilled employees.

In The CX Imperative, Strategic CX experts Mark Fithian and Jeff Rosenberg reveal five critical practices for changing customer centricity from a presentation-layer pursuit to a core value:

· Developing empathy-based Insights about customers

· Devising a Strategy to focus and align efforts

· Drawing up Blueprints for creating winning experiences with intention

· Creating an effective CX Operating Model

· Maintaining a Culture of customer centricity

This strategic approach to CX is essential for companies to cut through the complexity of today’s operating environment and meet their customers’ needs for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798891385818
Publisher:	Amplify Publishing
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 5.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark Fithian and Jeff Rosenberg are the cofounders of WideOpen, a Strategic CX consulting company.

Mark’s customer strategy expertise and methodologies were developed through over thirty years of work across multiple industries, collaborating with leading brands such as Providence, SAP, PayPal, Optum, IBM, BMW, the American Cancer Society, and Microsoft. Before cofounding WideOpen, Mark held key roles in both client-side and agency-side positions, as well as in strategic consultancies.

Jeff has spent more than thirty years working across strategy, operations, and customer experience disciplines, consulting for leading companies such as SAP, Verizon, Hershey, Optum, BMW, ADT, and Motorola. Prior to cofounding WideOpen, Jeff served in leadership and practitioner roles in consulting, agency, and corporate organizations.

Editorial Reviews

In The CX Imperative, Fithian and Rosenberg identify THE problem that ails corporate America—the Great Distancing from customers—and offer the right solution: customer centricity and experience.”

—B. Joseph Pine II, coauthor of The Experience Economy and cofounder of Strategic Horizons

“The principles in The CX Imperative aren’t just theories. I’ve seen them in action. Having applied these practices, I can attest to the power of the authors’ approach in breaking down silos, aligning teams, and making CX a true competitive advantage. Now, they’re sharing that expertise with the broader community, offering a blueprint for leaders ready to take CX to the next level.”

—Janet Sparkman, former CXO, Optum

“With the evolution of the B2B buying experience becoming more digital, group-led, and personalized, centering around the customer experience is critical. In The CX Imperative, Fithian and Rosenberg offer a much-needed roadmap to help companies adopt a pervasive CX mindset that avoids the Great Distancing and, instead, drives improved customer and corporate value.”

—Etosha Thurman, CMO, SAP Intelligent Spend & Business Network

“Many organizations don’t realize how far they’ve strayed from their customers—until it’s too late. The CX Imperative is a wake-up call, providing a sharp, well-structured approach to bridging that gap and making customer connection a business-wide priority. Fithian and Rosenberg show how to make CX work at scale.”

—Jeanne Bliss, pioneering chief customer officer, bestselling author, and founder of Customer Bliss

“For CX to truly matter, it can’t live on the sidelines—it must be embedded into the DNA of the organization. The CX Imperative delivers a sharp, structured approach to making that a reality.”

—Vinny Rinaldi, vice president, media & marketing technology, The Hershey Company

“This is a must-read book for practitioners who are tasked with making CX front and center for businesses. With an approach that encourages both data-driven insights and a deep dive into actual customer experiences and the culture that drives them, The CX Imperative lays out an impressive blueprint for any twenty-first-century brand that wants to return to putting customers first.”

—P. V. Kannan, CEO, [24]7.ai, and author of The Age of Intent

From the Publisher

2025-06-16
Management consultants Fithian and Rosenberg offer a manifesto for businesses aiming to refocus on the customer experience.

The authors argue that modern corporations are deeply out of touch with their customers, and they call this “The Great Distancing”; in their view, big companies have philosophically and operationally drifted away from creating a valuable customer experience (or CX), preferring to focus on shareholders and optimize internal processes. This puts firms at risk of becoming irrelevant, they assert, by missing opportunities and alienating customers. Mainstream management theories and business models focus too much on efficiency and siloed operations, they note, and not enough on delivering long-term, meaningful CX. The book proposes five areas (insights, strategy, blueprints, operating models, and culture) into which one must incorporate CX to counter this phenomenon. According to the authors, CX shouldn’t be a department or set of marketing tactics, but rather the substance of the entire business: Every product, interaction, and relationship, they say, needs to be part of it. The book provides assessment tools and practical frameworks to help leaders make this a reality. Overall, the authors present CX as a companywide capability that can drive growth, employee engagement, and operational efficiency. Stylistically, the book is clear, well-organized, and propelled by clear enthusiasm. The writing is concise and pragmatic, with bullet points galore, which will make it accessible to practitioners and executives alike. Issues such as corporate inertia, systems thinking, and empathy are explored at length, and convincing statistics and real-world anecdotes round out the arguments. At times, the “CX Champion” rhetoric romanticizes business challenges, and readers looking for empirical rigor or industry-specific playbooks may feel the advice to be somewhat conceptual. The book also often feels like a pitch for the authors’ consulting services. Still, it’s a convincing call for business leaders to work differently.

An often effective argument for the importance of customer experience.

Kirkus Reviews