Customers’ needs are core to long-term growth

http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VPRDQSN
After reading this interesting survey, it came to me that a constant drive to meet customers’ needs is core to sustainable long-term organic, not R&D spend or innovation or “marketing” (for which they mean promotion).
Unless any or all of these are focussed on what customers want, they’re a waste of time and won’t deliver any growth, never mind the long-term sustainable kind!