"and trained managers who worship the gods of efficiency"

"For over 250 years, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and technological progress have been at the center of business activity. All other business activities grew around this core. Strategically, business has honed skills to spot and capture upstream sources of competitive advantage, notably, scale and product innovation. Organizationally, companies are invested in systems that keep the upstream machine humming, processes that maximize throughput, and trained managers who worship the gods of efficiency. By now, your business knows what it takes to make and move stuff. The problem is, so does everybody else.
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Still, many businesses are run as though the major fixed costs, the primary customer value, and the key competitive advantages reside in the upstream. These businesses continue to emphasize volume throughput and upstream efficiency. They think of product innovation as their key to a brighter future, often to the detriment of a customer focus, a broadened understanding of customer needs, economies of scope, down-stream innovation, cost and risk reduction, and ownership of the criteria of purchase."

Trecho retirado de "Tilt - Shifting Your Strategy From Products to Customers" de Niraj Dawar