Center for Customer-Based Execution & Strategy

MISSION

The center enables research scholars to develop cutting-edge, peer-reviewed research practices and insights related to customer-based strategy. Its mission is to share these research-driven insights with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, aiming to enhance customer value, employee engagement and shareholder returns.

Ultimately, the center seeks to reimagine strategy planning and execution in organizations. In this process, the center can examine, inform and improve traditional strategy planning that often lacks a customer focus and shows little or no correlation with financial performance.

Customer Value Report

About the Center

We are home to exceptional young scholars in strategy, marketing, organizational behavior, finance, and operations. The Center for Customer-Based Execution & Strategy leverages strong connections in key industries—such as energy, healthcare, education and technology—to benefit the community. Our goal is to unite diverse business disciplines to improve strategy, customer value, employee engagement and overall performance.

Download the Customer Value Report   Center Affiliates

“What [C-CUBES researchers] found offers a crucial lesson for every business looking to improve customer satisfaction — in other words, every business.” — Forbes

2025 C-CUBES Outstanding Research & Impact Award

Congratulations to Kamini Gupta, Donal Crilly and Thomas Greckhamer. Their paper, published in Strategic Management Journal, explores how stakeholder engagement and national institutions shape firm performance. This work exemplifies C-CUBES’ mission: delivering rigorous, actionable insights into customer-based strategy and execution.

Kamini Gupta

Kamini Gupta

Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management (ICBM), King’s College London
Donal Crilly

Donal Crilly

Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Chair, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Faculty, London Business School
Eleazar Gavia

Thomas Greckhamer

William W. Rucks IV Endowed Chair and Professor of Management, Louisiana State University

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Upcoming Events

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Past Events


  • Rice Customer-Based Strategy Symposium
    The Unshakeable Organization: Strategy fuels it. Employees live it. Customers love it.

    November 18, 2025
    The Ion
    Website | Photos

    How do the most successful companies build strategy around the customer? Join top marketing scholars and industry leaders at the Rice Business Customer-Based Strategy Symposium for a deep dive into the models, data and insights shaping the future of customer-centric strategy. Hosted by the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy, this event brings together cutting-edge academic research and real-world application.

    SPEAKERS
     

    AGENDA
     

    TimeDescription
    7:30 – 8:30 a.m.Registration and Breakfast
    8:30 – 8:40 a.m.Opening Remarks
    8:45 – 10:00 a.m.Session I: Multi-Tiered Customer Connectivity for Multi-Dimensional Effectiveness: A Research-Driven Strategy
    Speaker: Laura Lopez, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Public Relations, Houston Methodist
    10:00 – 10:30 a.m.Coffee Break and Networking
    10:30 – 11:45 a.m.Session II: Courts, Cellblocks and Communities: Succeeding Through Focus & Fidelity
    Speaker: Ed Gonzalez, Harris County Sheriff
    11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.Lunch and Networking
    12:30 – 1:45 p.m.Session III: Fireside Chat with Farid Virani — "Entrepreneurial Success Through Employee and Customer Focus"
    Fireside Chat: Farid Virani,  Founder & Executive Chairman, Prime Communications
    Moderator: Robert Dittmar, Associate Dean of Virani Undergraduate School of Business
    1:45 – 2:00 p.m.Coffee Break and Networking
    2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

    Session IV: CEO Panel - Ambition Meets Success: Young CEOs Rewrite the Strategy Playbook

    3:40 – 4:30 p.m.Fireside Chat: Invitation-only event for Rice students

    C-CUBES CEO Roundtable Discussion Series: Corporate Political Activism

    October 29, 2025
    Website | Photos

    Speaker:

    Vikas Mittal, Ph.D., is a leading expert on customer-based strategy, having co-authored more than 100 articles in outlets like Harvard Business Review and MIT-Sloan Management Review, among others. Mittal leads the Executive MBA seminar on customer-focused strategy at Rice Business, where he has won the teaching and research awards multiple times. Mittal has facilitated science-driven strategy at many Fortune 500 companies.

    Vikas Mittal

    Key Takeaways:

    • Learned what constituted corporate political activism and why companies engaged in it.
    • Discussed case studies of successes (Nike, Costco) and failures (Target, Jaguar), gaining insights into stakeholder-centered decision-making.
    • Uncovered research-based evidence about the effects of corporate political activism on customers, employees, and shareholders.
    • Networked with other CEOs of Greater Houston companies in an exclusive, invitation-only event for CEOs. Participants joined the roundtable to expand their networks, gain research-based insights, and affiliate with Rice Business.


    Inaugural C-CUBES CEO Roundtable Discussion Series: Navigating Strategy (Mis)Alignment Between Executives and Customers

    May 27, 2025
    Website | Photos

    Speaker:

    Ashwin Malshe, Ph.D., is a world-renowned authority on linking customer-based strategy to financial outcomes. His research has been published in Harvard Business Review and many other peer-reviewed journals. He uses state-of-the-art statistical and machine-learning algorithms to advise companies about strategy alignment.

    Ashwin Malshe, Ph.D.

    Event Highlights:

    • Discovered the financial benefits of aligning executives and customers using a science-based approach. The talk showed how alignment can drive sales, margins, cash flow and firm value.
    • Learned about the misalignment between executives and customers in B-to-B companies. Research from 127 companies and 17,000 customers shows the misalignment.
    • Heard from CEOs who increased executive and customer alignment. CEOs from Houston-based companies discussed their experience driving executive and customer alignment using a science-based strategy.
    • Networked with other CEOs of Greater Houston companies. The C-CUBES CEO Roundtable is an exclusive, invitation-only event for CEOs of mid-market companies. CEOs can join the roundtable to expand their network, learn about research-based insights and affiliate with Rice Business.

     


    Customer-Focused Leadership: Serving Students, Families, and Educators

    April 10, 2025
    Website | Photos

    Hosted by The Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy and Leadership Partners, and led by Vikas Mittal, Ph.D., this one-day masterclass was tailored for superintendents and senior K-12 leaders and allowed them to:

    • Discover why legacy strategy planning falls short and how it can be enhanced using a science-based approach to refocus and prioritize resources for measurable impact.
    • Discover the power of customer focus as a strategy planning framework that benefits students, families and teachers.
    • Learn the satisfaction-performance-chain (SPC), a proven, research-validated model linking school leadership actions to family engagement, student retention and academic outcomes.
    • Discover how districts can use these principles to drive stronger outcomes, while simplifying execution and reducing costs.

    Key Takeaways: 

    • Enrollment & Funding Are at Risk – Public schools have lost more than 2 million students in recent years. Learn how a customer-focused strategy can increase retention, community trust and financial stability.
    • Data-Driven, Not Guesswork – This research analyzed 10,664 K-12 parents and 150 superintendents to uncover the real factors that drive student retention and academic success.
    • Stop Initiative Overload, Start Strategic Focus – 67% of district employees believe their schools suffer from too many unfocused initiatives. Learn how to streamline efforts and prioritize what truly moves the needle.
    • The Secret of High-Performing Districts – The most successful districts focus on family engagement, academic rigor and strategic leadership. Discover how to implement these insights in your own district.
    • Rice Business Benefit – Hear directly from Rice Business faculty on how leading districts are shifting their strategy to improve enrollment, increase outcomes and preserve funding. Dr. Mittal is one of the premier marketing professors in the nation.


    Breakfast and Masterclass: “Net Promoter Score: Fact and Fiction in Strategy Planning”

    January 14, 2025
    Website | Photos

    At a recent masterclass at the Ion, Professor Vikas Mittal challenged the common belief that Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the best way to measure customer loyalty. Hosted by Rice Business Executive Education and sponsored by C-CUBES, the session explored why NPS can be misleading and introduced better alternatives, like the Customer Value Index (CVI) and the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). These tools offer a clearer picture of what drives customer satisfaction and business success, helping companies make smarter, more effective decisions.
     


  • Breakfast and Masterclass: “Cutting Strategy Clutter”

    November 14, 2024
    Website

    An average company’s strategy is cluttered by initiatives that presumably deliver value to customers, employees and shareholders. At these companies, customers are underwhelmed from a commoditized offering, employees are overwhelmed from initiative overload and shareholders face anemic returns.

    Professor Vikas Mittal led a discussion on why strategy clutter existed in many companies. The session explored case studies of companies that overcame strategy clutter through a science-based strategy approach and grew relative sales by 10–20% while also increasing margins and EBITA.


    Rice Customer-Based Strategy Symposium

    March 15, 2024
    Shell Auditorium, McNair Hall, Rice University
    Website | Photos

    Hosted annually by the Jones Graduate School of Business since 2010, the Rice Customer-Based Strategy Symposium is a premier forum for exchanging innovative ideas on customer-centered strategy planning and execution.

    KEYNOTE SPEAKERS


    Girish K. Saligram
    CEO and President, Weatherford


    To put the customer experience at the center of strategy:
     

    • Aim for a value-creation process that has zero waste.
    • Embrace company culture as a differentiator.
    • Take a holistic approach to metrics.

    Simon Seaton
    CEO and Executive Vice President, Society of Petroleum Engineers


    To excel on your customer’s most important needs:
     

    • Do fewer things but execute them with rigor and fidelity.
    • Concentrate on initiatives that drive client value.
    • Beware of confirmation bias in your data.

    Dr. Rodney Watson
    Executive Director, Region 4 Education Service Center


    To achieve strategic alignment across your organization:
     

    • Prioritize customer initiatives with the greatest lift potential.
    • Don’t just appease customers. Create and deliver value.
    • Reduce initiatives so employees can focus on what matters.

    AGENDA

     

    TimeDescription
    7:00 a.m.Registration Starts
    7:30 – 8:15 a.m.Breakfast
    8:15 – 8:30 a.m.Topic: Opening Remarks
    Speaker: Peter Rodriguez – Dean, Rice Business
    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.Topic: Enhancing Member Value Through Strategic Focus at the Society of Petroleum Engineers
    Speaker: Simon Seaton – CEO, Society of Petroleum Engineers
    9:30 – 10:00 a.m.Networking and Coffee Break
    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.Topic: District Advancement Champions: Revitalizing K12 Education Through Customer Focus
    Speaker: Rodney E. Watson – Executive Director, Region 4 Education Service Center
    11:00 – 11:15 a.m.Networking and Coffee Break
    11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.Topic: Navigating Success at Weatherford: Customers and Employees
    Speaker: Girish Saligram – CEO, Weatherford
    12:15 – 12:20 p.m.Topic: Closing Remarks
    Speaker: Vikas Mittal – J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing, Rice Business
    12:30 – 1:30 p.m.Lunch
    7:00 a.m. – noon(All day) Registration
    7:00 a.m. – noon(All day) Coffee

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Center Affiliates