The Customer is All-Important

A layman thinks that a business begins with the construction of a factory, buying of plant, machinery and raw materials, and employment of men. But this is a misconception. Recently a very talented engineer set up a model factory for manufacturing a small-sized printing machine which was a technical marvel. But when it was placed on the market, there were no customers and production naturally came to a standstill. The firm had no money to pay wages and buy raw materials. You cannot go on manufacturing things which nobody is prepared to buy. Without customers, production has no value. It is sheer waste. Marketing has therefore primacy over production.