In recent weeks, we’ve heard Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and Jeff Bezos talk about managing their businesses. They’re the CEOs of Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon.com, respectively – three very different companies that are all highly regarded and worth hundreds of billions.

Their secret sauce?  They all emphasize one thing:  customer first. 

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.   At the Economic Club of Washington, DC, he discussed what eventually led to his ouster from Citigroup in 1998.  At the time, top brass were creating an organizational structure that Dimon was convinced would create chaos at the banking conglomerate. But they followed through because, according to Dimon, “It worked for them.”

“It doesn’t matter if it works for you,” Dimon said of business executives. “When you hear a CEO say, ‘It works for me,’ you should question their intelligence. Because it’s not the way you should look at business. It’s what works for the client, ultimately.”

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.   During the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, he echoed this priority:  “The core of the company is customer-obsession as opposed to competitor-obsession.”  Bezos added: “Customers are always dissatisfied and they always want more. So they pull you along. If you’re trying to serve them, they pull you along.”

In other words, customers force you to evolve. And, by definition, they’re also the best source of feedback regarding the customer.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.  At Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses event, he refined this not-so-secret secret to success by saying:  “Tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror after you’ve gotten up, just write - or just put it in lipstick or whatever you want - ‘delight my customer’ not ‘satisfy my customer.’ ‘Delight my customer’.”

An investment in delighting a customer can have a lucrative multiplier effect.  “Any business that has delighted customers has a salesforce out there that you don’t have to pay. You don’t see them, but they are talking to people all the time,” he added.