A popular concept in leadership theory is the Action-Observation-Reflection model. In a nutshell, the method is basically putting words on the action of learning from past experiences. The first thing to do is to look at what you did (Action) then find out the results (Observation) and think about what you have learned from the situation (Reflexion). It is nothing complicated but is a powerful tool if used often. I personally find that putting it in writing makes it more efficient.
For a company looking to get customers, the AOR can be used to great effect in hatching a marketing strategy. While a complete startup might have trouble looking back on their experience, they can always look at what happened with other businesses in similar situations. With any history however, it's very interesting to looks systematically at what was done in the past and break it down. Good and bad experiences are valuable nothing should be disregarded. As I said before, a market leader, much like any type of leader, is a contextual position. The situation plays a big role in the leader's success and using the AOR you can find out how much and whether or not there's been a change in the situation. A great marketing approach might have tanked because of external factors that have already disappeared.
In practice, what I've been doing is to look at what the company's processes are in their approach to customer service. Mapping each process (Action) and finding out their impact on customer gathering, workflow, efficient and overall customer satisfaction (Observation) will make it clearer for the company what their strengths are and where there should be improvements.
