He realized that SAS was not in the business of flying airplanes; it was in the business of serving customers. He shifted the company’s focus from "punctuality" (an internal metric) to "time" (a customer’s perception of wasted hours).
In a traditional company, the CEO is at the top and the "front line" is at the bottom. Carlzon argued that the front-line employees (gate agents, flight attendants, mechanics) are the most important people in the company because they manage the Moments of Truth. The Shift: Moments Of Truth Jan Carlzon Pdf