Otis White

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Citizens Are Not the Same as Customers

April 8, 2011 By Otis White 2 Comments

We often use business analogies to understand how cities work, but be careful. Cities aren’t really like businesses, and if we think of citizens as customers then we sell them way, way short.

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About Otis White

Otis White is president of Civic Strategies, Inc., a collaborative and strategic planning firm for local governments and civic organizations. He has written about cities and their leaders for more than 30 years. For more information about Otis and his work, please visit www.civic-strategies.com.

The Great Project

Otis White's multimedia book, "The Great Project," is available on Apple iTunes for reading on an iPad. The book is about how a single civic project changed a city and offers important lessons for civic leaders considering their own "great projects" . . . and for students in college planning and political science programs.

For more information about the book, please visit the iTunes Great Project page.

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