Customer Diversity is Essential

John Thompson, Symantec Corporation

Thompson stresses the need for customer diversity. Software companies that were dependent on Fortune 1000 companies for their business suffered when their niche clients also suffered in the economic downturn. If a company is to survive challenging economic times, companies must have a diverse customer base, he says. Symantec brings stability to its business by serving individual customers as well as the largest governments and corporations. It brings essential geographic diversity by deriving 51% of its business from outside the US.