PLATFORM:MORE THAN 130 years ago this month, one of Ireland's most entrepreneurial sons was kidnapped. Strangely enough, he was already dead.

On November 7th, 1878, the body of Lisburn man Alexander Turney Stewart was stolen from its grave at St Mark's Church in the Bowery area of lower Manhattan. The kidnappers demanded a substantial ransom.

"Merchant Prince" Stewart was born outside Belfast, in 1803, to a farmer and his wife. He emigrated to New York and, aged 20, he opened his first dry-goods shop selling Belfast linens and laces. The business thrived, thanks to Stewart's merchandising genius and a gift for listening to customers. By the time of his death in 1876, AT Stewart Co was the world's most successful retailer. Stewart had given his empire not one, but two, palaces - the architectural marvels known as the Marble Palace and the Iron Palace department stores. He also created a village in Long Island, known as Garden City, for his workers and built them a railroad so they arrived to work on time.

Stewart was constantly innovating based on customers' needs. He developed a mail-order business, the first "department" store and profit-sharing for employees.

Success had its rewards. When he died, he was one of the richest men in the world, worth an estimated $40 million, ranking just below members of the well-established Astor and Vanderbilt families. Not bad for a farmer's son from Lisburn.

Stewart built his retail dry-goods empire on a few simple principles: know your customer, anticipate their needs, innovate and always pay cash.

In current market conditions - with businesses and banks playing a game of hot potato with their cash and crying about customers' unwillingness to spend - companies would do well to follow Stewart's example (without the body for ransom episode, of course).

A natural salesman, Stewart realised that "you will deal with ignorant, opinionated and innocent people. You will often have an opportunity to cheat them. If they could, they would cheat you, or force you to sell at less than cost. You must be wise, but not too wise. You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can . . . You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back."

Stewart believed that the key to establishing a great business was to make friends with customers and encourage their return, according to Elbert Hubbard, author of AT Stewart: Little Journeys to the Homes of Forgotten Business Men.

Very few Irish businesses bothered with customer service during the boom years. There was no need. Ten more customers lined up behind the last one. Complaints were ignored, even laughed at. Every customer was a profit-centre, not a human being.

Now it's time to change the record. Customer service is not a fashion accessory; it is a necessity. The only businesses that will survive the downturn are those that cherish their customers.

Businesses that can forecast customers' needs will do well. Hubbard said of Stewart: "When he foresaw a storm ahead, there would be a silent purchase of all of certain goods in the market, which would be sure to rise in a certain contingency . . . he was the first to foresee a falling market and to put his goods before the public with such swiftness and address that he cleared his shelves with the least loss."

Stewart only dealt in greenbacks. "The house of AT Stewart Co has always bought for cash - and one more and striking peculiarity . . . he has never speculated one penny's worth outside of his business nor, strictly speaking, in it. When he has bought largely, it was to supply his customers with a greatly needed article - and when he reduced prices, it was not to injure others, but a ready submission to the inevitable in trade. His advantage consisted in knowing early what was inevitable," Hubbard wrote in 1909.

But back to the stolen body. Eventually it was returned and buried in a booby-trapped crypt in Garden City. No one is allowed access to it. I like to think the coffin plate reads: "Have a nice day."

Margaret E Ward is a managing director of Clear Ink, the clear English specialists, and a native of Garden City. Margaret@clearink.ie