Secret Marketer: Customer lifetime value is such an obvious concept, so why don’t more marketers get it?

I believe Basil Fawlty, the infamous main character of 1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers played by John Cleese, has a lot teach us about important marketing topics.
Basil runs the titular hotel in Torquay, and is a bombastic snob who wants to be seen as “respectable”, with a penchant for verbally abusing his wife with phrases such as: “Next contestant, Mrs Sybil Fawlty from Torquay. Specialist subject, the bleeding obvious.”
The “bleeding obvious” is a favourite topi