Greed is Good
Remember the movie Wall Street? Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) makes that famous speech to the stockholders of the company he is raiding. One small trivia note regarding that speech is that he never says precisely the words, “Greed is Good!” But that is the quote we all came away with. He does, however, state specifically at one point, “Greed works.” When I look back on 2006 this is a sentiment that somehow comes out as a theme.
If Gordon Gekko had a point that could be hijacked in a more positive vein it might be that capitalism does require the pursuit of a profitable end game. Greed as a term is filled with baggage, starting with Dante and the seven deadly sins. But the driving force of achieving a gain is the element of greed that I think has valor.
The dot com burst proved that greed can be bad – especially when pursued with foolish abandon. My observation about business behavior in 2006 is that we are back on the path of profitable growth, which is good. Surviving the turn of the Millennium required hunkering down, battening the hatches, and cutting corners. This past year, at least according to the organizations with whom I have been working, was a full 12 months of action in pursuit of growth.
This energy, the pursuit of profit, is something that needs to be harnessed, like the tide. It is there, innate, ready to be leveraged. Your salesforce has it. Your customers have it. In 2006 we got better at managing it. CRM is a very smart way to achieve it. If the prognosticators are correct, we will see more successful pursuit in 2007 as well.
I hope you are enjoying a peaceful holiday.
Here is to a fantastic New Year!
Matthew E. Johnson
December 29, 2006
Comments
Doing The Needful - A CRM Review For 2006
Organizations know the value of their customers to their organizations. They really do. I am able to make this conclusion after a very quick review of all the customer interactions which I interacted with in the year 2006. I began to see some patterns within my interactions. For one, every organization seemed to have realized that investing in their customer relationships yields results. And, what was interesting to note is that virtually every organization I talked to was doing something about it this year. Increased commoditization of of various products and services, outsourcing, technology enablement, and lightening fast go-to-market strategies employed by organizations and their competetors; these challenges makes us realize that customer centric processess become the key differentiators for many companies.. Some industry segments such as Healthcare & Biotech, which have lagged behind relative to others with respect to CRM, are now beginning to invest in this critical need. Many market experts have recognized the need for CRM. for a long time. However, CRM needs by companies have largely focused on Sales Force Automation, Contact Centers Automation, and other process level automation. For most, the true need for CRM and mining CRM data, by use of sofisticated BI processes, discipline, and technology is just starting to emerge this year.. The prediction for 2007 and beyond is that many of these organizations will not only begin to recognize their needs but they will finally Do The Needful. These organizations are indeed on the edge. They will finally take their CRM programmes to the next level which will enable them to reap the business benefits from their past investments.
By John Jagtiani, VP Consulting, Innoveer Solutions Inc.
Posted by: John Jagtiani | January 8, 2007 05:33 PM