Success is never final…

It’s a much hackneyed phrase, but we live in a world of unparalleled change. A couple of random facts derived from copies of The Economist currently sat on my desk – a feature on Goldman Sachs, notes that 30% of the company’s revenues in 2005 (i.e. a small matter of $7 billion), came from activities that didn’t exist when the company floated in 1999. An article about Nokia – in the era of the camera-phone, Nokia sells more cameras than any other company (I can’t say I saw that coming when I got my first Nokia phone in 1995).

The pace of technological change, the impact of the internet, the rise of China and India, the splintering of the media, global warming, global terrorism, the increasing concentration of retailing power, to name but a few influences that are putting our businesses into increasing flux. Thinking about our customers, I can’t think of one client who isn’t facing significant new business challenges, whether it’s a major new competitive threat, absorbing an acquisition, being absorbed through acquisition, moving into a new market, moving out of an old market, etc etc.

I make these obvious points to highlight a key challenge from a CRM standpoint – while we have to build systems that positively support our strategic initiatives (and market success in this endeavour has been spotty to say the least) we also have to maintain those systems so that they continue to support the business as it addresses new threats and exploits new opportunities over time. As Winston Churchill said – ‘Success is never final’, and I think too often efforts in this respect mimic the plight of the novice skier executing a turn where the strategic leg of the business goes right, and the systems leg carries straight on.

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