CRM - February 2008 - (Page 21)

Insight REQUIRED READING STRATEGIC MINDS THINK ALIKE any CRM problems are still struggling. Where do you think the borne out of a lack of problems come in? Levitt: First of all, companies try to do communication between sales and marketing. too much. What people don’t realize is Zoom out, and you’ll find that the same that doing the right project means not problem exists higher up between senior doing the wrong projects. If you take on executives and project managers. too many you overextend your resources and then the most imApproximately 80 perportant right projects cent to 90 percent of don’t actually get done— business strategies fail to or don’t get done fast get implemented comenough or well enough. pletely or adequately, They’re not disciplined according to Raymond enough in their portfolio Levitt, William Malek, management. and Mark Morgan, in The second thing is, their book, Executing when you try to execute Your Strategy: How to a new product developBreak It Down and Get It ment, or a new line of Done. Businesses often business, or enter a new suffer from the classic market, you have to “Throw it over the wall understand that along and hope it works out” mentality, and assume Doing the right project means with the projects you can that those on the other not doing the wrong projects. see are a whole bunch of hidden projects about end will know what to do and why they’re doing it. Instead, the realigning your culture and realigning two sides need to engage in a “bilingual your structure. CRM magazine: Who’s to blame? conversation” and execute strategies in a Levitt: Typically, the senior people collaborative environment. CRM magazine’s Jessica Tsai had the opportunity to blame the lower people for failing to execute, and project management blames speak with Levitt. CRM magazine: What inspired you and the senior executives for having an unrealistic strategy that was not informed by your coauthors to write a book like this? Levitt: We helped to put together an a real understanding of what it would executive education program at Stanford take to execute. CRM magazine: So if someone reads called the Stanford Advanced Project Management program. In the course of your book over the weekend, what should he do Monday morning? doing that, we were distilling the ideas. Levitt: Think very hard about how We tried to pull together ideas from the literature that addressed various you decide what project to do and if pieces of this but had never been pulled your strategy is clearly enough articutogether in quite the same way before. lated. Then, think about if you’re idenIn fact, no one, single source con- tifying all these hidden projects of nected modern ideas about how to run strategic alignment. If you understand projects with ideas about coming up that and you tackle it from the beginning, you’re likely to succeed. If you try with good strategies. CRM magazine: Your lessons seem to start doing something without sysstraightforward and yet businesses are tematically defining the culture and www.destinationCRM.com M structure change, you’re very unlikely to succeed. OTHER PAGE-TURNERS: ■ It’s inevitable: People make bad decisions. But when those bad decisions result in big losses, it doesn’t matter how good the idea seemed at the time. In Think Smart—Act Smart, Jim Nightingale explains that it doesn’t matter how smart you are or how well you know your business, what’s important is whether you have the discipline to plan the “who” and “how” of your business strategies. ■ With the availability of solutions like software-as-a-service and the power of Web 2.0, the playing field for companies is leveling out regardless of size. Soon, the differentiator will depend on creativity. In Big Think Strategy, Bernd Schmitt dares you to get ahead and stay ahead by thinking big: exploring ideas beyond the confines of the conventional. ■ Great minds think alike, but they don’t do alike, according to Roger Martin’s The Opposable Mind. Every business is unique, so it’s not enough just to implement the same strategies of the great business leaders. Success did, however, come to those who exemplified integrative thinking. Martin explains the power of this skill and how to incorporate it into your own strategic thinking. —Jessica Tsai 21 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | FEBRUARY 2008 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - February 2008

CRM - February 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Loyalty Riddle CRM Drives Down-Market Out of the Gate: Marketers Rate ’08 Traits The Pulse Consultants Adapt to CRM’s Changing Landscape Required Reading Cover Story: CRM Gets Serious Contact Center Solutions Always On Rumble in the Office The Smallest Slice Tying Up Cable’s Loose Ends Burning Up the Paper Trail Sunny Skies for Knology No More Bumps for BlueRoads Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - February 2008

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