Why
Companies are Performing so Poorly, Despite the Investment
The findings in this book have led us to the following
conclusions.
Senior executive
ownership and leadership is required
This appears to be less of an issue now than it was,
although still only one in five companies have executives on the board with
responsibility for CRM (that is, constituting more than 50 per cent of their
role). But our results show that, as yet, these executives are not increasing
their companies' CM effectiveness. Why is this? Our explanation is as
follows:
-
Managers have a short-term focus; financial objectives are
often set quarterly or at best annually. CM approaches often take longer to pay
back, unless activities are carefully planned. Also, managers are often in a
role as a stepping stone 'career development' move, and their performance in a
function is only judged over a short period of time.
-
Managers do not see change through. For example, investment
in CM systems is clearly taking place, but not enough is invested in changing
the behaviour and attitudes of employees, so little actually changes.
-
Senior managers ignore the basics of what defines good CM
and business performance. Some consultants and senior managers are obsessed with
'dramatic change' and new concepts. Plans that take a company's current business
model, tighten it up in places and adapt it slightly in others, do not seem to
appeal to managers obsessed with dramatic
change. Unfortunately, there are just too many of these managers, and some
consultancy firms encourage this attitude and even feed on it. Our research
shows that significant benefits can be achieved more quickly and easily, and
certainly more cheaply, through incremental change, often fixing areas that
senior management do not know are broken!
-
Senior managers do not recognize their companies' CM
strengths and weaknesses. Our research shows those senior managers' views on
their company's strengths and weaknesses are often different before and after a
CMAT. So, project priorities and implementation programmes developed without a
thorough review of the current position are likely to be founded on myths.
-
Senior managers appear to rarely have the real authority or
appetite to challenge the status quo and work across the
enterprise.
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