Customer focus is the most important challenge of the future. Providing good customer service depends on how well companies know their customers and clearly identify their needs. Availability of customer knowledge, which is knowledge from, for and about the customer, thus becomes crucial in offering customized products or services. This can be gained most efficiently from direct interaction with customers, but requires the use of interpersonal and organizational soft skills. This book presents the interrelationship between customer knowledge management, customer focus and soft skills and also provides concrete advice on how the management of customer knowledge can be optimized.

Managing and transferring knowledge - at the right time, in the right place and with the right quality for customers - enables companies to survive in times of fierce competition. The focus of this work is therefore on Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management. The theoretical part comprises several approaches to knowledge, its transfer and the barriers to be overcome when sharing knowledge. This is followed by a description of CRM and CKM (Customer Knowledge Management), outlining how crucial their successful use is. The practical part explores on the one hand the dependence on knowledge and on the other hand its availability for a good customer relationship. It includes a case study that investigates both the administrative and the operational area of a concrete company. The survey results are then discussed in detail, key success factors identified and mistakes pointed out. After this critical analysis, final recommendations are given that every company can benefit from.

Customer focus is the most important challenge of the future. Providing good customer service depends on how well companies know their customers and clearly identify their needs. Availability of customer knowledge, which is knowledge from, for and about the customer, thus becomes crucial in offering customized products or services. This can be gained most efficiently from direct interaction with customers, but requires the use of interpersonal and organizational soft skills. This book presents the interrelationship between customer knowledge management, customer focus and soft skills and also provides concrete advice on how the management of customer knowledge can be optimized.

Managing and transferring knowledge - at the right time, in the right place and with the right quality for customers - enables companies to survive in times of fierce competition. The focus of this work is therefore on Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management. The theoretical part comprises several approaches to knowledge, its transfer and the barriers to be overcome when sharing knowledge. This is followed by a description of CRM and CKM (Customer Knowledge Management), outlining how crucial their successful use is. The practical part explores on the one hand the dependence on knowledge and on the other hand its availability for a good customer relationship. It includes a case study that investigates both the administrative and the operational area of a concrete company. The survey results are then discussed in detail, key success factors identified and mistakes pointed out. After this critical analysis, final recommendations are given that every company can benefit from.

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Dusseldorf, course: Business economics - Investment and Finance, language: English, abstract: The main scope of this assignment is the valuation of the Lanxess AG a German based chemistry corporation, with about 14,400 employees and annual sales of about 5.05 billion EUR. The core activities of Lanxess AG are specialty chemicals, polymers and intermediates, including rubber chemicals, material protection products, ion exchange resins, inorganic pigments, semi-crystalline products and fine chemicals. The authors have described the two enterprise evaluation methods - the DCF-approach and the multiplier method - with its advantages and disadvantages in practical application. For the corporate evaluation of Lanxess AG, the authors based the calculation on those two most common global evaluation approaches. The DCF method estimates the value of a company by discounting expected cash flows in the future or determined period of time, similar to the value of an investment. For the assessment of the company value, the entity and equity DCF method with an assumed constant growth rate of 3 percent has been applied. For the validation of the calculated DCF corporate values the multiplier method was conducted as second evaluation method based on EBIT-, EBITDA-, Price-Cash Flow-, Price-Earnings, and revenue ratios. For the necessary peer-group, the authors selected six appropriate global competitors: Arkema, BASF, Clariant, DSM, Huntsman and Rhodia. The different evaluation methods lead to various enterprise values of Lanxess AG with a bandwidth of evaluated results between 1.50 billion EUR and the value of 17.98 billion EUR. The DCF-approach results in values from 3.81 billion EUR to 5.81 billion EUR. For the multiplier method there have been calculated enterprise values between 1.5 billion EUR and 17.98 billion EUR. The overall median

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: -, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: This assignment is about assessing the market potential and building a launch plan for Neuro Drinks, entering the German market. Neuro Drinks is the drink company with increasing popularity. The US-company was established in 2008 and has now a substantial customer base in the USA. Neuro Drinks is just in the first steps to launch its products in the European Union, particularly in Germany. Lifestyle beverage products continue to dominate the drink markets worldwide. Though, the offer in Neuro Drinks' products is becoming increasingly sophisticated with each passing year and is continuously shifting from basic wellness drinks towards lifestyle- and health oriented drinks for nearly every occasion. Developed markets such as the EU and especially Germany are expected to register maximum demands. Neuro Drinks' products are produced in California/United States and each one fulfils a specific demand. This is the main manufacturing characteristic of Neuro Drinks products. Neuro Drinks wants their products to be known as consummate lifestyle culture - this is what the Neuro Drinks brand stands for. Therefore they have to create a high quality image in Germany and the price has to be at the above-average-level of the pricing scale. Neuro Drinks' distribution plan in Germany is dual - direct and indirect. This means to establish a retailer network and, on the other hand, an expansion of the website. All in all Neuro Drinks has to offer consistent and high end quality products, meet the market demands and provide superior customer services. But success will always depend on critical assumption and a theoretical assessment cannot guarantee practical success. However, it exists a market potential for Neuro Drinks' products as a healthy, lifestyle-ori

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Personnel and Organisation, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Dusseldorf, language: English, abstract: Authentic leaders and authentic leadership have become more and more important in times of fierce competition. Against the background of the increasing economic importance of leadership, this assignment investigates what the facets of an authentic leader are. The target group of this assignment are leader who want make itself to a more authentic leader. Today, many companies are facing the problem of having a respected leader who can empower employees to achieve goals. With authentic leadership, a leader is able to make employees to followers, to increase the team performance and to have an open communication. This practice-oriented investigation therefore focuses on communication. Although the effects of communication between sender and receiver are known over the years, leaders often use simple responses rather than showing commitment to employee's needs. To sum up, authentic leadership includes both the 'doing' factor (the way how a leader is doing something) and the 'being' side (the inner attitude). At the end of the day, it is the individuals' behavior that plays a pivotal role in the work climate. The optimization of leadership style is therefore indispensable in our today's business environment.

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: -, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: This assignment contemplates the discussion about the present conflict for the Arctic region, including the applicants' claims for Arctic natural resources. The major focus of this work therefore is, as mentioned in the assignment's subject, analysing the 'battle for natural resources' as well as the impact for the involved economies. During the investigation it was determined that experts of different scientific institutions do not come to the consensus about the available amount of raw materials, especially oil and gas, which are focused in this paper. Due to the scarcity of depletable resources their importance increases and with it the run for the Arctic and its treasures. Although the amount of these resources in relation to the known sources is assumed to be low, every new discovered deposit is of great importance for the potential owner and for the world economy. As the Arctic is located in the high seas, there is currently no existing legislation for the case of claiming the present resources except the admiralty law. Generally, this is a unique case in world history. Among the applicants for the different regions of the Arctic there are several conflicts about the exact borderlines.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Personnel and Organisation, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Neuss, language: English, comment: Literaturverzeichnis: 17 Eintrage, abstract: 1.Introduction 1.1Focus of this scientific abstract Today's extremely competitive global market place requires a greater level of competences and skills of sales staff. Especially in times of financial crisis and a high degree of uncertainty, customers demand mutual trust and sales professionals. They expect to receive individualized solutions to their problems and not as 30 years ago a nice smile and a warm welcome. As this relies on all service industries, we defined the financial sector as the focus of our scientific abstract, in order to narrow the mass down and to create a comparable basis. The over 200 identified competencies in over 30 categories that are required for an efficient selling, explain the complexity of the selling process . Therefore, the need of implementing a human resource development program is quite obvious. The question of the right approach to this problem will be specified by the following hypothesis: Coaching - Efficiency enhancement and motivation? - Effects of coaching on sales staff In the course of this scientific abstract we are going to examine this hypothesis by referring both to the theory and the practice, represented by Atradius AG and Commerzbank AG. Atradius is the second largest credit insurance company in the world, therefore mostly a global player. Commerzbank is the leading German universal bank with the focus on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and private customers. Both are eminent organizations of the financial sector and highly dependent on the quality and profitability of their sales staff. 1.2General definition of coaching Although there is no single agreed upon the definition of the term 'coaching', numerous ...]

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich BWL - Unternehmensfuhrung, Management, Organisation, Note: 1,3, FOM Hochschule fur Oekonomie & Management gemeinnutzige GmbH, Neuss fruher Fachhochschule, Sprache: Deutsch, Anmerkungen: Literaturverzeichnis: 6 Eintrage, Abstract: Schwerpunkt dieser schriftlichen Ausarbeitung ist das Riemann-Thomann-Kreuz und dessen Funktion als Gruppenkompass. Zu Beginn erfolgt eine grobe Einordnung des Themas in den Kontext nach H. Lindemann (2008), welcher die Grundstrebungen des Gruppenkompasses als Teil des Faktorenpools Gruppen & Interaktionen sieht. Im Anschluss daran werden diverse Problemstellungen definiert, welche auf einen Einstieg in das Riemann-Thomann-Kreuz abzielen und einen Ausblick auf die kritische Wurdigung gegeben. Die zentrale Frage, welche sich im Hinblick auf die Funktion des Gruppenkompasses formulieren lasst lautet: Wie kann Gruppenarbeit in bestehenden oder sich andernden Gruppen effizient gestaltet werden? Die darauf folgenden Folien erklaren zunachst die Grundlagen des Riemann-Thomann-Kreuzes sowie die Abgrenzung der kontraren Grundstromungen Dauer vs. Wechsel und Nahe vs. Distanz. Im Detail wird die Zuordnung der Prinzipien und Werte zu den jeweiligen Grundstromungen aufgezeigt, erganzt um die vier idealtypische Gruppen-feldtypen, die Truppe, die Gemeinschaft, der Haufen und das Team. Im Anschluss an die Visualisierung des Personlichkeitsprofils dieser vier Gruppen-feldtypen erfolgt die Erlauterung der Entstehung eines Gruppenfeldes in der Praxis. Zunachst werden hier die individuellen Prinzipien und Phantasien der Mitglieder uber ein mogliches Gruppenfeld als Punkte in dem Koordinatenkreuz dargestellt, aus deren kleinsten gemeinsamen Nenner sich letzten endes das Gruppenfeld bildet. Anhand des Fallbeispiels Dt. Telekom wird die erlauterte Theorie in die Praxis transferiert, insbesondere unter Beachtung des sich wechselnden Anforderungsprofils der Gruppe / des Unternehmens (vom Sachbearbeiter / IT-ler zum