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.

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.

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 - 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 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 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.