We can expect to see several of these corporate spasms round about now. Perhaps not, if your company is Scottish. Jim Hamill reckons that few firms north of the Border have been seduced by CRM - but it's not because they're canny Scots. There is no point in introducing a CRM solution if the mindset of the organisation is not customer-focused. A lot of companies will pay lip service to the fact that their customers are important but the reality is quite different.
Organisational gamesmanship is much more fun.
George Soros, the currency speculator whose word on just about anything became law after after he destroyed the pound in 1992, announced at the Davos summit of world leaders a year ago that companies should set up parallel management structures with the e-commerce side briefed to swallow the traditional side of the business. Nice one, George. A spot of creative tension. The very dab, when the traditionalists and tech-heads weren't talking to each other anyway. Now that the dotcom ball is over and other gurus are showing parallel management the door, it's the customers who are having their feet trodden on by firms who don't know the right steps.