Hurrah! 2008 will bring chaos! Part one

By Jennifer Kirkby, consulting editor

A friend recently told me that the London Marketing Society Conference was especially lively this year, and resulted in chaos. Ethics, greenery, friend poking - all were on the agenda and hotly debated. The new heroes are from Facebook and Google, and the new lexicon includes “authentic”, “engaging” and “tribe”. The conference was titled "New Rules For A New World” but my friend concluded: “I think the consensus is no one knows the rules… or maybe that IS the rule.”

If this is the case, and we are indeed living on the edge of chaos, then 2008 promises to be a fascinating and exciting time. For chaos forces companies to look once again at their markets, think and innovate. These are qualities lacking in ‘CRM past’ with its focus on ‘out of the box technology’ and ‘CRM present’ with its quest for copying best practice (something you just cannot do with customer experience).

‘CRM future’ it seems is going to be about each organisation embracing the harbingers of chaos and allowing creative adaptability to thrive by listening, learning, engaging, linking and sustaining. The only conditional factor in this whirling, twirling, shifting world is that the core essence of the organisation must be found, clarified and trumpeted loud and clear: for it is that one lighthouse of truth that will keep the ship afloat.

Harbingers of chaos

In 2008, the harbingers of chaos can be summed us as revolutionary change in customer requirements across more diverse customer segments, a quantum leap in customer skills and a metamorphosis in business methods (see figure one).

In detail they include:

• The economic downturn caused by credit and wholesale funding instability.



• The rise in consumer power brought about by knowledge sharing and sated markets.



• The easy collection and abuse of personal data in a world growing more security conscious.



• A rise in socially responsible movements and the power of non-government organisations.



• Shifts in global economic power and the creation of a myriad of consumer segments across the world. Whilst the emerging ‘middle classes’ or India and China are looking to consumer more branded goods, consumers in Europe and America are starting to deplore the excesses of ‘consumerism’.



• A sea change in attitude and values between the younger technically savvy networked consumer and older, more independent generations!



• A growing need amongst consumers for identity and personal mastery. Leading to the search for places to belong, kindred spirits and new skills.



• An increase in networks (or eco-systems) of organisations, eg a supply chain, to tackle a global market, to fend off large predators.
  
  
• Technology that is teaching people new skills in sharing, research, publishing, connecting and activism.

Figure one – harbingers of chaos

So, how do you create that adaptive organisation that ‘CRM future’ demands?

For part two of Jennifer Kirkby's look at the future of CRM, click here.