How to Win Customers in the Digital World

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XXI

   PDF

2. The boardroom agenda

   • Peter Vervest, Al Dunn

   Pages 1-19

3. Digital business technologies and Total Action

   • Peter Vervest, Al Dunn

   Pages 21-79

4. Weeding out Fatal Inaction

   • Peter Vervest, Al Dunn

   Pages 81-132

5. The Total Action casebook

   • Peter Vervest, Al Dunn

   Pages 133-206

6. Engaging outside-in: the route to Total Action

   • Peter Vervest, Al Dunn

   Pages 207-227

7. Back Matter

   Pages 229-250

   PDF

Every organisation must strive for Total Action. Winning the customer in today's highly competitive and demanding world is the key to ensuring success. All managers and employees profess to understand this yet they find it incredibly difficult to perform together to achieve this. The 'digital world' is changing the traditional logic of business - we must now act fast and effectively to capture and retain increasingly demanding and sophisticated customers, be they individuals or organi­ sations. Most customers demand much more than many organisations are able to deliver. It is said that the inventor of the telephone believed its main use would be to let someone know that a telegram was arriving. Today we know there is a lot more you can do with a telephone ... and all the surrounding digital business technologies. But you must be prepared to re-think why you are doing things the way you are. And why you are doing them at all. This is the starting point for 'How to win customers in the digital world - Total Action or Fatal Inaction'. The authors confront traditional ways of organising with the capabilities of the new, digital business technologies. They are critical of the frozen behaviour of today's large organisations. They go back to the fundamental goal that business is about making money by satisfying customers.

• CEO
• Change
• Digital Business
• Digital technologies
• Electronic commerce
• IT-strategy
• Information Technology (IT)
• business
• communication
• design
• digital
• information system
• management
• organization
• organizations

Statements for the book:
"The digital world is Bertelsmann's world. It is transforming every aspect of our business as media products are digitized and marketed through the Internet: The key question is "how to win and retain customers" in this new and challenging, digital world. This book provides a very sharp insight into the key issues and the actions to be taken. Al Dunn and Peter Vervest give a vivid description of those who will win: Total Action companies that make every activity directly relevant for their customers constrasting them with the "Fatal Inaction" reality of so many large organisations today. In this radically changing environment, this book is mandatory reading for every manager and professional." (Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman & CEO Bertelsmann AG)
"Total Action is a compelling concept and practice for securing a strong position in the challenging digital world. The key message - how to organise from the individual customer inwards using digital business technologies - is fundamental. The application of "modularity" to organise for and manage instant fulfillment across a network of internal and external parties is an impressive addition to business practice. This is a powerful and straightforward starting point for all managers and organisations seeking to master the new frontiers of business." (A.-W. Scheer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board -IDS Scheer AG- and Director of the Institute for Information Systems, University of the Saarland, Saarbruecken/Germany)
"The phrase "customer oriented" takes on an entirely new, revolutionary, meaning in the digital age. Total Action is a how-to book that shows, using eye-opening real experiences, how to achieve this." (Kenneth Preiss, The Sir Leon Bagrit Professor: Technology and Global Competitiveness, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel)
"Organisations searching for a route into the "digital world" of e-Business need the concepts and practices of Total Action: they are a true eye-opener. Vervest and Dunn have avoided the "simple answers" to what organisations must and can do to succeed in winning customers. "How to win customers in the digital world" helps you understand that the answers are not easy - but the concepts are straightforward. Every manager will recognise the shortcomings of his or her own organisation in this book and, as a result, identify their route to Total Action. This is a compelling insight into the ways in which organisations must act and organise differently and effectively to master the digital world." (Professor Dr. Jo van Nunen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management)
"Every organization must strive for Total Action. Winning the customer in today's highly competitive and demanding world is the key to ensuring success. The authors confront traditional ways of organizing with the capabilities of the new, digital business technologies. They are critical of the frozen behaviour of today's large organizations. I believe that this book brings simple, powerful ideas on how to organise for customer success. It puts a manager's perspective into the amazing, but sometimes confusing, developments of today's telecommunications and computer technologies and what they really mean for all organizations." (Ben Verwaayen, Vice Chairman, Lucent Technologies USA)

• Multimedia Skills, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

  Peter Vervest

• Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  Peter Vervest

• Multimedia Skills Northfield, Chorleywood, Herts, UK

  Al Dunn

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