home » An emerging, adaptive business vanguard

An emerging, adaptive business vanguard

by Paula | 25 October 2008 | permalink | comments
Tags: peak oil, evolution
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Charles Smith made the observation in W&NM that in the new context of financial and resource decline, “…marketing and customer services are one… Customer service and the community of customers/visitors/stakeholders is the same interface, the same site, the same paradigm.”

Beagle Research Group, a marketing & business analysis firm located in Massachusetts, has come to very similar conclusions in its white paper Peak Oil & Sustainability: CRM’s Potential Impact [PDF]. Beagle gets down to the nitty-gritty with specific implementation strategies for merging what are currently separate marketing, sales, and customer service functions. Its focus is reducing costs internally and helping customers do the same, where Smith’s focus is building a sustainable clientele through trust and open communications.

What is so interesting here is that both envision a similar kind of digital infrastructure, though they approach the subject from very different perspectives and, as far as I know, are not associated in any way. These two works support and reinforce the considerations and conclusions of the other and offer not only the broad, theoretical brushstrokes of a low-energy business paradigm shift but also the first rough drafts of a new model for energy-constrained, outward-facing business operations.

We need to pay attention to this. These two works may well constitute the first stirrings of an adaptive business vanguard. I certainly have not seen this kind of attention from other business sources.

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