La empresa nació para atender las
necesidades de la sociedad creando satisfactores a cambio de una
retribución que compensara el riesgo, los esfuerzosy las
inversiones de los empresarios. En la actualidad, las
funciones de la empresa ya no se limitan a las mencionadasantes. Al
estar formadas por hombres, la empresa alcanza la categoría de un
entesocial con características y vida propias, que favorece el progreso
humano – comofinalidad principal- al permitir en su seno la
autorrealización de sus integrantes y alinfluir directamente en el
avance económico del medio social en el que actúa.
En la vida de toda empresa el factor humano es decisivo.
La administraciónestablece los fundamentos para lograr armonizar los
numerosos y en ocasionesdivergentes intereses de sus miembros: accionistas,
directivos, empleados, trabajadores y consumidores.
Podríamos considerar que el inicio de lo que a día de hoy
entendemos como
empresa se encuentra en los pequeños artesanos que a lo largo de los
siglos se habían ocupado de confeccionar desde zapatos a cucharas,
espadas o jarrones.
Una empresa es una organización, institución o industria,
dedicada a actividades o persecución de fines económicos o
comerciales, para satisfacer las necesidades de bienes o servicios de los
demandantes, a la par de asegurar la continuidad de la estructura
productivo-comercial así como sus necesarias inversiones.
Se ha notado que, en la practica, se puede encontrar una variedad de
definiciones del
término.
Así, se puede considerar que una definición de uso
común en círculos comerciales es la siguiente: “Una empresa
es unsistema con su entorno materializa una idea, de forma planificada, dando
satisfacción a demandas y deseos de clientes, a través de una
actividad comercial'. Requiere de una razón de
ser, una misión, una estrategia, objetivos, tacticas y
políticas de actuación. Se necesita de
una visión previa, y de una formulación y desarrollo
estratégico de la empresa. Se debe partir de
una buena definición de la misión. La planificación
posterior esta condicionada por dicha definición.1
La Comisión de la Unión Europea sugiere la siguiente
definición: «Se considerara empresa toda entidad,
independientemente de su forma jurídica, que ejerza una actividad
económica. En particular, se consideraran empresas las entidades
que ejerzan una actividad artesanal u otras actividades a título
individual o familiar, las sociedades de personas, y las asociaciones que
ejerzan una actividad económica de forma regular».2
5. Technology
Software can enable improvements to the four areas listed above. However,
acquiring CRM technology is the easiest of the five, which is why companies
make the often-irrevocable mistake of starting there. Only after a company has
defined its CRM objectives, documented requirements, and managed the
expectations of its stakeholders should it begin talking to software vendors.
COMPANIES ARE DISCUSSING CRM OR DOING Why is there
still so much buzz about CRM?
With all the inherent complexities of the five components described
above— and with the failure statistics rampant in magazines and industry
journals— why are companies continuing to jump onto the CRM bandwagon? In
a word: Profitability.
Author Frederick Reichheld described it in his book The Loyalty Effect, and in
the Harvard Business Review, explaining that a mere 5% increase in customer
loyalty can result in up to 125% percent increase in profits. Executives read
thisand rushed to their CRM vendors, hoping to ride the wave of increased
customer loyalty.
And many have succeeded. After all, happier customers come back. They tell
their friends. They are less expensive to serve and support. And they’re
more willing to share their personal information. The list goes on and on.
Companies that provide value to their customers reap the reward: Profitable
customers.
Moreover, your major competitor has probably made significant progress on its
own CRM journey. Loyalty cards, customer dashboards, and refined target
marketing have become staples across different industries. Companies that are
falling behind with these customer focused programs may be reducing their
bottom lines—and watching their customers head for the door.
The hard part of CRM is knowing where to begin. This
is because companies don’t know how to go about defining and prioritizing
their CRM requirements. Managers should ask the question
“What is the need, pain, or problem we need to solve with CRM?”
Often, the answer to this question applies to more than one organization or job
function. As the figure below illustrates, different types of CRM usually
deliver value to more than one department. They may even span the enterprise
Defining the “need, pain, or problem” means listing different
customer focused pain points that need improvement. Examples include
• Our customersatisfaction scores are sliding, and customers are
churning. We need to stem the tide.
• Having a loyalty card would let us track our customers’
purchases—and be able to offer them discounts on products they’re
likely to buy. It’s a win-win.
• We’d like to understand which of our sales partners (be they web
sites, retail stores, dealerships, hospitals, or other resellers) are
excelling, and to track which products individual partners sell most often.
• We’d like to start making R&D decisions based on facts, not
intuition. This means we need to start gathering information about customer
preferences.
• Our call center is the only time most of our customers speak to a human
being— we need to capitalize on this and make sure we communicate the
optimal message at the time of contact.
• We know we have many different categories of customers. But we
don’t know what they are, so we can’t improve our messages.
• We aren’t really doing any marketing—but our chief
competitor sure is! We need to target the right message to the right audience,
and monitor response rates
Indeed, none of these business requirements is
exclusive. Companies frequently consider CRM to be a “portfolio” of
customer-focused capabilities, and prepare a delivery roadmap that spans
multiple projects. As long as a company and its customers evolve, there will
always be new opportunities for launching new CRM projects, and
refiningexisting CRM initiatives. Consider CRM part of your corporate DNA.
Notice that with each of the business requirements listed above there’s
something in it for the customer, be it a more relevant marketing message or
discounts on products they actually buy. It not only improves the
customer’s overall experience, it makes it easier for the customer to do
business with your fi rm. (Think of
Amazon.com’s “One Click” service or Land’s
End’s “Shop with a Friend.”)
And CRM isn’t only about sales, and marketing, it’s about stellar
customer service. It means never having to say you’re sorry—or if
you do,
De acuerdo al Derecho internacional, la empresa es el conjunto de capital,
administración y trabajo dedicados a satisfacer una necesidad en el
mercado.3
Un diccionario legal de EE. UU. las define como:
“an economic organization or activity; especially: a business
organization” (una organización o actividad económica;
especialmente una organización de negocios).4
Otra definición -con un sentido mas académico y de uso
general entre sociólogos- es: “Grupo social en el que a
través de la administración de sus recursos, del capital y del
trabajo, se producen bienes o servicios tendientes a la satisfacción de
las necesidades de una comunidad. Conjunto de actividades humanas organizadas con
el fin de producir bienes o servicios