The Customer Century

If last century was the Production Century, with an emphasis on the "four Ps" of price, products, promotion and placement, we have now embarked, says Gronstedt, on the Customer Century, where integrated communications is the key. Businesses, he says, must create unity of effort by intergrating communications externally to key customers and stakeholders, vertically between senior managers and frontline workers, and horizontally across departments, business units and geographical boundaries. Communications, says Gronstedt, must be a strategic management process, "not a quick-fix crash program or campaign from the marketing or communications departments." In this clear and straightforward guide, he provides an inside look at how companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Federal Express and Motorola have transformed themselves in the new era.