Management for Professionals Soumit Sain Silvio Wilde Customer Knowledge Management Leveraging Soft Skills to Improve Customer Focus Management for Professionals Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/10101 ThiSisaFMBlankPage Soumit Sain (cid:129) Silvio Wilde Customer Knowledge Management Leveraging Soft Skills to Improve Customer Focus SoumitSain SilvioWilde EuropeanUniversityofEconomics Langenfeld andManagement Germany Cologne Germany ISSN2192-8096 ISSN2192-810X(electronic) ISBN978-3-319-05058-4 ISBN978-3-319-05059-1(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-05059-1 SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014938053 #SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerpts inconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeing enteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.Duplication ofthispublicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheCopyrightLawofthe Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter. 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Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Acknowledgements Although this book bears the signature of its two authors, there are others who contributed.Mostofall,ourspecialthanksgotoMs.CorneliaFunke-Po¨ttrichwho hadaconsiderableshareinhelpingtocreatethisbook.Owingtoherstrongeditorial skills, scrupulous care and untiring endeavor, the interested reader can now look forwardtoaspecialistbookthatisbotheasilyreadableandunderstandable.Forus, herlong-standingexpertiseaseditorandproofreaderwasofinvaluableassistance insecuringthequalityofthisbook. Thankyou! Cologne,Germany SoumitSain Langenfeld,Germany SilvioWilde v ThiSisaFMBlankPage Book Notes Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) has been a much discussed issue for almost a decade now. Although managers and corporations are fully aware of the highvalueofCKM,theyhavesofarfocusedtheiractivitiesratheronthehardand lessonthesoftskillsrequiredfordealingwiththeknowledgefrom,forandabout customers.Hence,thereisgoodreasontoassumethatcertaincustomerknowledge is not deemed important enough, not properly processed or not received by the companies in the first place. This is where soft skills come into play—both on a personalandonanorganizationallevel.Theobjectiveofthisbookisthereforethe identification of soft skills required in the CKM process and the analysis of their natureandimportance. In this age of fast-moving market developments, requirements and fierce com- petition, customer focus has become a major factor of success or failure for companies.Forthisreason,alsotheaspectofcustomerorientationwillbetreated. Theresultsofthesurvey,conductedwithapprox.300respondents,allowdetailed empiricalresearchaimedatmakingacontributiontowardsabettercustomerfocus. The participants were asked about their opinions concerning personal soft skills (responsiveness to customers, intelligence, motivation, competence), organiza- tional soft skills (knowledge culture, customer learning, organizational learning, customer involvement) and brain gain/drain. The results show that the degree of soft skill development deviates considerably with respect to different company characteristics(industry,business,size,etc.).Itisalsonoticeablethatpersonalsoft skillsseem tobedevelopedmorestronglythan organizationalsoftskills.Further- more, it is alarming that companies still fail to implement effective strategies againstknowledgelossandtheresultingimpactontheirbusiness. This book not only provides an extensive insight into individual and organiza- tionalsoftskills,butalsoshowstheirimportanceforpracticalcustomerknowledge managementbylinkingthesesoftskillstocustomerfocus. vii ThiSisaFMBlankPage List of Abbreviations BI BusinessIntelligence CEM CustomerExperienceManagement CFM CustomerFocusManagement CK CustomerKnowledge CKO ChiefKnowledgeOfficer CKP CustomerKnowledgeProcess CR CustomerRelationship CRM CustomerRelationshipManagement DIK Data-Information-Knowledge DIKW Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom DV DependentVariable ENG English EQ EmotionalIntelligence GER German H Hypothesis i4cp InstituteforCorporateProductivity IQ IntelligenceQuotient IT InformationTechnology IV IndependentVariable IWKIDM Intelligence-Wisdom-Knowledge-Information-Data-Measurement KM KnowledgeManagement KMS KnowledgeManagementSystems KPI KeyPerformanceIndicator KRM KnowledgeRiskManagement KSF KeySuccessFactor KVC KnowledgeValueChain MAX Maximum MIN Minimum MM MaterialsManagement MQ MoralIntelligence ix