Customer relationship leadership: a leadership and motivation model for the twenty‐first century business

Customer relationship management, or CRM, is a new management concept ‐ a new approach ‐ to managing customers. CRM is about the management of technology, processes, information resources, and people needed to create an environment that allows a business to take a 360‐degree view of its customers. CRM environments, by nature, are complex and require organizational change and a new way of thinking about customers ‐ and about a business in general. Creating such an environment requires more than adequate management of the customer relationship or new technologies, it requires new forms of leadership as well. Customer relationship leadership, or CRL, is a new model that leaders can embrace to recreate or readjust their leadership styles in order to foster an atmosphere in their businesses to adopt and practice the principles of CRM. While CRM environments improve business performance, initiatives undertaken in this new management field require sound leadership as well. CRL is a recommended approach to bridge the gap between a CRM vision and its reality.