ABSTRACT
CRM is just one of the many management fads (fad: ‘an intense but short-lived fashion,’ according to my dictionary). Organizations represent markets for performance improvement ‘solutions,’ and managers like products. So we see solutions being sold under labels-CRM, Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and so on. As I observed in the discussion of CRM, what happens, what the label means in any particular application, can vary enormously. There is little doubt that each fad-perhaps with the exception of ISO 9000-did something for someone somewhere. But can they deliver for all in all circumstances? To have any chance of doing so they would need to be based on sound theory.
