Addressing customer concerns and improving business processes must be handled effectively in order to continue growth and competitive advantage for any organization within any industry. TeraTech can develop their processes by conducting an environmental scan to recognize market trends and target markets to utilize. Companies need to continue their relationship with their customers to maintain and increase customers by forecasting and fulfilling their needs. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a systematic approach using the 9-step Problem-solving model to provide TeraTech with solutions that could assist them with the challenges that they are experiencing (McNutt, 2005).
Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification
TeraTech is a “Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions company in the pharmaceutical industry. The company has experienced a significant decline in their sales for the fourth quarter. Although the company has been the leader amongst their competitors in the industry, this decline in sales has the company's CEO concerned. The executives of TeraTech feel one of the reasons for the decline is because of the increased competition with competitors that have the analytical software the pharmaceutical industry is looking for. Another issue that the company is facing is the satisfaction levels of their customers, which was identified in their most recent customer surveys. To solve these issues, TeraTech needs to perform a market analysis to implement a new analytical product that will drive the company back to double-digit growth (“Scenario One”, 2008).
Challenges that that TeraTech facing
There are several challenges that TeraTech is facing. The company's sales growth due to increased competition and customer dissatisfaction is the first challenge. The second challenge is the lack of the analytical product that is being desired which the competitors already have. The next challenge is that the company is trying to stay within budget and avoid attrition to keep the amount of employees they currently have. The fourth challenge, is training their employees because they don't have the skills necessary to develop and support the new analytical product. The last challenge that TeraTech is facing is the implementation of the new product in a timely manner to remain competitive with their competitors (Ault, 2008).
TeraTech can create many opportunities from the challenges that they have. They can create a CRM tool that their customers would find beneficial which would increase their sales. Another opportunity they have is to build up their customer relationships to keep their current customers as well as attract new customers. The new product that TeraTech creates can improve the pharmaceutical industry's needs to “maximize the value of their data and refine their marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness” (Scenario One 2008). Fourth, the CRM tool can help TeraTech predict current and future customers' desires for increases in customer satisfaction. And last but not least, TeraTech could collaborate with other companies in the industry to expand their knowledge on newer technologies and rapidly meet their customers' needs (King, 2008).
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas
TeraTech has several stakeholders, which are TeraTech, ...