Although technology investments have maximized operational efficiencies and
             streamlined costs among the top corporations in the United States and
             beyond, the business models of leading organizations must still change
             dramatically to reflect new performance measures (Harvard Business Review,
             1998). The value of successful businesses in the future will be based on
             their ability to build relationships with customers, meet heightened
             expectations for service and effectively use economic management
             Today's organizations are changing their business models and organizational
             design to focus on innovative growth strategies, such as building long-
             lasting, loyal customer relationships. This paper describes the nature and
             direction of growth and business strategies in two U.S. industriesâ€"the
             With overall growth of the retail industry reflecting population growth
             rates, meeting the financial markets expectations of growth is a key
             challenge facing every retail business manager in the United States
             (Walters and Hanrahan, 2000). However the rewards from growth are huge, as
             studies have shown that the market values incremental profit dollars that
             are earned from revenue growth 30 to 100 percent higher than those earned
             The following strategies have recently proved to be effective in recent
            
• Customer Relationship Management - Rising consumer expectations,
             multiple communication channels and cross-enterprise collaboration are
             presenting new challenges to customer management. Growth is as much
             about retaining existing customers as it is about gaining new ones,
             and today's retail managers are aiming to develop and implement
             customer community management strategies that make it easier for both
             existing and new customers to do business with the firm.
            
• Business Intelligence - In an information driven economy, retail firms
             ...