KAIZEN – The Art of Cost Reduction

Pada tahun 1950-an dunia bisnis internasional dikejutkan dengan munculnya Jepang sebagai negara industri maju melalui sistem perdagangan internasional mereka yang terus melonjak. Terlebih dari sektor manufactur mobil mereka, ketika Toyota mulai merambah pasar Eropa dan Amerika yang menggusur dominasi negara barat. Setelah memperkenalkan konsep Just in Time, Total Quality Control, Zero Defect & Activyty Based Costing yang membuat mata dunia terpelongo kepada Jepang, sekarang Jepang memperkenalkan konsep Kaizen Costing yang menyindir Amerika Serikat dengan konsep standard costing-nya.

KAIZEN

Kaizen dalam bahasa Jepangnya berarti change for the better. Konsep ini lebih jauh diartikan sebagai perbaikan terus menerus melalui perubahan hal-hal kecil. Dalam perusahaan dapat diwujudkan dengan membuat suasana kerja lebih efektif dan efisien dengan menciptakan atmosphire team, perbaikan prosedure setiap harinya, memberikan keyakinan kepada karyawan akan kepuasan kerja dan membuat pekerjaan lebih menyenangkan. Kata “zen” dalam Kaizen berarti belajar dengan melakukan (learn by doing) sebagai dampak dari proses yang sedang berlangsung. Philosopy kaizen meliputi membuat perubahan dan memonitor hasil, kemudian menyesuaikan hasil yang diaraih tersebut dengan perencanaan sebelumnya melalui experiment kecil. Dan jika berhasil, hasil tersebut kemudian diterapkan. Jika setiap harinya setiap karyawan melakukan ekperiment kecil dan berhasil, betapa banyaknya perbaikan yang diperoleh perusahaan.

Beberapa tujuan dari kaizen ini diantaranya adalah mengurangi waste dalam proses bisnis, quality control yang akurat, Just in Time Delivery, standardisasi pekerjaan, dan menggunakan peralatan yang efisien. Kaizen hanya bisa dijalankan dalam 3 prinsip: (1) concern pada proses dan hasil (tidak pada hasil saja), (2) Berpikir systematis seperti berpikir global, tidak semata-mata terkatub pada pandangan yang sempit saja, dan (3) tidak menuduh atau menyalahkan, karena tuduhan hanya dapat menyebabakan waste saja.. Agar Philosopy kaizen ini dapat berjalan dengan baik sebaikanya diterapkan pada seluruh level organisasi, mulai dari CEO sampai kepada karyawan terendah. Philosopi inilah yang membuat Jepang menjadi besar sekarang ini, dan tidak dipungkiri bahwa Indonesiapun bisa menerapkannya.

COST REDUCTION

Iklim bisnis yang semakin turbulen sekarang ini menghadapakan setiap business player pada suatu kompetisi yang sangat ketat, baik kompetisi pemasaran, produk, distribusi, dan harga. Seperti halnya bisnis telekomunikasi yang sepertinya telah berada dalam zona frontal war. Setiap operator menawarkan harga dan strategi pemasaran dengan berbagai macam cara. Bahkan sampai membuat customer bingung dengan segala cara-cara marketing tersebut. Ketika semua strategi tersebut telah dijalankan dan tidak memberikan hasil maksimal, perusahaan pasti akan berpikir bagaimana agar produk atau jasa lebih digemari oleh customer. Pada budaya indonesia yang konsumtif ini masyarakat masih lebih mengedepankan faktor harga, untuk itu perusahaanpun berpikir untuk memberikan harga kompetitif tanpa merubah atau malah meningkatkan kualitas produk. Caranya adalah dengan cost effectiveness melalui pengurangan biaya (cost reduction). Cost reduction inilah yang dalam bahasa jepangnya disebut dengan kaizen costing. Konsep kaizen costing secara sederhana dapat dijelaskan dalam gambar berikut.

Kaizen costing berfungsi sebagai system control budget. Berbeda dengan standard costing yang hanya menganilis variance antara standard cost dengan actual cost per masing-masing periode/divisi, pada kaizen costing lebih mengarah pada analisis seberapa besar biaya aktual terakhir yang harus dikurangkan agar mencapai target laba periode yang akan datang.

Tampaknya philosophy kaizen costing inilah yang sedang diterapkan di perusahaan kita sekarang ini. Kita dapat melihat bentuk efisiensi biaya sangat nyata dalam prakteknya baik dari sisi marketing, SDM, dan lain sebaginya. Pada awalnya perusahaan menganalisis performance budget periode yang lalu, dari situ kemudian dapat dilihat item budget apa saja yang dapat dikurangkan untuk mencapai target laba/revenue tahun depan.

Kelihaian setiap personnell perusahaan dalam menerapakan sistem kaizen ini dapat menjadi suatu seni tersendiri. Setiap personel (mulai dari level CEO sampai karyawan terbawah) dapat memodifikasi efisiensi biaya dengan caranya sendiri. Lebih jauh lagi tentunya hal ini dapat dijadikan manajemen sebagai tools tersendiri untuk penilaian kinerja karyawan/divisi.

PERHITUNGAN KAIZEN COSTING

Secara matematis sederhana untuk meningkatkan laba dapat dilakukan dengan meningkatkan pendapatan atau mengurangi biaya. Aplikasi kaizen costing ini dimulai dari rencana peningkatan target sales. Peningkatan target sales ini tentu sangat diharapkan untuk mencapai profit contributin yang telah direncanakan sebelumnya. Peningkatan penjualan dapat dilakukan dengan dua cara (1) menaikkan harga jual dan (2) menaikkan voume penjualan. Tampaknya pilihan pertama sangat tidak disukai oleh calon pelanggan, apalagi dalam iklim kompetisi perusahaan telekomunikasi sekarang ini yang lebih sensitif pada harga. Jika perusahaan memilih untuk meningkatkan volume penjualan pasti variable cost juga akan berpengaruh. Disinilah perlu kecermatan manajemen dalam mengolah pengaruh ini.

Karena perusahaan kemungkinan besar akan memilih pilihan kedua ini, maka perusahaan harus lebih fokus pada variable cost. Inilah yang manjadi perhatian utama kaizen costing, yaitu bagaimana mengurangi variable cost seperti biaya tenaga kerja langsung. Jadi wajar saja jika di perusahaan kita terjadi efisiensi biaya tenaga kerja seperti outsouirching approach, memperketeat jam lembur, pengurangan biaya penginapan karyawan, dan lain-lain.

Secara sederhana pasti kita akan berpikir dapat merugikan pihak yang mengalami efiseinsi dalam hal ini karyawan dari sebelah pihak, namun kita harus memandang efisiensi biaya ini dalam bingkai continue improvement, karena efisiensi biaya pasti telah teruji sebelumnya dengan mekanisme standart cost (actual cost periode sebelumnya). Tidaklah mungkin perusahaan menurunkan biaya variabel begitu saja, pengurangan dilakukan hanya pada biaya yang sebenarnya tidak perlu terjadi.

Secara matematis perhitungan ini dapat digambarkan sebagai berikut:

Target Kaizen Costing = Biaya aktual tahun lalu x target rasio pengurang biaya

Dalam menyusun budget, perusahaan terlebih dahulu menentukan seberapa besar persentase efisiensi biaya tahun ini dibanding dengan periode lalu. Persentase inilah yang kita sebut dengan rasio pengurangan biaya. Ketika budget telah berjalan – seperti yang dijelaskan diatas, kaizen berfungsi sebagai kontrol, bentuknya dapat berupa seberapa besar toleransi rasio pengurangan biaya yang dapat diterima. Jika aplikasinya telah berjalan dengan baik, dan setiap karyawan telah mengerti philosophi kaizen ini kita dapat melihat seberapa besar dampaknya dalam penilaian kinerja divisi.

KEKUATAN DAN KELEMAHAN KAIZEN COSTING

Kesuksesan Jepang dalam menerapkan kaizen costing memang layak diacungkan jempol, terlebih ketika produk jepang seperti Toyota & Daihatsu telah bersaing menyingkirkan dominasi Amerika di pasaran dunia. Jepang menerapkan Kaizen ini semenjak dalam fase perencanaan dan pengembangan produk, sehingga sukses dalam fase – fase berikut. Namun Jepang berhasil menerapkan sistem ini setelah sekian lama proses produksi berlangsung. Belajar dari pergerakan biaya setiap tahunnya sehingga Jepang dapat menyimpulkan bahwa mereka bisa melakukan sesuatu dari pergerakan biaya tersebut.

Namun jika suatu perusahaan baru pertama sekali berdiri. Konsep kaizen ini mustahil bisa diterapkan, karena tidak ada acuan biaya yang bisa dijadikan standar pengurangan biaya. Maka sangat tepatlah Perusahaan kita mulai concern pada konsep kaizen ini.

Sepeti dijelaskan diatas bahwa kaizen diimplementasikan diluar biaya standar, keunggulan kaizen costing terletak pada kedekatannya dengan proses perencanaan laba keseluruhan perusahaan, sudah pasti juga dekat dengan keseluruhan proses penganggaran sehingga dapat memantau kemajuan program untuk tujuan jangka panjang. Hasil dari monitoring ini dapat dijadikan suatu sistem tersendiri dari pengendalian biaya.
(HH Rei H)
 

How to Write an Action Plan for a Sales Jobs

A sales action plan dictates your company’s goals for the year. It can help you project potential revenue, but it can also act as a tool for motivation. Writing a sales action plan requires you to look critically at where you expect to generate revenue and set goals that challenge your sales team to complete them. Whether you wish to increase revenue by 10 percent or acquire a certain number of new clients, a sales action plan will keep you and your team focused on the goals you need to grow your business.

Step 1Write down the goals you will set for your sales team. These goals should be as specific as possible to remain measurable. At a minimum, your sales plan should consist of selling to existing clients with a plan to acquire new business.

Step 2Set a realistic time frame in which you believe you can achieve your goals. This due date is something that all of your team members should be able to agree on. Hold employees accountable to this due date.

Related Reading: How to Write a Cover Letter for an Academic Journal Submission

Step 3Motivate your sales team with incentives. Cash prizes will usually help motivate your team, but you may also wish to explore incentives like expensive items that employees want but would never buy for themselves.

Step 4Refine the strategies your sales team will use throughout the sales cycle. Determine how much of your business has to come from new sales versus the amount that is expected from your existing customer base. Refine the scripts your team uses for prospecting calls, and devote your resources to training them how to talk to decision makers. Use weekly meetings as a chance to get feedback on common rejections your sales team hears and brainstorm responses.

Step 5Communicate with your sales team to discuss potential obstacles. Ask your team what holds them back, where they are succeeding, and get a feel for how they define success. Highlight big wins, and go over the basics of how to close a sale with your team, walk them through it and keep them motivated.

Strategic sales plans: Key drivers to increase sales

     "Increase sales" is the stated goal of many soloists at the start of the year. Having strategic sales plans maximises your chances of securing the business you need to get on track for achieving this year's targets. 

      Other things being equal, over the next 12 months the amount of business you will generate will be determined by, amongst other things, the number of prospects you identify, the number of approaches you make to qualified prospects and the number of meetings you can secure.

Likewise, if your strategic sales plans are based on attracting clients rather than approaching them, your success will be determined by the number of activities which you undertake where you can showcase yourself and your business and attract clients to you.

Here are six activities to consider to increase sales:

Put together a robust plan

“ The key is a logical and robust plan of action which if implemented will deliver the required number of prospects that you require to feed into your sales pipeline. ”

The key is a logical and robust plan of action which if implemented will deliver the required number of prospects that you require to feed into your sales pipeline.

Identify required action

Identify TODAY the activities that you can undertake to identify the prospects that you require.

Want more articles like this? Check out the sales strategies section.

Review face to face channels

Write down a list of all the events, associations, conferences etc that your audience will be attending this year and where you have the opportunity to meet prospects. Book yourself in TODAY.

If your competitors are attending these events and you are not, who is more likely to be feeding the prospect into their sales pipeline?

Review media channels

Write down a list of all the media that you can review daily, weekly and monthly to identify prospects. Subscribe TODAY to relevant publications and start reviewing them now.

Again, if your competitors have a logical plan to review relevant publications and you do not, who is more likely to be feeding the prospect into their sales pipeline?

Work on attraction strategies

Identify all the opportunities where you can showcase your business.

Approach conference organisers TODAY for the opportunity to speak to your audience.

Approach magazine editors TODAY for the opportunity to write articles to attract your audience.

Give yourself the competitive advantage

Whilst your competitors are easing themselves into the New Year, why not be the person that has developed and started implementing a logical, credible and robust plan to achieve the sales that you want to achieve in 2015

 

 

The best sales strategies to increase sales Seven of the best sales strategies to gain increased sales results and sales effectiveness Strategy 1 – Are you sales people working harder or smarter? The pressure is on at the end of year to get as much revenue in as possible. There is no time for slacking and mangers want to see their teams being productive and taking positive action everyday towards achieving the team targets. However, with the increased pressure to perform, are your sales people really taking positive action that will actually help them to achieve targets or are they simply keeping busy? When I visit sales organisation, I like to spend some time listening into sales calls and identifying how sales people are utilising their time. In order to check if the are using their time effectively, I generally ask the sales people to show me their ‘to do list’ for the day Once we have, the ‘to do list’ I then go through each item and ask them… Why is this task important for you to do today? How will it help you to achieve your goals and target? What is the benefit of taking this action today? What is the consequence of you not taking this action? How long have you had this on your to do list for? I promise you, you would be amazed at the results I get. Approximately, 30% of what is on their list is actually important for them to do today and the other 70% is simply keeping them busy. Try it today, Sit down with your sales people and ask them to show you their ‘to do list’ and ask the above questions. By completing the above exercise, you will undoubtedly improve the effectiveness of your sales people. Strategy 2 – If you fail to plan, you plan to fail If you have completed the above exercise with your team, and the results show you that you team are not working smart, this may mean that your sales people do not have a plan. It could also highlight that they are not sure of the best way to spend their time or the approach they should take to make the most of the next 8 weeks. Therefore, this is a time when effective sales management and coaching is required. Sales people who do not have a plan are planning to fail, which will have a knock on effect on the teams performance and your performance therefore, take the time to help your team members create an action plan that will ensure they focus on the right tasks in the final 8 weeks. One very important aspect to remember here is that you should not create the plan for your sales people or you should not be telling them what they should do in their plan. By telling them or creating the plan for them, you are making it your plan and in the eyes of the sales person it will be your fault if it fails. To get sales people to take ownership and accountability for their actions coach them to create their own plan so that they own it. To coach simply ask them questions that will help them to identify the following: Their target and their performance to date Their revenue gap What has worked well for them in the previous quarters and this quarter to date What strengths they already have which will assist them in the final 8 weeks Their current pipeline value and the status of each opportunity The amount that will definitely close before year-end, the amount that is likely to close before year-end and the accounts that are at risk. The amount of opportunities/revenue that they will need to develop from now until year end Their current close rate which will let you know how much they will need to generate to close the required amount of revenue The target market/customers they should focus on The product /service they should focus on Their key priorities for the next 8 weeks and how they could utilise their time better Barriers they may face along the way and how they can overcome them Strategy 3 – Introduce a prime selling time In sales it is simple, the more customers you talk to, the more likely it will be that you will hit target. For me this is a no brainer, however I see so many sales people that are actually spending a lot of their time on non sales related activities and in the prime business hours they are doing admin instead of calling the people who can help them to hit target; their customers. Admin in a sales team is a necessary evil, sales people will undoubtedly have some admin that they will need to do in order to complete customer orders however, the key to having a successful sales team is to ensure that you separate the admin time and prime selling time. In every sales team I have run, I have always introduced a prime selling time so it was no surprise that my team won the awards for best call times, best target achievement and best new business team. The way I look at it is; if customers are more available in specific hours during the day, it makes good business sense for my sales people to call customers in these specific time periods. In the times when customers are generally too busy, to take calls my sales people can then complete their admin. Introducing a prime selling time and separating call time and admin is by far the best thing you can do between now and end of the year to improve the effectiveness of your sales people and gain increased revenue. If you would like to introduce a prime selling time, I would recommend the following: 9am – 9.30am: Admin 9.30am – 12.00pm: Prime selling time 12pm – 1pm: Lunch 1pm -2pm: Admin 2pm – 4.30pm: Prime selling time 4.30pm – 5.30pm: Admin I would even go as far as asking them to shut down their email systems in prime selling times. Your team may resist this idea to start with. However, the increase in their productivity and sales results will eventually help them to see that making more calls is making them more money. Strategy 4 – Identify your revenue tap and turn it on There are two main ways to gain increased revenue by end of year, firstly you have your existing customers that you can gain additional spend from and secondly you have new business customers. The best approach for you to take and focus your time and efforts on will be heavily dependent on the products and services you sell however, before you decide on the best approach for you to take I would urge you to consider the following. Generally, new business takes a lot longer to close and it is a lot easier in some cases to get more revenue from your existing customers than it is to sell into a new business account. I am not saying that you should not focus time on generating new business; instead, I am saying that you need to identify all possible revenue streams and identify the revenue tap you can turn on that will generate revenue and close within the next 8 weeks. If you have identified that, the revenue tap to turn on is your existing customer base then the first step I would recommend for you to take is to book a one to one with all team members and ask them to provide you with an overview of the key accounts that they are responsible for. In the account review, again I would suggest that you do not tell them the approach they should take. Instead, you should be coaching them and asking them the right questions, which will enable them to come up with their own creative solutions. This way they own it and they take responsibility for their success. In the account reviews what you are really trying to get your team members to review and identify is: The last time they had contact with each account Each customers real business needs The pain or gain they currently have Which products/services you have that will match their needs Which products/services they have already purchased Which additional products/services you have that will also meet their needs What would encourage them spend additional money in the next 8 weeks. What actions could they talk that would enable them to gain more up sell or additional revenue form their customers in the next 8 weeks. If the revenue tap that you can turn on is new business then I would suggest that you coach your sales people to identify the following: The industries/markets that have the biggest GAIN from your products/services The industries/markets that have the biggest PAIN, which your products/services can remove or reduce. The industries that are not spending money at the moment. The industries or customers who have seen the most ‘value add’ from your products and services The competitors of your existing customers whom are already using your products or services and have seen success from using them. This may take you some time to do with your team and the all of the individual within your team however, it is time well spent! A coach that I work with myself once told me “there are times when you have to go slow, in order to go faster”, and in this case, this is very true. Take the time out to plan a strategic approach, identify your target market, and create a plan with your team and the increased sales results will happen much quicker than easier than if you were to simply continue working hard. Strategy 5 – Get your team out of the mentality of “If I call enough customers some of them will buy” An old classic that I see happening in many sales teams is many of the sales people calling up customer after customer telling them about how good your product or services are, when really what they need to be doing is asking customers the right questions to establish the value add that your product or service will bring them. We all know that customers do not buy products or services; we know that either they have a real business gain from using your product or service or they have a business pain that they need your product to reduce or remove. Therefore, if we all know this why do sales people still sell products or services instead of value add. Well its simple, they fall into their comfort zone, they are so busy, keeping busy that they lose touch with what they are really trying to do and some are off the mentality that if they call enough customers some of them will buy. This type of mentality and sales people that are stuck in the comfort zone will only limit your team’s performance rather than maximise it. Therefore, take your team into a meeting and ask them to identify the following: Why do customers buy your products or services? What are they really buying when they buy your products & services? What is the real ‘Value-Add’ or real business benefit that customers gain from your products? What is the pain that customers currently have and that our product or services can reduce or remove? How do you differentiate from your competitors? Once you have established all of the above, then ask your team to role –play. The objective of the role-play is to deliver an introduction that grabs the customers attention and includes the value add your products or services provide. Even if you have a sales team, that have been with you for years, and even if you think they know the value add, I would still encourage you to complete this exercise with your team. Having the right introduction and ensuring your team are reminded that they are selling value add, not products or services will massively increase the number of customers who take your call and let your sales people complete the entire steps of the sale. Strategy 6 – Gain focus, momentum and get as many qualified opportunities in your pipeline as possible. When you have completed all of the above exercises, you will have: Ensured your sales people are only taking actions that actually help them achieve target Coached your sales people to create a plan to succeed Introduced a prime selling time and your sales people will now be spending the majority of your time calling the people whom can make a difference to your results; your customers Identified the revenue tap that you can turn on in the next 8 weeks Ensured your team know the ‘value add’ you are selling The next step is to ensure that you can gain the required focus to build your pipeline with opportunities that can close before end of year. To gain focus and momentum in a sales team, teamwork and direction is going to be key. Telling your team to focus on building the pipeline is not enough and you run the risk of only your top performers taking action. To get every individual in the team on board I would suggest that you make a team effort and you hold a focus day to gain momentum and excitement. Holding focus days is a fantastic way to ensure that everybody in your team is on board and as sales people have, in most cases, a competitive nature, team focus days are a great way to gain momentum. To hold a successful focus day with your sales team you will need to: Decide on the product or service you will be focusing on Hold a team meeting so that you can all agree on the target customer market you will be calling Get the team members to identify the pain & gain and the value add customers will be buying Agree on the introduction you will all use to get into more sales calls Identify questions that will identify the pain or gain Agree on how you can create urgency with customers to gain some form or commitment on the day. This may be a customer incentive, a limited timeframe or limited stock availability. Set a target for the focus day and gain the team’s commitment to the target. The target can be the number of sales achieved, quotes sent out, brochures sent out etc. They key is to set some sort of target so that you can measure success. Gain their commitment that they will spend prime selling time on calling customers, not doing admin. I would even recommend that you ask them to shut their email system down until the agreed admin times. Launch a reward and recognition program to recognise the first opportunities to come in, the most effort, the highest opportunity value, number of calls of customer visits etc. Ensure all sales people have their customer data available before starting the focus day so that you can maximise their time talking to customers and limit the amount of time they spend in your internal systems looking for customers data. Make the focus day fun & exciting. If you are the sales manager, please do not spend the day in your office. It is crucial that you are part of the day and that you are with your sales people. Strategy 7 – Ensure your team know the “what’s in it for them” Let’s get this straight; sales people do not come to work to keep their managers happy and a sales target is not a sales person’s goal! A sales target is a means for the sales people to achieve their personal goals and they come to work for themselves so that they can achieve their goals. Although some managers fail to recognise this, sales people are just like customers, in terms of, a customer would not buy your product or service unless there was a pain or gain and ‘value add’ in it for them, and sales people don’t take action when there is no pain or gain and no ‘value add’ in it for them. What really motivates sales people is identifying what it is they personally want to achieve and understanding how working with you and achieving their sales target are aligned to them achieving their personal goals. By setting goals with your sales people, you will enable them to have more focus, motivation and direction. Therefore, take the time to get to know each of your sales people and coach them until they identify personal goals of their own. Once you have identified personal goals you can then align the team goals with their personal goals, and help your sales people to see how coming to work and taking positive action everyday in work will actually help them to get what they want out of life. I often compare managing sales teams to playing a game of dominoes, in terms of if one falls it is likely that they will all fall. Personal goals, is what truly motivates each individual in your team; it is what sets them all apart. In sales, negativity breeds negativity so to ensure all individuals in your team stand tall, take the time to help them set personal goals, as you will then know what buttons to push to sustain their individual motivation in tough or challenging times. By implementing all of the above steps, there are three key things that you will achieve: You will gain increased sales results in the next 8 weeks! You will hit target! You will get the best from your sales people in the run up to year-end! We have already helped many leading sales organisations to implement sales strategies that have enabled them to achieve increased sales results and sales effectiveness. This is what some of our clients had to say about working with the team at Sales & Sensibility…..

MENGINTIP PERSAINGAN SENGIT PARA MARKETING MENCIPTAKAN NICHE DI ERA NEWAVE 2015

Marketing; MENGINTIP PERSAINGAN SENGIT PARA MARKETING MENCIPTAKAN NICHE DI ERA NEWAVE 2015 Gaikindo Targetkan Penjualan Mobil 1,25 Juta Unit di Tahun 2015. (Gaikindo), The targets car production reached 1.25 million units by the end of 2014. National automotive industry is pursuing the position of being the largest in the ASEAN market beat Thailand. APM also continue to ramp up production ahead of the entry into force of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) or the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 imposed. Competition in the MPV car segment will become fierce putting market shares at risk ahead of the entry into force of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015, all four automotive brands MPV segment (Toyota {TAM}, Honda, Suzuki, Nissan) still aim to become leader in market share. Based on the tremendous growth of all MPV selling, the next main challenge will be to conquer new additional customer segments while simultaneously transmitting authentic brand values to existing customers. Besides the offered products, the main differentiator and prerequisite to succeed in market beat Thailand is an advanced marketing and sales model. Customers should not become tied to one channel along the sales process as customers have different requirements. Not all customers tend to request online opportunities for gathering information, configuring their cars and for purchasing. Not only online abilities need to be taken into account. There should be interaction and integration of different sales channels to ensure a multichannel approach, all channels must be seamlessly integrated with both frontend and backend systems and sales staff should be aware of previous customer activity.

Mosque in Munich

A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West - by Ian Johnson

Sebuah Masjid di Munich: Konspirasi Nazi, CIA, dan Ikhwanul Muslimin di Barat Konspirasi antara Nazi, CIA, dan Ikhwanul Muslimin. Benarkah itu? Bagaimana tiga kelompok yang saling berseberangan itu bisa terlibat di dalamnya? Secara tak sengaja, seorang Ian Johnson, seorang jurnalis yang berfokus pada masalah-masalah kemasyarakatan dan agama, menemukan keberadaan sebuah masjid di Jerman yang disebut sebagai Pusat Islam Munich. Sebagai seorang yang telah menulis tentang agama di berbagai bagian dunia, termasuk Jerman, Johnson mengetahui bahwa Munich bukanlah pusat Islam, dan masjid itu bukan yang terbesar di Jerman, apalagi Eropa. Maka dia penasaran, bagaimana masjid itu dapat menjadi begitu istimewa dan termasuk dalam salah satu masjid terkenal di dunia. Johnson kemudian mencari tahu, dan menemukan jawaban yang mengejutkan, dari masa delapan puluh tahun silam. “Sebuah Masjid di Munich”, yang dihasilkan dari pengumpulan dan penelitian sumber-sumber terpercaya, menuturkan penemuan Johnson tentang siapa yang berada di balik pendirian masjid tersebut dan apa tujuan mereka. Diungkapkan dalam buku ini, keberadaan tiga kelompok yang memiliki kepentingannya masing-masing: Pihak Jerman (Nazi) yang memanfaatkan Islam sebagai senjata politik pada Perang Dunia II (melawan Soviet) dan Perang Dingin, Central Intellegence Agency (CIA) yang ingin mengambil alih dan memanfaatkan Islam untuk membendung pengaruh komunisme Soviet dan Jerman, dan Ikhwanul Muslimin yang berkepentingan menyebarkan ajaran yang mereka anut ke dunia Barat, dimulai dari Eropa. Masjid tersebut pun dibangun untuk menjadi pusat kegiatan politik yang mengakomodir semua kepentingan ini. Membaca buku ini, kita akan menemukan fakta-fakta yang mengagetkan, kaitan antar fakta-fakta tersebut, dan bagaimana peristiwa-peristiwa di Munich berpengaruh pada berbagai perkembangan ideologi dan militer, termasuk munculnya ide terorisme yang dikaitkan dengan Islam. Dari peristiwa 11 September 2001 sampai Konferensi Asia-Afrika di Bandung, melalui gaya cerita seperti sebuah novel, buku ini membawa kita untuk memahami kaitan pergerakan Islam dengan konspirasi tersebut. Judul Buku: Sebuah Masjid di Munich: Konspirasi Nazi, CIA, dan Ikhwanul Muslimin di Barat Penulis: Ian Johnson Penerbit: Literati Tahun: Cetakan Pertama, Maret 2011 Volume: 452+ xiv hlm; 14 x 21 cm Jenis Cetak: Soft cover/ Bookpaper ISBN: 978-602-8740-16-6