BRIDGES TO THE CUSTOMER’S HEART

Leadership in the Twenty-first century means leading under intense conditions; today’s markets and people are different than their counterparts of 20 years ago. Managers and employees are faced with new challenges, have other goals and interests, live in another environment, and they define themselves and their work differently than the generation before them did. Before getting to the topic of leading, I would first like to briefly outline the most important basic social and economic conditions. This can of course be nothing more than a general outline, as, beyond its increasing complexity and acceleration, the Twenty-first century is especially characterized by one trend: change.