Desperately short of living space and dangerously prone to flooding, the Netherlands plans to start building homes, businesses and even roads on water.
With nearly a third of the country already covered by water and half of its land mass below sea level and constantly under threat from rising waters, the authorities believe that floating communities may well be the future.
Six prototype wooden and aluminum floating houses are already attached to something off Amsterdam, and at least a further 100 are planned on the same estate, called Ijburg
"Everybody asks why didn't we do this kind of thing before," said Gijsbert Van der Woerdt, director of the firm responsible for promoting the concept. "After Bangladesh we're the most densely populated country in the world. Building space is scarce and government studies show that we'll need to double the space available to us in the coming years to meet all our needs."
Before being placed on the water and moved into position by tugboats (拖船), the houses are built on land atop concrete flat-bottomed boats, which encase giant lumps of polystyrene (聚苯乙烯) reinforced with steel. The flat-bottomed boats are said to be unsinkable and are anchored by underwater cables. The floating roads apply the same technology.
The concept is proving popular with the Dutch. "The waiting list for such homes, which will cost between euros 200,000-500,000 to buy, runs to 5,000 names," claims Van der Woerdt.
With much of the country given over to market gardening and the intensive cultivation of flowers, planners have also come up with designs for floating greenhouses designed so that the water beneath them irrigates the plants and controls the temperature inside.
A pilot project, covering 50 hectares of flooded land near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, is planned for 2005.
The opportunities for innovative developers look promising. "We have 10 projects in the pipeline- floating villages and cities complete with offices, shops and restaurants," Van der Woerdt said.
The Netherlands plans to start building floating communities on water because ______
A．most parts of the country are covered by water
B．the country is constantly threatened by floods
C．it will promote the cultivation of flowers
D．people think it better to live on water
&8226;Read the article below about business and customers and the questions on the opposite page.
&8226;For each question 13-18, mark one letter (A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet for the answer you choose.
Focus on Your Customer
If you think of the most successful companies around the world -- GM, Wal-Mart, IBM, etc. -- they all have one thing in common: loyal customers. It can cost ten to twenty times as much to acquire a customer as to retain one, so it's easy to understand why customer relationship management is such a hot concept. But, while everyone understands CRM is a good thing, putting a CRM strategy together isn't easy. The place to start？ A customer-driven business model.
A customer-driven business model is the most prudent method of ensuring customer loyalty because it fosters a better relationship with new and existing customers. Others such as market, price, cost or e-commerce-driven business models may generate profits, but fall short of sustaining a loyal customer base. At the heart of customer-driven business model is a clear understanding of the customer -- not just customer trends (although this is useful information, too), but the buying habits and history of every one of your customers. This 360-degree view provides analytics from multiple channels (direct, web, fax, E-mail, call center, sales/marketing) and consolidates into a common repository. Monitoring buying habits and tracking market dynamics lets you more effectively market new and existing products and services.
If you think this is a daunting task, you aren't alone. Because most enterprises don't have a consolidated view of their customers, obtaining customer profit and cost information is often a Herculean effort.
Implementing a CRM solution is usually a huge project with a high probability of failure. Some analysts suggest most businesses underestimate the cost of a CRM Implementation by 40～75 percent. In fact, a successful CRM will interface with ERP systems to provide integration with all customer interactions such as order processing, billing. Also, CRM strategies must include commitment and sponsorship from senior management, as it should be deemed a strategic investment that is implemented incrementally and evolutionary.
Understanding critical success factors, such as those listed in the "Key to CRM Success" sidebar, mitigates the risks. First, start with a cultural change that focuses on a customer-centric business strategy. Make sure your organization is well aware of the high cost of customer attrition and is focused on improving retention, increasing loyalty. Understanding and broadcasting the cost of acquiring new customers versus fostering existing relationships.
Second, focus on an enterprise view of the customer that encompasses all customer data, such as communication history, purchasing behaviors, channel preferences, demographics, etc. Understand your customers' preferred channels and determine if there's some way to optimize them.
Adopt a flexible architecture that will expand with your business -- this is true with any IT project. Never deploy a strategic, costly solution using the big-bang approach. Always take an incremental, evolutionary, or iterative approach. The impact to your organization can be significant, thus, proceed slowly and ensure the returns on investment measures are in place.
The first paragraph indicates that loyal customers
A．help reduce costs of the company.
B．are quite common around the world.
C．produce huge profits.
D．are costly to develop.
