One by One.

OUR GENERATION WILL BE THE LAST TO live in a deaf-mute world, surrounded by devices that can't speak, incapable of response. In the future, voice-recognition technology will be remembered as the innovation that consolidated the information revolution and forever changed the world.

That's the thesis of Don Peppers and Martha Rogers in their hook Enterprise One to One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age. In the very near future, all sorts of devices will be "intelligent:" They will respond to our spoken instructions, store in their memories our preferences and instructions, and make practical suggestions.

This colossal change, comparable to the invention of the printing press or the telephone, will be brought about by that omnipresent device in our daily lives: the microchip. In 1978, a Cray supercomputer processed 160 million instructions per second and cost $20 million, according to Peppers and Rogers. In 1995, Sony's Playstation, a child's toy, cost $299-and handled 500 million instructions per second. In its heart was a microchip, the detonator in the technological explosion of the latter days of the 20th century.

This revolution not only increases user comfort and workplace productivity, but radically alters the way in which business is conducted and the manner in which companies and their customers deal with each other. In 14 chapters, Peppers and Rogers explain the fundamental rules of the new competition among companies, based on more-efficient, more-personalized service, and how companies should respond to the change to avoid being crushed by better-prepared rivals.

The advances in information technology are giving every business three new tools: databases that recognize and "remember" each customer; interactive relationships in which customers, rather than being passive targets of the company's message, tell the company what they want; and the ability to tailor products and services to individuals, making possible the leap from depersonalized mass marketing to individual personalized marketing.

Don Peppers, consultant, and Martha Rogers, professor of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, have written several books about the evolution of commerce. Enterprise One to One is aimed at the developed world, where computers are quickly on the way to becoming as ubiquitous as the television set. But the book also makes worthwhile reading for Latin American companies that have high-income customers able to keep up with the latest technology. In a straightforward, nimble style, the book explains how companies that use technology to gather and store information about their customers will be able to give them exactly the product they desire, creating an unprecedented loyalty.

Competitors will find it difficult to break that relationship simply because customers find it easier to stick with a company familiar with their tastes, needs and habits than to spend time forging a new relationship. The question every manager should ask is not if such a change will take place in their company, but when. And to be ready, they will have to acquire the technology, analyze their customer base and deal with their clients one by one.