Worldly Wise: Attracting and managing Customers isn’t the same when business goes global. Companies must be ready to adjust.

It’s hard enough for a company to maintain relationships with customers that are spread across the country. It’s even harder when the customers are spread across the world. But it has never been more crucial. As globalization spreads, it opens up opportunities for legions of companies in foreign markets. But to compete effectively, those companies have to change – especially in the ways of which they court their biggest customers, many of which are stretching their legs globally as well. Strategies and organizational structures that once worked for serving clients on a local level are no longer efficient when there are 50 or 100 “locals”. Companies that have adopted global account management have found that it takes 10 to 15 years, and multiple stages, to fully implement. Upfront investment will be required for corporate restructuring, new computer systems, additional hiring and staff training – items that often produce no immediate return. For some companies, gains do appear briefly – in the form of higher margins, increased sales and cost savings – but then vanish when implementation stalls due to such hurdles as change fatigue within organization, or conflicts with other demands on corporate resources. Promising global account initiatives can turn into sobering disappointments. Those that succeed, however, reap such rewards as increased customer spending, lower costs associated with accounts, and of course bigger profits. After 5 years of study, including close looks at DHL, Microsoft Corp., Citigroup Inc., Siemens AG, SAP AG, Marriott International Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines Corp., we have come up with a road map for reaching superior global account management. Along the way, the most successful companies progress through three implementation stages that we have labeled Beginner, Springboard and Embedded.

By Christoph Senn and Axel Thoma
The Wall Street Journal, 2007

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