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Case Studies

A Practitioners Glance at Organisational Effectiveness in KAM

Gülnur Durak of Daikin Europe (personal environment control via heat pumps and air conditioners) presents a great case study of how an organisation reoriented itself towards its key accounts. She explains how listening to key customers changed the way the company worked with them and intermediaries. Daikin key accounts now benefit from the integrated interface…

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Case Studies

Supplier relationship management (SRM)

Mini cases | Supplier Relationship Management and KAM should be the mirror image of each other, though they are not entirely symmetrical. So there’s a lot that KAM can learn from putting itself in the customer’s shoes. Use these four case studies from Dr Beth Rogers to help your team understand, practice and agree a…

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Case Studies

Internal alignment

Mini cases | Your company has well-established lines of reporting and responsibility, why not? But KAM is essentially a boundary-crossing approach, which is actually aligned with the way the business environment has been developing for quite a while now. Has your organisation adjusted accordingly? Do internal functions understand their role? Use these three case studies…

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Case Studies

Alignment (i)

Mini cases | Declaring a KAM initiative is one thing, but has your company followed through with what that means, internally as well as externally? What happens if the key account manager doesn’t have the authority the job requires? You’ll probably recognise these two case studies by Dr Beth Rogers, but what should you do?…

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Case Studies

How KAM worked for Unipart with Vodafone

Maurice Daw tells how key account management spearheaded Unipart’s strategy to build on its dominant but saturated position in the automotive sector to enter the challenging world of telecoms. Unipart started as a traditional third-party logistics provider with Vodafone and ended up with a unique ten-year contract. The relationship developed from ‘hygiene factor’ to offering…

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Case Studies

The key account manager’s job: right or wrong?

This case study describes a day in the life of a key account manager that typifies the experience of many in the role. Is Andreas doing a good job? In some respects, yes, but perhaps not entirely. The case provokes valuable discussion on the role and execution of a key account manager’s job, which can…

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Case Studies

Focus on key customer differentiation

Zaris is a security company with three strategic business units and five key customers that represent over 20% of its business. The case study outlines the financials and a short portrait of each customer. This poses questions about the selection and categorisation of key customers; customer profitability; allocation of key account managers to key accounts; objectives…

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Case Studies

Conflict scenarios at Premium Insurance

Premium Insurance is an entirely fictitious company, but the situations described will be recognisable to Key Account Managers in many other sectors. Conflict scenarios can be used to explore ideas about what constitutes a conflict and how it should/could be resolved, which is not only useful to facilitate discovery of your personal styles, but also…

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Case Studies

Responding to a customer demand

Girteka Logistics is a fast-growing trucking company based in the Baltics. How would you deal with a key customer requesting a huge refund on a project that had been completed to their full satisfaction at the time, signed off and paid for afterwards. Not surprisingly, after they made their request, discussions between customer and supplier became extremely emotional,…

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Case Studies

KAM failure in outsourced services

The launch of the key account management programme occurred after the company received an RFP from one of their most important customers, which signaled their dissatisfaction and caused shock within the company. The decision by the Board to launch a KAM programme was in direct response to this customer’s defection. Use Wilson and Woodburn’s model…

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