To read this content please select one of the options below:

The executive growth factor: how Siemens invigorated its customer relationships

Christoph Senn (Adjunct professor at Columbia Business School in New York and senior lecturer at St Gallen University, Switzerland. He is also co‐founder and chairman of the Account Management Center, a consulting company that specializes in customer management with offices in New York and Zurich.)

Journal of Business Strategy

ISSN: 0275-6668

Article publication date: 1 January 2006

1900

Abstract

Purpose

Many companies claim to have established senior executive relationship programs, but few have linked their account plans to senior executive actions, and consequently, only a few can report successful growth results. This article provides a systematic approach to create a replicable executive engagement process.

Design/methodology/approach

During 1997‐2005, five research consortiums on global account management (GAM), involving more than 30 companies around the world, were conducted. The objectives were to explore current successful practices and future competencies in GAM. In addition to the empirical investigation of the effects of successful GAM implementation, several case studies were developed.

Findings

The case of Siemens Information & Communication illustrates the benefits on both the supplier and the customer sides when companies make a systematic effort to link their account plans to senior executive actions. In the case of Siemens, the growth rate of the systematically “managed” accounts outperformed that of “non‐managed” accounts by a factor of two.

Practical implications

The results from the research in general and the case in particular suggest that executive engagement in customer affairs represents a strategic choice rather than an agenda filler. By following the described process, companies can create their own growth agendas.

Originality/value

This paper offers middle and senior managers a proven and inexpensive process for translating account plans into real growth. Companies that commit to creating such an executive engagement process can expect to benefit from hard‐to‐copy intimacy with their customers, which in turn results in new, sustainable sources of competitive advantage.

Keywords

Citation

Senn, C. (2006), "The executive growth factor: how Siemens invigorated its customer relationships", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756660610640155

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles