Lessons from Aerospace
In 1993 the new MD of a global aerospace manufacturer formed a small task force to undertake a thorough marketing audit of the business and recommend a strategic agenda to improve its competitiveness. From this team of two salesmen, two engineers, a graduate and a consultant came the beginnings of a major change program to introduce global account management to the whole company. The Account Management program was to take five years and touch every member of staff around the world.
It helped to bring about marked changes in revenue growth, turnarounds in customer satisfaction and a new global team-working culture. However, it was not without its problems and of course, mistakes were made along the way.
With the benefit of hindsight these can be identified and the lessons of how to design, launch and fly a successful Key Account Management (KAM) program can now be told from an aerospace perspective.
Published in Velocity by the Strategic Account Management Association, 1999
