Making the transition from national to international / global account management is a major step for companies. While they may be meeting the needs of their customers in clearly defined geographical areas, the level of organizational complexity and cultural diversity imposed by the global context makes the coordinated delivery of a global value proposition extremely difficult. At the SAMA European Conference in Paris in March 2005, two international companies that have spent 20 years between them developing their respective GAM programs shared their experiences in doing business with key customers around the world. Their lessons on how to keep the GAM momentum going and continuously reinvent it in the face of major challenges contain wisdom for anyone working in the account management arena.
