Dr Diana Woodburn, AKAM Chairman AKAM Development Dr Diana Woodburn, AKAM Chairman Professionalising Key Account Management

Building the community Encouraging individual members as well as corporates Simplifying membership for individuals: now €150pa for all Complicating membership for corporates! Gold, silver and bronze packages (€3000-7000pa) Relaunching the website with more intuitive access Want active members to participate in AKAM’s direction and development

Developing the website More welcoming and easier to find information Facility to accept membership and meeting payment Focus on building the Member Resource Centre

Holding meetings across Europe So far, meetings held in Bordeaux, London, Paris, Oslo, Dublin Opportunity to learn, challenge, share knowledge and experience, and network Next workshop at USI in Lugano, 6th June, ‘What big and small businesses can teach each other about KAM’ Annual conference at DIT in Dublin, 2nd November, range of KAM topics

Launching the AKAM Diploma in KAM Competencies and process for Diploma specified Diploma by experience and Diploma by study both available First Diploma ‘students’ currently documenting their competencies Advanced Diploma to be detailed by end June (experience required)

Diploma level Headline competency area Competency Business and customer understanding Knowledge of own company Customer organisation Customer plan Sales and business development Product/service and application knowledge Selling Business development General management and business acumen IT and systems literacy Costing and pricing Organisational effectiveness Personal organisation Communication Customer plan implementation Relationships and interaction Customer relationships Internal relationships

Advanced Diploma level Headline competency area Competency Business and customer understanding Industry knowledge Global business environment Sales and business development Consultative selling Customer strategy development Value creation General management and business acumen Negotiation Decision making Finance Organisational effectiveness Leadership Political awareness Project management Relationships and interaction Trust Networks Cultural competency

Certifying KAM programmes AKAM will not offer training Want to be able to refer people to appropriate institutions for KAM education IESEG (Institut d'Economie Scientifique et de Gestion), University of Lille, becomes AKAM’s first corporate education member Working with IESEG to certify their Master in Business Negotiation in alignment with the AKAM Diploma Looking for more companies and colleges to support good KAM training available across Europe

Facilitating research projects Mission to add to the knowledge and understanding of KAM Aiming to bring new knowledge to practitioners Helping researchers to find respondents to conduct surveys Example: identifying which services key customers value and which they don’t

Business Ecosystems Research Group BERG is a research group at Queen Mary University of London focusing on issues around B2B marketing, supply chain management, especially business relationships, and inter-organisational networks. BERG is a platform for research on business ecosystems, particularly systemic and interactive phenomena of business life. KAM is part of our area of interest. BERG is a unique hub that brings together pioneer academics and practitioners across the world interested in business ecosystems.

Service infusion Service Infusion is about Equipment and Machine Tool Manufacturers competing through value propositions that integrate services with their product offerings e.g., customization services, warranty, consulting services, and finance services Rolls-Royce, Xerox, Caterpillar, and Hitachi report that the share of services sales has reached over 50% of total revenue Capturing the value of industrial services is critical for equipment/machine tool manufacturers as specific industrial services influence profitability and firm’s market value differently There is little guidance in terms of how Equipment and Machine Tool Manufacturers should pursue service infusion and how customers will evaluate new service offerings from them

Invitation to participate in research Prof Stephan Henneberg and Dr Nima Heirati invite Key Account Managers in Equipment and Machine Tool Manufactures to participate in our research about the success factors and outcomes of different service infusion strategies You can participate in this study through a 20 minute interview at your company’s premises or over the phone/skype We do not ask confidential information and there are no costs to your organization The results of study will be disseminated to participants through a documented report and the AKAM workshop in Lugano on 6th June For further information, please contact Dr Nima Heirati: n.heirati@qmul.ac.uk