Managing Global Customers: An Integrated Approach

by George S. Yip, Audrey J.M. Bink

Overview

Multinational companies need to manage their relationships with multinational customers with a globally integrated approach. This book provides a systematic framework for developing and implementing such global customer management programs. It draws on in-depth research at over 20 major U.S. and European multinational companies, such as ABB, Bechtel, BP, Bosch, British Airways, Carrefour, Daimler-Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, IBM, Schlumberger, Shell, Siemens, Tesco, Unilever, Vodafone, Wal-Mart, and Xerox.

Readers will learn how to

· think about managing global customers in the context of their overall global strategy
· develop effective global customer management programs
· overcome barriers to implementation and success
· build better relationships with important customers
· get the entire company to engage with managing global customers

This book takes a strategic, total business, and not just sales approach to managing global customers. It also takes a customer as well as a supplier perspective. The book provides guidance on both strategy and implementation. Yip and Bink's Managing Global Customers takes a systematic and logic driven approach, yet provides many creative insights and practical advice.

Managing Global Customers highlights the rewards of taking a step beyond global account management to create a Global Customer Management approach, integrating globally all aspects of the relationship between supplier and customer. The book gives a framework that guides international companies in using their relationships with global customers to their full potential.

George Yip, author of the widely-praised Total Global Strategy, and Audrey Bink tackle in-depth one of the most important aspects of global strategy: How to manage global customers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199229833
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/18/2007
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

George Yip is Vice President and Director of Research & Innovation at Capgemini Consulting, based in London. He wrote this book while he was Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School and Lead Senior Fellow of the U.K.'s Advanced Institute of Management Research. He held the Chair of Marketing and Strategy at Cambridge University, and has also held faculty positions at Harvard Business School and UCLA, and visiting positions at China-Europe International Business School, Georgetown, Oxford, and Stanford. His book, Total Global Strategy: Managing for Worldwide Competitive Advantage (Prentice Hall, 1992) was selected as one of the 30 best business books of 1992, has been published in ten languages, and updated as Total Global Strategy II (2003). ([e-mail]).
Audrey Bink is Head of Marketing Communications at Uxbridge College in West London. She previously held a research position at London Business School, with her work focusing on Global Customer-Supplier Management. As a product manager and market development manager, Audrey has also been active in global industrial marketing at DMV International, the ingredients division of dairy cooperative Campina. She holds an M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands). ([e-mail]).

Table of Contents

PrefacePart I: Foundation1. Managing Globally2. Exploiting Globalization Drivers and Potential3. Integrating GCM with Global Strategy and Organization4. Structuring the Global Customer Management ProgramPart II: Key Choices5. Selecting and Managing Global Accounts6. Empowering Global Account Managers7. Building the Global Account TeamPart III: Supporting Tools8. Managing Knowledge9. Rewarding and Motivating the TeamPart IV: Process10. Developing For Ongoing Effectiveness11. Winning with Critical Success FactorsPart V: Case Studies

Editorial Reviews

Managing Global Customers provides a most comprehensive and insightful guide to this very important subject to businesses today. I recommend that every executive involved in international business read this book."—Alan Nonnenberg, Founder and former Director of Global Accounts Program, Hewlett-Packard Co.

"Read Managing Global Customers by George Yip and Audrey Bink, for smart, tested advice and extremely useful frameworks about serving your biggest, most important customers. These are the ones that touch your company in many places, the customers for whom, in theory, a global-account-management program can create extra value for the customer and extra revenue and profit for you. In practice, however, global account management too often turns into a mechanism by which customers you can't afford to lose hammer your margins till you can't afford to keep them. Read this article - and find ways to get global accounts back on track."—Harvard Business Review

"If you're interested in learning about the relationship marketing perspectives of both global suppliers and global clients but don't have the time, then here's a book that offers carefully researched case studies prepackaged for ease of review. You'll be able to see the world of global customer-supplier relationships through the eyes of some of the world's industry giants, including ABB, Bechtel Corp., BP PLC, IBM Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Siemens AG, Unilever, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., WPP Group PLC and Xerox Corp."—Velocity

From the Publisher