• Post 1: Introducing GAM Reloaded – Post 2: Typology of International Clients
• Post 3: Strategic options on International Accounts – Post 4: Building support for the programme
• Post 5:Client segmentation, a pre-requisite to GAM

In this sixth post we explore which core processes are required to put in place a solid KAM/GAM Programme.

A modern and agile programme, no bureaucracy

A modern and agile KAM/GAM programme must elaborate on shared client management practice, not replace them. As much as possible, core processes used for KAM/GAM must be an extension of processes – and behaviours – used consistently with all Accounts across the company. This allows the Key Account programme to become more easily embedded into the company’s business model and daily life.

Although the above sounds obvious, the reality is most often quite different. Traditional KAM/GAM methodologies have been created in the 70s or 80s for large industrial companies. They tend to be quite heavy on processes and their implementation is often quite bureaucratic. Today’s social environment and the specifics of international SMBs require a more agile approach. Of course, some systematic way to operate must be preserved but with enough flexibility and room for individual initiative.

General overview of core processes

Here is a comprehensive list of elements to consider when designing and implementing a KAM programme and of the associated core processes. This check list is more or less presented in a chronological order. However, in real life there are many interactions and feedback loops between all these elements.

Preliminary audit and KA/GA strategy definition

• Client base analysis and link with the overall strategy (see posts 1, 2 and 3)
• Client segmentation and selection of Key/Global Accounts (see post 5)

Setting the general programme infrastructure

• Selecting a programme director and a C-level programme sponsor
• Securing support across the organisation (post 4)
• General goal setting and design of monitoring tools (dashboards)
• Assessment of required adaptations to the HR and management system

Building Account teams

• Identifying Account Leads and Teams
• Assessing skills and planning development programme

Account Planning

• Building Account Plans
• Setting goals at account level

Building the operational system

• Account plans and associated tools
• Account team management processes and tools
• Communication processes with the client
• Internal communication processes
• Controlling and monitoring processes

Making the programme work (run in parallel)

• Securing support from senior management
• Securing support from the whole organization
• Training, coaching and mentoring
• Change management

Adapt the programme to your company’s business, culture and size

To a relatively small company the above check list may seem intimidating. However, business leaders and managers willing to boost the performance of their company thanks to a KAM/GAM programme should not be impressed by it. Although each of the above listed elements should be considered, the amount of time and resources invested into each of them can always be adapted to the company’s size, culture and context. An industrial company with 5.000 employees selling complex metallic parts across the world will not design and implement a GAM programme like a global Digital Marketing or Public Relations Agency.

As a rule of thumb, the more complex the interaction between the client and the vendor and the higher the number of people involved, the more the processes and tools must be well defined and managed, and the more critical the human aspects.

Consistency and coherency matter the most!

What makes a company successful with a KAM/GAM programme? Coherency and consistency. The programme must fit with the overall strategy, be supported by senior management, and add value without being perceived as an additional burden and a space of confrontation between the headquarters and the countries.

Creating and maintaining these conditions is where the Art of the manager (and of the external consultant) makes the difference. The theory on KAM/GAM is always simple and “obvious”, making it happen is another matter. This makes working on such programmes so exciting.

• Post 1: Introducing GAM Reloaded
• Post 2: Typology of International Clients
• Post 3: Strategic options on International Accounts
• Post 4: Building support for the programme

In this fifth post, we explore why building a Client Segmentation – and doing it in a collaborative manner – paves the ways to a better management of all clients.

Important reminder, in this blog series we are considering the case of global SMBs with from a few hundred to a few thousands employees who sell high-added value products or services. The concepts presented in this post and in this series are also valid for larger corporations but their implementation might differ.

Clients are not equal : the need for segmentation

Defining Key Accounts means that there are “non Key Accounts” and that resource allocation allowing to go beyond the standard delivery and relationship management will be preferably focused on carefully selected accounts. This sounds obvious but must be reflected in the daily management of operations. Therefore a Client Segmentation process is required.

The Client segmentation process aims at creating a clear picture of the client base relying on a set of quantitative and qualitative criterions. These criterions combine usual performance indicators such as revenue and profitability with more specific indicators tightly linked to the company’s strategy. The Client segmentation does not replace the product or activity segmentation but complements it.

Most SMBs operating in the B2B sector, including large ones, have in fact a relatively limited number of clients. Therefore, it is possible to feature all or most clients in the segmentation.

Defining the Value and Potential of each client

The most traditional client segmentation technique considers only two parameters  Revenue and Profitability. Although providing a rapid and healthy sanity check on a business, this method ignores other parameters that are worth considering. The most common ones are presented below :

• How is the supplier positionned ; commodity, plain supplier, preferred supplier, partner?
• Is the client stable, loyal, or even willing to recommend the supplier?
• Is the client acting as an innovation driver by buying the leading-edge offering?
• What is the growth potential at local and international level?

This analysis can become complex but, in order to make it operational, the conclusion must be presented in a simple format. A simple way to achieve this is to aggregate all parameters along two dimensions  ; “Value” and “Potential”. “Value” can include revenue, profitability, the quality of the relationship and the prestige effect. “Potential” can include the growth and innovation factor.

Other combinations are possible. What matters is that the criterions be coherent with the strategy and applied consistently when using the segmentation tool. As an example, if improving overall profitability is a strategic objective, the profitability parameter can be put in the “Potential” dimension.

Matrix-based representation : visual and quick

Positioning each client in a segmentation matrix provides a powerful visual representation. The horizontal access, represents the “Value” as defined above, and the vertical access represents the “Potential”.  Each quadrant of the matrix provides the high level guideline of how clients should be managed (see below).

Numeric representation of the segmentation

A numeric (table-based) representation of the segmentation provides a useful complement to the segmentation matrix. This table is a ranked list of clients arranged by decreasing order of revenue. Ideally, it should also feature the profitability as well as a 3 years history.

Using the segmentation for planning and ops management

The client segmentation process must be driven at country, regional and global level. It is also very interesting to build the matrix as a collaborative exercise, preferably in a workshop facilitated by a neutral person. The regional and global matrixes should be built by the team in charge of the KAM/GAM programme and the senior management team. Differences between the local and regional/glob al view should be discussed openly.

The outcome of the segmentation helps select the Key and Global Account but it does more. It builds a common view overe the whole client base and provides guidelines on how to manage all clients and optimize resources.

The segmentation matrix should be built or updated when planning a new year and reviewed on a regular basis (at least every 6 months). The segmentation table must be produced by the operations or controlling team and be part of the data used to drive the business on a monthly basis.

In our next post, we will look at Key Account Planning and Intelligence

• Post 1: Introducing GAM Reloaded
• Post 2: Typology of International Clients
• Post 3: Strategic options on International Accounts

In this post, we move closer to the real work – design and implementation – looking at how to generate support for a KAM/GAM programme within the organization.

Use dialogue and be as transparent as possible

Designing, implementing or simply revamping a KAM/GAM programme has an impact on the whole business and on many people. Being as transparent as possible and using a dialogue-based process will help reduce resistance and generate support. This does not mean that programme design should be a democratic process and result from a vote but taking information and opinion from key people and using it in a genuine way, will create awareness and interest for the project. This implies of course that the programme owner is willing to rely on flexibility and will avoid imposing a too rigid system.

Link the programme to the overall strategy

We have seen in previous posts that a really good KAM/GAM programme even if aiming at a stronger profitable growth should also have qualitative strategic objectives. Therefore the programme should be designed and communicated within the frame of the company’s strategy. For example, highlight how the programme will make the organization stronger and how it will help develop and sell the most innovative part of the offering.

Balance the local and global views

A main cause of resistance to KAM/GAM programme, not to mention revolt and sabotage, is the perception by local management and teams that it conflicts with their interest. As much as possible, these conflicts should be avoided or managed. For example, implementing Client segmentation and best practice for KAM should be started at local level so that the international side of the programme is perceived as a logical extension. Where a conflict is unavoidable – for example when related to a difficult choice in terms of production site – the situation must be handled with care by the leadership team.

Feature the KAM programme in the company’s global objectives

Not only the programme must be placed within the frame of the strategy, but it must also be reflected in the company’s yearly goals. This also means that the programme must support other key initiatives such as developing talents, retaining clients and sustaining product innovation.

Define a compelling balanced score card

Unless it makes the management of objectives too complex, the KAM programme should have its own balanced score card. Along revenue and profitability metrics, the score card should measure success in terms of client relationship (satisfaction, retention), impact on the leading edge offering, team morale and development. Relevant objectives should be cascaded to teams and people according to their function and to their contribution to the programme.

Make leading Key Accounts an attractive career path

Working on a Key Account at all level of seniority and being in charge of leading a Key Account team must be a valued career path. Make sure HR are involved into this process and position working on KAM/GAM as one of the best opportunities the company has to offer (and make it real!).

Make local senior management accountable

All local and international, senior managers (at least the leadership team and local leaders) should be accountable for the programme’s overall success. Of course taking care of operations can be delegated, but senior managers should be measured on maintaining the conditions that will lead to performance (like in any other areas). Too many KAM/GAM programmes are just ignored – when they are not torpedoed – by local senior managers without any consequence for them.

Plan an escalation process to manage crisis

Don’t dream, conflicts of interest will happen! You have to be realistic and plan an escalation path to handle them. This will help protect the programme and leadership team credibility when problems occur. Of course, problems need to be handled rapidly, consistently and in a transparent way.

Stating the obvious? Well ….

The elements listed above sound obvious and they apply to any important project that impacts the whole company. However, experience shows that very few companies have all of these in place. Those who do usually benefit from a higher acceptance for the programme. They also have less drama when facing tense or ambiguous situations.

In the next post, we will focus in the Client segmentation and the selection of Key Accounts.

A variety of potential strategic goals for KAM/GAM

Starting a programme for International or Global Accounts must be the result of a strategic choice rather than of an opportunistic move. It does not necessarily mean that the program must be huge and the investment massive.

The primary goals of a KAM/GAM program is most often to generate profitable growth by leveraging long term relationship with selected international clients. However, the programme can – and in my opinion always should – have additional goals that support, complement, and enhance the primary goal. For example, these goals can be;

• To strengthen the local business in each country by strengthening the KAM practice
• To drive more homogeneity in delivery across countries
• To accelerate the development of the company’s offering
• To strengthen the company’s image by working with prestigious clients
• To make the company’s more attractive to talents

These goals are not minor. Each of them, even taken alone, can boost the development of the business and contribute to make it more mature and more resilient to crisis. In addition, the design of the KAM/GAM programme must also reflect and support the company’s general Vision. This is a vast and crucial topic, surely the matter for a future post.

Which type of Accounts to target?

As a quick reminder, in the previous post, we have considered three types of international accounts

• Truly Global – The client formally request global delivery
• Networked International Account – The client sometimes proactively or reactively buys for a cluster of countries
• Decentralized International Accounts – The selection and management of vendors is purely local

Truly Global Accounts are a very interesting target for global vendors but implementing a GAM programme is a demanding task that requires a very mature and aligned organisation. In addition a vendor does not decide on who the global accounts are.

Three types of strategy with many possible combinations

So, what can the Executive Team decide regarding a strategy and programme to boost the international development? To take a simple view, there are 3 basic strategies related to developing international sales

Strategy #1: Focus on local business only

The sales activity is solely focused on growing the local business and there is no formal programme or practice to export business relationship across borders. This is most often the preferred strategy to drive international expansion: in each target country the focus is on building a strong team and a strong presence in order to be recognized by the local players. However, this is also the “by default” strategy of companies who operate as an aggregation of islands. Once a certain size of business has been reached the local focus that helped grow the business in each country can become a severe limiting factor for further expansion. Many companies face this situation. Sometime the top management is aware of this but cannot or does not want to change it for reasons related to the dynamic of the organization. In many SMBs however, the leadership team does not even see the problem and the missed opportunity.

Strategy #2: Focus on true GAMs exclusively

The focus on GAM only is usually driven by the opportunity – the existence of an interesting number of true Global Accounts – and by the necessity to focus the available resources on the accounts with the highest potential. The focus on GAM can also be at the very core of the vendor’s strategy; Leading Public Relations or Advertising agencies, of vendors of technology that eases global communication often have a business model highly focused on Global Accounts.

Strategy #3: Development of International Accounts

This strategy has two complementary facets. The first one is to acquire Network International Accounts who spontaneously require multi-country vendors. The second one is to proactively engage with Decentralized International Accounts in order to export existing relationship from one country to others. Of course this requires a lot of proactivity from the vendor.

The definition of this third strategy sounds obvious. Then, why aren’t more large companies, especially SMBs using it?

Using strategy 3 presents a lot of advantages;

• It is very flexible and allows for incremental investment
• It develops collaboration within the vendor’s organisation
• It can be the core of the international sales expansion or the complement to a GAM programme

A fundamental merit of this strategy is that, if correctly implemented, without reducing the autonomy of local operations (a highly contentious aspect of GAM), it helps drive consistency in client segmentation and client management across all countries.

Young companies who are still in an early stage of their international development, fast growing SMBs who operate in highly competitive market, and established companies in need of new growth drivers should consider implementing a programme to develop International Accounts even if they cannot or don’t want to implement a GAM programme. This can also be the first step toward a GAM strategy and programme.

In the next post, we will look at ways to generate support a KAM/GAM the programme and to minimize resistance

In our first post, we introduced GAM Reloaded and presented the goals of this series. In this post, we will look at the growth potential with Global and International Accounts and try to define a simple typology of Clients.

International Accounts: a serious business opportunity for global SMBs

Many Small and Medium-size businesses (SMBs) and large corporations accelerate growth and improve profitability by focusing on carefully selected Global Accounts. Even if they don’t have a GAM programme yet, many SMBs can also unleash new growth potential by defining and implementing an adequate strategy targeting International Accounts. However, because implementing a true GAM programme is very demanding, SMBs increase their chances of success if they take an incremental, flexible and non-dogmatic approach to GAM (see our first post) while being careful with how their resources are used.

Drivers for a Global Accounts strategy

The theoretical advantage of doing business with (truly) Global Accounts is simple. Both on the client’s and on the supplier’s side there is an expectation that a global relationship will bring operational and economic efficiencies.

For the client company, selecting a global supplier at worldwide or regional level is supposed to yield a better price, to help drive a consistent approach across countries, while accommodating local specifics. Having a global supplier also aims at saving time and resources on vendor selection and administration.

For a supplier, if sustained over time, a relationship with a global account is expected to help optimize the utilization of capacity, yield a higher profitability of the operations and to lower the cost of sale of additional products or services. For a supplier, especially in service industries, working for global clients and global brands has a high positive impact on the organization by improving the consistency of operations and the quality of delivery across borders. It is also good for prestige and it helps acquire other key clients and attract and retain talented employees.

International Accounts as an alternative to pure GAM

Opportunities to win and serve Global Accounts are limited in number and the game is controlled by the clients. But true Global Accounts are not the only major growth opportunity. Many international SMBs, and this is true in many sectors, are in fact sitting on a gold mine; their own customer base.

A valid and easier alternative to classic GAM, is to develop international clients by driving a cross-border extension. This is an excellent way to strengthen the organization and accelerate growth.

Global, Networked, and Decentralized Accounts

It is useful to make a distinction between truly Global (GA) and International accounts (IA). Within International Accounts, we will also make a distinction between Networked and Decentralized Accounts.

In a true Global Account, there is a will on the client’s side to standardize the delivery of a product or a service across countries and regions. There is a central organization able to make decisions for all (or a group of) countries. Such accounts tend to issue Request for Proposals (RFPs) for global business. Global Accounts are rather common in the industrial sector (often, both the client and the supplier are industrial companies) and in service sector including book keeping, IT outsourcing, marketing, advertising, and communication.

In a Networked International Account, there is some level of coordination across countries with some centralized support and/or decision making, most often at regional level. In certain cases a decision is made for a cluster of countries, in other cases, it is more a recommendation to consider a supplier who has done well in other countries. In most cases, before yielding large revenue figures, such accounts require a well orchestrated and sustained networking effort across several countries. These Networked International Accounts are very common in the intellectual services sector( vendors of marketing, advertising, Public Relations).

Decentralized International Accounts are naturally reluctant to taking away the freedom of choice from each local organization. Even in these organisations, information and recommendations are shared across countries. This means opportunities for vendors who are able to use the appropriate networking tactics.

In the next post, we will use this typology of International Clients to explore the strategic options SMB leaders can consider to drive international expansion.

Our goal: another view on GAM and international development

A first goal is to present a general approach that can help senior executive of international Small and Medium–size Businesses elaborate strategies and tactics to better drive profitable growth with international clients and make their business more resilient to crisis. A second goal is to present a modern and pragmatic – and somewhat different – perspective on the notion of Key and Global Account Management in today’s economy.

What we will present in this series is not necessarily new, but it is definitely modern in that it provides a flexible guideline to drive the international development of a SMB or a large corporation.

The world is diverse. Therefore, the methodology discussed in these articles do not pretend to be universal. However, they are based on a very long experience of real-life implementation in various companies. These posts are also an invitation to a positive confrontation of ideas and experience.

Defining international SMBs and target industries

With the term international SMB, we are considering companies with from a few hundreds to over 10 to 15.000 employees with international operations. Some might operate only regionally and in a few countries, others might have a presence on all continents.

We will be referring to business situations encountered by vendors of high-added value solutions and services. Typical examples are marketing and communication agencies, consulting firms, or Entreprise software application vendors and suppliers of hi-tech products.

The classic definition of GAM: exact but rigid

The classic concept of Global Account and of Global Account Management (GAM) apply to the relationship between a truly global client, able to make a centralized decision, and a vendor able to deliver in a consistent way around the globe. Serving Global Accounts can be very beneficial to the business of a supplier, provided no foolish decisions have been made on pricing (it does happen …). The caveat is that implementing a Global Account programme is a demanding exercise; it mobilizes a lot of resources and requires a good alignment of the organization and a high discipline. Not all organizations are able to do this and many companies running a GAM programme are experiencing difficulties. Most of them are related to human and organizational factors.

These challenges explain why many companies have mitigated results with their GAM programme and why many others never start such a programme although their customer base would make this relevant.

The question then is, how can vendors take a somewhat easier route to exploit the potential of international clients?

Alternative ways to accelerate international growth

With GAM reloaded™ , we are going to look at alternative ways to create a situation where the sustained relationship with selected international clients is a key factor in the success of a company.

We will consider a continuum of tactics spanning from enhancing Account Management at local level to implementing a full fledge GAM programme. Instead of a big step function between “no GAM” or “GAM”, we’ll explore ways to develop the organisation’s capabilities in an incremental way that creates a stronger organization while accelerating growth.

It is all about management

Everything that will be presented in this series of post is based on real-life experience. The suggested strategies and tactics require vision, pragmatism, the capacity to inspire people and teams, and a bit of courage and persistence in order to overcome difficulties and make things happen. Isn’t this a definition of what management is about?

Our second post will explore the notions of Global and International Accounts

Concepts that work for entrepreneurs and sales directors

The first session was a webinar with MARKEDU and the second one was an evening event organized in Munich by the Marketing Automation Agency Lead Lion and the BAW (Bayerische Akademie für Werbung). Both presentations were in German but I’ll do similar sessions in English in a near future and make the material available for download on my web site.

The core of my pitch was on practical ways to link the general analysis of the business ecosystem and of the external influencers (see my previous posts on these concepts) with the sales process on a specific potential customer. On both occasions, I have been very pleased to see entrepreneurs and sales & marketing managers come to me after the session stating that my presentation had helped them articulate a need they were already “feeling” but without having come yet to something clear enough to trigger action. My pitch helped them to reach this state.

Similar influence and engagement games in B2C and B2B

Two days later, I found a very interesting article on Understanding online influence and engagement on Hubspot, written by Brian Solis. His post is focused on social media marketing and on the B2C world, however, his key messages are exactly the same I delivered to my B2B audience;

• Analyze your ecosystem and identify TRUE influencers
• Listen and identify relevant topics for discussion
• Work very hard on creating excellent content for your target audience
• Engage with influencers and with your target groups in a sustained and sustainable way

A redline for collaboration between Marketing & Sales

The second article is an Open letter from Sales to Marketing . Written by Jill Konrath, it highlights the need for the two functions to overcome the difficulty to get closer to potential buyers. The advice, or request, to marketing is as follows:

• Keep it simple (even when addressing a complex issue)
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and be relevant
• Align with their priorities and demonstrate that you can support them

These recommendations also give substance to an ecosystem- and influencers-focused approach to marketing and sales. Today’s B2B marketing and sales must be based on being relevant to the client, and must be integrated into a unified process that starts with engaging the whole ecosystem and selected influencers (even on a small scale) and gradually moves to measures that are specific to a single company (the “classic” sales process and the notion of “buying centre”. This is the only way to drive collaboration between marketing and sales.

We’ll develop this into details in upcoming posts and will make English-language material available for download on this matter.

A survey conducted by The Geehan Group and mentionned on Marketing Profs showed that, in a B2B space, companies who outperform competitors have a radically different balance of their marketing budget. Average companies spend 75% of their budget on users, 15% on influencers, and 10% on decision makers. Leading companies spend 35% on users and purchasing, 35% on influencers, and 30% on decision makers. In the context of this survey, influencers mean people inside the prospective customers organization who are involved into the due diligence process leading to a purchase decision without being necessarily users themselves.

The findings of the survey should not come as a surprise to seasoned sales or marketing professionals. B2B decision makers prefer to take advice from trusted sources. Even while being engaged into a direct dialogue with vendors because of the buying process, they tend to look for information from other sources – inside and outside the company – that they perceive as neutral. This is why influencers, internal or external to the prospective customers are so crucial.

Below are a couple of very pragmatic tips to get started with influencers-focused marketing and account management.

1. Before the sales process starts, analyze the generic ecosystem, identify all categories of relevant influencers and develop a good understanding of their needs. This is best done through team work involving sales, pre-sales, marketing, delivery, as well as your marketing and PR agencies. A team workshop, possibly facilitated by an external consultant, is a good way to get started. The outcome should be a map of your generic ecosystem and some matrixes describing influencers, their needs and how to engage with them.




2. Drive marketing to become relevant to the (right) influencers and to the decision makers. This means less focus on promoting the company’s products and more focus on showing that your company is able to bring valuable insight into business issues that are important to the influencers. The most common marketing tactics to achieve this are PR in leading printed and online publications, e-newsletters, white papers, specialized blogs or forums on social media and speaking opportunities at well selected events. Put a lot of energy into demonstrating true knowledge as it will differentiate you from most of your competitors.




3. When the sales process starts with a specific company, identify the decision makers and the individual influencers and analyze their roles. Here as well a map of the target company should be created showing all the involved person, and analyzing their needs and their position toward your own company.. Once decision makers and influencers have been identified, feed them with useful and relevant information as part of the sales process. This is part of the best practice of account acquisition and account management.




4. Once the sale is won, maintain the relationship with influencers alive; it will secure internal support in case of problems and, in the long run will help generate upselling and cross-selling opportunities.




5. Last but not least, strive to turn key contacts at happy customers into external influencers with a Reference Client programme and by involving them into marketing activities such as case studies, e-newsletters guest blogging, and speaking opportunities.

None of this does require that you spend more on marketing. It requires a shift in how the budget is balanced and a different mindset. In B2B, marketing and selling your company is all about engaging with influencers!

This morning, on Social Media Today, one of my favorite blog on social media ( although in my humble opinion some of their bloggers are a bit blinded by excessive enthusiasm  on their preferred matter), I found a  post from John Jantsch a highly regarded expert of SMB expert .

In his post John explains how much driving his own  business consists in managing his ecosystem. He then describes the key features of an ecosystem the way he sees it. I have just extracted two of them

• A strategic emphasis on building a collaboration community around prospects, customers, suppliers, partners and competitors
• The Fusion of online and offline tactics as a way to create more convenient, yet highly personal engagement

For the rest, read John’s post. It is worth it!

http://socialmediatoday.com/ducttape/268382/it-s-not-business-it-s-ecosystem

Is this need new? No and Yes, in that order.

No, it is not new because major corporations and companies with powerful brands have been exposed to scrutiny by various audiences since ages. Yes it is – relatively – new because with the evolution of society and with the fast access to information, all areas are interconnected. Below are 3 examples.

1/ A software company who has analysed an upcoming change in regulation and worked closely and in collaborative way with consultants and experts of this area, will end up with a community of advocates on this specific issue, and therefore sell better than competitors.

2/ Consumers and citizens might have concerns about a company working with factories employing children; the resulting bad reputation has a direct impact on sales.

3/ Shareholders and financial markets might note that a top executive has a private problem and their worries will be immediately reflected in the stock value.

Because all areas of a business are or can be related to each others in people’s mind, companies of all size and level of visibility have to manage a complex web of relationship.

A first main objective is to generate advocacy from third parties on issues that directly affect the business. This aims at driving sales but also supporting the company’ agenda on important issues. The second main objective is to build and maintain a good reputation with a broad variety of audiences. Of course, the complexity of the relevant ecosystem varies with the nature and size of the company. However, the novelty is that, in our modern economy, almost all companies need to manage their ecosystem.

The immediate conclusion is that companies must:

• Have a crystal clear view of which parts of their business ecosystem are critical to them. The tricky part is that this evolves with time and requires a high reactivity.
• Have a very clear view of the agenda and expectations of each constituency of their ecosystem, and engage accordingly.
• Have a high degree of quality, consistency and authenticity in their messaging and communication practice. This is overlooked by many companies. As an example, the amount of dull stories on environment protection (green washing) or on corporate social responsibility when not substantiated by real sustained action creates more damage than it creates goodwill.
• Foster collaboration between functions and organizations chartered to manage the dialogue with each constituency.

All of this sounds obvious? The reality shows that it is not. Silo mentality, internal politics, and a lack of global view on business issues are very common challenges of medium-size and large organizations. Reality also shows that many small companies, driven by a lack of deep understanding of marketing and communications and by resources limitations, neglect to engage with key parts of their ecosystem. The companies, large or small, that manage to engage in a sustained way with the relevant parts of their ecosystems are the market leaders.

The next post will focus on the concepts of business ecosystem and influencers applied to Go to Market activities; marketing, communication and sales.