Describes about the Key Account Management as a Manager's Capability. Inferences from the Research paper of Björn S. Ivensa, Alexander Leischnigb, Catherine Pardoc, Barbara Niersbachd

1. Key account management
as a firm capability
Björn S. Ivensa, Alexander Leischnigb,
Catherine Pardoc, Barbara Niersbachd
Presented by:
Aravind P – 1802038
Boney Biju Philip – 1802050
Harish N - 1802077

2. INTRODUCTION
Pre-Requisite
Firms usually need to handle multiple inter-organizational relationships with value
creation partners, such as suppliers, alliance partners, R & D partners, or
customers
Definition
• “Key account management (KAM) refers to the management of a
specific subset of these inter-organizational relationships, i.e.
relationships with those customers of the firm who have the highest
level of strategic importance for the firm's long-term performance”

3. Theoretical perspectives on KAM
Attributes of Key Accounts
Activities of KA Managers
1. Customers who present outstanding opportunities for growth
2. Customers who allows the supplier firm to progress in value co-creation
3. Customers with whom doing business involves high levels of business risk
• Though it co-exist beside sales, least time is invested for actual sales.
• One of the major task is Key Account Analysis
• Another task is medium to long term Key Account Planning

4. Concepts used in KAM
• Resource-oriented concepts
This concept argues that performance is enhanced when a firm possesses or
controls a certain number of tangible or intangible assets that are valuable,
rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable.
• Substantive capabilities
These consist of routines through which a firm transforms resources into
outputs and creates value for the firm as well as for its stakeholders in a given
market context.
• Dynamic capabilities
It can be slated as a learned and stable pattern of collective activity through
which the organization systematically generates and modifies its operating
routines in pursuit of improved effectiveness.

5. Literature Review
• Extant research on
• KAM, the capability perspective has found rather limited
consideration so far
1. Business relationships and the capability view
2. Network and networking capabilities
3. Relationship life-cycle capabilities
4. Relationship-dedicated vs. network-dedicated capabilities
5. Context-specific relational and network capabilities
1. Articles focuses on lower-order capabilities in the form of skills
required by KA managers
2. Focus on global account management (GAM) as a form of KAM
3. As a management concept comprising two groups of design elements,
i.e. inter and intra organizational design elements.
4. a set of key KAM practices

6. KAM as a supplier firm capability
• “A collection of routines, that is, repetitive, recognizable patterns of
interdependent actions, used to manage strategically important customers,
involving multiple actors as well as input flows and conferring upon the firm’s
management a set of decision options for producing significant outputs of a
particular type with the firm's key customers”
1. The study interprets individual KAM skills as conceptually distinct from a
firm's organizational KAM capability
2. The capability combines actors and flows of input resources with the aim
of producing significant outputs of predefine types.
Definition
Implies

7. KAM as a supplier firm capability
• “A collection of routines, that is, repetitive, recognizable patterns of
interdependent actions, used to manage strategically important customers,
involving multiple actors as well as input flows and conferring upon the firm’s
management a set of decision options for producing significant outputs of a
particular type with the firm's key customers”
Definition
Implies
3. The capability can be actively developed and some firms are better at
developing a KAM capability than others. Yet, routine-based capabilities
are path-dependent. Instead, KAM constitutes an idiosyncratic domain
and a firm's KAM capability is conceptually and practically distinct from
the capabilities required in other fields of market-oriented management
4. Instead, KAM constitutes an idiosyncratic domain and a firm's KAM
capability is conceptually and practically distinct from the capabilities
required in other fields of market-oriented management

8. Framework of KAM as a firm capability
The framework shows two primary dimensions.
Relationship Level and Organization Level

9. Organization-level
KAM capabilities
• Routines to ensure the coherence of decisions
• Measured using performance Indicators
Organization-level Outside-in Capability (OLOI)
 Required by Supplier Firm
 Has 2 facets:
 Market Sensing : General Market Requirements (Product, IT,
logistics)
 Competitor Sensing : Understand Competitors’ KAM
programmes

10. Organization-level
KAM capabilities
Organization-level Inside-out Capability (OLIO)
 Requirements specific to KAs (manufacturing approaches, supply-
chain solutions, etc)
Organization-level Spanning (OLS)
 Connects OLIO & OLOI : Central Core of Capabilities
 General KAM Strategy
 Objectives
 Activities & Processes
 Resources available
 Selection of KAs
 Information dissipation internally and externally(investors)

11. Support capabilities
 Secondary activities to enable KAM
 Relationship level
 Mainly dine by KA Managers & Teams
 Top management mobilizes resources and actors
 Other departments involved as per requirement
 eg: HR (decides skills and trainings)
 Organizational level
eg: Legal Services

12. Substantive & dynamic
KAM capabilities
Substantive
 Market Changes occur in stable patterns
 Rely on existing knowledge & linear execution  predictable
outcomes
Dynamic
 Market aspects change comparatively faster
 Unstable processes that rely on quickly created knowledge 
unpredictable outcomes
Eg : New entries
 Dynamic customer in a stable market  Combination of
Substantive & Dynamic

13. Inferences from Paper
KAM
Hierarchical
levels
Value
activities
Functional
areas
Geographical
units
 Higher hierarchical levels typically involved in OLOI, OLIO, and
OLS

14. Future Research Scope
 Interplay between KAM capabilities
 Empirical Study on the Strategic contribution KAM can make to
overall firm performance & competitive advantage
 Relationship between KAM capability dimensions and other
variables
 Qualitative research on how, why, when, and under what
conditions KAM capabilities emerge
 Development of scales measuring the specific KAM capabilities

15. Conclusion
 Important contribution to the study of strategic role of KAM in
firm performance
 Explains the importance of establishing KAM system in
maintaining relationships & financial performance
 Explains KAM Is more than classical sales approach