Managing Global Customers

Multinational companies need to manage their relationships with multinational customers in a globally integrated approach. This paper provides a systematic framework for developing and implementing such global customer management programmes. The paper is based on Chapter 1 of George S. Yip and Audrey Bink, Managing Global Customers: An Integrated Approach, Oxford University Press, 2007. The 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. Lastly, the book takes a systematic and logic driven approach, yet provides many creative insights and practical advice. The primary supporting research is a study on global customer-supplier management with primary research conducted at 22 multinational companies, both global suppliers and global customers. This research involved personal interviews with over 60 senior executives, as well as a detailed multi-level survey completed by 27 executives. The authors obtained information on the way global customer-supplier relationship programmes can be implemented, the barriers that can be encountered and best practices that can lead to extra advantage.global marketing;global customers;global account management

The Resilient Society: On volunteering, civil society and corporate community involvement in transition

Changes in the Dutch non-profit regime necessitate the direct participation of citizens and businesses in non-profit organisations. Dutch society must re-invent the commitment of citizens, businesses, foundations, universities and various other organisations by increasing both ‘community capacity’ and ‘management capacity’. ‘Community capacity’ and ‘management capacity’ are important building blocks in the arena of involvement. The resilient society: On volunteering, civil society and corporate community involvement in transition is an exploration of the arena of involvement with regard to research agendas: 1) corporate community involvement as a component of community capacity and 2) non-profit management as a component of ‘management capacity’. Community capacity represents the possibility of a society to make a contribution that must become more private and ‘voluntary’. The address outlines various means to this end, including corporate community involvement on the part of businesses, ‘service learning’ as an instructional tool in universities and the integration of ‘social internships’ as a component of the general high school curriculum. Management capacity represents the possibility of (non-profit) organisations to work with new forms of community capacity, for example by improving accountability and volunteer management. The address concludes by using the metaphor of a slot machine to present a new conceptualisation of volunteer management that can also be applied to other relations between non-profit organisations, civil society and corporations