We are delighted to announce that our client, Compass Group PLC has won an award for its work in growing its international clients business. The award was announced by the highly respected Strategic Account Management Association and recognizes the excellent work that Compass has done in co-creating value with its clients.

In responding, Ed Bradford, Managing Director of Market2win said, “We have been working with Compass for many years on different aspects of their International Clients Programme and this is terrific recognition for the success that they have achieved. As part of the entry process for this award we interviewed many of their senior executives and I was blown away by the innovative ideas they were developing and implementing with these clients around the world.”

The award will be handed out at the SAMA European Conference in Berlin on the 11th March 2013

The full SAMA announcement is provided below

SAMA Announcement

February, 2013

Compass Group Recognized for Strategic Account Management Excellence and receives SAMA Excellence Award(TM) for Co-Creating Customer Value

The Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) has selected Compass Group, a world-class provider of contract foodservice and support services, to receive a SAMA Excellence AwardTM for Co-Creating Customer Value. The award will be publicly given to Compass Group executives at the SAMA Pan European Conference, 11 March, 2013 in Berlin.

Through its International Client Programme begun in 1998 to develop strategic relationships with its top clients, Compass Group has demonstrated world-class practices in the critical area of customer-supplier value co-creation. Collaborative value creation is the key process in strategic customer management to bring about mutual growth, profit, trust, loyalty, innovation and risk management in B2B relationships.

“We are very impressed with Compass Group’s accomplishments and the documented evidence that their International Client Programme has integrated the key processes for co-creating customer value and through it has attained superior growth,” says Bernard Quancard, President & CEO of SAMA.

These elements are being documented in a SAMA case study examination, and presented in a conference session this March

Useful links:

SAMA Pan-European Conference (Berlin – 10-12 March) website

SAMA Pan-European Conference brochure

SAMA Academy in Berlin, 12-14 March website

Implementing a marketing plan is no easy task and research suggests it is not done very successfully. Moreover, when thinking about why a particular implementation program has failed, there is a tendency to focus on just a few known factors. In this paper we list the many possible causes of implementation failure coupled with some real examples. It will help readers appreciate the significance of the implementation challenge, the diversity of the issues involved and help dig down to the underlying causes.

The paper is here: Implementation issues and examples

Earlier this year, we ran a KAM Simulation workshop for members of the world-renowned Strategic Account Management Association ( May 2011 ).  This was rated one of the best workshops at their conference and so we have teamed up with the University of Portsmouth, to offer a similar session in the UK.  My co-presenter is Beth Rogers,  one of the most distinguished KAM experts in the UK (and a long-time colleague of mine).  She has been researching and teaching in this area for over 20 years and already runs KAM courses at Portsmouth Business School.

This is the first time we are offering this course in the UK so please do not hesitate in claiming your early bird discount.

For more information, click on the link below:

Key Account Simulation Day 12 Jan 2012

The KAM2win Simulator recently scored some of the highest satisfaction scores amongst delegates at the SAMA Global Conference in Orlando.

Click here to see the conference highlights: SAMA Feedback Orlando 2011

A Bradford student team on the Market2win Simulator

We are delighted to announce that Martin Haley has won the 2010 Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Bradford’s School of Management.

There are around 80 lecturers at the School and only three such awards handed out each year.  The award is based on student feedback on the courses they have undertaken.  Martin says, “It is a great honour to receive such an award and the use of the Market2win simulation has been a significant factor in generating the excellent feedback I have received from students.  We are now using it on both postgraduate and undergraduate courses. We hope to expand its use further within this university and across to our international partner institutions in the future.”

Edmund Bradford, MD of Market2win says, “This underlines the positive connection between using simulations and the student experience.  The best universities like Bradford are developing the right skills of students, not just improving their understanding of a subject.  This will give these students an employability edge when they finish their course.”

We are delighted to announce that the Strategic Marketer of the Month for November is Anant Pagare, an MBA student at Cardiff Business School.

Anant achieved this by playing the online Market2win Game and guiding his virtual company to a superb market success.   In doing so, he demonstrated the right stuff for senior leadership including superior customer insight, situation awareness, strategic leadership and masterful execution.

Anant was glad to be involved in one of our games: “In my opinion, knowledge is of little use without understanding the practical aspect and consequences of application of the theories. Market2win provided a platform where we needed to analyse the market conditions, compete with other companies in a simulated market environment, anticipate the competitor’s strategy and to act accordingly to stay ahead. It was a great learning experience and I’d be glad to get an opportunity again to become a part of it.”

“There were over 300 MBA students playing in several different games” says Edmund, MD of Market2win, “and Anant’s company made one of the highest profits across all the games.  He did this by beating his fellow students, not the computer.  He did exceptionally well.”

Do you want to develop your strategic leadership skills by playing against other real people from around the world – and collect valuable CPD time along the way? For more information about upcoming games go to http://www.market2win.com/play.php

We are delighted to announce that the Strategic Marketer of the Month for September is Robin Mar, owner of Eleven Solutions Ltd.

Robin achieved this by playing the online Market2win Game and guiding his virtual company to a superb market success.   In doing so, he demonstrated the right stuff for senior leadership including superior customer insight, situation awareness, strategic leadership and masterful execution.

Robin was very glad he signed up to one of our games: “It was a great experience for me playing the Market2win games.  Although I was already aware of the main principles of market strategy, we can all do with more practice.  It helped me to apply the theory in a realistic way and beat some other online players along the way!  It was enjoyable and a great way of building practical commercial leadership skills.”

“This was a short game played over just one afternoon” says Edmund, MD of Market2win. “Therefore, for Robin to do so well is a testament to how quickly he got to grips with the case and his very real competitors. Well done!”

Do you want to develop your strategic leadership skills by playing against other real people from around the world – and collect valuable CPD time along the way? For more information about upcoming games go to http://www.market2win.com/play.php

We are delighted to announce that the Strategic Marketer of the Month for July is Kaouther Kooli, Assistant Professor at the University of Tunis, Tunisia.

Kaouther achieved this by playing the online Market2win Game and guiding her virtual company to a superb market victory beating the other companies to the top position. In doing so, she demonstrated the right stuff for senior leadership including superior customer insight, situation awareness, strategic leadership and masterful execution.

Kaouther was very glad she signed up to one of our games: “What I liked about the game was  the competition and seeing the results at the end of each period. That pushed me to do more and to keep on trying to catch competitors on their segments and to strengthen my position on my own segments. The value proposition (as much as other information about the product, profitability etc) of the company and its competitors was very clear and taught me valuable information about analysing competitors and their profitabilities.”

Do you want to develop your strategic leadership skills by playing against other real people from around the world – and collect valuable CPD time along the way? For more information about upcoming games go to http://www.market2win.com/play.php