About us
Numerous practitioners have expressed the desire to see a more global and influential body aiming to advance the understanding and recognition of Key Account Management (KAM) much more widely than at present. To meet this need, a group of leading academics and practitioners set up the Association for Key Account Management initially sponsored by KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux, France, and now by Technological University Dublin, Ireland.
AKAM aims to promote KAM through:
- communicating with business, academia and the wider world to gain proper understanding and recognition of KAM
- professionalising key account managers’ skills through defining required competencies; a development curriculum; and certifying development programmes leading to a widely recognised formal qualification in KAM
- sponsoring research into under-explored aspects of KAM, and linking practitioners and academics to the benefit of both
- facilitating the sharing of KAM knowledge and the latest research, learning, practices and variations from around the world.
AKAM aims for a healthily mixed community of five constituencies:
- corporate companies pursuing KAM programs in their organisations
- individual key account managers seeking support for a challenging job
- educational institutions with an interest in business and customers, who recognise that practice has moved on from traditional sales and marketing and seek to develop a new, in-demand offering in KAM
- individual academics looking for new links and participants in their research
- consultants and trainers with multi-company experience to offer, also seeking a new, in-demand offering in KAM.
This community of people shares a passion for KAM and a desire to understand this apparently simple but actually challenging business discipline. AKAM provides a resource centre and exchange for all members, both through the website and events, and members are encouraged to network with each other.
AKAM is here to support your work in KAM through access to KAM experts and practitioners and on-demand accessible resources from the website.
Objectives:
- foster professionalism in key account management (KAM)
- establish and certify educational and developmental standards in KAM
- develop standards in professional qualifications for practitioners at Diploma and Advanced Diploma level.
- raise standards of performance and behaviour in the KAM profession
- stimulate the development of new knowledge and insights in the field through the sponsorship of research
- carry on any activity, commercial or philanthropic that will further the interests of those involved in KAM (eg annual conferences, workshops, accreditation, sponsorship, collaboration).
Board of Management
- Chairman Dr Diana Woodburn, MBP, UK
- Deputy Chairmen Mike Green, Capita, UK and Richard Ilsley, Sales and Management Consulting Group, UK
- Secretary/Treasurer Dr Anthony Buckley, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
- Armelle Dupont Daupeyroux, Amcor Flexibles, Switzerland
- Dr Olivier Rivière, OR Consulting, Germany
- Freddy Couchy, Kompass, France
- Dr Jakob Rehme, Linkoping University, Sweden
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Geoff Quinn, Pfizer, UK
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DR Fawaz Baddar, IESEG School of Management, France
- Dr Antonella LaRocca, ESC Rennes School of Business France, and BI Norwegian Business School Norway, Norway
- Dr Bjorn Ivens, University of Bamburg, Germany
