As discussed in our first blog, chaotic change is occurring in the business world for major corporations in the USA, Europe and Australia. So, as an executive or senior manager, you need to be able to make rapid decisions that allow your business to adapt and fast! In 2012, we need bold and decisive action to deal with today’s issues. We have entered a new phase, what I call the Era of Rapid Adaptability® of balancing our intuitive self (the Gut feeling) with a more robust analysis of the data.

This is evident in how companies are managing their strategic accounts in China. In boardrooms across the globe, fear and uncertainty has taken hold. Senior executives are talking about growth and searching for growth from new accounts. Not enough senior executives are focusing on growth from their current top accounts; too much money is still spent on attracting new business instead of growing strategic accounts.

In strategic account management, customers have become more sophisticated in their buying strategies. Therefore, adapting approaches for each customer is important, and even more critical when dealing with cultural differences of managing strategic accounts in Asia. That’s because customers in Asia are often NOT global, but rather location-specific and so often require a unique, well-considered approach.

I and others have predicted that we have entered a new era in managing strategic accounts in China – welcome to the decade of the east. That means overturning many of our assumptions about East meets West and rethinking how we train teams to be better equipped to deal with cultural differences. So, negotiations with key accounts require a different level of preparation to deal with more senior decision makers during the deal.

I have been asked by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) to deliver a webinar on this very topic this Friday morning. You can still register for the webinar by contactinghttp://www.strategicaccounts.org/events/Webinars/041912.html

I will present a case study of Morgan Carbon, a $2 billion company doing business in China in addition to drawing on my experience working with companies such as IBM, Bayer, Westpac, Procter & Gamble, and 3M in Asia.

In the webinar you will learn:

• How to get better strategic relationships in China

• Why global executives should understand China’s five year plan

• Key challenges in China

• Applying the learning’s from the China case study to your account framework

I hope you can join us.