The Future Isn't About Mobile; It's About Mobility - David Armano. By David Armano | 8:03 AM July 18, 2012 While the globe grapples with uncertain economic realities, “mobile” appears to be gold.
Facebook is expected to announce their uniquely targeted mobile advertising model before the end of the month. Amazon is talking to Chinese manufacturer Fox Conn with ambitions of building their own mobile device to serve as a complement to Amazon’s considerable digital ecosystem of products and services. China itself has surpassed the US as the world’s dominant smartphone market with over a billion subscribers and roughly 400 million mobile web users.
Advisory firm IDC predicts that by 2014 there will have been over 76 billion mobile apps downloaded resulting in an app economy worth an estimated thirty five billion in the same year. However, there will be blood as the business world pursues the mobile gold rush. We’ve seen this movie before. Mobility is radically different from the stationary “desktop” experience. Mobility trumps mobile. How to Succeed at Key Account Management - Lynette Ryals. By Lynette Ryals | 6:00 AM July 13, 2012 Key account management (KAM) is one of the most important changes in selling that has emerged during the past two decades.
KAM is a radically different organizational process used by business-to-business suppliers to manage their relationships with strategically-important customers, and it produces measurable business benefits. Not surprisingly, smart suppliers are keen to implement KAM. But, sadly, many KAM implementations fail and are abandoned. In other cases, suppliers find that they have to make big changes to the KAM programs to get them to function. The good news is that many of these failures are unnecessary. Step One: Recognize that KAM is an organizational change, not a sales technique. Step Two: Get high-level buy-in.
Step Three: Appoint a KAM champion. Step Four: Identify your key accounts — carefully. Step Five: Appoint and train your key account managers. Step Six: Set the right metrics. Step Seven: Benchmark and build. Why American Express Wants to Kill Credit Cards. Illustration: Getty Leslie Berland has a curious job.
She’s paid to think about all the ways to make her company’s flagship product obsolete. Berland leads digital partnerships and development at American Express, the company that pioneered the notion that a piece of colored plastic could not only buy stuff but raise your social status. In the future that Berland anticipates, a black card or a gold card won’t mean any more than a purple card, because you won’t have a card at all. Even American Express believes the plastic in our wallets eventually will go away.
There are two things you always have with you: a credit card and a smartphone. At a recent event, hosted by Andreessen-Horowitz, on the future of retail, Berland pointed out that there are two things you always have with you: a credit card and a smartphone. Berland is not alone in thinking plastic is on its way out. So far they’ve had little success. The Mobile Payments Paradox Try, Try Again.