Antoine's Blog

My personal assessment

First, I want to thank Alcan and the « We All Can » team for having chosen me to participate to this program. I have really learned a lot of things during these last weeks. I also thank Huu-An, my coach, because he was  very implicated and motivated in this program and he really kept contacts with me even aften the Alcan Days.  Claudia, thank you for the correction of my numerous spelling mistakes ;-)

I think that this experience will impact my choices for my future life and career. I am studying management and too many students believe that the possible jobs are only in the banks or in the consulting companies. But that is not right and my experience by Alcan is a proof. You can find lots of interesting jobs in the “industry world” because they also need managers in finance, in marketing, in sales… Moreover, you are also in contact with engineers, researchers, producers and customers. You will never feel bored because you always learn something new !

The list of all my posts :

• Welcome to my blog
• Key Account Manager in Alcan group ???
• About my coach
• My point of view about Key Account Management
• My Alcan Day : Factory
• My Alcan Day : Headquarters
• Clients and Suppliers of a KAM
• International aspects of Key Account Managment
• Alcan values : What I saw
• Think Global, Act Local : Alcan
• Think Local, Act Global : Huu-An
• Can the KAM be innovative ?
• Challenge, performance and contribution
• What about my coach's job?
• My personal assessment

What about my coach's job?

I have had the opportunity to maintain privileged contacts with my coach and I have been introduced in various dimensions of his job. If I had to describe to other students what a Key Account Manager is… a little summary?

Key Account Manager in the Alcan (KAM) group ???

• - 80 % of the benefits are made with only 20 % of the customers.
• - A KAM is a man or a woman who has a privileged contact with the most important customers.
• - He / she is the interface between Alcan and the key accounts.
• - He / she needs to have a minimum of business knowledge and lots of social aptitudes

My point of view about Key Account Management

• - A Key Account Manager has to think about the smallest details. Huu-An said to me that it is a work of details.
• - The customer can join a KAM any time during the week.
• - The two Key Accounts of Huu-An are : Y&Y and JR (fictive names)

Moreover, what stroke me the most is the “human aspect” of this job. The KAM always needs to have contacts with his customers, his colleagues, his superiors,… Each week, he has to work in his office but also outside (factories, customers, counterparts,…).

Challenge, performance and contribution

I called my coach  this afternoon. It was the last moment for this interview because he was going to spend holidays in the south of France… Hmmmm Holidays…

Huu-An, I know that you work a lot and that you really enjoy it. But I remember you that the famous “35 hours law” (France) concern a week and not a day ;-). Seriouly, with all your activities in Alcan Group, how can you remain motivated and productive?

Well, you are right Antoine, I really like my work and I have very intensive days. I like to find new challenges that give me the force (May the Force be with you Huu-an). I think that the most important thing is to separate clearly your professional and personal life. I never work during the weekends or during my holidays. It means that I don’t have contact with my customers or colleagues, no meeting, no email, no call,… Fortunately, everybody in Alcan respects this and I still have time for me and my family. For example, I go tomorrow to the south of France with my wife and some friends to celebrate my birthday ! Alcan is very flexible and it is a question of organisation.
Moreover, during the week, I boost myself with two ingredients:
- Fine wine tasting
- Smashing as hard as possible during my weekly badminton training

What challenges do you have to face?

Make possible what can seems impossible… Sometimes you have the impression to be lost and after…Eureka… You find a solution. It is great ! If you want to know my challenges, have a look at Antoine’s blog. He describes some of them very well.
Usually, I have both to increase the turnover and to maximize value.

How does Alcan assess your contribution?

Alcan assesses my contribution with my enthusiasm, my capacity of work and of course my sense of humour. Seriously, in my business, the satisfaction of my customers is very important. And the most satisfied they are, the most Alcan makes benefits. As every private company, the main goal is to increase the earnings. I have three main goals in my daily business : Value – Value – Value !

Where do the corporate values & strategic directives of the Group (EHS, Maximising Value, Continuous Improvement) impact?

Well, if you want to maximize the value and the EVA, you need to : improve yourself continuously, satisfy the key accounts, develop the best products, improve your efficiency,…

Can the KAM be innovative ?

Innovation plays a key role in the strategy of every department of Alcan. ’m not going to describe to you all the « innovation strategies » in each department because I prefer to concentrate my analyse on the « Key Account Management ».

Fortunately « innovation » does not only mean « new products ». It also means new process, new ideas, new organizations,... I have chosen 3 subjects that are linked to innovation in the Key Account Management.

- Better coordination between the KAM around the world :

Situation before the innovation : The KAM of Y&Y in Europe had no or few contact with the Y&Y KAM in North America. They were independent and not coordinated. With the globalization and the new communication tools, the strategies of the big clients of Alcan are more global and coordinated. So...

The innovation : All the KAM of the same client need to be in close relationship as soon as possible. The goal is to coordinate the strategy of Alcan and to share the best practices with the other KAM. During my first Alcan day, my coach had a « phone conference » with Norman Stanley, the KAM of Y&Y in North America. They were talking about the international strategy of Y&Y and they tried to have  a common attitude toward this international company to be more efficient. It is only with this coordination that Alcan and Y&Y strategies fit together.

- Lean Six Sigma program : Huu-An said to me that he was interested in implementing this program in the « Sales department ». George Group is the company which works with Alcan for the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within the group. Moreover, Huu-An is in full training courses to become Green Belt in 2005... Alcan invests a lot of resources for the LSS to assure the success of the Green Belt project of Huu-An. Of course he isn’t alone to do that and he is coached by Bob Gillespie, an American senior consultant of George Group.
One of his clients (again Y&Y) orders tubes to Alcan very irregularly. For example, they order 50'000 tubes in December, 0 in January and after they need 300'000 very quickly in February. This situation is very difficult to manage for Huu-An and for the Alcan factories. So one of the goals of this Six-Sigma program is to reduce this variability. Of course, it is necessary that Y&Y participates to this program. One of his US colleagues said that he had the same problem with the same client and he also wanted to implement this program in USA and in Canada to upgrade the efficiency of Alcan and Y&Y.

- A KAM is very close to the clients of Alcan so he has the opportunity

to discover their future needs. The KAM isn’t active in the production department but if he has some good ideas for new products, he gives them to the marketing and R&D department. The KAM has an excellent position to observe the market and he can anticipate the future trends.

If you are interested in innovation in other domains of activities of Alcan Group, you can visit some other blogs of the « We All Can » program.

On this picture, you see Huu-An trying to combinate some elements of tubes. No he isn't playing LEGO but making innovation ;-)

Very important : The last but not least :

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUU-AN (30 year old)

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Think Local, Act Global : Huu-An

Hi everybody, I have just received a nice postcard from my coach. If you want to become a Key Account Manager, you also need sometimes to think local! For example, my coach is in Greece for a meeting with the Purchasing Manager of a factory near Athens. This factory produces some tubes for JR, one of the clients of my coach.

Which are the themes of this meeting ?

• Improvement plan by Cebal in order to reduce leadtimes for the customer.
• Action plan implemented by Cebal to improve the quality.

Huu-An said to me that this meeting was very constructive. Now he understands better the business of the Greek purchasing manager and they have solved their common problems.

Think Global, Act Local : Alcan

The main theme of this article is : International. This is a very important in the Alcan group because this international company has different activities in 55 different countries.

In each country, Alcan has to combine its corporate culture and the local culture.

Fortunately, the principles of Alcan are concretely applied everywhere. This good mixing between the ethical values and the different cultures worldwide procures a big advantage for Alcan .

The “We All Can” program is a very good example of this international aspect. Indeed, we are students from some countries of Europe. Have a look at the nationalites of the other participants. Valentina comes from Italy, Sina from Germany, Aymen from Tunisia and Andreas from Switzerland like me.

Alcan values : What I saw

I am going to tell you my impressions about some Alcan Values. You can find the description of all of them on the Alcan website.

These values concern all the activities of the Alcan Group and they are the same in all the countries.

For each value, I have written what I saw and felt during my Alcan Days.

Accountability, Integrity and Security : All the Alcan group is very openly accountable for his actions and behaviour. For example, security is extremely important in this company and I really saw that with my own eyes. When I went to the first « Alcan Briefing », somebody explained to us some security advices and where were the emergency exits… like in a plane ;-) . During my second Alcan Day, I saw that in front of every factory, there is a big panel with the number of days for the last accident… Another interesting point is that when a big accident happens to one the 88’000 employees, the CEO of Alcan sends an e-mail to everybody In the aim of describing the accident and saying that everyone needs to be very careful to avoid a new accident.

Teamwork, Results-oriented and Proactive : If you want to work by Alcan, you need to have some social skills because it is impossible to work alone. I felt that the athmosphere was really « results oriented » and all the Alcan employees went in the same direction. Moreover, I was surprised to discover that lots of officies are « open space » and it is very useful for the teamwork. Another interesting point is that I never felt a big hierarchical pressure. Indeed, when there is a business or technical problem, all the concerned people do the maximum to solve it. You hierarchical position doesn't really matter (Have a look to the comment of my coach. It is very interesting)  For example, although Huu-An Pham and Bertrand Daru (the marketing manager of Alcan Packaging) don’t have the same hierarchical rank , they were discussing about a financial problem concerning the negative EVA of a tube as if they were friends. I think the reason of this nice athmosphere is that the first objective of the employees is to reach a COLLECTIVE goal and not only individual performances.

Trust and transparency : If the employees prefer keeping the important information for themselves because they want to perform better than their colleagues, it is impossible to work in a team and to reach a collective goal. Fortunately, in Alcan it is exactly the opposite. One of the reasons why teamwork is so effective is that the employees have trustful relationships.

It is also very transparent because every month the employees have a meeting with their boss to discuss about their work, their success or failure, their relationships with the other colleagues… For example, when Huu-An has this kind of meetings with his boss they speak very openly and in a constructive way.

 

International aspects of Key Account Managment

If you ask me : “which job is really an international one ? ”, I will answer without any hesitation : "Key Account Manager".

Why ?

As Huu-An often said, the Key Account Management is a job of details. You have to think about lots of different aspect of a problem. Every little detail is very very important because a KAM is in contact with lots of different persons and each one has her own particularities and wishes. You have to satisfy all your speakers and they come from different countries around the world. This international aspect means that the KAM needs to have very good capacities of adaptation.

This little list is more interesting than a big speech or article. I was with my coach during only two days but he had contact with…

• Vietnam : it is the country where my coach was born.
• France : He lives and works near Paris.
• USA : Huu-An has to make a phone conference every two weeks with his counterpart Norman Stanley, the KAM of Y&Y in USA.

• Canada : The headquarters of Alcan are in Montreal

• Italy : During my second Alcan Day, my coach had production problems with an overloaded factory in France. So phoned the heads of an Italian factory to transfer the production.

• Poland : Alcan is building a new factory in this country because the European production is rising up.

Clients and Suppliers of a KAM

This topic concerns the relationships between my coach Huu-An and his colleagues. I’m not going to speak about Cebal but about my coach as an independent element of a big commercial and information system.

So if you read my last posts about the Key Account Management, the job of Huu-An, you will quickly understand who his clients are. They are Y&Y and JR. It is two big international companies who are in contact with my coach to do business. Indeed, they negotiate with him directly when they need to buy some tubes.

Moreover, I think we can also consider as clients the people of Cebal who use what Huu-An produces. Do you remember the “Key Account Plan” ? If you don't, click on the link because it is a good example. This document is used by the strategic management to know all the clients of Cebal.

So remember, a KAM has two kinds of “clients” :

-         Internal clients: It is the “top management” of Cebal. They use the information that Huu-An and all the other Key Account Managers have collected about the tubes market, the needs of the clients, the future opportunities, the business evolution with the clients, … These are vital information for the strategic orientation that Cebal will take in the future. For example, Robert Devos, the N+2 of my coach could be considered as a client.

-        External clients: They are the “real” clients of the Key Account Managers. The ones of Huu-An are Y&Y and JR.

It is more difficult to determine the suppliers of my coach because he interacts with lots of different colleagues. As said before in my last posts, a KAM needs to collect data from lots of different sources. Huu-An has to work as a private detective… I think we can consider these different sources of information as suppliers. Indeed, my coach needs them to “produce” his Key Account Plan. He also has to possess all these data to do good business with Y&Y and JR.

Suppliers = Sources of information

- Internal suppliers: the marketing department, the finance department, his counterpart KAM in USA, the archives of Cebal,…

- External suppliers: the media, the public data that concern Y&Y and JR, the friends, and perhaps ... Elisabeth Teissier ( ;-) no of course I joke)

My Alcan Day : Headquarters

I reassure you that I am not going to describe to you all the slightest details of my trip in TGV and RER. I am going to tell you the essential points of what I discovered during my two “Alcan Days”.

Monday, the 7^th of March 2005

5.48 am : My TGV left Geneva. Because of the snow, the train arrived late in “Paris Gare de Lyon” at 10.45 am. Then I took the RER to Genevilliers. I met Huu-An at 11.30 am in the building “Le Signac” where are the offices of Cebal-Tubes and where works Huu-An.

Huu-An introduced me to his colleagues and hierarchical superiors. At the beginning he explained exactly the concepts of the “We AllCan” progam but afer 6 or 7 persons, he summarized a little bit my presence like the famous French TV broadcast “Vis ma vis”. It was a good and quick example of the program.

We were all hungry so we ate together in the canteen of the “Signac” building. The food was good and the discussions with the colleagues of my coach were very interesting. We didn’t speak about the bad weather but about the future of Alcan in Europe and about some cultural aspects of Alcan like the security or the place of the human in such a big company. I am going to give you more details in my blog about these interesting subjects next week.

So after the dinner, we returned to the offices and Huu-An explained to me the “core business” of his job. As a Key Account Manager, he has two big clients of Cebal-tubes. I couldn’t give you the name of these clients for confidential reasons but I assure you that you use their products every day. So in this blog the name of these two clients are fictitious: JR and Y&Y.

 

During the afternoon my coach presented me his job. Firstly he showed me two documents, two “Key Account Plans”. One of this booklet for JR and the second for Y&Y. There are in these documents all the necessary information about the two international companies. Hu-Ann needs to be very attentive at the slightest detail or the slightest change in the strategy of his customers. He needs to know them very well if he wants to do good business with them. It is not easy to do a “Key Account Plan”, Huu-An has to collaborate with all the other departments of Alcan and all the departments of his customers, that is why he has a very multidisciplinary team. There are some basic information like the position of the client (leader, challenger,…?)in his market, his growing rates, his sales, his future strategies, the different articles in the media. These things are public information even if it is sometimes difficult to find them. The KAM is also a work of investigation. When he has all the data he needs, my coach can make projections and SWOT analyses. These kind of marketing analyses about JR and Y&Y are very useful to Huu-An. SWOT means: Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

So the “Key Account Plan” for each client is very important to a KAM because this document summarizes all the information about them and all the past relationships between them and Alcan.

 

However, a KAM has lots of other tasks. It is the KAM who negotiates the contracts with the clients. For example, during this first Alcan Day, Huu-An explained to me that he was negotiating big contracts with Y&Y. It is not as quick as the negotiations you make in the Souk of Marrakech during your holidays when you want to buy a lovely Molex watch or a Louis Wuiton bag. For the big contracts, Huu-An is negotiating for weeks.

During this afternoon, my coach phoned Y&Y to conclude a “gentleman agreement” with them to finalize a future contract. It is impossible to negotiate all the data of the contracts in one time so they elaborate the content of the future contract by some “gentleman agreements”. Only the final contract will have a real value but Alcan has trustful relationships with his clients.

In this contract, there were information about the sizes, the prices, the colours and all the characteristics of 50 different tubes.  

Then, Huu-An had a phone conference with his counterpart KAM of Y&Y in USA, Norman Stanley. They were discussing about Y&Y and how they would work with it. The goal of these phone conferences is to share the “best practices” in all the Alcan group. I will post an article about this next week.
As you see, if you want to become a KAM, you have to know how to use a phone.

But, there are also some real meetings. In the same afternoon, my coach and his N+1 have organized a meeting because they had a problem. Cebal-Tubes had lost some money with one of their products and they did not really know why, so they wanted to find a solution. I still don’t know if they have solved this. Another problem concerned the production delays of some tubes. These delays were too long and Huu-An had promised shorter delays to his clients.

 

So at 6 p.m. we left Gennevilliers to go to two Alcan factories near Rheims. It was the evening so we slept at the Mercure hotel. We had a very good dinner.