Content & Faculty
RIGOR, RELEVANCE & RESULTS
SMART PROGRAM DESIGN
The GCP combines relevant theory with real-world application. The mix of renowned professors and experienced practitioners offers the diversity of approaches and opinions that keeps seasoned sales professionals interested and engaged. Moreover, the program is highly sensitive to the demanding role of the GAM, boasting a schedule that provides academic rigor while being sufficiently flexible to enable students to keep up with the demands of their “day-job”.
HIGH IMPACT METHODOLOGIES
A highlight of the GCP curriculum is the use of the Case Method of teaching. By engaging students in business conflicts developed from real events, cases immerse them in the challenges they are expected to face. The GCP features custom-developed cases, all dealing with a critical aspect of strategic customer management. The challenges presented require thoughtful analyses with limited or even insufficient information, and demand decisive action that must be articulated –and even defended – among other talented, ambitious individuals.
INDEPENDENT STUDY
As participants expand their knowledge, their learnings are put to use immediately to contribute to both their customers’ and their firm’s profitable growth and market competitiveness. The most tangible evidence of this is a student’s completion of the Value Creation Project (VCP), a concrete business case and individual action plan to generate measurable value for both customer and supplier.
New Skills = New Value
The Value Creation Project (VCP) is a unique and critical component of the GAM Certification Program that delivers tangible results. The VCP constitutes in-depth, highly practical project work conducted on an individual basis by each participant under the guidance of the GCP faculty and the student's own management team. As participants expand their knowledge and skills over the five-module program, the VCP serves as their vehicle for putting those learnings to use to contribute to both their customers' and their own company's profitable growth and market competitiveness. The VCP will represent a concrete business case and individual action plan to generate measurable value for both customer and supplier. Successful completion of the VCP is a mandatory requirement for completion of the program and awarding of certification.
Management Participation
The VCP provides a meaningful platform for executive engagement and management coaching of GAMs. Ideally, participants will work with both colleagues and supervisors to construct their business case. All participants will have the opportunity to present their VCP to the collective group with their senior management in attendance.
The GAM Certification Program features world-class faculty who represent decades of expertise in their respective fields of study and are recognized for their groundbreaking research. In addition, C-level executives from leading global firms and subject experts ensure insightful real-world perspectives on current and next practices in global customer management.
The GCP program is directed by:
Dr. Christoph Senn
Director CGAM: Competence Center for Global Account Management Research Institute for International Management (FIM-HSG) University of St. Gallen
Christoph Senn is the Director of the Center for Global Account Management (CGAM) at the University of St. Gallen and Chairman of the Account Management Center (AMC), a management consulting firm specializing in strategic customer management. A subject expert on global account management, his work has been published in California Management Review, Journal of Business Strategy, Harvard Business Manager, Wall Street Journal in cooperation with Sloan Management Review and other prominent publications. Prior to joining academia, Professor Senn served as global sales and marketing director in a manufacturing company where he also designed and implemented strategic and global account programs. In addition to the GCP, he serves as Director of the Global Account Management Executive Program (GAMPRO) with St. Gallen University, and as Co-director of the Strategic Account Management Program (SMP) with Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.