Mark Forret on global account management

In 2018, Dr. Mark Forret started exploring the key challenges and enablers within global account management, from the perspective of clients buying from the outsourced services industry. 

“I started to develop a hunch that after the global financial crisis in 2010, there was a growing misunderstanding among outsourcing firms about what client organisations viewed as important,” explains the ISS Global Head of Banking and Professional Services. 

As he investigated this area, Mark was struck by the lack of research that concentrated on the client’s voice: “The more I read existing literature on the topic, the more I realised there wasn’t a great deal written about global account management,” he says. “I found the topic of successful global account management, from a client perspective, to be underdeveloped—and there was nothing from the viewpoint of corporate real estate and integrated facilities management sectors.”

Mark seized the opportunity and undertook four years of doctoral research examining how client and supplier relationships operate. His thesis, ‘Centring the client organisation in global account management practice’, not only explores the key challenges and enablers within global account management—but also provides ISS clients with a conceptual model with core themes to consider when developing accounts between supplier and client organisations.

“I didn’t just want this to be a piece of theoretical work that would sit on a shelf gathering dust,” Mark says. “I wanted to get to a stage where the research findings could be used to inform practice.” 

Clients, culture and ‘the four Cs’
First on Mark’s agenda was hearing from corporate real estate clients themselves. To ensure his findings were based on the real experiences of those in the sector, he interviewed senior clients to find out what they valued most in global account management. Their responses resulted in the creation of ‘the four Cs’ conceptual model—made up of compatibility, competency, corporate governance and commercial outcomes. Each of these encompassed 22 themes that a supplier organisation should consider when structuring and implementing global account management. 

So, in practice, what does this mean for companies looking to develop strong and effective partnerships between clients and suppliers? For Mark, each stage of the model represents a step that supplier partners should explore in forming these relationships. He explains that it is essential to focus on compatibility and competency (what he calls the ‘foundational level’) before organisations can achieve their goals around corporate governance and commercial outcomes (which he describes as the ‘performance level’).

The most critical component for clients is to develop partner relationships based on trust. “Does the supplier organisation have the ability to partner with these companies and understand their culture—both formally and informally?” Mark explains. This compatibility stage is followed by competency. This refers to a supplier organisation’s ability to share best practices and harness scale benefits—with a key focus on leadership talent.

Next, transparency and consistency are essential to the corporate governance stage. One of Mark’s key recommendations at this stage is that supplier and client organisations have one main point of contact for an account to simplify communication. The final stage, commercial outcomes, focuses on how continuous improvement and innovation can help achieve customer satisfaction and improve costs. 

Bolstering best practice
Guided by insights from his thesis, Mark has developed a tool for “account health evaluation” that is now being used with ISS clients. 

“It takes the conceptual model and the themes within it and allows ISS to evaluate existing client—supplier relationships,” he explains. “It highlights how they score on a scale of one to five in each of those areas. From this, we can guide conversations with them based on what they see as important to their business and develop their current performance.”

This research is also helping ISS encourage discussions within the wider corporate real estate sector. “We’re able to strengthen our approach and incorporate these learnings into our leadership development so we can lead improvements on global account management,” Mark adds.

“If you’re a senior client, you won’t necessarily be able to spend too much time thinking about global account practice. So it’s good that our clients can be reassured that they will benefit from our expertise in this area—in a way that is tailored to their specific requirements.” 

After all, “what’s right for one organisation won’t necessarily be right for another,” Mark says. “It’s important that ISS stays close to how the world is changing our clients’ needs.”