【正文】 reading between the lines of what they are really saying。s future consumer purchasing power. Rapid economic growth will continue to transform the impoverished but largely egalitarian society of China39。 by 2025, the upper middle class will be 520 million strong, with staggering disposable wealth. For many multinationals, this is the market of the future. 6 The value of China39。s thrifty households tuck away a quarter of their aftertax ine—one of the highest saving rates in the world. Our research suggests that while the emerging middle class will continue to save heavily, they will also spend increasing amounts of money. Given the challenges of such a rapidly changing market, some panies have already had to think creatively about lowering product costs, reconfiguring business systems, and shifting to local sourcing strategies. Even a successful formula for current market conditions can soon bee obsolete, however. Companies that target current urban working consumers—say, by reducing prices and repositioning products for lowerend segments—may find that these customers will abandon the brands as soon as their pocketbooks allow. To avoid this trap, several panies have adopted multitiered branding strategies, enabling them to follow their customers up the ine ladder. Pamp。 reconcile differences, mediate in turf wars both in the customer anization and in their own. They must be capable of walking the corridors of power and know which buttons 11 to press, which strings to pull. As entrepreneurs account managers are not primarily concerned with enhancing product sales so much as with identifying opportunity, and with recognizing the synergistic potentials for bining the core petencies of both supplier and customer in joint value creation. The disruption that KAM causes to established anization structures and to entrenched political positions demands that senior management are entangled in the process. Getting Started Stage Companies who choose for this approach appoint cross functional staff for large accounts involving collaborative work who handle all aspects of the relationship. The pany‘s largest accounts may even get a strategic account management team, consisting of personnel who are permanently assigned to one customer and who sometimes maintain offices at the customer‘s facility. The Key Account Manager represents the emergence of a new anizational role that we have described as that of the political entrepreneur. High levels of expertise are required of Key Account Managers. These petencies are particularly evident in the areas of team work, change management, supply chain and logistics management. Also evident is the need to develop distinctive anizational, team and personal petencies that add value to the KAM relationship. Account managers must learn to cope with high levels of plexity and ambiguity. The anizational plexity inherent in KAM requires a balance between responsiveness and integration. Secondly, the adoption of Key Account Management requires adaptation of strategic approaches and management structures. Generic product management strategies have limited relevance within the context of account management and an over emphasis on petition may also be counterproductive. The development of strategies within businesstobusiness markets is concerned with the management of portfolios of customers rather than products。 Gamble lets shoppers design everything from eye moisturizer to liquid foundation makeup at its site. Engineers at Rockwell Collins use virtual online labs to tailor materials for fighterpilo9t visors. And Yankee Candle woos buyers with brightlyhued labels and 8 exotic scents they can mix and match for the right candle. Mass customisation will grow, being a necessity in some industries. Companies are approaching this new world with caution, and with good reason: The Web can find plenty of customers for madetoorder products, but retooling a factory to spit out thousands of faultless variations on a theme is no easy job. Nike for example spent six months working with suppliers in Asia to rejigger its manufacturing for custommade sneakers. Other panies, aware of the plications, start off with reduced offerings. Still, recipes for success are emerging. Industries such as clothing that can charge a premium for quality are a natural. Others, like golf clubs and hockey sticks, that deal with simple shapes also have an edge. For businesses rooted in databases, from creditcard panies to mortgage lenders, the race to the mass market of one is well under way. Customization not only expands markets but also allows businesses to charge more. Shoppers who spend hours in changing rooms hunting for the elusive fit are happy to pay triple the price of the offtherack products. Suppliers have to charge more to cover the higher cost of making customized clothing, but are hoping that as the custom operation picks up steam, highercapacity manufacturing processes will lower the cost per unit, boosting profit on the premium line. Financial services are naturals for customisation too. Creditcard and mortgage panies already traffic in digital information, so they can whip up loans to fit a wide range of specific risk profiles – and charge personalized prices as well. The payoff, though, can stretch beyond sales. Masterfoods USA has picked up marketing ideas and is now testing new colors in some retail markets. For Xmas, along with the famous ―M‖ on its candies, it will print messages such as ―Ho Ho Ho‖ . Want to see your name on a batch of aquagreen Mamp。s poorest, will steadily climb the ine ladder, creating a new and massive middle class. Because they are now still relatively poor, serving them will naturally require a pany to change its strategy significantly. Early movers, such as CocaCola and Pamp。s cities for higherpayin