Riding the global wave to international success.

Companies that do not develop an account management strategy for customers doing business internationally will experience the "global wave" crashing over them in the next few years, warns Howard Katzen, vice president, Major Accounts Marketing, Xerox Corp. "If you have customers operating overseas, and you don't sell to them there, you are missing a tremendous opportunity. The primary reason to go global is because your customers are."

Katzen believes businesses are coming to the end of a "creative destruction period" in which the focus has been on downsizing, total quality management, building knowledge about the customer, and process refinement. He sees corporations entering the "information services era" as they explore the tremendous opportunities of globalization.

His organization's relationship with Alphagraphics is what Katzen cites as leading Xerox to the global marketplace. The 26-year-old business-to-business design/copy/print company began international expansion in 1986 with its first shop in Hong Kong and it now has 70 shops in 20 nations, averaging five new countries a year. Today, Xerox products are installed in 90% of the Alphagraphics facilities worldwide. "If you listen to your customers, they will take you where you should...