KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT: Using key accounts as partners to get to the learning organization

This article presents the concept of the “learning organization” as a means to establish and preserve competitive advantage. This concept, relatively new and most familiar to those who specialize in organization studies, is defined and described in practical terms. One of the most difficult aspects of developing a learning organization is maintaining an outward focus, as the marketing concept demands. Maintaining communications with the firm’s key accounts is presented as the method for achieving an easier transition to the learning organization.