David Kean

Co-founder of The Caffeine Partnership

David Kean has over twenty years experience running large multinational client relationships and specialises in business development. He has a track record of working with some of the world’s best organisations on their marketing, communications, sales and growth strategies – organisations such as BT, Reuters, McDonald’s, British Airways, Canon, General Motors, FIFA, P&G, BNP Paribas and Sony. He lectures extensively in Asia, Europe and the USA at both commercial and academic conferences and is the author of the international best seller How Not To Come Second - the art of winning business pitches and co-author of How to win friends and influence profit, due out in the spring of 2008.

In 2000 he took the advertising agency BMP DDB London to Agency of the year with a new business record that was described by Campaign magazine as “superb”. In that same magazine he was ranked as the most valuable new business specialist in the UK.

From 2000 to 2007, David spearheaded the European business development function of the biggest commercial unit within the communications giant Omnicom. Responsible for cross referral across the group’s companies, for developing the holding company’s relationship with key clients and for driving incremental revenue growth across the portfolio of 70 European offices, David has overseen a 154% increase in revenue growth derived from new projects won on existing client business in the last 5 years, and a 160% increase in cross referral activity over the same period.

In 2007, David co-founded The Caffeine Partnership, a consultancy dedicated to helping companies grow faster. Caffeine, as the name implies, provides its clients with a short, sharp and rapid injection of energy, ideas and new ways of getting things done to help turbo-charge their growth. It does this by providing strategic advice, training, coaching and hands on “doing” across anything to do with business growth: prospecting, winning new clients, pitching, earning new revenues from existing clients, cross selling, employee engagement, personal development and brand positioning.