The historic rift between marketers and the finance department, caused by marketing's reluctance to be accountable for what they do, is as marked as ever. This has resulted in marketing being increasingly sidelined by CEOs and moved out of the board room, but in the absence of market-based information, P&L statements are pointless. For marketing to regain their rightful place in the board room they need to be able to prove whether their marketing strategies are creating or destroying shareholder value, and in order to deliver shareholder value there needs to be a linkage between marketing, operations and finance.
Professor Malcolm McDonald MA (Oxon) MSc PhD D.Litt FCIM FRSA, until recently was Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director, Cranfield University School of Management, with special responsibility for e-business, and is now an Emeritus Professor at the University as well as being an Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School and Academic Advisor at Oxford College of Marketing. Malcolm is a graduate in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, in Business Studies from Bradford University Management Centre, and has a PhD from Cranfield University. He has written over 40 books, including the best seller 'Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to use them' which has sold more than half a million copies, and more than one hundred articles and papers
Commercial credentials
Coming from a background in business which included a number of years as Marketing Director of Canada Dry, Malcolm has successfully maintained a close link between academic rigour and commercial application. He has consulted to many major companies from the UK, Europe, USA, Far East, South-East Asia, Australasia and Africa, in the areas of strategic marketing and marketing planning, market segmentation, key account management, international marketing and marketing accountability. Malcolm is currently chairman of six companies and works with the operating boards of a number of the world's leading multi-nationals on all continents.