Emory Business: You’re both professors in the Marketing department. What sparked each of you to pursue a career in this field? 

Reshma Shah: I went into this field because my father was in this field. I tried pretty much everything that I could to not be an academic. I did consulting and brand management—even considered law—took the certified public accountant test. But the pull was too strong.  

When I was an undergrad, I found this area to be the most compelling because I wanted to know more about the psychology behind what drives people, how they think and make decisions, and how they buy things. I remember dad doing little experiments on us when we were at home and just finding them to be really interesting. 

Jagdish Sheth: For me, it was totally accidental. My undergraduate was primarily accounting, history, and statistics. I got turned on to psychology during my MBA. I always enjoyed understanding what motivates people. 

Emory Business: Reshma, how did you feel when you joined the faculty—and your father—here at Goizueta?

Reshma Shah: I was thrilled. For about three years, while finishing my doctorate, I drove by the Goizueta building as it was being constructed, and I kept saying, “That’s where I want to work.” 

Emory Business: And what do you think about it, Jagdish? 

Jagdish Sheth: I was overjoyed for a different reason. Not because she’s my daughter, but because she’s such a valuable resource for the university. I watched her as a counselor as an undergraduate, counseling the freshmen who came. She shared letters that came from the parents. She had a natural knack for counseling and advising outside of the classroom, which I think is equally important at a private university.  

At Goizueta, the size is small, so you can have a one-on-one meeting with students. I know that she will have a huge impact on human life.

We all believe very strongly that the purpose of academic life is to unlock the potential of others. That’s what she does. She still gets letters—30 years later—from someone saying, “You made a difference in my life.” 

Jagdish Sheth

Reshma Shah: Well, the other reason why he was so happy that I joined is that he was the shortest faculty member in the department until I joined.  

Jagdish Sheth: I always told her, if nothing else, become a stand-up comedian. She’s incredible, especially with accents.  

Emory Business: That skill is probably very beneficial in the classroom, too! What’s one project or research that you’ve done that the other has been particularly proud of? 

Jagdish Sheth: As I was organizing the department, we decided to go after consulting as an activity for MBA students. It’s also a very good recruiting tool because you identify bright people. I asked Reshma if she would like to manage the program, and she did a fantastic job.  

Reshma Shah: We turned it into a course called Goizueta Marketing Strategy Consulting (GMSC) and made it a program that was a real differentiator for the school. People from different parts of the world would say they heard of our program because of GMSC. The program’s success motivated the school to expand it to other areas and make it available to all of our MBA students. I still offer this course to my undergraduates, and it’s one of the most exciting things I do with them. 

Emory Business: I bet the MBA alumni who come back as judges enjoy the experience, too. Now, Reshma, what work of your father’s have you been most proud of? 

Reshma Shah: When he came to Emory, he started The Center for Relationship Marketing. My doctoral thesis was on alliances, so the work of that center was super exciting for me. Also, he’s been teaching a very popular and insightful class on global marketing for years, and this year, I’m finally going to sit in.

I’ve been saying it for years, but this fall, I’m going to sit in every single class to soak up his vast knowledge. I’m not done learning. My father teaches me new things all the time. 

Reshma Shah

Emory Business: Have there been any funny moments from you guys working in the same school? 

Jagdish Sheth: We sometimes have the same students in class, and I’ve found out that anything I say in my class is immediately sent to her—however they do it—but nothing comes from her class to me. 

Reshma Shah: It’s one-way espionage. The other funny thing is that some people won’t know that we’re related either ever or until after the fact, even if they’re taking both of our classes. 

Emory Business: They’ll know now! What do you do together outside of work?  

Jagdish Sheth: We like to travel quite a lot, even when they were young, because university holidays/breaks often match with school holidays. For spring break, we drive around and look at parts of America. In August, we’ll fly someplace. Then in December, we generally go even further out. We go to India every two years.  

These are the best experiences. We’ve been to New Zealand, South Africa, and the Galapagos Islands. Now, we are bonding even more because they’re empty-nesters, too. We get together more like friends every week. We just chat and have a great time.  

Emory Business: That’s wonderful! Do you have any other trips planned this year? 

Reshma Shah: We’re going to the Maldives this Christmas. We’re also going to India to celebrate dad’s 85^th birthday. He’s the oldest faculty member to teach at Goizueta, and we’re all so proud of that major milestone achievement. 

Emory Business: We’re glad you’re here, Jag! Happy early birthday! 

Reshma Shah: We’ve been talking about writing a book for the last 25 years. He just can’t get off his you-know-what. I’ve got the whole book written. I’ve got the proposal down. I have a publisher, but he just can’t work with me. He can work with everybody else. I think he’s a little intimidated.  

Emory Business: Those are fighting words! Last question: What’s one characteristic you most admire in each other? 

Reshma Shah: I would have to say bravery, resilience, and tenacity. Tenacity, I think, is an interesting word because you could replace it with other things, so it might be determination or motivation.  

Jagdish Sheth: Reshma is funny, kind, and caring. Her caring attitude comes through in mentoring. Resilient given what she’s gone through in her life; she’s able to bounce back.  

Reshma Shah: I thought the first word would be brilliant!  

Emory Business: Thanks to both of you for sharing with us today! Happy Father’s Day to all our Goizueta dads! 

At Goizueta, we make it our business to understand the current landscape, anticipate, and capitalize on successful positioning. Marketing is one of the ways we do that. Our Marketing faculty has a robust program of research and publication in the leading journals in marketing. Learn more here. 

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What started out as a way to help students succeed in a marketing competition ended up catapulting a small business into the big leagues.

As a student, David Feldman 08BBA, founder of the creative agency 3 Owl, excelled at team presentations and developing strategy and marketing for real-world clients. In Reshma Shah’s course Dynamics of Advertising and Promotion, Feldman worked with his classmates on a campaign for Subaru. Their campaign won first place among 12 competing universities, with Feldman one of a team of five selected to make the final presentation to Subaru executives at their headquarters.

The thrill of creating campaigns would lead Feldman to share his expertise with Goizueta students, and eventually, to start his own firm.

“Since his graduation, David has been helping me with my consultancy classes by providing teams with guidance on the development of their creative big ideas, their storylines and their digital programs,” said Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing. 

In 2013, as he was helping students, an assignment turned into an opportunity for Feldman. Mellow Mushroom, the pizza restaurant franchise, was the client. While aiding the students, Feldman did his own research. What he discovered inspired his own recommendations for Mellow’s brand and would be a big part of 3 Owl’s growth.

“I remember calling Reshma and saying, ‘Hey, the brand that’s stamped into the store is not the brand I see online. I’ve done my own audit of Mellow Mushroom’s digital presence and I have a lot of ideas on how it could be elevated to match their quirky brick and mortar brand.  What I wouldn’t do to work with them,’” Feldman lamented.

To his delight, Shah offered to connect him with Dawn Law 99BBA, then senior marketing manager at Mellow Mushroom. (Law is currently CMO for Farm Burger.)

Law invited Feldman to Mellow Mushroom’s headquarters, and with just a hint of trepidation, Feldman was determined to make the biggest pitch of his early career.

“At that point, all my clients were pretty small, teams of four or five people. And it’s me and my one employee and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness. What am I doing here? They’re going to laugh me out of the building,’” Feldman recalled.

But he was determined to try. Building on a history of working with clients who participate in food festivals, Feldman crafted a story that got the restaurant’s creative team humming. So much so that Feldman was invited to pitch a web redesign against more established agencies. His ability to combine web development, user interface (UI) design, and consulting won him the account. The website launched in the Fall of 2017 and exceeded expectations.

“The redesign won every restaurant website award, including restaurant website of the year from multiple sources,” Feldman said. “The ROI was huge. We helped Mellow roll out their online ordering, their first catering platform. It was a really awesome project.”

Thanks to the Goizueta network and preparation, Feldman said the win opened doors to clients all over the country. “That was a turning point for my agency,” he said.

Why 3 Owl?

Feldman has increased the size of his team and taken 3 Owl to the next level. The agency’s name stems from Feldman’s philosophy of creating brands.

“I like owls because they’re wise, but more important is the metaphor of seeing in the dark,” explained Feldman. “People don’t know what they don’t know. We help illuminate what our clients are missing. Even our website has a light mode and dark mode, so you can turn the lights on and off.”

But bringing clients into the light requires time. Feldman is a firm believer in storytelling. Crafting a story often requires a lot of discovery, employing marketing methods and ensuring all stakeholders are on the same page, especially where goals and dreams for the organization are involved. The culmination of this research ensures the essence of a business shines through in the branding.

For those seeking a quick transaction, this type of research-intensive approach is not always a good fit.

“Once, we had a client part ways with us because he said we were too strategic, which is the best compliment I’ve ever gotten,” Feldman said. But for the clients who understand the value of a strong brand, storytelling is essential.

Feldman said he learned a lot about discovery from former adjunct lecturer Joey Reiman’s class while at Goizueta. “Storytelling is based in some sort of truth, whether it’s the organization’s history or something historical or something in their vision that we can really lean into.”

The result is a firm on the move.

Greatest hits

When he’s not strategizing with brands, Feldman is volunteering his time by indulging in his second love, music.

As an undergrad, he spent hours in the Schwartz Center playing jazz and classical guitar. After graduation, a stint in corporate America, and then working for his father’s clinical research company, Feldman missed the artistic and creative.

He stumbled on the ATL Collective in its early days and watched as local bands covered the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album. Feldman cornered the founder to learn more about the organization and, not surprisingly, wanted to help shape its brand. (He even played in a few early shows.)

Ten years later, ATL Collective connects and empowers Atlanta’s musical community through building relationships, fostering education and promoting preservation. It aims to connect musicians with wider fan bases and provide the resources necessary to sustain musical careers.

For Feldman, this is an opportunity to connect his love of music with the creativity of business. Since that first fateful meeting, he’s not only played in some of the early sessions, but has helped build the brand for the organization and even produced a show at a Delta Air Lines hangar.

“We were covering albums and playing bigger rooms. Variety Playhouse fits 1,200. We went from really small to really big, covering more genres, bringing together more artists,” Feldman said. As the Collective grew, he had an epiphany — “everything we do is in service of the Atlanta music scene. Would we be better off – would we thrive – as a non-profit?”

“Last October we became a 501c3, which made so much sense. Leading with our mission has been a game-changer for ATL Collective and the opportunities it affords us.”

In addition, the Collective is focusing more on the artist and finding ways to support the musicians, from mental health workshops to monthly speaker events.

The shows are big productions, Feldman noted. “The best part is getting these musicians access to new fans, and the public still gets to benefit, but now you’re actually seeing a show knowing that the musicians are getting paid really well. Your money is getting invested right back into the music community.”

From aiding musicians to guiding student teams at Goizueta, Feldman finds joy in all of his connections.

“I still come back at least twice a year to lecture, and I’m always happy to have coffee with students and talk to them about marketing careers,” Feldman said. “Having built an amazing team at 3 Owl, I’m very, very grateful for the experiences I’ve had at Emory and beyond. It feels like that group project, except I get to present and make a career of it. This really feels like I’ve come full circle.”

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Jan Barton may be an accounting professor, but his “Design Thinking” class is shaking up the way students approach problem solving. This past spring semester, Barton led this new accelerated course comprising lectures and guided teamwork focused on an Emory strategic challenge. On January 25, six teams presented their final project to about 50 faculty members, administrators and students, centering on the students’ recommendations on how best to integrate liberal arts and business education into the undergraduate program. An ongoing, semester-long version of the course is slated for fall, with students across Emory University working on the school’s strategic issues.

Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean for undergraduate education at Goizueta, leads an undergraduate Entrepreneurship class that makes heavy use of lean methodologies and design thinking. The method helps assure that proposed venture attributes are closely aligned with customer preferences. For example, a student group last fall wanted to create an offering that would combine fitness and social interaction. Their original concept of locating a mobile bar outside of a gym was nixed by actual gym members that students interviewed. Through the more empathetic design thinking approach, they identified their target customers’ desire to separate working out from social events. The team was able to ideate and arrive at the creative solution of hosting invitation-only pop-ups where select gym members could meetup for active outings, such as scavenger hunts.

Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, teaches a marketing consulting practicum for second-year MBAs, as well as third- and fourth-year BBAs, focused on evidence-based research. The Marketing Consultancy Practicum – MKT 442 (for BBAs) and MKT 599 (for MBAs) classes were tasked with finding ways to increase millennial participation in IHG’S loyalty program and, in the process, doubling IHG’s growth rate by 2020. The MBAs traveled to London to collect data on UK millennials, while the BBA students stayed on IHG’s Atlanta properties to better understand the needs of US millennials. Ira Golub 19BBA, head TA for the course, notes, “The students have a unique ability to work with a variety of local business leaders and Emory professors alike to ultimately deliver viable recommendations to this year’s client.” The two teams made presentations to more than 25 Coke and IHG senior executives on April 26 at Coca-Cola headquarters.

—MAT

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Last year, Professor Jagdish Sheth turned 80 and shows no signs of slowing down. During this year’s commencement ceremony, he received the 2019 Thomas Jefferson Award. This prestigious award honors a faculty or staff member who has significantly enriched the intellectual and civic life of the Emory community.

For Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chair in Marketing, who has won a number of awards, the Jefferson Award holds a meaningful spot.

“This award is really special because it is selected by a committee of university-wide peers,” says Sheth. “Also, it is special because the Jefferson Award reinforces the mission of an academic, which is to unlock the potential of others.”

Helping others find that potential is a passion of Sheth’s and has fueled his research and teaching. The breadth of Sheth’s work and activities were detailed in a six-page nomination letter from Erika James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School, and seven others from across campus. The impact was not lost on the judges, all of whom are prior award winners.

“The committee was deeply impressed by the local, regional and international contributions Professor Sheth has made through his distinguished career at Emory,” says Carol J. Rowland Hogue, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor of Maternal and Child Health, professor of epidemiology and director, Women’s and Children’s Center.

Sharing in the celebration with her father was Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, who won the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

In other awards, Charles “Chip” Frame and Libby Livingston received the Donald R. Keough Award for Excellence. The award, named for and endowed by former Coca-Cola President and COO Donald Keough, is the school’s highest service award and recognizes extraordinary contributions by faculty and staff.

Ramnath K. Chellappa, associate dean, academic director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program and associate professor of information systems & operations, is this year’s recipient of the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education Award.

In the fall of 2018, The Goizueta Foundation contributed a gift to endow the Roberto C. Goizueta Award for Leadership. This award, which is the highest honor a graduating BBA or MBA student can receive, recognizes two outstanding students who are academically sound and have demonstrated leadership tied to the shared characteristics of love of learning, inspirational leadership, creative thinking, courage and commitment, transparency and trust, excellence, and integrity. In accepting the award, student recipients identify the faculty or staff member who has been the most influential in shaping their time at Goizueta. Both students and faculty receive a cash prize in recognition of their noteworthy leadership.

Roberto C. Goizueta Award for Leadership

Student Award: Willi Freire 19BBA
Faculty Mentor: Nikki Graves

Student Award: Ted Kietzman 19MBA
Faculty Mentor: Daniel McCarthy

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Real-world learning is one of the key components that make up many teaching environments at Goizueta. No matter the program, each professor tries to add an experiential learning element into their teaching process, including Reshma Shah, associate professor in the Practice of Marketing.

As an offshoot from the MBA Goizueta Marketing Strategy Consultancy course, the Marketing Communications Practicum has been designed specifically for BBA students.

Over the years, the BBA students have worked with a variety of clients, most from the food industry, including Church’s Chicken, Popeyes and Mellow Mushroom. However, this year, Shah wanted to try something new.

“I was getting to the point where the projects started to seem similar just in terms of overall recommendations and overall brand,” Shah said. “I wanted to bring a different experience and make it a little more exciting to the students.”

Shah reached out to The Coca-Cola Company’s Strategic Partnership Marketing group, which proposed a project of working with Carnival Cruise Line. Four teams of students were tasked to research what barriers exist for millennials going on cruises and then develop strategies to overcome those barriers.

“There’s a process for this consulting class, and it’s based on proven methodology,” Shah said. “They have to turn in deliverables on an ongoing basis which get reviewed by me and the client. They have weekly calls with the client to make sure they’re on track and the client is informed of where they are.”

In addition to Carnival and Coca-Cola executives coming to Goizueta to initially present the project, they made an extra trip to provide feedback for students during the midway checkpoints, an appreciated and unexpected occurrence according to Shah.

The class is designed for juniors and seniors who have already completed the basic core marketing classes.

“What we say is you supplement in what you already learned with the consulting process, marketing research and a framework for looking at creative problem solving,” Shah said. “We help them with client, project and team management, and we also teach them about communication whether it be oral or written.”

At the end of the semester, the student teams presented their findings and recommendations to Carnival and Coca-Cola senior management at Coke’s headquarters. Each team received a score from both clients as well as received a score for each paper submitted.

This year’s winning team was team Pier Pressure, which included

• Julia Spathis – Team Guide (Teaching Assistant)
• Jeffrey You – Team Lead
• Morgan Donnell – Presentation Lead and Team MVP
• Jacquelin Farrow – Quantitative Lead
• Eric Terry – Finance Lead
• Brooke Edwards – Treasurer/Client Liason
• Jack Connolly – Qualitative Lead
• Gabriela Vochocova – Secondary Research Lead

“I want them to think they were working on an internship so that this in not just another class,” Shah said. “This is what happens in the real world because it’s a real company, the problem is real and the work is in real time. I want them to really experience what it’s like to work for a major organization that they can probably end up working for down the road, like a Coke or a Carnival.”

After 11 years of teaching the course, Shah continues to see the class evolve from the new generations of students, to differing outcomes and even the variety of clients. However, what doesn’t change is the value students receive from the direct interactions with clients.

“I just love working on real-world scenarios and interacting with the clients,” Shah said. “When I know we’re doing something that adds value, and the clients use the recommendations that we give, there’s nothing more satisfying than that.”

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Coauthored with Mona Sinha and Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, Professor of Marketing Jagdish Sheth’s new book, Breakout Strategies for Emerging Markets, demonstrates how companies can succeed in these markets, unfazed by the ups and downs of the global economy. This book integrates insights drawn from extensive primary research worldwide, pioneering academic research and case development, practical consulting, and management experience. By observing how companies practice breakout marketing in emerging markets across the world and connecting their experiences to theoretical frameworks, this book traverses a creative path between theory and practice and introduces a new paradigm for marketing strategy. Breakout Strategies contributes to marketing thought and practice by offering eight strategies for companies competing in emerging markets.

Leadership isn’t about winning, according to a new book by Karl Kuhnert, professor in the practice of organization & management. Coauthored with Keith Eigel, Kuhnert’s book, The Map, explains great leadership is about making a contribution to family and friends, a community or organization, or the country or world. Based on decades of research on adult development, the book explains how individuals can take control of their own growth and accelerate progress in leadership, life, and legacy.

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One of the biggest challenges for companies to survive in today’s market is the constant uphill battle with changing consumer behavior.

In a recent panel hosted by the Emory Alumni Association and sponsored by the Emory Alumni Consulting Group, Emory alumni gathered to discuss the shift in consumer behavior, increased automation and how companies can adapt to these changes.

“Did you know that only 12 percent of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are still in business?” said moderator and Associate Professor in the Practice of Marketing Reshma Shah. “And last year alone, 26 percent of them fell off that list. Our hope is that we can begin to address the trends that are impacting business and learn from our panelists what their organizations are doing as a result.”

Companies and employees have had to learn how to shift expectations, including Bahar Magnuson 09MBA, first vice president of corporate strategy and investor relations at SunTrust Bank.

“Banks right now are throwing resources at trying to keep up with technology and staff for it,” Magnuson said. “What’s happening is that branch traffic is going down significantly and banks are trying to figure out, “Okay, which branches do we leave open?” The whole financial services industry is dealing with lower branch traffic and the increased need for better technology.”

Technology is a driving force behind companies and consumers adapting to change. In fact, Nicole Franks 02MR, the chief quality officer at Emory University Hospital Midtown, said health care is constantly having to adapt to patients finding new technology to avoid appointments and wait times at doctor offices.

“You can unplug your smartphone right now and say, ‘Why am I sick?’ and there will be something to help you self-diagnose,” Franks said. “Our patients are now doing more to figure out what’s going on with them. There’s lots of change in the way that you can access health care, what information you can get before you decide to speak to a person and if you really do want a person.”

Adding and adapting to technology can certainly help a company, but sometimes that technology can end up hurting the company as well. Claudia Howard 10MBA, global manager at The Weather Company, has seen this firsthand.

“The website disrupted the channel and the numbers are very down because the numbers started going to the web,” Howard said. “And everybody got a phone, and the app disrupted the website. There’s a lot of cannibalization going on with our own business by the different products. There’s a huge learning curve that I think internally we saw happen with the evolution of platforms.”

One item thrown around quite a bit in companies is the term “Big Data.” 10MBA Kate Carpenter, senior brand manager for Coca-Cola Trademark, said the amount of data companies have access to is unprecedented.

“With power comes great responsibility from a legal standpoint,” Carpenter said. “We’re collecting so much of what we call ‘personal identify information,’ and there are such strict laws about controlling that because people want their sense of privacy. How we provide our consumer with an amazing experience requires their data.”

As far as collecting data, several companies are tapping into automated learning. Erin Shepherd 17MBA, senior manager at consulting group iris Concise, said it’s more important to collect useful data so companies can make mundane tasks more convenient for customers and build better experiences.

“What we’ll do, depending on the client if they have collected the data, is set up and organize the data and what it will be used for,” Shepherd said. “We won’t get the personal identifying information. We’ll get it anonymized and then we will take that and develop those insights to ultimately create those experiences.”

Changing technology can create changing environments for companies. Workforces turn over and reorganizations might happen more frequently.

“People in the workforce, in general, realize that the days of putting in your 40 years at a company and collecting your gold watch are gone,” Carpenter said. “I think the reorganizations have made a lot of the workforce a little bit uneasy, but I think the younger workforce is feeling very empowered. It’s finding people with the right skills who want to be here and want to do that job.”

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“It’s what employers are requesting, so that’s what we are preparing them for,” says Anna Hobby Gibbons, BBA advisement and academic programming director. “We want to give them the confidence to say, ‘I may be working at a marketing firm, and my job may be data analytics, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pull on something I learned in accounting or finance.’ We want to give them the confidence that they have a very strong business foundation and toolkit to access.”

Overseen by Charles Frame, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, the course requires students to complete two modules led by various professors. The following examples suggest the diversity of faculty offerings:

• Business law professor Allison Burdette directed a module asking students to explore water rights amid the Flint, Michigan, water crisis.

• Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, teamed up with a professor from Kennesaw State University to offer a creativity and innovation class that focused on idea formation.

• Tom Smith, assistant professor in the practice of finance, led a module on healthcare and hospital bed needs.

• In partnership with the Harlem Globetrotters, marketing professor Mike Lewis spearheaded a module asking students how a brand can remain relevant while staying true to its history.

• Deloitte, one of the industry firms involved, asked students how to reposition yesterday’s department store for success within today’s marketplace.

Students, who meet on Thursday evenings, are divided into groups and presented with a problem to resolve. On Friday morning, students return to continue their work. That evening, teams present their solutions to a council of professors, industry professionals, and peers.

As Gibbons explains, “All of this takes place in less than 24 hours, and that’s a major goal of the program. Our students are very comfortable with knowing at what point they must turn in a polished assignment. But what happens when you get that 4:00 p.m. phone call on Friday and your boss wants it by Monday? The capstone course is nontraditional, but it’s a really cool experience for the students.”

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In addition, the conference featured panel discussions on topics related to this year’s theme, “What Unites Us is Greater than What Separates Us,” and a digital update from speaker James Andrews, entrepreneur and former vice president of Ketchum Digital.

February also saw the return of the Undergraduate Business School Leadership Conference, which hosted student leaders from 23 top-tier business schoolsfrom points across the United States and as far as Spain, Mexico, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates. The keynote was given by Rick Gilkey, professor in the practice of organization & management and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory’s School of Medicine. Gilkey spoke about the importance of self-awareness and cognitive and emotional intelligence in business leaders. Students also participated in an interactive session on crisis management, led by Dean Erika James and Ken Keen, associate dean of Goizueta’s leader development program and a retired lieutenant general.

In March, Goizueta hosted The Science & Art of Sports Business: An Emory Goizueta Business Analytics Forum. Faculty members served as moderators for panelists from an illustrious list of companies, including the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, The Coca-Cola Co., Experience, Turner Sports, NBA Digital, and more. Panels and presentations were focused on sponsorship, customer engagement, and the ever-expanding arena of eSports.

The 6th annual EmoryMAC Conference also took place in March, giving students, faculty, and marketing professionals the opportunity to learn about topics such as mobile marketing, loyalty analytics, and unstructured data analysis. Presenters included Goizueta faculty and speakers from Chick-fil-A, SAS, Converge, and Equifax. Trevis Litherland, principal data scientist for Equifax, discussed how he uses a wide variety of data and patterns to aid the company in creating credit scores. Goizueta professors Michelle Andrews, assistant professor of marketing, and Mike Lewis, associate professor of marketing, presented insights gained from field experiments and talked about why companies might want to use field data instead of just focus groups. Lewis pointed out that existing data from focus groups and other sources can sometimes create assumptions that may not be true. “I think it’s very important that once in a while we check ourselves and say, ‘Let’s do these field experiments, let’s generate new data, let’s treat marketing as a learning organization,’” he said.

The Goizueta Marketing Strategy Consultancy (GMSC) marked its 25th year in March. At an event celebrating the anniversary, GMSC faculty advisor Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, was honored for her 20 years of leadership. What began as a marketing competition has evolved into a cornerstone of Goizueta’s experiential learning program. Sanibh Aryan 16MBA says GMSC students get to tackle “real-world problems and provide solutions to the world’s biggest firms while being supported by the school and the faculty in our endeavors.” Aryan says the experience includes the highs and lows of teamwork and great satisfaction when the client is happy with the results.

“GMSC was by far the most beneficial class I took at Goizueta,” adds Brian Berkowitz 16MBA. “A real-world, multi-month engagement, the GMSC process furthered my leadership development, improved my client relationship skills, and made me ready for day one of my consulting internship.”

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