RIT Professor Eugene Fram to Discuss Marketing and Corporate Strategy

With the whirlwind changes in technology, organization and strategy, business firms are rethinking marketing performance and its relationship to corporate strategy.

“General Electric’s president recently remarked, ‘Marketing (at GE and other firms) had become a lost function during the 1990s,’” says Eugene Fram, J. Warren McClure Research professor of marketing in the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Fram will discuss “Marketing Isn’t Contributing to Corporate Strategy: What Needs to Change?” during the eighth biennial J. Warren McClure Lecture at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the Golisano Auditorium, B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (Building 70, Room 1400) on RIT’s Henrietta campus.

“Today, marketing activities have become so widely disbursed throughout American firms that its focus is now on providing tactical contributions rather than corporate strategy contributions,” notes Fram. “Marketing leaders must begin to foster major changes that will, once again, allow it to become a true strategic business partner.”

Following the presentation, two guest respondents will address marketing and corporate strategy issues before opening the floor to the audience. They are Brian Hickey, executive vice president and Upstate New York Areas Executive Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., and Dennis Mullen, former president and CEO, Birds Eye Foods. A reception will immediately follow the discussions, and the event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Donna Slavin at 475-2199 or dslavin@cob.rit.edu.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An advanced copy of Eugene Fram’s manuscript “Marketing Isn’t Contributing to Corporate Strategy: What Needs to Change?” will be available on Oct. 13.