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MMC Faculty Focus

Tom Collinger: Listening to the Customer

(Tracey Robinson-English) Today, all companies - large or small, media, service, or packaged-goods manufacturers - need to know their customers. Really know them.

That's why they turn to top-notch integrated marketing professionals to distill insights about customer behavior from mountains of consumer information, believes Medill's Tom Collinger.

By distilling these insights into actionable marketing and communications strategies, companies can better engage and entertain customers, said Collinger, a frequent lecturer in MMC's programs who is Associate Dean and Chair of the Integrated Marketing Communication's Program (IMC) at Northwestern's Medill School. A former Leo Burnett advertising executive, he is a widely recognized expert on integrated marketing communications, e-commerce, database and customer relationship management.

Collinger said marketers are in the midst of an unnerving revolution, on the verge of the first consumer-led recession in decades.

"This shift is not just here at Medill's IMC program," Collinger said. "It's a shift that has to do with how companies go about managing their brands - starting with analyzing consumer and stakeholder behaviors to better segment them, which ultimately allows for greater relevance." »more

Steven Rogers: Media Must Embrace Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship

(Tracey Robinson-English) Media executives struggling to manage their careers and reinvent themselves for today's changing media climate need to present big ideas in the workplace, put them to work and adopt entrepreneurial traits as part of their personal strategy to succeed.

That's the counsel that Kellogg School of Management Professor Steve Rogers regularly gives media executives in Media Management Center programs. Rogers, director of the Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice at Kellogg, is a successful entrepreneur himself and was named one of BusinessWeek's 14 "New Stars of Finance."

Rogers urges media executives to embrace innovation and take risks - like hiring younger and younger faces - even high school or college students - to create future products and think completely outside of the business.

"Who else is better able to talk about the future than young people? ...Don't limit yourself to the present product line," he said. "You have to give people complete freedom and don't say "No" to any ideas. Management is forbidden to say 'that idea is not part of our business.'" »more

Hank Price: The Price of Owning the Market

MMC's senior director, Hank Price, who is general manager of WXII-TV12 in Winston-Salem, N.C., is the subject of a new broadcast leadership profile - the first in our MMC Faculty Focus series on the remarkable people who teach in MMC's programs and work with us on research. The report, "The Price of Owning The Market," can be downloaded here. What follows is an excerpt of that report, written by Tracey Robinson-English.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - In this city of southern comfort is a guy who has led four powerhouse TV stations and supervised one of the highest-profile (but unsuccessful) attempts to transform TV news, at WBBM in Chicago.

He's now in the enviable and unusual position of running WXII-TV12, an NBC affiliate, that his group owners want him to use as a laboratory for the changes needed to compete in the digital age - a station that on his watch has risen from the ratings dump to the number one slot in every category.

WXII's makeover is catching the industry's eye against a backdrop of incredible sameness that is crippling television news nationally. »more

Tom Collinger

Hank Price

Steven Rogers

Coming Soon

Executive Program Focuses on Integration and Innovation

The many changes in the media are forcing media companies to push for efficiencies and innovation at the same time.

To meet that need, MMC has created an intense, innovation-focused two-week program called the Media Executive Leadership Program. It will be offered July 20-31 at the James Allen Center on the Northwestern campus.

In the middle of a devastating media recession where many newspapers and television stations are thinking only of survival, it is easy to overlook the fact that tomorrow's media organizations are being built today.

We already know some media companies will not survive. Others will so damage their brands that their future viability will be in question. Those that do survive will face a changed world, filled with great pitfalls, but also great opportunity.

In this unprecedented environment, media organizations must make one of two choices. The first is to do nothing - business as usual. Organizations that make this choice allow events and competitors to shape their destiny. Staying the same means giving up the opportunity to lead. What will be the result? Only time will tell.

The second choice is to apply proven strategic thinking and innovative ideas to traditional media brands. This approach involves moving beyond current cultural, platform and sales limitations. This second approach requires highly skilled change agents willing to use fresh thinking and the latest ideas to advance organizations into an important new world. If done right, the result will be a dynamic, forward thinking organization with the potential for incredible profits.

For almost two decades Northwestern University's Media Management Center has taken a leadership role in creating the future of media. With the resources of both the Kellogg School of Management and Medill, the Center occupies a unique role in international media development. Part research organization, part think tank, part educator, the Media Management Center is the clear leader in future media thinking.

We know the public's demand for news and information continues to grow. Some media organizations will take great advantage of this growth. They will build great brands that also result in great profits. If you are a change agent, willing to look at the world in a fresh way, then the Media Executive Leadership Program is for you.

Please download and return this application by July 6. Cost is $11,400, which covers tuition, materials, food, lodging and activity expenses - everything but transportation to Evanston.

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