Real-world Edge: Program brings classroom theory to life

Lisa MacPherson, senior vice president for worldwide marketing at Fisher-Price, led students through an eight-year retrospective that detailed the market identification, launch and refinement of Fisher Price's very successful make-believe kitchen center.

"This product came to be the way all successful products come to be," said MacPherson, a graduate of UB's Executive MBA program. "We met an unmet consumer need. That's where all marketing begins."

MacPherson's story about the rise, fall and rise again of the toy included actual company memos, market studies and analysis of competitor Little Tykes' attempt to capture the same market. She detailed modifications made to the product, and its advertisements, in response to focus group studies and a decrease in the toy's retail sales. She also demonstrated how the kitchen center regained its market share after beating back "the enemy" Little Tykes' hold on an affluent consumer segment that threatened Fisher-Price's core franchise.

"Her presentation added an element of realism to the theories we learn in the classroom," said MBA student Chuck Giarrizzo. "It tied together bits and pieces of theories and showed that they're really being used in the business world."

MacPherson's talk was the latest example of the MBA program's "Adopt-A-Course" component, in which prominent Western New York executives lend practical business expertise to courses taught by School of Management professors. The goal is to bridge the gap between the classroom and the corporate workplace.

Arun Jain, professor and chair of marketing, said he believes the program gives students a better understanding of the complex decisions that managers make daily and a better appreciation of how business concepts provide a foundation for those decisions.

"Students appreciate more the value of what's on a professor's yellowing pages when they see those concepts demonstrated in the real world," said Jain. "It makes it more meaningful and relevant."

Other companies that have "adopted" courses at the School of Management include Price Waterhouse, Graphic Controls, Cymphony Net, International Imaging Materials, Marine Midland, Westwood-Squibb and Xerox.

PHOTO BY FRANK CESARIO