As a writer, I wear two sombreros. I teach marketing courses at Berkeley College, where I have been under contract for five years. I occasionally drift into New York University to teach an advertising course at the Paul McGhee Division for continuing education. Both are enjoyable academic gigs with drastically different student populations.

However, long before any academic affiliation, I had given talks to corporations, trade associations, conventions of various tones and textures, business schools, and on one occasion at the insistence of a former girl friend my eighth grade class reunion. Now that was a brutal audience to confront. I rather make a speech at the longshoremen’s union hall.

As former chairperson of the board of the American Marketing Association, I was in  demand as a speaker. It goes with the job. I spoke to at least twenty of AMA’s professional chapters and an equal number of collegiate chapters during my stewardship of the association. It was always more fun to rap with the college kids. It made all those rubbery chicken dinners a lot more tolerable.

My involvement with the American Marketing Association’s Edison Awards resulted in appearances on CBS News, CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg, numerous radio stations, and print media, including Wall Street Journal., New York Times, San Jose Mercury. Advertising Age, and Promo Magazine. The Edison Awards were established to recognize product innovation excellence. The experience made me wonder about the other side of the equation. So many new products fail. Alas! Failures widely outnumber successes.

So I decided to write a book about it:  Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things. I learned that flawed product innovation is everybody’s business--- shareholders, corporations, employees, and our country. Just look at our American automobile industry as a stark example of its widespread repercussions. Product innovation’s dire consequences

shapes our destiny. We believe that there is real value in public presentations of this issue, because it is an American tragedy.

Writers of business books have become commonplace on the speakers circuit. It is an important part of promoting their books. The prolific growth in public forums for speakers (conventions, conferences, etc) has created an ever increasing demand for public speakers. We do not work with a speaker’s bureau preferring to personally handle fee negotiations, terms of the engagement, expenses, schedule, etc.

There’s a lot of meat in Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Thing. This allows us to go down a number of paths in crafting speeches. We can simply talk about the eight most common mistakes associated with innovation initiatives. Or we can focus on the investor implications of these mistakes. We can focus on the global implications for America in the 21^st century. We offer solutions to this rather thorny problem. Contact us to determine which path is right for you.

We currently are discussing ideas for two new books. This excursion provides new material for speaking occasions. We also have some thought-provoking tidbits in the filing cabinets that have been successfully presented to professional organizations throughout the country. Things like “The ABC’s of Positioning: The Most Misunderstood Concept in Marketing “ or “Two Compelling Reasons Why Your Package Should be Red and White” These are not somber academic presentations. Our style is light, lively and definitely thought-provoking.

We have a mix and match menu for speeches but definite time constraints due to our teaching commitments. In October, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Marketing Association will find out Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things. Next spring will find us speaking to the Senior Executives Forum at Jacksonville University addressing the Jacksonville business community. There is still room for you. Contact either Cal Hodock or Tony Adams, and let’s talk because talking is our business in and out of the classroom.