I am the Richard and Jarda Hurd Professor of Distribution Management in the Marshall School of Business at USC. I received my advanced degrees at Indiana University in the late 1970s. I was on the marketing faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for five years prior to joining USC in 1984.
I am recognized around the world for my research on marketing strategy and channel management. I am one of the top contributors of all time to the Journal of Marketing, a prestigious journal established in the 1930s. I have also published and edited several books on marketing and marketing strategy.
I have been awarded teaching awards at Indiana University, the University of Illinois, and USC. My last award was in May of this year when I was given a Golden Apple Teaching Award for a second time in the Marshall School of Business. I teach courses in channel management, sales force management, and marketing strategy.
I have my own consulting firm. My first consulting assignment was in 1977 when I was a member of a team helping General Motors improve repair service operations at its many franchised dealers. Since that time, I have consulted and been an expert witness for many corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Arctic Cat, AT&T, Calphalon, Coca-Cola, Dacor, Gillette, Hasbro, Honeywell, HP, Joico, Lipton, MasterCard International, Merck, Microsoft, 3M, Mobil Oil, Nestle, Northrop, Playtex, Scotts’, Sirius Radio, Taco Bell, TRW, UPS, and Wal-Mart. In 2005, I consulted for the City of New York in a case involving the distribution of hand-guns by gun manufacturers and distributors. I assisted Janet Reno in evaluating the impact of Microsoft’s launch of Windows95 and MSN on the online services industry in 1995.
I have worked in franchised channels of distribution on a number of occasions. The General Motors project in 1977 centered on motivating franchised car and truck dealers to improve customer relations through enhanced repair service operations. My work for Photo-Graphix Systems in 1986 involved how to establish a franchise system for photographic business cards. I represented Valcom, a franchisor of computer products, in 1988 in a legal case against a rebel franchisee. I represented Santa Monica Honda, a motorcycle dealer, in 1996, in a dispute against Honda involving the placement of a new dealer in Culver City. In 1998 and 1999, I assisted Coca-Cola in ehancing its channels for carbonated beverages in China; improving management of 21 franchised bottlers in China played an important role in the project. I worked for Taco Bell in 2000 on advertising practices.
