vol. XXI no. 2 Page 1 2 Unprecedented!   V. Kumar, executive director of the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management, has become the first recipient of four American Marketing Association (AMA) Lifetime Achievement Awards. He is the only individual in the history of the organization to win more than two. Known for creating fundamental changes in the practice of  marketing strategy, VK, as he is commonly called, received the awards for lifetime achievements in  retail marketing and marketing research at the 2009 AMA Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference. He  previously was recognized in 2007 for lifetime contributions to marketing strategy and the understanding of inter- organizational marketing issues. “Having received four lifetime achievement awards is truly an extraordinary accomplishment,” said Robinson Dean H. Fenwick Huss. “It demonstrates how VK’s career has touched all facets of the marketing profession and how his revolutionary research has had an impact on the success of companies throughout the world.” Kumar is prominent within academic and business circles for his substantive and methodological contributions to marketing theory and practice, including his pioneering concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which has created fundamental changes in marketing strategy by demonstrating the business case for: • Managing customers instead of products • Focusing on the most profitable – not the most loyal –     customers • Basing marketing decisions on forward-looking metrics instead of backward-looking ones VK’s peers wrote that he won the lifetime achievement award for marketing research due to his “groundbreaking work in multiple areas including understanding the effects of choice and customization, strengthening decision support models, CLV, and reversing conventional wisdom about the path to profitability.” In addition to his role as executive director of the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management, Kumar holds the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair, is a professor of marketing and director of the Department of Marketing’s PhD program. Prolific in output, VK ranks among the world’s top five marketing scholars. He has published more than 125 articles and books, including Managing Customers for Profit: Strategies to Increase Profits and Build Loyalty (Wharton School Publishing), which is featured on page 9. Firms that have reported growths in profit due to implementing VK’s strategic framework include IBM, Procter & Gamble, and Prudential. For more information about VK and the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Managment, visit robinson.gsu.edu/cebcm. Continued on next page Top | Next Page

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