Dear (Business School Dean):
By way of introduction, I am Senior Vice President with our 20-year marketing research firm located in Atlanta. Paul and I worked together to develop materials for the marketing research section of his Marketing Management class.
Paul reached out to our firm during the summer to gain more hands-on knowledge about Marketing Research. Having had many interns over the years, I was very happy to help Paul develop materials to give his students insight into what really happens once they graduate into the “real world.” After several meetings with Paul, I was able to get permission from a client of ours to share an actual Marketing Research project that they had recently completed. Paul diligently went through 80+ pages of reports to develop an assignment on Marketing Research, and I reviewed the entire assignment and attachments with him to make sure our client remained disguised, but that there was enough actual content for the exercise to be meaningful to students. Basically, the students took our market research data, analyzed it to create a summary schedule, and then developed advertising story boards to communicate the key messages identified in the research. Paul sent me samples of the students’ work and I also was able to see other samples of his assignments including Search Engine Optimization and Marketing; and Segmentation and Targeting. It was clear that the students were learning important lessons that they can take with them into their careers.
The quality of business education and business school graduates is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. Paul was progressively teaching students to apply information from the classroom to the real world, a skill that is very much needed among business school grads these days and one that can differentiate your business school students from the rest of the pack. Additionally, I have read the student testimonials that show that they understood just how much Paul was teaching them and the value that would have for them post-college.
Sincerely,
