25 Most Influential - Interview with Barbara Kahn, Professor of Marketing, Wharton
Monday, October 20, 2003SUSIE GHARIB, NBR ANCHOR: Nightly Business Report will soon mark its 25th year on public television. And to celebrate that distinction, we have joined with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to select the most influential business persons of the past 25 years. Our viewers submitted over 700 nominations. Now a panel of Wharton judges will make the final selection, which we will announce early next year. Joining me now to discuss leadership is Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at Wharton. Hi, Barbara.
BARBARA KAHN, MARKETING PROFESSOR, WHARTON: Hello.
GHARIB: Let me begin with talking about one of the characteristics of leaders, which is people who come up with new business opportunities or look at existing businesses and then fully exploit them. What would you say is the mindset of those kinds of leaders? What makes them think that way?
KAHN: I think leaders like that are really creative in a different sense than the creativity you might associate with artists or with performers. They're able to see things differently. They're able to examine an idea in a different way and recognize the value to customers by looking at it in a different way.
GHARIB: Well, you know, there are a lot of people - businesspeople, who come up with let's say a new idea. But it's not necessarily successful, so what is the kind of leader who can take an idea and really make it work?
KAHN: First of all, you have to recognize, in a business environment, that it's something of value to the customers. And then you have to believe in this idea. So an example of something like this would be Mary Kay Ash who had the creative idea of thinking about selling cosmetics directly and also utilizing a workforce that hadn't been used before, women, housewives generally. And then she motivated them to sell this product. That was - and she motivated them in an unusual ways, using pink Cadillacs. So I think one of the things that makes a really successful leader is to find this creative idea, believe in this creative idea and then motivate the organization to follow through on the creative idea.
GHARIB: Barbara, how important is branding in terms of creating new business opportunities?
KAHN: Well, if you have a clear brand image that offers something that's differentiated from competition, a brand can be a huge advantage in building your business. A very good example of that is what Andy Grove allowed to happen with Intel (INTC) Inside. This was a very creative, out-of-the-box idea. At the time of Intel Inside, it was considered ludicrous to brand a component inside the computer. But he recognized the advantage, the long-term advantage of branding that component. And that's been part of Intel's amazing success over the years.
GHARIB: Now, we've seen that some leaders brand themselves. We see this a lot in the fashion world, whether it's, like, Calvin Klein or Donna Karan, but also in the business world like Michael Dell and Dell Computer (DELL). How powerful is this as a way to build a company?
KAHN: Well, this kind of brand that's tied to an individual can easily be a double-edged sword. So when the individual is there associated with the company, being very successful, it's a very powerful tool because it's not only a simple, clear idea, but it's also associated with a dynamic person. But the brand can then become too tied up with the person and not exist independently of the person, or if the person gets into trouble, like someone like Martha Stewart (MSO), obviously, there can be repercussions from having the company too closely associated with the brand of the leader.
GHARIB: And we've just seen that. Well, thank you very much. Interesting talking to you.
KAHN: Oh, thank you.
GHARIB: We've been speaking with Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at the Wharton School.
