Director's Message

Dear Members, Partners and Friends,

Having survived the Great Recession of 2009© with only minor bruises, at the Marketing Forum we remain hopeful that 2011 will bring us and you still greater success and prosperity in our various endeavors. At the Marketing Forum I am happy to be able to report that we have broken all previous records in the number of those who have become VIP members, and we continue to enjoy the enthusiastic patronage of many sponsors from the local business community. It goes without saying that I and our MBA students are most grateful for that support. The university recently raised our “overhead” to 25% of all monies the Marketing Forum receives, which puts even more pressure on us to meet expenses and still deliver programs that attract the interest and loyalty of our target market here in the Tokyo area.

During the past year I have written and lectured about consumer fatigue and indulgent parsimony as the current market malady and the treatment for that malady, respectively, and hope that in 2011 I can be more optimistic about consumer trends both in Japan and abroad. In the meantime, join us at the Forum and learn with us. You might even find your next marketing whiz among our latest crop of multilingual and multicultural MBA candidates. We look forward to welcoming you.

Kenneth Alan Grossberg
Professor & Director
Waseda Marketing Forum