Measuring Performance in Marketing

One of my intellectual mentors, John Kenneth Galbraith, whose ancestry is good Scottish Calvinist, in a newly published essay argues that major corporations are run by their managements largely for their own benefit, and without public control or oversight. If he is right, sooner or later the public, the consumer, or those that represent them, like the New York Public Prosecutor (District Attorney, currently in vigorous pursuit of the senior management of Enron Corporation), may demand an accounting and some system of oversight. In an increasingly competitive environment, new members of the European Community will be aware of the need to adapt their management skills not only to the standard set by best practitioners, but also to the need for public accountability. Michael Thomas