Fusion for Profit: How Marketing and Finance Can Work Together to Create Value [Hardcover]

Sharan Jagpal (Author), with the assistance of Shireen Jagpal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0195371054 | ISBN-13: 978-0195371055

The corporate world is typically structured in silos. Managers urgently need to overcome this "silo" effect by fusing ideas across different functional areas in the firm. In Fusion for Profit, Sharan Jagpal, a well-known and highly respected multidisciplinary researcher and business consultant, explains in simple language using real-world examples how managers can use sophisticated concepts to fuse different functional areas in the firm, especially marketing and finance, to increase the firm's value. The author provides novel solutions to a wide range of complex business problems ranging from choosing pricing and bundling strategies, to positioning and messaging strategies, to measuring brand equity, to measuring advertising productivity in a mixed media plan including Internet advertising, to compensating a multiproduct sales force, to measuring the potential gains and risks from mergers and acquisitions. These concepts are illustrated using case studies from a variety of firms in different industries, including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Continental Airlines, General Electric, Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, and Verizon.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fusion for Profit is a one-of-a-kind exposition of how the fusion of marketing skill and financial discipline can drive shareholder value...This superb book is a must read for anyone interested in building businesses."--From the Foreword by Dinyar S. Devitre, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Altria Group Inc.

"Bringing marketing and finance together is a massive endeavor, making this book unique in its scope and the breadth of the topics it covers...In Fusion for Profit, Professor Jagpal brilliantly combines these seemingly disparate fields and proposes novel new theories and methods, many of them quite sophisticated. Even so, his ideas and messages are accessible to a wide audience." --From the Foreword by John A. Greco, Jr., President and CEO, Direct Marketing Association

"This book is one of the most original and thorough discourses I have seen on how business ideas from multiple functional areas can be integrated. It is lucidly written and provides many, many insights for managers, as well as more academically oriented readers in search of grounding. A remarkable contribution to the literature that not only makes one think deeper and broader about business but provides concrete ways to effectively approach and model the pressing business issues of the day."--Richard P. Bagozzi, Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan

"A required reading for practitioners and everybody who deals with marketing strategy... Jagpal's balanced exposition of theory and practice as it applies to the changing market conditions fills an important gap in the literature."--Enrique R. Arzac, Professor of Finance and Economics, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University

"Sharan Jagpal's Fusion for Profit breaks new ground in integrating marketing with the other functional areas of business-especially finance. Using a Q&A format Professor Jagpal takes the reader on an easily accessible journey that yields new insights. Among other "ah ha" moments one will see the financial input to the key marketing metrics as well as understand why some advertising is directed not at Main Street, but rather to Wall Street"--Donald G. Morrison, William E. Leonhard Professor, UCLA and founding editor of Marketing Science

"This excellent book is comprehensive, accessible, practical, and consistent with modern theory. It represents a fusion between marketing and finance, but also its approach is a fusion of qualitative and quantitative methods The methods of analysis are expressed with just enough detail to be incisive yet easily understood."--David G. Luenberger, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University

About the Author

Sharan Jagpal is Professor of Marketing at Rutgers Business School and president of Strategic Management & Marketing Consultants. He received MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University and a B.Sc. (Economics Honors) degree from the London School of Economics. He has taught Executive MBA, MBA, and Ph.D. courses at many universities in the United States and abroad including Columbia, the International University of Japan, and McGill. In addition, he regularly teaches executive courses for Rutgers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. He has served as an expert marketing witness and has consulted for major corporations as well as the United States government. He has published widely in top-tier journals in different fields including marketing, economics, and statistics. His many publications have appeared in such journals as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business, International Economic Review, and Journal of Classification. He is on the editorial boards of a number of journals and is the author of Marketing Strategy and Uncertainty (OUP, 1999), a book that has been described as "pioneering" by Harry M. Markowitz, Nobel laureate and inventor of modern portfolio theory in finance.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 664 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195371054
• ISBN-13: 978-0195371055
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and eye-opening- A new and better way of thinking and running a business, June 12, 2009

By 

L. Mueller "LM" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fusion for Profit: How Marketing and Finance Can Work Together to Create Value (Hardcover)

I had the pleasure of being in an intro marketing class taught by the author, and we used this book. It is easy to read, unlike his older, calculus-laden book. Every chapter has in it a moment where you realize that he has just taught you something that in your mind is almost revolutionary. I was so happy that this was the book we used for my intro marketing class and that we did not have to suffer through a "soft marketing" class, learning about the 4 Ps and Porters 5 forces and all that nonsense. Jagpal, dives right into not just marketing and not just finance, but business in general. By reading and understanding this one book, you will be far more advanced than most MBAs.

Jagpal is a genius, and this book makes it easy for you to see why. Looking to boost your career? Read this book, and try implementing some of his teachings; you will be promoted, your business will start to see higher profits, or both.

This was by far the best course I took in my MBA ciriculum, and even without Jagpal to teach you, this book is easy enough to follow that you can learn everything on your own.