Professor profile
Marc Day is an associate professor at the Henley Business School (University of Reading), specializing in purchasing and supply management
1. What area of research are you currently working on?I’m currently doing two projects. The first of these is to assess whether an organization’s purchasing team has any effect on the financial and operational performance of the company as a whole. The second one is designing a much better process for segmenting suppliers, so that different groups of suppliers can be more effectively managed.
2. A management book you think highly of (written by someone else). Why? Strategy Safari by Henry Mintzberg (1998, Free Press/Simon & Schuster). People often under-estimate strategy as a word, and as a group of actions that shape the direction of a business. Mintzberg does a good job at opening people’s eyes up to the reality of strategic management.
3. A very recent business or management title you read, and its significant lessons.Scotch Missed: Lost Distilleries of Scotland by Brian Townsend (2004, Angel's Share). It’s a book about the whisky business – it profiles a variety of different defunct distilleries, and explains why they died out. It tells us that resting on your laurels (brand, marketplace domination) will only last so long. Enduring companies/brands pay constant attention to the customer, and can take risks sometimes to open up new markets or rejuvenate themselves.
4. What is one of your well-liked teaching moments (case, discussion topic, …)? It isn’t an ‘approach’ as such, it’s about seeing three things in my class; a really noisy discussion environment, a passion for my subject from students, and the ‘a-ha’ moment expressed on a person’s face.
5. What was your most interesting consulting assignment? Why? I did a consulting job for a telecoms provider, with the aim of patching up their relationships with a key customer. At the start of the meeting they hated each other (you could see it on their faces!). By the end they’d parked their differences and had a plan of action for making the relationship work better. I facilitated the brokering of the plan. Very satisfying.
