Real time bloggin: Curt Schilling Discusses ALS and Ankle Marketing

We had a very interesting conference call with famous Boston Red Sox's pitcher Curt Schilling today in Prof. Len Lodish's Entrepreneurial Marketing class. Len got Curt to dial into our class over the audio system. It was pretty cool having a chance to Q&A with Curt about what has become known as the Schilling Tendon Procedure.

For you non-sports fans, here's some history of Curt's career, as well as the context behind the 2004 World Series ALS bloody sock event:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Schilling

From Curt:
"I was originally thinking about writing Yankees suck on my ankle....(Laughs)...I have always wanted to figure out a way to give back to ALS. "

"This wasn't a brilliant marketing thing. It was a spur of the moment thing but it came from the heart."

"One funny thing: After the game, my teammates were asking me who "Al" was. This created an awareness that nobody would have ever dreamed would happen. When working in the charitable world, advertising dollars are hard to come by."

"I've been blessed by the Lord to throw a baseball at a really high speed...."

"Not a lot of people get the opportunity to impact a lot of others through their work, so if you have an opportunity to help others please try to do so."

Len was talking about word of mouth marketing being important for entrepreneurs, and this is a great example of real time bloggin' during class. It was not a great example of entrepreneurial marketing, but Curt left us with a great positive impression as a leader and as someone who stands up for what he believes.

-CP

Throwin' Down the Gauntlet! Donate to Our Class Gift

One of our class prom committee reps Sean has asked that I pump up the blog waves for our class gift at Wharton.

Some facts:
WEMBA West has only a 97% participation rate for the class gift versus a 100% participation rate for WEMBA East! (Sorry Sean, didn't read the rest...too much stuff).

If you really want more info, then go attend the dog and pony show Sean and Clifton will be giving on Sat at lunch on 2/23 while trying to cram for the final in Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Management. (That's a great class, BTW. Totally dig it.)

So get yo wallets ready to donate some cold hard cash! Looks like the Dean's Circle is priced at a bargain $100,000....yeow. Of course, that sets the proper framing for the much lower three digit pledge levels....:) Lowest level is $100. What's a three to six digit donation compared to the cost and value of your education?

R

PS - In no way is Sean trying to raise capital for his 40th birthday celebration, which happens next month. Whooo hoo, another 40-something in our class to join those of us in the "long tail".

New Product Development....Best Pizza Award

New Product Development (MKTG 753) just shot up to the top of my favorite classes today, as we did a case study on Contradina Pizza today. The BASES model and the NPS spreadsheets were admittedly rather boring, but the taste test for pizza was great.

Here's Tyler, Mani, Jooyoung, Manuel, and Clifton. Notice the high concentration of female students from our population sample. :)


Thumbs up for the real life visual aid delivered by our own prom organizer, Loren S! Thanks for using your 3rd place FFB money wisely, dude!

Also, for those in WEMBA32: Go vote for the prom options when you get a chance. Personally, I want to forget about mine...the name is awful but the idea is a good one.

R