Dear Ed:

During the last three years I have attended several conferences dealing with Internet marketing challenges. Some conferences have been provided by consultants to multi-industry CEOs. Other conferences were sponsored by Universities trying to make sense out of contemporary e-commerce marketing.

I have left all of these prior educational conferences very frustrated. They seemed to focus on the technology, as if the audience was composed of technical web designers rather than strategic decision-makers. Or they focused on evaluation of various market strategies and web sites, but offered little guidance to an executive seeking to think through the design of his/her own marketing and web strategy.

So I had despaired of finding a resource to unlock this "Gordian Knot" until I had the privilege of attending your seminar. What is different in your offering is that you focus on how an executive can diagnose and think through the strategic questions which need to be answered before entering into dialog with technical web designers. Your seminar is the first offering which positions itself to facilitate the executive task, as opposed to the technical task. In doing so you enable the executive, as opposed to frustrating or marginalizing the executive. You made it possible for me to draw upon my insight and knowledge as a full and creative partner in considering how to design electronic commerce.

But you did one thing more. You made it possible for me as a professional service provider to conceptualize these challenges when so many of the programs seem to be only directed to product producing organizations.

Thank you for enabling me and my fellow executives to play our proper role in responding to the new challenge of electronic commerce. Yours has been the most helpful and insightful program that I have attended focused on web based marketing. It was wise, empowering, and allowed us to stand at the cutting edge linking our diagnostic and strategic insights with the new technology.

Sincerely,

André Delbecq

André L. Delbecq

André L. Delbecq is the J. Thomas and Kathleen McCarthy University Professor at Santa Clara University, where he served as Dean of the Leavey School of Business from 1979 to 1989. His research and scholarship have focused on executive decision-making processes, organization design, and managing innovation in rapid-change environments. Recently he has conducted research on the role of CEOs in technology firms and the business culture of Silicon Valley. He is the Eighth Dean of Fellows of the Academy of Management. Dr. Delbecq is recognized nationally for executive programs delivered to high technology industries as well as health, human services and government organizations. He has served as member of three corporate Boards of Directors and twice as Board Chair. During 1997-98 he was awarded a Contemplative Practice Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies and studied at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley developing a seminar in spirituality for senior leaders.

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