Who leads marketing excellence in your organization? That's one of the questions that the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business addressed for Molecular Probes, a division of Invitrogen, during a seminar conducted for the company as part of the college's executive education initiative.

Organized by Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs Andrew Verner and taught by Emeritus Professor of Marketing Roger Best; marketing consultant Julie Dexter Berg, M.B.A. '80; and accounting faculty members Dale Morse and Michele Henney, the Marketing Excellence Seminar presented a unique educational experience to executives of Molecular Probes, the worldwide leader in fluorescence detection supporting pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

 The college's executive education seminars transcend typical knowledge-transfer lecture formats by providing participants with practical tools and hands-on, actionable results they can use to improve performance at their organizations.

During the three-day Marketing Excellence Seminar, Molecular Probes teams worked with Lundquist faculty to produce a custom marketing plan for their company. Not only that, once the seminar was complete, they received a copy of the MarkPlan(TM) software they used to create it.

"Nobody is doing this type of seminar in which corporate managers produce results," said Best. "Any seminar always has an intangible benefit, but this seminar produces a tangible output intended to improve business performance."

"The seminar gave us a detailed view of how marketing can and does impact our financial performance," noted Peter Waterman, senior marketing leader for Molecular Probes. "We gained a good understanding of the drivers of our marketing and financial performance. We now have the tools for planning, measuring, and evaluating future actions."

The Marketing Excellence Seminar is the first in an executive education series that the Lundquist College of Business plans to offer, giving working professionals access to leading-edge business knowledge and tools. The seminars will also help the college's faculty connect with the business community in order to keep abreast of the challenges and issues companies face.