Contributor: Malcolm McDonald

Malcolm, until recently, professor of marketing and deputy director Cranfield School of Management with special responsibility for ebusiness, is a graduate in English language and literature from Oxford University, in business studies from Bradford University Management Centre, and has a PhD from Cranfield University. He also has an honorary doctorate from Bradford University. He has extensive industrial experience, including a number of years as marketing director of Canada Dry.

He is Chairman of six companies and spends much of his time working with the operating boards of the world's biggest multinational companies, such as IBM, Xerox, BP and the like, in most countries in the world, including Japan, USA, Europe, South America, ASEAN and Australasia.

He has written forty books, including the best seller Marketing plans; how to prepare them and many of his papers have been published. His current interests revolve around the use of information technology in advanced marketing processes and global best practice key account management.