The New Professional - N.W.M Taught at Universities in US

Dr Charles King Interview

Tim Sales: Now I would like to show you an Interview that I’ve done with Dr Charles King who hold PHD from Harvard and is the Professor of Marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago who actually teaches Network Marketing at the university.

Q: Dr King we are delighted to have you here,

A: I’m Pleased o be here Tim,

Q: Dr can you tell us a little bit of your education and business background?

A: Tim, I’m Professor of Marketing at  the University of Illionois Chicago, I got my Basters and Masters Degree from University of Texas in Austin, Its been tour of duty in Exon Corporation and then return to get my Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard University, more importantly this discussion, over the last six years, I’ve been involved in doing research, teaching,and consulting in Network Marketing.

Q: So coming from such conservative school, and I know your little bit conservative, what cause you to look at Network Marketing to begin with?

A:, in 1990 we had a major economic recession in United States, the mid west and Chicago i particular were badly hit, as a results the interviewers stopped coming to campus, we are graduating hundreds of  students every semester and they weren’t getting jobs, our alumnae were coming back to us loosing their jobs, looking for help, we had nothing to offer them.

I started looking, because of my background in business consulting at an alternative career paths, I went out and looked at starting your own business, a home
 based business, I looked at Franchising,  I looked at Direct selling, and in the Direct Selling arena I backed in to Network Marketing.

 Now I was very Cynical Skeptical, Tim; I was NEGATIVE about Network Marketing, they don’t teach N.W.M at Harvard Business School, and I didn’t know much about it,
The result was, when one of my student who was in the team asked me,

"Why are you so negative about N.W.M"?I looked at that Youngman and

I said, Son, I know enough to know, I don’t need to know anymore.
 

That student looked at and he said, Professor, if I give you that answer to that question, with no more information that you have, you’ll give me an F,

I turned to him and I said son, you’re absolutely right, I’ve no basis for that conclusion, you’ve just made an “A”.

 As a result, we went to the library, we held meetings for the next 6 months, we did due diligence on Network Marketing industry, I visited the top companies, I talked to N.W.M leaders, I became N.W.M Evangelist, in 1991 we started teaching N.W.M at the University.

Q: Was any resistance from the dean of the school at the alumnae?

A: As it turned out our dean at the time was a very entrepreneurial operator, he was looking for outreach programs that we could initiate.

I had done my due diligence; we were getting good review in terms of student responses, so the dean said, maintain your professional profile and lets move to forward with N.W.M.

Q: What’s your view of the industry in N.W.M now and where do you see it going in the future?

A: Tim, the industry is coming of an age, today we have computer and management information systems, which makes it possible for N.W.M Company to organize sales force so effectively that we can sale in Korea (Tanzania), in Korea one, instantaneously convert that Korean one sale into US Dollars sale post that to distributors commission account in the US and pay that distributor in a week.

 Never before in the history of this industry has that been possible. So we are going through a dramatic technologic waves in the 1980 – 1990, I argue now we are moving into the wave of professionalism, and I emphasize the professional of several levels,

1.    We are seeing more and more professionals like; Physicians, Dentists, Attorneys, CEO’s College professors going into N.W.M.

2.   We are seeing a completely different attitude on the part of the press, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, regionally dailies around the US are giving N.W.M a very positive press.

3.   On the other end the Universities are accepting N.W.M as legitimate channel of distribution, the university of Illinois Chicago has offered the first certificate seminar in N.W.M history of the industry,

4.   The University of Houston is going to be sponsoring N.W.M as their outreach entrepreneurial programs, we are seeing more and more community colleges setting up N.W.M forces on their campuses, so I see this industry going dramatically over the next ten years, its currently a 20bn $ industry in the US, with 7 – 10 distributors in operation.

We are expanding globally into Asia, South America, Europe, Africa, the industry is growing about  10 -12% yearly in contrast to 3 -4% traditional retail sales. So on my view the Industry is absolutely coming of an age.

Q: Suppose you run a super skeptic, what advice do you have for them? 

A: Tim, I would recommend they do precisely what I did, I was a Super skeptic, I did my Due Diligence, I investigated the industry, and I drew my own conclusion.

 I would suggest to any one serious looking at N.W.M that they might read a couple of key references.
They might read two specific references.

 First, I will recommend The wave 3 way to build your down line by Richard Poe,  Poe put the industry in perspective in a very readable and enjoyable way.

Second, I would suggest by skeptic degree is one published in 1998 by Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell, entitled Your first year in N.W.M.

 I strongly recommend that you do your due diligence and then begin to define precisely what role you wanna play in N.W.M industry, set realistic expectations, if there is single cause of failure in this industry is it’s the “GET QUICK RICH Syndrome”

 Thinking that you can come in the industry and make enormously sums of money without effort! I argue by contrast, if you set a realistic expectations, develop plan of action to guide your business development you can be successful.

Q: If someone were to come to your course, whether its in Houston whether its in Chicago, what would they learn?

A: What we’ve tried to do in that program is apply the basic skills of entrepreneurial management, specifically to managing a N.W.M Distribute Organization, we start by developing a business plan for N.W.M Distributor.

 The second module, after building on the business plan, is to talk about how you implement the plan, how do you build a down line organization.

 The third Module is talk about how to manage your business, from the idea of managing your organization as you start building 10, 30, 70…several thousands people in your group, on into managing business as financial profit machine.

 Tim, as you can tell, I believe in this industry, for a small financial investment and commitment in sweaty equity, hard work and dedication, any one can be successful in N.W.M 
    

About Dr King.

Charles W. King received his doctorate in business administration from Harvard and is currently a professor of marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is involved in extensive, ongoing research on network marketing and distributor operations. He lives in Wheaton, Illinois.