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Dr. James Kowalick is a renowned American engineer who
works closely with Action and clients in conducting various
analyses based on the Taguchi and Mahalanobis systems of
pattern calculations.
Dr. Kowalick has a very impressive, and long, resume. This is the short version:
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BS, MS and PhD in Engineering. MS in Materials Science.
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A student through 30 years of both western and eastern psychology and cultures.
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The first U.S. graduate of the Japanese Hell Camp (Management Enlightenment School).
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Author of Visioneering.
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18 years employment with the U.S. defense laboratories as Executive and Corporate Director of various branches.
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Taught technical corporate executives at Cal Tech seminars.
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Worked as a private consultant to Fortune 500 companies from 1990 and up till now.
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Since 1984 and up till today, Kowalick has been conducting
Taguchi experiments on both engineered products and
in advertising. For the last several years, he has also been
conducting Mahalanobis experiments. (Both systems are frequently
utilized by Action with great results for our clients.)
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An exclusive interview with Dr. Kowalick
You have often mentioned that Action is both world class and even
better than the top American agencies you have worked with.
That’s true.
Could you explain why you have this opinion? Is it because you
believe us to have a better consumer understanding? Or because you
believe us to be broader in our creative capacity when developing
Taguchi tests? Other reasons?
You might know that I worked even with a few of the TOP
5 U.S. advertising firms. It would be easier for me to tell you
what Action has, than to make a long listing of the deficiencies
of other firms. Here’s what I saw as your strengths:
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Action ‘chooses’ its clients: those with whom it can work well.
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The clients Action work with tend to have a reasonably good understanding of their markets. This appears to be very helpful to Action.
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Action themselves are quick to grasp the key elements of a ‘market.’
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Action’s Project Managers tend to be creative people themselves, and they appear to be intimately familiar with the rest of the ‘Creative’ team at Action.
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Action as a company is not ‘so big’ that they cannot serve their clients and customers. Action employees tend to work as a ‘well-oiled team’.
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‘Serving Clients’ is primary at Action – but it does not mean that Action will not speak up and voice contrary opinions (contrary to what their clients may think) when necessary.
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You have also mentioned the culture clash between the American way and the European way. Results we create together are world class...
That’s true. I must say that the U.S. is an entirely different
culture, so ad agencies in the U.S. must create advertising in
the ‘American’ way. One big difference is that Americans tend
to be more ‘functional’ and less ‘aesthetic’ about what they see,
feel, touch and hear. The U.S. is a ‘young’ country (actually
in its ‘adolescence’ relative to European companies) still with
‘teen-ager’-like attitudes. It would be difficult for a European
ad agency to ‘break into’ this market, because the way of life is
so different.
How did you feel, when Forbes decided to write about you?
At the time I was only in the business for financial profitability
and did not care one bit about ‘fame’ of any kind. I was happy
because I believed that the Forbes article would bring much
more business. I was away in Egypt when that all happened.
(read the Forbes article, Reengineer That Ad, here)
What was your experience when you found out Taguchi was great for marketing tests in a modified way?
It was very exciting moving from engineering applications to
psychological/social applications, where measuring human
characteristics seemed to be impossible. The key measurable
was the ‘bottom line’ in terms of response rate. If we had
a way of measuring and ‘optimizing’ human reactions, the
results would be even better. That being said, it is typically not
impossible to improve the functioning level of products by
tens or by hundreds of percent, but that is very possible to do
(using Taguchi) in advertising. Advertising was a ‘whole new
world’ for the Taguchi Approach.
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