LEADERS IN MARKETING JOHN S. WRIGHT, Editor Georgie State University Philip Kotler Philip Kotler The A. Montgomery Ward Chair in Marketing at Northwestern University is held by an extraordi- narily productive academician. Professor Philip Kotler has brought considerable intellectual and theoretical structure to a notably informal field. This is a singular achievement in an interdisci- plinary area such as marketing. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Chicago, Philip Kotler re- ceived his master's degree in economics at the same in- stitution, and subsequently earned his doctorate in eco- nomics at M.LT. He did post- doctoral work in mathemat- ics at Harvard University and in behavioral science at the University of Chicago. Graduate training in fields as diverse as economics, mathematics, and behavioral sciences is uncommon, and it is even more so to find an individual having these skills and utilizing them as Philip Kotler does in ap- plied, action - oriented mar- keting and management con- texts. While Kotler is not without a theoretical orienta- tion, he constantly demands of his own thinking, as well as that of others, an answer to the question, "So what?" In his philosophy, theoretical work should not be devoid of practical application, nor should such application be obscured by the manner in Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 (October, 1972), pp. 60-61. By GERALD ZALTMAN Northwestern University which the theoretical formulation is presented. A man having a broad interdisciplinary range would ordinarily be expected to be intellectually restless and dissatisfied. Professor Kotler has discovered, as have most scholars, that for every question answered several more appear. Yet unlike some scholars he is undaunted by the encounter of an ever expanding body of un- answered questions and un- solved problems. On the con- trary, he seems to thrive on them. When the nature of the research problems Kot- ler has confronted are ex- amined, it is immediately evident that many have been unstructured or existed within poor paradigms. This is consistent with his abili- ties and interest in formulat- ing new structures or para- digms of major problem areas. An important feature of Kotler's philosophy is the recognition that there are multiple types of research activities, such as concept development, problem for- mulation, hypothesis testing, research in quantitative methodology, and data- gathering instruments. Professor Kotler feels all of these activities are necessary, and none is in- herently more important than another. Rather, the optimal allocation of effort among problem areas varies with the topic and its stage of de- velopment. He is personally more inclined toward 60