“If your customers start CRYING when you go out of business, you were not charging them enough!”[…]

“Charge them so some cry when you are still in business”

Hillarious comment from Prof. John Roberts during Advanced Marketing Strategy class discussion of the Webvan case.

Yesterday we had a memorable day long class, with the Andrea Formica (SVP Marketing and Sales of Toyota in Europe). On top of John’s outstanding and funny class, Mr. Formica displayed all his talent: Very clever, very market oriented, and a continuous effort into gaining customer insight through data and translating it into relevant action.

Toyota is executing a very ambitious strategy in Europe, with remarkable success in increasing its market share in a flat market. Top execution + insight into market reality is driving them to success. And a very focused, results oriented, no-trend of the day followers approach. Loved it!

In the afternoon, we discussed about Webvan, a fabulous case of ambition, VC money, marketing short-sightedness, and an unsuccessful final attempt to recover from near death experience.

A great Friday all day long class!

But the evening, with the YPO people, was even better… (pending post…)