Tim Calkins is Associate Chair of the Marketing Department and Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches courses including Marketing Strategy, Biomedical Marketing, and Strategic Marketing Decisions.

Teaching Awards

Tim has received numerous awards for his teaching. In 2018, he received the Top Professor Award from Germany’s Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program. He won the Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, the top teaching award at Kellogg, in 2006 and 2013, making him one of just six people in the award’s more than forty-year history to have won it twice.

Publications

His newest book is a guide to creating and delivering powerful business presentations. It is titled How to Wash a Chicken: Master the Business Presentation. In addition to How to Wash a Chicken, Tim is the author of Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy to Deal with Competitive Attacks(Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Expert Marketer Magazine named Defending Your Brand the 2013 Marketing Book of the Year. He also wrote Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 and 2012). He is co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) and Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (John Wiley & Sons, 2019).

Tim’s blog on brand strategy, Building Strong Brands, was included on Inc‘s list of “Six Blogs That Can Teach You More Than an MBA.”

Activities

Tim is an expert on Super Bowl advertising. He created the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review in 2005 and has led the event ever since. Over the past ten years, the program has generated more than five billion media impressions.

In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Tim works with major corporations around the world on strategy and branding issues. His recent clients include Eli Lilly, Bayer, Medtronic & AbbVie. He is themanaging director of Class 5 Consulting, a marketing strategy firm.

Tim is frequently cited by the media. He has been quoted in publications including Business Week, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and has appeared on all of the major television networks.

He received his BA from Yale and his MBA from Harvard. Tim lives in Chicago with his wife and three children, and no chickens.

Tim's Website

• https://timcalkins.com

Two Quotes From This Episode

• "The first thing is to really spend some time and think about that audience, and you want to begin wherever they are, you want to meet them where they are."
• "There's always more to learn in presenting, and one of the things I've noticed is that you're never done. It's never perfect. It's never completely right. That's what makes it fun."

About Your Host Scott J. Allen, Ph.D.Scottis the Standard Products—Dr. James S. Reid Chair in Management at John Carroll University. He is an associate professor and teaches courses in leadership, management skills, and executive communication. He is also a communications coach, consultant, author, podcast host, and entrepreneur. For almost two decades, he’s worked with clients to improve their leadership and communication skills.