V. Kumar

July 8, 2009 - (ATLANTA) - V. Kumar, executive director of the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business, has become the first recipient of four American Marketing Association (AMA) Lifetime Achievement Awards. He previously won two such awards in 2007 and becomes the only individual in the history of the organization to win more than two.

Known for creating fundamental changes in the practice of marketing strategy, VK, as he is commonly called, will receive awards for his achievements in retail marketing (the Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Retailing) and marketing research (the Churchill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Advancing the Methods and the Practice of Marketing Research) at the 2009 AMA Summer Educators Conference this August in Chicago. He was recognized in 2007 for his lifetime contributions to marketing strategy and the understanding of interorganizational marketing issues.

"Having received four lifetime achievement awards is truly an extraordinary accomplishment," said Robinson Dean H. Fenwick Huss. "It demonstrates how VK's career has touched all facets of the marketing profession and how his revolutionary research has had an impact on the success of companies throughout the world."

Kumar is prominent within academic and business circles for many of his substantive and methodological contributions including his pioneering concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which has created fundamental changes in the practice of marketing strategy by demonstrating the business case for:

• Managing customers instead of products
• Focusing on the most profitable—not the most loyal—customers
• Basing marketing decisions on forward-looking metrics instead of backward-looking ones

The largest business school in the South and part of a major research institution, the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University is located in Atlanta, an epicenter of business and a gateway to the world. With programs on four continents and students from 150 countries, the college is both worldwide and world class. Its part-time MBA program is ranked number seven in the nation and has been in the top 10 for 14 consecutive years. The college has 200 faculty, 7,400 students and 65,000 alumni. Noted for an emphasis on educating leaders, the Robinson College of Business and Georgia State University have produced more of Georgia's top executives with graduate degrees than any other school in the nation.