NSB Logo Ken Wong Ken Wong

Ken Wong

Speaker

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Marketing & Strategic Planning Expert

Ken Wong is an award-winning professor and one of Canada’s most frequently cited marketing authorities. He is The Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University a Managing Partner, Knowledge Development of Level 5 Brand Consulting, and sometime columnist for Strategy, Marketing magazine, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian Grocer and Meetings and Incentive Travel.  His writing and videos can also be found on the websites of Teva, MSN, the Globe and Mail and Microsoft.

Business & Workplace

In the News

Ken Wong in the Media January 1, 2022

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
Contact us for more information about this speaker & their virtual presentations. Click here for some of the most popular formats for virtual events.
Marketing in a Down Economy

During a time when everyone seems to be cutting prices to stay afloat, there is new, compelling evidence of a better way. A methodology that has been shown to actually grow, not just sustain, profitability during economic downturns has been identified. This talk presents the evidence and explains why this new method works, and what it takes to get started.

 

Your next BIG Thing

Ken will do a review of recent trends within your industry and search for other industries that have common characteristics. Ken will then combine this information with state-of-the-art research to present an outsider’s view of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead. This program has been done in several different sectors and is especially useful to those who are trying to communicate or get buy in for a new strategy or vision.

All of Ken’s presentations are customized to include examples specific to each audience.

Competing Against Giants: How Smaller Firms Can Prosper

In an era where industry consolidation and mergers are creating scale-advantaged giants in almost every line of business, some smaller firms have found a way to not only survive but prosper. Learn how to capitalize on the disadvantages that large size can bring, how to leverage the unique qualities of small scale operations and how to use organizational arrangements to reap many of the benefits of large size without sacrificing the positive aspects of being a smaller enterprise.All of Ken’s presentations are customized to include examples specific to each audience.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Workshop | Relationship Marketing: Avoiding the Hype (half-day)
Much has been made of the promise and potential of relationship marketing. However, recent evidence suggests that many organizations talk a better relationship than they provide, even though they may be spending thousands of dollars on new technology and programs. Why? Because they forget the basics: why we do it, how we do it and how we know whether it's working. Find out how to avoid the most common problems in pursuit of superior customer relations.
Workshop | Setting and Merchandising Your Price: (full day)
Price is commonly seen as a means to an end: we cut prices to build volume. But for the average North American firm, we need a 4% increase in volume for every 1% reduction in price just to keep profitability at an even keel: a ratio that makes it hard to build profitable market share. The first of this two part session focuses on how to set prices for either retail or bid situations.

Audience reviews:

  • Your commentary was exactly what we needed and focused the group on some of the possibilities that exist for our businesses, particularly during a down turn in the economy.

    - Garland Canada
  • Ken Wong elevates marketing strategy and execution to an entirely new level.

    - C-COM Satellite Systems

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Speaker Biography

Ken was the principal architect of the first MBA program to operate completely outside of government subsidy: a program named by Business Week as the number one MBA outside the US. He has also taught in programs at Cornell, Carleton, Dalhousie, Radcliffe College, University of Alberta and Harvard’s Continuing Education Program and various executive programs. In addition, he sits on numerous Boards of Directors and Advisory Councils.

Wong has addressed groups around the world and has worked with hundreds of organizations, from multinationals like Microsoft and GE to small start-ups and public agencies. His message is simple: organizations underperform because they lose sight of the things that matter most. Ken helps organizations build consensus and commitment by identifying the key factors shaping performance in all industries and relating them to their particular circumstances. His message is strategic and tactical, factual and motivational, serious and light-hearted.

Wong has built a virtual cult following for business elite who have learned his unique terminology and ways of illustrating biggest threats to healthy bottom-line results. Bringing the “culprits” alive in his content-dense, yet fun-filled presentations sheds new light on business realities for his many clients.

He’s an Inductee into Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends and won the Financial Post’s Leaders in Management Education award, a lifetime achievement award for his work in undergraduate, MBA, and Executive Development programs. 

Ken is a frequent speaker and facilitator in conferences and executive development programs around the world.

As a researcher, Ken has worked with the Strategic Planning Institute (Cambridge, MA) and the Conference Board of Canada. He’s written regularly for Strategy magazine,  Canadian Grocer and Meetings and Incentives, and had served as a regular columnist for Marketing magazine and the National Post. He has also written for the Financial Times, Globe and Mail and the Conference Board Review.  His current research focuses on enhancing “marketing productivity” and brand profitability.

In addition to consulting for private corporations,  Ken has served as a marketing and strategic planning consultant to a number of government agencies and departments and on various local, provincial and federal government task forces. He often assists on judging panels, including previous Canadian “Best 50” competition (excellence in management) and the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year.

He received his B.Comm and MBA degrees from Smith School of Business, Queen’s University prior to a period of doctoral studies at the Harvard Business School. He is former Chairman of the Board, PBB Global Logistics Inc and a member of  Advisory Boards/Boards of Directors for the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), Everest Asset Management AG, Equifax, Nature’s Path, Southmedic and the Kingston YMCA.. He is listed in the Canadian Who’s Who and International Who’s Who of Business Professionals.

 

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