American Marketing Association

American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association, or AMA, is a professional association that consists of individual and groups of professional marketers across the United States. Formed in the 1937 from the merger of the National Association of Marketing Teachers and the American Marketing Society, the AMA has been the leading source of marketing news, journals, books, and research. Since 2008, the association has nearly 40,000 members, 76 professional chapters, and 250 collegiate chapters.

Today, the focus of the AMA is to foster a knowledge bank for marketers, inform members of resources, education, career and development opportunities, and promote marketing practices through leadership.

Dun & Bradstreet

Dun and Bradstreet is a Fortune 500 company based out of Short Hills, NJ that provides credible data on businesses, corporations, and organizations to be used in credit decisions, business to business marketing, and supply chain management. Dun and Bradstreet, D&B, maintains a database of over 150 million companies.

The history of Dun & Bradstreet can be traced back to the formation of The Mercantile Agency in 1841. The company merged with its competitor R.G. Dun and Company in 1933. In 1962, the Data Universal Numbering System was invented by Dun and Bradstreet to give companies an official rating system for credit reporting.

Today, Dun and Bradstreet's services also risk management, sales and marketing, and supply chain management. They also have offices internationally and provide reliable credit information around the world.

Jack Welch

Jack Welch was a CEO of General Electrics for 20 years and is touted as the one of the best CEOs of all time. During his tenure, Welch pushed his managers to strive for the best and often removed managers who fell in the bottom 10% of the company. To motivate managers, he often rewarded his managers that achieved the top 20%. Welch also streamlined the operations and introduced Six Sigma into the quality control to increase efficiency. His tactics increased the market value of General Electric more than any other company headed by any other CEO.

In 1999, Fortune Magazine named him "Manager of the Century." Mr. Welch has also gone on to be a speaker for leadership skills around the world and written several books revealing his tactics, ideas, and thoughts.