Harvard Business Review

Cynthia A. Montgomery, age 54, has been a Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business since 1989. Prior thereto, Dr. Montgomery was a Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University from 1985 to 1989.

Professor Stevenson is the Vice Provost for Harvard University. He is also the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration and has served as Senior Associate Dean, Director of External Relations at Harvard Business School. He has authored, co-authored, or edited nine books, forty-one articles, and over one-hundred-fifty Harvard Business School case studies. Professor Stevenson was a founder and the first president of the Baupost Group, Inc., a $5.5 billion investment management firm that manages partnerships investing in liquid securities, which he grew to over $400 Million in assets while president. Professor Stevenson is an investor and board member in numerous private and public companies. He received his Bachelors degree in Mathematics, with distinction, from Stanford University and his M.B.A., with high distinction, and D.B.A. degrees from Harvard Business School.

William T. Kerr is Chairman of the Meredith Corporation, one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies, with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 2006 and as President and Chief Executive Officer from 1997 to 1998. Prior to this, Kerr was President and Chief Operating Officer, a post he was named to in 1994. He has also been a member of the Meredith Board of Directors since 1994. Before joining the Meredith Corporation in 1991, Kerr was a Vice President of The New York Times Company and President of its magazine group, a position he held since 1984. He also served as the head of strategic planning and corporate development at The New York Times and as President of its Books and Information Group. Previously, Kerr held posts with Dillon, Read & Co., and McKinsey and Company, where he specialized in financial institutions and media companies. A native of Seattle, Kerr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Washington . He earned a degree in modern history as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University , and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where he was a Baker Scholar. Kerr also is a member of the board of the Principal Financial Group and the Whirlpool Corporation. He is immediate-past Chairman of The International Federation of the Periodical Press, and serves on the board of The Business Committee for the Arts. He is also a Trustee of Oxford University Press (USA) and serves on the board of Harvard Business School Publishing. Kerr is a past Chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America and in 2004 was awarded the organization's Henry Johnson Fisher award in recognition of his lifetime achievements and service to the magazine industry.

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School where he is the course head for the required course in Marketing in the first year of the MBA program and also teaches in several Executive Education programs including the Top Management Seminar for Retailers and Suppliers. Lal was Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University since 1982. He was the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Visting Professor at Harvard Business School for 1997-98. He was visiting Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, France in 1986, 1988, 1992 and 1993. He did his undergraduate work in mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India and received his PhD in Industrial Administration from Carnegie-Mellon University. Lal is an Area Editor for Marketing Science. Lal's current research is concerned with the dramatic changes affecting retailing. His most recent work in this area studies the impact of using the Internet as a channel of distribution on a retailer's pricing, merchandising and branding strategy. The paper was published in Marketing Science and nominated for the award of the best paper in Marketing and Management Science. His earlier work in retailing studies the impact of competition between different retail formats, such as EDLP and Hi-Lo grocers. He has also studied the consequences of the increasing use of store brands by grocery retailers on store loyalty and its implications for packaged goods manufacturers.