Acknowledgements

The idea of writing this book surfaced for the first time in 2000 while implementing programmes at The Chartered Institute of Marketing in London. The special atmosphere of our meetings, later developed as part of a company operating under the name ‘questus’, their creativity and openness to new ideas encouraged an atmosphere where ideas of such a type could become a reality. It is thanks to the involvement, creative inspirations and critical assessment expressed by programme participants, that it was possible to compile this book.

The acknowledgments are even more important since all of the co-authors are linked with this programme, first, as participants, and second – as leaders. I wish to express my gratitude to Jacek Pogorzelski PhD, Michał Dziekoński, Jurek Czarnecki PhD, Professor Grzegorz Urbanek, Michał Medowski and Marcin Ostachowski, as well as those who joined the team during subsequent editions of the book, that is, Anna Miotk PhD, Professor Grzegorz Mazurek and Artur Maciorowski. They all have many things in common. In addition to extensive knowledge, they have gained business experience while working for large Polish and international companies (Unilever, Mondelez, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Siemens) as well as when implementing smaller projects. Therefore, they are familiar with the perspective of both a large corporation and a smaller organisation. Such knowledge has been exceptionally useful when working on this book. Moreover, they have one more thing in common – enormous patience and understanding towards me and my hard-to-bear comments, remarks and corrections. I would like to thank them for that.

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Krzysztof Obłój – a man I had the pleasure and honour of working with during my Executive MBA studies at the University of Warsaw. During a critical moment while working on the book, Krzysztof Obłój provided me with support and encouraged me to continue with what I had started. I also wish to thank all the people who shared advice, guidelines and support with me. I want to express my gratitude to Professor Henryk Sterniczuk from University of New Brunswick, Michael Thomas, Andrew Cropper, David Chapman, Kasia Nizińska PhD and many others who have provided me, deliberately or not, with ideas and, hence, had an impact on the book as it is now.

David Chapman claims that we discover the principles of marketing through learning; we get practice through action, while the philosophy of marketing can be acquired by means of understanding. Thank you all who have helped me to understand what marketing is. I do hope that this book will help others to learn, act and understand business and marketing.