Vice Chairman, Harrison Group

Jim Taylor currently serves as Vice Chairman, The Harrison Group. Taylor's career has included lead marketing positions at Ernst & Young, Gateway Computers, Iomega Corp., the No. 2 marketing position at E.F. Hutton and recently as Chief Marketing Officer for the Lyle Anderson Company specializing in the marketing of very high-end property and related golf and club amenities to the affluent market. Taylor has served as CEO of Yankelovich, Skelly & White and headed up Hill & Knowlton's flagship New York office. He has served as a marketing and branding consultant to many of the world's leading corporations in categories as diverse as accounting, toys, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and weapons development. Among these are General Motors, Volvo, Peterbilt Trucks, Audi, Sony, Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Lawrence-Livermore Laboratories, American Express, The American Red Cross, Pfizer, Kemin Corp., Shearing-Plough, Goldman Jewelry, DMB, Co., Mary Kay Cosmetics, Mont Blanc, DeBeers, Nissan, General Electric, Mattel, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and many media and not-for-profit organizations.

Taylor's career is remarkable for its commitment to a single idea: that the desire to acquire is animated by the search for meaning in the things people can own, believe in or participate in. It is meaning that creates value. As Taylor's research, books and articles have shown, products that both perform to high standards in their category and give the consumer an icon for their sense of self-esteem - an emotional connection - outperform competitors in margin per unit and demand. Further, as Taylor has demonstrated, it is this commitment to an emotionally compelling premise (for example: Volvo and safety; American Express and access; Betty Crocker and mom) that adheres compelling corporate culture with individual employee pride.

Taylor's teachings, writings and lectures focus on the nature of a company's brand persona, the future, technology and marketplace strategy. He has lectured at many of America's leading universities including Harvard and Stanford. He has served as a board member for a number of companies and non-profit organizations and currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Aprimo and Perfect Commerce-technology marketplaces he has helped found and develop.

At one time or another, every significant business periodical in the U.S. and most in Europe and Japan has quoted Taylor. He is especially proud to have been chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of America's five leading business futurists, selected as BrandWeek's Marketer of the Year and selected as Distinguished Alumni by Michigan State University. Jim holds an undergraduate degree in rhetoric and a master's and Ph.D. in communication. He is the co-author of The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next and The Visionary's Handbook. He currently is producing a major work on the history of trust and a book tentatively entitled, The Search for the Silver Bullet: Brands, Meaning and the Desire to Acquire.

Jim currently resides in Connecticut.

 

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