Founder of Strategic Marketing Corporation comes to La Salle

By Teri Olsen
Collegian Staff
November 1, 2006

Dr. Margot Soven’s English 108 class had the opportunity to speak with Juliet Goodfriend, president of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and former CEO and founder of Strategic Marketing Corporation, when she visited their class Friday, Oct. 20.

Goodfriend has been involved in the health care industry since the 1960s. She founded the Strategic Marketing Corporation, the largest global custom-marketing research and consulting firm in the pharmaceutical industry.

After selling her company and retiring, Goodfriend decided to try her hand at the nonprofit business.

She founded the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to renovate and revive the Bryn Mawr Theater. The Institute offers film entertainment, as well as educational programs and discussions.

Goodfriend spoke on the topic “The Entrepreneur as Citizen.” Soven’s English class is part of the doubles program, and in conjunction with Professor Kristen Wentzel’s Business 101 class, has been discussing the business world and the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

“Kristen Wentzel, in her class, is talking about the financial aspects, whereas we are talking about the human side—what are the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur? How do ethical questions affect the characteristics of the business?” Soven said.

It is these questions which Soven asked of her English class that was the basis of Goodfriend’s speech.

Goodfriend has had experience in both the forprofit and nonprofit sides of the business world and led an engaging discussion about the characteristics needed to be successful in either side of the business world.

When introducing Goodfriend to her class, Soven said, “She is an extraordinary woman, and I’m glad she took time out of her busy schedule to talk to us about a topic we’ve been discussing in class.”

Goodfriend said that she travels to college campuses and stays for up to a week discussing what it is like in the business and nonprofit world.

She talked about the characteristics a person needs in order to be successful in any enterprise and used Ben Franklin and his creation of the first free library system as an exemplary model.

Goodfriend then went on to discuss the differences between her experiences of running a for-profit company and a nonprofit company.

She discussed the differences in the mission statements and motivating factors of each as well as how each side deals with profits.

She engaged students in her discussion by asking them questions and asking for their opinions.

Goodfriend offered tips to the students to become successful in the business world.

“Very few people are happy with their work if they can’t help the people around them,” she said.

She also provided the students with measurements to determine the success of their future companies, whether they decide to tackle the profit or non-profit world of business.

olsent1@lasalle.edu