Westminster Business School Blog Meet The Academics Interview Series: Philip Gonzalez

Meet The Academics Interview Series: Philip Gonzalez

December 14, 2012
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Could you please describe yourself in a few sentences

I am English but my Father was born in Spain, hence my surname. After a first degree in modern languages and literature at Sheffield University I then studied Business and developed an interest in Marketing. I moved to the London area as at that time most of the large companies I wanted to work for were based on the South so I had to leave my Lancashire roots.

What is your area of academic interest and which courses are you involved in?

I have an interest in the challenges facing companies when they enter new overseas markets and in particular how they then manage their extensive brand portfolios. I teach on several Undergraduate modules, including a popular and recently-introduced one entitled “Marketing Metrics” and an interdisciplinary combined operations and marketing module, “Value creation for customers”. I am also the Course Leader of three specialist marketing BA degrees.

What was your first job? What did you learn from it?

As Brand Manager for Bass Breweries. I was in the job two weeks when I was asked to run the market research function on an interim basis for 6 months. I learned a huge amount as I was thrown in at the deep end; but especially the importance of budgeting to any business….I spent the entire year’s research budget in 5 months!

What did you do in your career before coming to WBS?

I have worked in various marketing and later general management jobs in the UK and Spain for multinational companies working on many brands such as Tetley, Nabisco, Schweppes and Cadbury.

What do you think is special about WBS?

It is always striving to improve the Teaching and Learning experiences of Staff and Students.

What do you think of the social learning platform?

Excellent. It is nice to see that it is being well used and students tell me it encourages them to stay on the campus more.

If you were asked to give one piece of advice to students then what would it be?

Be Curious about Business.