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NEWS RELEASE

02-06-03

Contacts:
Ann Marie Fiore, Family and Consumer Sciences, (515) 294-9303
Sue Ellen Tuttle, Family and Consumer Sciences, (515) 294-8799
Kevin Brown, News Service, (515) 294-8986

ISU HILTON CHAIR TO DISCUSS MASS CUSTOMIZATION FEB. 10

AMES, Iowa -- B. Joseph Pine, co-founder of a consulting firm that helps businesses add value to their goods and services, will speak on "Mass Customization: Efficiently Serving Customers Uniquely" at 8 p.m., Monday, Feb. 10, Great Hall of the Memorial Union at Iowa State University.

Pine is one of two businessmen serving as the 2002-2003 Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Chair for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at Iowa State.

Pine said "mass customization" will be as significant to the 21st century as mass production and continuous improvement have been to the past.

Pine describes mass customization as a cross between traditional customization and mass production, with products and services changed to better meet the individual needs of consumers.

"Mass customization is the next step in the evolution of business competition," Pine said. "It provides a means to progress from goods to services and from services to experiences."

Pines, along with his business partner, James Gilmore, are sharing as the Hilton Chair. They are co-founders of Strategic Horizons LLP, Aurora, Ohio. They are co-authors of "The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre and Every Business a Stage," and co-editors of "Markets of One: Creating Customer-Unique Value Through Mass Customization." The two have co-authored many articles on business strategy and innovation.

Pine is a senior fellow at the European Centre for the Experience Economy at the University of Amsterdam. He has taught at the Executive Education Program, Pennsylvania State University, State College; the executive education faculty, Anderson Graduate School of Business, University of California--Los Angeles; and the Harvard Design School, Cambridge, Mass. He also is a recurring guest lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and the author of the book, "Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition."

Gilmore began his career with Proctor and Gamble and later spent 10 years in the consulting industry. He is a member of the Creative Education Foundation and the Creative Thinking Association of America. He has served on the faculty at The Institutes for Organization Management for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and as executive education faculty for both Marriott Corporation and the Ford Motor Company.

The Hilton Chairs also will present the following programs:

Pine will speak on "Guiding Transformations: The Customer is the Product" at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, Campanile Room, Memorial Union.
Gilmore will speak on "Get Real: The Authenticity Imperative" at 8 p.m., Tuesday, April 15, Sun Room, Memorial Union.

Established in 1995, the Hilton Chair was endowed by a gift of more than $1.3 million from the estate of Helen LeBaron Hilton, who served as dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences from 1952 to 1975.

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