The Cambridge Group Names Dr. Venkatesh Bala Chief Economist
August 21, 2009, Chicago — The Cambridge Group, a leading strategy consulting firm, announced that Dr. Venkatesh Bala accepted the new position of Chief Economist. Prior to his promotion he was Head of the firm's Economic Center of Excellence.
As Chief Economist, Dr. Bala will continue to develop client relationships and execute client projects. In addition, he will lead the firm's ongoing white paper and thought piece development, assuming the firm's thought leadership role on all key macro-economic topics. Dr. Bala specializes in combining macro-economic, demographic, competitive, regulatory, and qualitative trend information to identify emerging demand and the formation of markets, as well as their underlying strategic drivers, such as differentiation, pricing, and channel shifts which are predictive of future business health and often form the basis for strategic realignment.
Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, he was a tenured Associate Professor at McGill University, Montreal and has also held visiting positions and taught at Columbia University and Yale University. Dr. Bala has published extensively in leading peer-reviewed journals, and his paper on social networks in Econometrica (the #1 academic journal in economics) is one of the most widely cited papers in game theory in recent years. He has also been published in the "Harvard Business Review" and contributed significantly to the 2001 book, "The New Law of Demand and Supply".
Dr. Bala holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.
About The Cambridge Group
The Cambridge Group (www.thecambridgegroup.com) is a strategy consulting firm focused on the development of growth strategies for Fortune 500 companies. For over 30 years, The Cambridge Group has used its proprietary approach, Demand StrategyTM, to help clients achieve significantly higher growth rates, restore pricing power and enhance competitive insulation. By focusing solely on demand, we have created and implemented successful strategies that maximize our clients' growth and profitability.
The Cambridge Group works with blue chip and Fortune 500 clients in markets around the world, consistently crafting breakthrough strategies that return above-market rates of profitable growth. Our unique breadth and depth of industry experience includes consumer packaged goods, financial services, healthcare, high tech, business to business and telecommunications.