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Marketing CEO Dave Balter on achieving the corporate full Monty

September 30, 2008 /

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Bear Paw Development Corporation is a private non-profit organization created for the purpose of administering programs to help improve regional economic conditions in Hill, Blaine, Liberty, Chouteau and Phillips Counties and the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian Reservations.

Dave Balter, the founder and CEO of the word-of-mouth media company BzzAgent, wants you to see his company naked—even the ugly bits. His problem: Achieving that wind-on-bare-skin feeling gets tougher as the company becomes better established. With 90 employees in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London—and clients including Philips, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Barilla—the firm marshals nearly 500,000 volunteer “buzz agents” to talk up products in exchange for perks and gifts. Balter is passionate about the power of word of mouth and equally so about what might be called radical corporate transparency.

A Conversation with Dave Balter by Andrew O’Connell

Full Story: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=F0810F&ml_issueid=BR0810&ml_subscriber=true&pageNumber=1&_requestid=39156