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alumni/ae page |
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March 2003 Utilizing her marketing experience, Mechele Flaum is dedicated to the development of BFS. by Jesse Soll ’95 Mechele Flaum ’68 founded Marketing Fire, a creative marketing consultancy firm, in 1999 with the purpose of seeking, discovering and sharing new trends in our world. And, although Flaum now draws on years of experience working with companies such as Pepsi-Lipton, BMW, and Nabisco, the spark for her creative approach was formed during her years at Brooklyn Friends. “Brooklyn Friends taught me to think,” she says. “Even in college and graduate school, it always came back to the incredible confidence the school gave me. I was shown that there are many ways to solve a question or dilemma, and you should not be scared of new ideas or new parts of a puzzle.” After graduating from Brooklyn Friends, Flaum earned a BA at American University. She found a passion and interest in current events and the political process, spending time as a volunteer for Senator Charles E. Goodell. Encouraged by a college professor to expand on her interest in events of the present and motifs of the past, Flaum moved on to the University of Pennsylvania to earn an MA in American Folklore. “Folklore is tradition that is not recorded,” she explains, “and at the time it was an interesting and new way to look at communication between families, countries, ethnicities around the world.” She adds, “It certainly was influential for me, but at the time I found it to be a pursuit that universities and schools didn’t fully support, and there was very little money and grant support in the field.” So, turning her focus to her interest in the business world, Flaum moved to Columbia University, where she received an MBA with a focus on consumer marketing. Before forming Marketing Fire, Flaum spent time as brand manager for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, brand director for SB Thomas, brand director for Slimfast (at the time an $80 million business), and was also president of Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, where she developed marketing and product strategies based on consumer trends. Despite these successes, Flaum always hoped to form her own business. Her wish realized through Marketing Fire, she now utilizes her unique insights to key in on what drives consumers to buy what they buy. “It is hard to get businesses to see the environment around them,” she says. “Our world changes so rapidly that it is not easy to identify all or any trends happening, especially when there is interplay between age, gender, or ethnic groups. I try to get the CEOs and presidents of companies to recognize changes in the world that may go unseen even through they are happening right in front of them.” An example of such a trend is what Flaum refers to as “Mentor-ganization,” a concept that illuminates the idea that a company needs to mentor their workers in order to maintain loyalty. “The idea is two-fold—businesses are being called upon to train their workers because school systems are inefficient, and so many big businesses are only now realizing that a job needs to represent more than a salary; that for many businesses their best assets walk out the door every evening,” Flaum explains. “Businesses are failing to recognize that their employees have their own lives…they have parents and children they need to provide care to, they have a need for education, they may be volunteers, and with all these pressures they are expected to excel at their regular jobs. And so, the businesses that survive are those that help their employees find a balance through mentoring and guidance, which in turn is rewarded with loyalty.” Flaum happily relates the birth of such ideas to her time at Brooklyn Friends. “There are such great teachers and intelligent students at the school, and the Quaker influence is wonderful. I learned that you should never be intimidated by authority; don’t be intimidated by someone who is older and wiser—use them as a resource! No one is infallible, and everyone’s opinion matters.” Always looking towards improving the future, Flaum has served as clerk of Brooklyn Friends’ development committee for the past six years, spearheading the drive to raise funds to support better operations and to improve and modernize the facilities. According to Flaum, the effort and time added to an already very busy schedule (she tours nationally and internationally as a speaker, and is on the editorial board of Lifestyles magazine) is more than worthwhile. “I want to be part of creating an incredible environment for Brooklyn Friends that can last into the 2000s. The Brooklyn Friends of 2003 is the best Brooklyn Friends yet.” “There is a real diversity here, not just an ethnic diversity but a diversity of perspectives and lifestyles. The faculty and administration keep Brooklyn Friends bouyant. You know that those involved with the school love it. The level of dedication is remarkable, like an ongoing epic, and I want to be able to contribute to that.” For more information on Marketing Fire, please visit www.marketingfire.com. |
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