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At a time when many Internet entrepreneurs are looking
for new jobs, Gina Lambright, MBA 98, is settling into
her fourth year at the helm of Quris Inc., an e-mail
marketing company in San Francisco.
“The Internet got too big too fast, and a lot
of companies without business fundamentals failed,”
said managing director Lambright, who spent seven years
in advertising and marketing after college before deciding
to earn an MBA. “But e-mail is still around and
going strong.”
Quris (pronounced cure-is) helps Fortune 1000 companies,
such as Charles Schwab, Blockbuster, and Travelocity,
figure out ways to use e-mail to increase customer loyalty
and engagement with the company, and to reduce costs.
Schwab provided the initial funding to Lambright and
co-founder John Funk in late 1999. Quris has helped
Schwab develop a range of e-mail services, such as daily
delivery of a client’s stock portfolio into a
designated in-box every afternoon or immediate e-mail
notification of a securities rating change.
In starting the company, Lambright accomplished precisely
what she intended when she went to business school:
“I had entrepreneurial aspirations, but I needed
to learn more about running a business. I was so marketing
oriented—I needed to round out my skill set and
gain knowledge of finance and accounting.”
Lambright has leaned on her MBA, she said, and notes
that Michael Katz’s business strategy class has
come in especially handy. So has the Bay Area’s
Haas alumni network. One of her classmates, Michael
Sippey, is one of Quris’ managing directors. Lambright
says she also remains in close contact with at least
a half-dozen other classmates, relying on them for research
and advice.
To survive in today’s business climate, Lambright
says, requires “a lot of slogging, a lot of hand
work.” Quris’ emphasis on basic business
fundamentals is helping the company stand out, but Lambright
acknowledges that the end of the dot.com boom has made
it hard to make money. An essential quality, she says,
is a company’s ability to be nimble and responsive
to the market and, in her field, to be flexible enough
to adapt to new technology.
“It’s a highly competitive environment
in the in-box,” she says. “But we believe
we’re capable of a lot of growth. There is a gap
between what consumers want and what marketers have
delivered so far. We plan to be here to ride it out.”
—Pam King
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