On the website Rate My Professor, Markets & Management Professor George Grody has a nearly perfect score, a 4.8 out of 5.0 on overall quality. Comments on the site include, “It would be a shame if you graduated without ever meeting him” and “Not only [the] coolest professor but also one of the coolest people at Duke.” It sounds like Grody is someone you should get to know.
His classes, Managerial Effectiveness, Global Marketing, and the MMS capstone seminar, are all sought after ones at Duke. Can’t get in? On the day I met with him, a day on which he wasn’t teaching, Grody had six meetings with students, many of whom weren’t in his class. That’s one of the great things about Prof. Grody- he’s willing to meet with you no matter who you are. That day, he was meeting with two students who were starting their own business and seeking marketing advice, both students whom he had never met.
In looking for marketing advice, those students chose well. For 26 years, Grody worked around the world for Proctor & Gamble, starting up new branches in over 60 countries to promote P&G products such as Tide or Pringles. This means he got to live in places like the Bahamas, Australia, Tai Wan, Germany, Romania, and Switzerland, and in each of these places, his responsibilities varied. Hmm… marketing can lead to world travel… is it too late for me to change my major?
“In these start-ups, I shaped the entire organization: hiring people, developing culture, changing people’s lives with new job opportunities. It was a big responsibility, because I was the face of P&G. I was the reason these people around the globe joined the company, so I couldn’t let them down.” Grody said.
He is able to bring his experiences into the classroom and make them applicable, which is what students agree, makes the class interesting. According to Grody, his favorite part about teaching is sharing these experiences with students to help speed up their learning. The class becomes just as much fun for him as for his students! “I want to be able to teach students the things that it took me 26 years to figure out,” Grody said.
He left P&G in 2007 to do just that at Duke. Why Duke? Grody was comin’ home. He graduated here in 1981 and has stayed involved in the Duke community ever since. You’ll even see that a table in Von Der Heyden Pavilion has his name on it (#FamousFurniture).
“Sometimes I joke with people who are sitting at the table and say, ‘This is my seat.’ I pull out my ID and point to the plaque at the center of the table and they start to apologize,” Grody said. Dude’s got swag.
Grody doesn’t actually make them move of course. He just takes pride in his Duke involvement! After all, Duke helped him get on track to where he is now. While he was a student, the Career Center hosted interviews for businesses looking for potential employees. “Even though P&G was my lowest offer, I took it, because I thought that working in a good environment would make me most successful,” Grody said. That one interview turned into a lifelong career for Grody. There’s hope! Duke really does help you accomplish great things! Remember that the next time you’re cramming for a killer exam or staring at the computer screen in an attempt to write a 25-page research paper.
Grody’s advice to all students: “Live life in the moment. You have plenty of time to worry about a career.” And when the scary time comes that you need a career, don’t always think that you need to take the assumed path. Grody’s success lies in taking the path less chosen, choosing to live abroad, and moving from place to place.
“Helping other people achieve their goals gives me more joy than accomplishing my own,” Grody shared. It is likely that this attitude is what makes Grody such a great professor. He uses real-life business simulation techniques and creates marketing projects, which require students to perform their own consumer research. He hopes his teaching methods will help students come closer to their goals.
So, if you are looking for a great professor who will show you how business works in the real world, Grody is your guy. And I’m sure you’ll find many other students that will tell you the same. Now as for getting into his class… may the odds be ever in your favor.