Winter 2021–2022

Office Hours: Motivating Action Through Marketing

Portrait photo of Gary Ottley
Listen

Gary Ottley MBA’97 feels strongly about the power of marketing. Before arriving at Babson College as an instructor in 2008, he worked for 11 years as a marketing consultant for three firms, and he currently teaches core marketing courses to graduate students.

“I would argue that marketing as a discipline has more power than almost any other business discipline in terms of what it does and what it can do,” the senior lecturer says. “It’s the part of business that convinces people to change their behaviors and has the power to move things from Point A to Point B.”

Ottley’s doctoral work examined the marketing strategies of companies committed to the principles of “conscious capitalism,” and he is convinced that business can and should play a role in addressing complex issues such as income inequality, climate change, and all types of reform. “The very term ‘reform’ implies a change—in behaviors, in attitudes, in actions,” Ottley says. “Marketing has always played a role in all of those changes and phenomena.”

A popular instructor known for animated lectures and a deep voice that carries hints of his childhood in Trinidad and Tobago, Ottley recently received the Dean’s Graduate Teaching Award for his work with students in the full-time, part-time, and blended MBA programs. “If you are in a graduate program at Babson, there is a likely chance that you’ll be in one of my classes at one point or another,” he says. Ottley also teaches undergraduates periodically and has developed and delivered executive education programs.

He recently served on a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) taskforce, convened early in 2021 to advise the Graduate Academic Policy Committee on ways to advance DE&I initiatives in the graduate school. Increasing the diversity of races, cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives is one of Babson’s critical objectives. In the course of taskforce discussions, Ottley says, he brought up the structural barriers that might prevent students from both enrolling and thriving at Babson, such as income inequality or the challenges faced by international students trying to obtain student visas.


DIGITAL BOOKSHELF: Check out the latest publications by Babson faculty


One of the College’s major initiatives was the creation of the Inclusive Teaching Training Program for faculty members, and Ottley says he’s heartened to see the Babson community taking efforts seriously—and taking action. Making an effort to attract and support students and faculty members from marginalized groups will only strengthen Babson’s programs, Ottley stresses.

“We teach students how to make decisions, and to try to get the best out of those decisions,” he says. “That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. The more and better perspectives you get into that decision-making process, the better your decisions are going to be.”

Posted in Community

More from Babson Magazine »

Latest Stories

Three photos in a side-by-side collage depict Michael Kopelman coaching, Brady Anderson in action, and the doubles team celebrating
Courting Success: How Babson Tennis Teams Transformed into National Powerhouses With championships and top-tier recruiting classes, Babson Director of Tennis Michael Kopelman has overseen the transformation of the men’s and women’s programs into national powerhouses.
By
Scott Dietz
Writer
Scott Dietz
Scott Dietz is Babson College's Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications. Dietz is responsible for the department's internal and external communications, including branding, campus engagement, marketing, social media, sponsorships and website management. Additional duties consist of event coverage, facilitation of interview requests, media pitching, video content, writing and editing. Before Babson, Dietz spent 13-plus years at fellow NEWMAC institution Wheaton College, worked for the NFL, New England Patriots, and in the media relations department with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. A native of South Park, PA, Dietz began his sports information career at Westminster College.
September 2, 2025

Posted in Community

Babson Build students from HBCUs participate in an exercise in the Weissman Foundry
An Entrepreneurial Summer: How Babson Impacts Communities Year-Round The school year may be over, but Babson’s work of educating entrepreneurial leaders doesn’t stop. In the summer, many entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders descend on campus. They come from around the globe to connect and to learn. What they take away from the College can impact their companies, their classrooms, and their communities.
By
John Crawford
Senior Journalist
John Crawford
A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.
August 29, 2025

Posted in Community, Entrepreneurial Leadership

Juan “JC” Grullon ’27 and Ty Bradford ’29 shake hands outside Publishers Hall
Publishers Hall Welcomes First-Year Students to Its Cozy Confines During move-in day, a new crop of first-year students made Publishers Hall their home. The small residence hall, built over a century ago, is known for the tight-knit communities that form there.
By
John Crawford
Senior Journalist
John Crawford
A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.
August 28, 2025

Posted in Community