QUOTED: a marketing professor compares RIM to Hogwarts and its new executives to Muggles

It’s almost as if you would hire a Muggle to lead Hogwarts.

—Markus Giesler, a Schulich School of Business marketing professor, trying to describe why making Frank Boulben chief marketing officer of Research in Motion is as risky as replacing Albus Dumbledore with Dudley Dursley (if that last bit doesn’t mean anything to you, start with this). Although Giesler praises RIM for looking outside the company to fill the position, he argues that Boulben lacks the deep knowledge of the consumer marketplace that the company needs to charm smart phone users. Or boy wizards. [Toronto Star]