Sir, If there is one positive thing coming from Mr Tom Kavanagh's article in your business pages (April 8th) it is that we can only assume more and more accountants are finally discovering marketing. It gladdens the heart to see that the profession is starting to recognise that, for their services to be even necessary, firms must initially be effective in meeting market needs. One hopes that this realisation will be accompanied by a greater willingness among the accounting profession to give managers the necessary financial latitude to build truly market oriented enterprises.
Of interest, too, is it to see that in developing his argument, Mr Kavanagh goes to the veritable well, drawing liberally from an article written by Professor Levitt in 1960, no less. Sadly, the old railways example has worn very thin in marketing circles over the years.
Suffice to say that a great deal has been contributed to the marketing discipline in the intervening 36 years. Enough, indeed, for marketers to reject the cliche that "marketing is the only way forward for any company", which Mr Kavanagh would now like us to adopt. Yours, etc., Lecturer in Strategic Marketing, University of Dublin, School of Business Studies, Trinity College, Dublin 2.