Interview with Charlene Lambert, Business Department Faculty Member

By Mony Akpakan

9 March 2021

Charlene Lambert has worked in both city and regional marketing and economic development. She currently teaches marketing and advertising at the Webster Leiden Campus. In this interview, Charlene tells us more about herself, her career, and her numerous teaching experiences.

Mony: Could you please introduce yourself?

Charlene: I have been teaching business and management courses at Webster Leiden for over 20 years. I started by teaching international business and moved into marketing and advertising. I have a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Ottawa (Canada) and a Certificate in Economic Development from the University of Waterloo (Canada). I’ve worked in fields such as city and regional marketing, foreign direct investment, economic development, and entrepreneurship in both Canada and the Netherlands. I also have a Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Languages (St. Mary’s College - Notre Dame, USA) with a Minor in Teaching. I am a Canadian.

Mony: How did you get into this field?

Charlene: I entered international business and marketing through the back door. We have to go back to my sophomore year in college, which was spent abroad in France. This turned out to be a turning point in my life. It was the first that time I had been abroad and saw firsthand how differently people lived– how they organized their lives in ways that I wasn’t used to, and how cities were planned differently than in North America. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I realized I wanted to continue my studies and decided to apply to the University of Ottawa, where I was living at the time. It was the best decision that I made and opened many doors for me.

Upon completion of my studies, the Dutch would have said that “I fell with my nose in the butter” because there was a great need at the time for people with combined skills in city/regional planning and bilingualism. I worked for the City of Ottawa in Planning and Economic Development. Part of my job was to manage the economic twinning programs between Ottawa and The Hague. 

I moved to The Netherlands as a result of the twinning program and continued my work in city and regional marketing and economic development with a Dutch foreign investment agency. My work by then was much more international and involved marketing and promoting the West Holland Region as a location for business investment. I assisted companies from mostly Asia and the Middle East with expansion in Europe via a business location in the Netherlands. It was through this experience that I developed my understanding and gained first-hand knowledge of international business and marketing. As a member of the Canadian Women’s Club, I read an ad in the newsletter that Webster was looking for an international business lecturer.  I answered the ad, was interviewed, and I’ve been teaching at Webster part-time ever since.

Mony: What do you like about teaching, and what are some of the challenges you faced?

Charlene: Teaching at Webster is great because of the students who come from all over the world and add so much to the classes. Particularly in subjects like international business and marketing, the international perspective is so important. I like the fact that it’s an opportunity to explore the theory, to exchange and compare information about different countries’ practices at the same time, and to keep on top of what is happening in the field. I’m always looking for ways to make the topics we are discussing more relevant to the students. I try to bring in guest lecturers who can share their specific knowhow with our class.

We have also taken field trips to visit local companies, when possible. But of course, nowadays due to the Covid-19 pandemic this is nearly impossible.  Learning to manage the technologies and platforms to teach remote/hybrid classes has been challenging, but I can say with confidence that my IT skills have improved because of it!

Mony: What was the biggest failure in your career, and what did you learn from it?

Charlene: I believe you have to decide how far outside of your comfort zone you want to go. In moving to the Netherlands, I decided I wanted more challenges. When I moved here I realized that I still had a lot to learn– more than I initially expected. Many of us will come to points in our lives where we will have to make an important decision, and we need to remind ourselves of our personal goals and how to stay focused.

Mony: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a student?

Charlene: Study languages, be adaptable, and become knowledgeable about some technological areas. At the same time, develop your more creative and multidisciplinary side through music, art, and literature. Open your mind and explore the world.

Mony: What is the most frequent misconception that students have about marketing and/or management?

Charlene: As an example, we have discussed recently in class the difference between marketing and advertising.  Marketing deals with the ‘4 Ps’ – product, price, place, and promotion– whereas advertising deals in principle with the ‘4th P’, i.e. promotion.

Mony: What are the career opportunities after graduating with a degree in Marketing or International business?

Charlene: The textbooks frequently focus on marketing for big businesses, but I always remind the students that the topics of marketing, international business, and advertising (and certainly others) are also of great interest to small businesses, start-ups, governments and semi-government agencies, and NGOs. For this reason, it’s useful to explore these areas during your studies and see if there is a fit. There is always room for small marketing-communications companies that offer specialized services and can frequently offer more flexibility.

With the advent of the Internet, international business has become a fact of life. If your company does not expand abroad, another company may enter your own market, so you have to think of internationalization from the beginning. Because of this, I believe that degrees in marketing and international business have a bright future in combination with excellent language and digital skills.

Mony: Who has been the most successful student throughout your teaching career?

Charlene: It would be great to be able to follow what all of my students are doing after they graduate. As an example, I was recently so pleased when I was able to help one of my students find an internship and she ended up getting a full-time job there. She is a high performer, an excellent writer and organizer, and I know that her international and linguistic skills are greatly appreciated in her office!

Mony: What is the most impressive work that students have submitted to you?

Charlene: During our marketing class, we discuss in some detail the TOWS matrix, and how by doing a SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix, you can arrive at strategies. I offered the students a variety of topics to research for their team projects. Students frequently like to choose larger organizations to study because there is usually a lot of information available. But this time, one team chose to develop a marketing plan for the WBII, a small non-profit organization. The team did an amazing job of identifying and analyzing the problems, preparing a plan, and presenting their project. I was personally very touched by their efforts to try and understand the organization and their initiative to develop a realistic marketing plan.