World-class sailor and marketing guru relates life lessons from boating to boardrooms in new memoir
by Bob Johnstone 16 Apr 2023 11:04 PDT
According to family lore, sailing and innovation have been running through Bob Johnstone's family DNA since the age of piracy in the Caribbean.
In "Maverick Marketer," Johnstone considers the course of his life, from taking the helm of a sailboat in a race at age 2, through college days at Princeton, to creating the leading performance brand in sailing, then doing same with powerboats. Regaling readers with sailing stories and how award-winning boats were created, Johnstone seeks to ignite a creative spark in others, urging them to follow their passion and chart their own course to victory.
Part memoir, part love story, part marketing case study, "Maverick Marketer" is an entrepreneurial success story brimming with lessons on innovation, business development, and problem-solving. Rebecca White, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Tampa, said, "I'd recommend Bob Johnstone's book for every college student today."
"Maverick Marketer" is available for purchase on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and bookshop.org
About the Author
Bob Johnstone, a founder of J Boats, Inc. and MJM Yachts is a world-class sailor, inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame and recipient of the Mystic Seaport Museum's America and the Sea Award. A graduate of Princeton, he served as CEO of Quaker Oats subsidiaries in Colombia and Venezuela then as product manager of pet foods in the US, he became Quaker's 1967-8 Marketing Man of the Year and director of market strategy & analysis.
After Quaker, he founded Naturescapes, Inc., the United States Youth Sailing Championship, and the SAIL 73 Wilmette community sailing program. He got into the business of boating at age 41 as marketing VP of AMF/Alcort to resurrect Sunfish sales. In 1977, he was the founding marketing genius behind J Boats, Inc., the world's leading performance sailboat brand. In 2003, he founded MJM Yachts LLC, a world leader in performance powerboats.
He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his first mate, The Reverend Mary B. Johnstone.