McGill Professor | Initiative Marketing founder | FieldEdge Academy co-creator

Sol Tanguay, PhD

Marketing Strategy + Customer Experience + Data Intelligence

Academic research and 25+ years of consulting experience for organizations that want CRM, CX, e-commerce, and analytics to become measurable operating capability.

  • 25+years across marketing, IT, and education
  • 2013Initiative Marketing founded
  • 2020McGill Desautels professor
  • EN/FRbilingual executive education
Three ways in

A rare blend of professor, consultant, and trainer.

Decision-makers can enter through teaching, consulting, or team development. The throughline is practical transformation grounded in research.

Professor

Information Systems professor at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management, teaching e-business, analytics, IT consulting, and digital media marketing.

Consultant

Founder of Initiative Marketing, advising organizations on CRM strategy, CX design, e-commerce transformation, and marketing analytics.

Trainer

Co-creator of FieldEdge Academy, building sales acceleration and customer experience mastery programs for enterprise teams.

About Sol

Research discipline, consulting judgment, and classroom clarity.

Sol Tanguay works at the intersection of digital transformation, customer experience, and data-driven marketing.

Based in Montreal, Sol brings together an HEC Montréal doctorate in Information Systems/Marketing, an MBA from Université Laval, and a B.Com. in Marketing from HEC Montréal.

His doctoral research focused on self-service technology adoption, a foundation that remains highly relevant for customer experience, CRM adoption, and the way organizations translate digital investments into customer value.

The working philosophy is direct: listen first, structure the problem clearly, then build practical systems that teams can actually use.

  1. B.Com. in Marketing, HEC Montréal.
  2. MBA, Université Laval.
  3. Ph.D. in Information Systems/Marketing and founding of Initiative Marketing.
  4. Professor at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management.
  5. Consulting and executive education across Canada, the Americas, and Europe.
Academic rigorDoctoral research, business school teaching, and evidence-based frameworks.
Enterprise practiceHands-on strategy and implementation experience with complex organizations.
Bilingual deliveryEnglish and French facilitation for Montreal and international teams.
Measurable learningPrograms designed to move capability, adoption, and customer metrics.
Teaching at McGill

Teaching what works. Implementing what is taught.

Courses connect information systems, marketing, analytics, and consulting practice so students can see how strategy becomes operating decisions.

INSY 440

E-Business

Digital business models, e-commerce execution, and the operational choices behind online growth.

INSY 642

Data Analysis & Visualization

Analytical thinking, visual explanation, and the translation of data into managerial action.

RETL 631

Digital Media Marketing

Customer acquisition, media planning, measurement, and marketing technology in digital channels.

INSY 339

IT Consulting

Problem framing, stakeholder management, recommendations, and client-ready communication.

CX + CRM

Executive Education

Corporate programs for managers leading CRM adoption, CX transformation, and analytics-enabled marketing.

EN/FR

Bilingual Facilitation

Clear delivery for English and French-speaking learners across classroom, workshop, and enterprise contexts.

Selected student feedback, course syllabi, and McGill course links can be added when final public references are confirmed.

Initiative Marketing

Consulting for transformation work that cannot be solved by templates.

Sol helps organizations connect customer strategy, technology choices, team adoption, and measurement into one coherent operating model.

CRM Strategy & Implementation

Align CRM goals with customer journeys, frontline behavior, data requirements, and executive metrics.

  • Readiness assessment
  • Adoption roadmap
  • Governance and measurement

Customer Experience Design

Map moments that matter, identify friction, and turn experience strategy into service standards and metrics.

  • Journey mapping
  • CX measurement model
  • Service design workshops

E-Commerce & Digital Transformation

Clarify digital growth priorities, operating needs, channel roles, and the customer data behind better decisions.

  • Channel strategy
  • Technology alignment
  • Operational handoff

Marketing Analytics & Data Strategy

Build dashboards, decision routines, and measurement frameworks that connect marketing activity to customer value.

  • KPI architecture
  • Dashboard design
  • Insight-to-action cadence

Executive Education & Corporate Training

Translate strategy into workshops, tools, and learning experiences managers can take back to their teams.

  • Leadership workshops
  • Sales and CX enablement
  • Custom learning design

Change & Adoption Enablement

Support rollout with stakeholder alignment, communication rhythms, and field-ready tools.

  • Stakeholder mapping
  • Manager enablement
  • Adoption checkpoints
1

Problem

Define the customer, operational, and measurement gaps before recommending tools.

2

Approach

Co-design the roadmap with leaders, managers, and teams who will own the change.

3

Results

Track adoption, experience quality, cycle time, and revenue-facing indicators.

FieldEdge Academy

Sales and customer experience programs built for teams in motion.

Co-created with Pablo Gray, MBA, FieldEdge Academy focuses on capability building that feels practical, energetic, and measurable.

Sales acceleration

The Hunt

A program for field-based and consultative sales teams that need stronger prospecting discipline, opportunity focus, and customer conversation quality.

Field teams Pipeline discipline Sales lift
CX mastery

The Journey

A customer experience transformation program that helps teams understand friction, design better interactions, and connect service behavior to CX metrics.

CX teams Journey thinking Measurable change
Research & thought leadership

The bridge between self-service adoption, CX, CRM, and marketing transformation.

Sol's doctoral research on self-service technology adoption informs a practical view of modern customer experience: technology only creates value when customers and employees can adopt it with confidence.

CX Audit Framework

A future downloadable tool for diagnosing touchpoints, friction, ownership, and measurement gaps.

CRM Readiness Assessment

A practical pre-implementation lens for data quality, process fit, team adoption, and governance.

E-Commerce Benchmark Report

A resource concept for comparing digital channel maturity, customer data use, and growth levers.

Data-Driven Marketing Guide

A short guide on how analytics can improve customer lifetime value decisions.

Speaking & workshops

Executive sessions for leaders navigating customer and digital change.

Available formats include keynotes, half-day workshops, webinars, leadership offsites, and custom training delivery.

CRM strategy that survives implementation

How to make CRM choices that match customer journeys, sales behavior, and data reality.

CX transformation beyond slogans

How to move from customer promises to experience standards, ownership, and feedback loops.

Data-driven marketing for managers

How leaders can turn dashboards into action, not just reporting artifacts.

Contact

Start with the problem you are trying to solve.

Use the inquiry form to route teaching, consulting, training, and speaking requests. The first conversation should clarify goals, stakeholders, timing, and what success needs to look like.

Service pathways

ConsultingCRM, CX, e-commerce, analytics, and transformation advisory.

TrainingFieldEdge Academy programs and custom executive education.

TeachingAcademic inquiries, course context, and guest sessions.

LocationMcGill Bronfman Building, Room 465, Montreal.

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