Smarter Marketing For Ambitious CEOs

Kick-starting the fourth session, the chief executive officer of Funskool, John Baby spoke on what it takes to build, sustain and scale organisations. He started with a poser on what is the one most important requirement to make a great organization. It is right leadership. As a manager or leader, you have to do the right things at the right time, he said.

Creating an organisation means building a team, purpose and culture, the last one being the most important facet of any organization, said Baby. He then went on to elaborate on cultural differences and that culture varies from organization to organization. Developing the right culture is very important for any organisation to sustain and grow, added Baby. Culture is the blood of an organization that is passed on from generation to the next generation.

He also said that money alone cannot be the motivator. There is a limit till which money can motivate people. In terms of challenges, Baby said that artificial intelligence will be an important and dominating phenomenon, said Baby. On a lighter note, he added that robots wanted to start families and from now on new social decorum issues have to be dealt with! Baby recalled that in olden days, the hierarchy was important in organisations.

In his opening remarks on smarter marketing for ambitious CEOs, moderator and chief executive officer of BW BusinessWorld, Hoshie Ghaswalla said there is no one size fits all and added how advertising has moved to small screen today; the smartphone. He added that digital marketing is response driven.

Karishma Kirpalani of Kwink said small screen advertising is interactive, measurable and more targeted. She said, its imperative for everyone to have a website today. She added how her company used LinkedIn for property management as a lot of corporates have a LinkedIn presence. Also, services of social media influencers like fashion and lifestyle bloggers could be utilized. Such influencers can also relate to the audience better in place of models and brand ambassadors. Restaurants use influencers to a large degree in the form of food critics and reviewers, explained Karishma.

Chief executive officer of SpringPeople, Ravi Kaklasaria said digital marketing does well in the retail sector. But it’s important to have the right product or service before one gets into marketing, he added. He seconded Karishma’s view of influencers. It’s like an endorsement and public relations, said Kaklasaria. He added that marketing involves a lot of experimenting.

Hoshie Ghaswalla concluded the panel discussion by saying that there is a science to marketing.