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Linking Young Minds Together
Volume 3 | Issue 25 | June 26, 2011 |


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Encounter

Rise of a new CEO

Rashedul Hasan Stalin and
Chowdhury Fahim Farhad

In the era of globalisation, information and ideas are just a click away. Communication efficiency is measured by key word search in search engines. Visual classes and electronic communication devises have enabled us to grab the world right into our hands. But sometimes physical contact plays an important role to re-define this electro matrix. Sometimes we love to listen to our icon enlighten us with the real proximity. June 8, 2011 will be remembered as the day of inspiration to all potential young marketers, for the marketing guru, Professor Philip Kotler's “Inspiring the Future Minds” session. The experience was supreme for many of us who attended the session. This write up is a small initiative to bring into light those precious exchanges between the professor and his students.

If our potential marketers want to start a career in a manufacturing company, the career flow can be like this; start with hands-on production experiences in the factory. Later, you can move to CRM (customer relationship management) where you can learn the customers' desires and complaints. And after that, sales and product experience will enhance the young marketers to have a tight grip on the negotiation skills and better understanding of expected innovation. The goal can be achieved by going for market communication experiences in the relevant field.


Philip Kotler shares his ideas and theories with the eager minds. Photo: Rashedul Hasan Stalin and Chowdhury Fahim Farhad

All successful marketers who have gone on to become the CEO in their respected fields have the “numbers” as their key success indicators. So if we have marketing as our first major, combining it with finance should be the best thing. Most students are learning marketing because they don't like finance; they find marketing to be more exciting. However, at the top, it is all about finance. It is all about numbers, profitability, ROI, ROE etc. So, finance complements marketing, giving one the opportunity to grow in an organisation.

When you are engaged in any business or in any profession, thinking vertically only allows you to narrow down perspectives. All of your energy is directed towards your own career. When you think horizontally, you not only take care of your own career but also manage to create enough opportunities and scopes of experiencing new horizons and other unfamiliar areas and thus can augment your career in a positive way. You can serve society since one is thinking outside one's own comfort zone, and is considering the impacts of the overall organisation.

We must have sound knowledge on advertising media. We should know the exact type of media through which we can advertise our products/services to create maximum appeal. Advertising is the most attractive part of marketing. Using social media like Facebook and Twitter can have greater impact on the acceptability of a product or service. Social media attract younger people, who have considerable bargaining power, not only in satisfying their own necessities but also in shaping needs and expectations of others.

Though going abroad is always risky, one has to partner with people of foreign countries, conform to the rules and regulations of that country and understand its culture. The future of Bangladesh depends on globalisation. It's a small country but it is not the matter of size; it's all about idea, intentions and proper execution. Bangladesh has another resource that many countries lack and that is its 116 million people. Developing our own brands internationally will take us a step further.

Professor Philip Kotler introduced the five new Ps of marketing. They are Purpose, Principles, People, Protecting the Planet and Profitability. Purpose and Principles are inspired from the NGO initiatives in developing countries. Focus on People has opened a new era for marketers to analyse internal and external stakeholders. This has opposed the conventional way of defining People as customer, and has extended it to people with power who control the market. Protecting the planet is already ranged in marketers practice. Lastly the discussion went into the numbers again. Profitability is the key objective of all initiatives. Top marketers take profitability as their lead measure to evaluate brand equity.

Thanks to the organisers, the event was a great opportunity for young people to exchange ideas with one of the greatest visionaries in the marketing world.

(Rashedul Hasan Stalin and Chowdhury Fahim Farhad work at Robi Axiata Limited and Citibank N.A Bangladesh.)

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