Mastering Corporate Marketing: A Journey with Vinayak Iyer, the Award-Winning Branding Strategist
Recognized
for his innovative brand-building efforts, Vinayak has received several
prestigious awards, including the PR World Gold Awards (2020), Global Business
Excellence Award (2020), and multiple Golden Bridge Awards in 2021, 2023, and
2024. His impactful work includes driving a 500% increase in customer
engagement and significantly improving ITC Infotech's social media presence.
Beyond
his professional prowess, Vinayak is a polyglot, fluent in English, Hindi,
Marathi, Tamil, and with limited proficiency in Kannada. His expertise spans
diverse areas such as account-based marketing, project management, and client
engagement, making him a sought-after thought leader in the global marketing
landscape.
Dr.Anand Wadadekar has an in-depth interaction with Vinayak about his career in
marketing in this exclusive interview.
1.
Can you talk about your school life in terms of your studies, exams, scoring
marks and extra-curricular activities? Can you tell about something which you
did in school/college which is even today helping you as a person and a
professional?
I did my
schooling in Mumbai, and I was an average student. I was interested in
extracurricular activities like music, drama – mainly stage activities. I have
represented my school in many music competitions and have won awards for the
school, including a TV music show where the host of the show was singer
Shaan.
Post
schooling in Mumbai, I moved to Bangalore as my dad got a job in Bangalore. I
graduated from Bangalore University but continued to represent my college in
Inter-college music events. I also represented my first organization – iGATE,
in Inter-Corporate events and have won laurels for the company.
Along with my corporate journey, I still pursue singing, and I do perform at multiple venues in Bangalore & Mumbai. I would say, hobbies and passion are very important in maintaining sanity, especially in today’s world where work-related pressure and stress are high among individuals. You need to have some avenue to channelize that and calm you down and music does that for me.
2.
What motivated you to start your career in marketing domain, and how did your
early roles shape your professional development in the marketing sector? What
keeps you passionate about it after all these years?
Honestly,
I did not plan anything. I went with the flow. As mentioned earlier, I was an
average student in school who did not like math. Post schooling, I took up
commerce and when had a choice to select between math or company law, I took up
company law. But fate and destiny have their own choices. In MBA, we had
Quantitative Techniques, which was math, statistics. Thanks to the support from
friends and professors, I did well. If you ask why Marketing, I had an uncanny
knack of making friends very easily. I was always an extrovert and had the
ability to convince others to agree with my point of view. That is where people
always used to say, “You will be a good salesperson”. Even in my childhood
days, when we used to have the “Fun & Fair” and I would be able to
sell all the goodies from my stall and post that with money in my pocket, I
used to go across the other stalls. My first job at iGATE was in sales. But
gradually, I paved my way into the marketing team within iGATE and, from then
on, did not look back and continued my corporate journey in the field of
marketing and branding. All I would like to say is, if you enjoy your work, you
will deliver amazing output. The day you stop enjoying your work, it's time to
find something else.
3.
For someone just starting out in marketing domain, what advice would you give
to help them navigate the early stages of their career? Are there any specific
areas they should focus on or skills they should develop?
For someone who wants to make their career in Marketing, start learning about the art of storytelling. Marketing is nothing but storytelling and creating interesting content/story about your organization. Nowadays, you have a lot of AI tools that help you create the content. My suggestion is to anyone taking up a marketing career or who is in the early stage of their career is to start learning different AI tools that will help you in developing the content. You may create articles, videos, infographics (pictures) and multiple AI tools are available in the market which will help you achieve your results. There is a misconception that AI will result in job cuts; but I believe that if you equip yourself with the skills to optimally use these AI tools, you will be a valuable asset to any organization.
4.
With 18 years of experience, how have you seen the marketing domain evolve,
especially in India and internationally?
Marketing
as a function was always considered as a back-office or support function in any
organization. Then came the pandemic (COVID) and everyone across the globe was
stuck in their base location. Sales representatives were unable to meet the
customers or prospects. We all know “Out of Sight – Out of Mind”. That
is when Marketing had to take the lead and create the much-needed recall and
connect with clients and prospects. Utilizing the digital medium to create
visibility for the brand. So now, everywhere in the world, Marketing as a
function in an organization now has a place at the table, and it drives
business.
5.
You've held several leadership positions in branding and marketing. How do you
approach leadership and team management in the marketing domain?
Something I learned from my managers and seniors is that leadership is not about just being the tyrant. A good manager or leader is a guide and mentor. Having humane values makes the environment in a team stress-free. A stress-free environment gives better output. It's not just marketing, but any function. It boils down to respecting the individuals. What you sow, so shall you reap. Life is like karma – what you give, comes back to you. You give respect, freedom & flexibility and trust your team. You are bound to get the desired outcome.
6.
With the rapid evolution of digital marketing, what do you see as the future
and scope of marketing in the next five to ten years?
AI
is the way forward… AI will not take away jobs. On the contrary, if you are
able to learn how to use technology, you become more efficient and your market
value increases. Tasks that used to take hours, by using AI and technology, you
can complete your task in a shorter time span. This way, you get more time in
hand and will be able to utilize time more efficiently. Honestly speaking, I
have learned a lot from Gen Z. The way social media are consumed by the newer
generation, as marketeers, we need to understand their consumption patterns and
develop content and disseminate.
7. Being a father, spouse, how has been your daily routine and how do you manage it in terms of family time and personal time? What advice do you give your child about life, career and success?
This is
extremely important at this time when organizations have started taking
employees for granted. I just saw on the news that a 22-year-old fresher CA who
was employed with E&Y lost her life due to stress and her parents have sent
a letter to the management requesting them to modify their work culture.
Unfortunately, till it becomes a mandate by the government, it will not change.
I have been part of a Swedish organization, and they have their summer holidays
where they do not answer official calls or attend meetings. But in India, we
will attend the meetings on our festive holidays. On Diwali, we will agree to
attend a meeting in the afternoon. Ganesha Pooja, after our morning pooja, we
attend meetings. If we have a team, we start calling the team members and ask
them for status reports. It's not the top management, unknowingly, we have also
done this. We assign tasks to our team members on Friday and expect some
delivery on Monday morning. This means the team member has to work on the
weekend? Why do we do this? We need to have the courage to say NO. The change
has to start from within. Put yourself in the place of others and think before
taking any step. Automatically, you will change.
This starts
when we are young, and we move to a new city for our first job. As bachelors,
we don't have the urge to go back to an empty home, and we continue to take on
more work. This becomes a hint for the management. Gradually, when you get
married and have a family, it becomes difficult for you to now change the
expectations that were set by you when you were single. That is where the
problem creeps into family life. That is why it is important for all of us to
have some passion or hobby where we can immerse ourselves when not working –
especially on weekends and holidays.
This was
during the pandemic when we used to work 15–18 hours a day... I was getting
more irritable and used to vent out my frustration at folks at home. One day i
happened to scold my 5-year-old kid – for no fault of his and that's when my
mom reprimanded me for being harsh on my kid. I realized I had been directing
my office stress at folks at home who are not responsible for the office
stress. The way I don't take home-related pressures to my workplace, I should
not be bringing my office pressure home. I then decided to have my me-time and
time with my kid. During that time, I would put my mobile phone in
airplane mode and play with my kid. Post 7pm, I started declining meetings –
unless urgent and the discretion would be mine. Gradually, it helped me focus
on my work, output was much better, and my family was also happy with
that.
My advice
to my child will be, have fun – life is here to enjoy and live every moment.
Money is not everything. Look for happiness in what you do.
Comments
Post a Comment