My advise would always be - get passionate about what you are doing, be ready to spend extended amount of time to learn the skills that are required to do your job. The world today requires you to be Jack of many trades, it would be extremely difficult to be a King of one and sustain for a long time.
1. Tell us about your upbringing, and early career days.
I Was born to parents who believed in 'never be comfortable with comfort'. Both belonged to different cultures and extremely different upbringing which probably gave us a different perspective to the world.
Having a working mom ensured that we always respected career women as they juggle it along with home and family. She was an achiever and still extremely modest. I had seen her helping kids in the apartment with Maths after coming from work because she was just passionate about the subject. That probably was my biggest life lesson - being modest and also being passionate about something that it doesn't seem like a chore.
Dad was extremely tech savvy and he always had the inclination to learn new tech. Also, wanted us as kids to be aware of tech since early age. I remember getting my earliest computer lessons way back in 90s. Since he worked with BSNL, his exposure to internet was probably since the day internet came to India and that extended to our home also.
Imagine you having the only computer along with internet in 1km radius of your house, celebrity moment as teenagers!!
The advantage was, like him I was always inclined to learn about new tech and went about authoring a book on Java & Service-Oriented Architecture (which was in infancy during those times). And when social media came along, it again spiked my interest from a technology perspective. Then there was no looking back as I married my tech knowledge with business knowledge and here we are today!!
Thanks to the early learnings on humility, passion and love of technology.
2. How did you rise to the highest echelons in your career and what advice do you have for our readers?
I wouldn't say the highest echelons (yet!!) but given my interest in digital marketing technologies coupled with available roles in the organization, I was able to be where I am today. Also, I have to credit the organization as well as my leaders who believed in abilities.
My advise would always be - get passionate about what you are doing, be ready to spend extended amount of time to learn the skills that are required to do your job. The world today requires you to be Jack of many trades, it would be extremely difficult to be a King of one and sustain for a long time.
3. How do you analyse whether your marketing activities reached your intended TG and communicated the right messages?
I always believe that data never lies! Your team/agency will try to present the best picture but you as leader should have the ability to read between the lines.
Also, even in digital space as well as across B2C or B2B, you are still trying to build relationship with the human on the other side. Get in their shoes and understand what they want, then devise your communication plan. No one likes to be sold to!!
4. How do you think marketing will evolve in the future and how are you preparing for that leap?
Have you heard about cookie-less marketing? If not, start researching now.
We are fast moving into technology where brands will find it difficult to gather and leverage 3rd party data. With governments across the world becoming stringent on privacy, brands and marketers in particular will have to find a way to build system that helps them gather customer insights.
Few marketers in the know have an early start and have started devising systems that will capture first party data of the customers, invest on it now.
5. What would be that one thing that you would do differently now than before?
AI in marketing. We will continue to look for tools and tech that will make marketing simpler.
It is not to eliminate jobs but how can we make marketing more efficient. We have to move the needle from being support units to revenue units.
6. What are your future plans?
May be move on the academia side. As I mentor student of Upgrad and few other places where I go for sessions on marketing, one biggest void I find is the connect with industry. If learners get exposed to real problem statements and how we as industry folks solve those problems, it will help them with learning beyond the vanity stuff.
I also find it very fulfilling as it is one way I give back my learnings to the society and it is an incredible feeling when few of them succeed in their careers.
7. What are your thoughts for sponsoring ads during IPL? How do brands measure ROI?
Great time to do it. Like it or not, cricket still binds India, what better time to get into the radar of the masses.
The ultimate RoI is always revenue but from a marketers perspective, one needs to define the right objective - reach, impression, organic vs inorganic views, share of voice and finally leads.
8. Which is your favourite book and why?
Long back I was introduced to this book called - The Secret, there was a documentary around it too. The core message from the book is - you always have to reiterate your goal and work passionately towards it. The circumstances will eventually conjure and help you achieve the goal.
Maybe I saw it in action as part of my career too, I just kept on learning about digital marketing, spend insane amount of time engaging with people and that probably led me to where I am today.
So be that Arjuna, who only had fish's eye to focus on, world around you will help in achieving the goal.
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Bio
Malhar Barai, is Head of Marketing – India & APAC, Tech Mahindra. He also leads Global Digital Marketing for Tech Mahindra and has been instrumental in running high impact campaigns. He’s also on the Advisory Board for a Bay Area based startup focusing on serverless computing.
A techie turned marketer with over 18 years of experience, Malhar has co-founded #SEOTalk, India’s first & longest running Twitter Chat & also co-hosted ‘The F&M Show’, again India’s first live talk show on Youtube.
An Author, Advisor, Speaker, Malhar mentors individuals in creating omni-channel digital strategies leveraging power of Live Streaming, SEO and various Digital Platforms. He speaks at various events on omni-channel marketing, community building, content marketing & SEO.
Connect with him Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Website, Instagram
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