| |
| |
| Dipak C Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, in a tête-à-tête with K Ramachandran, Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the ISB, talks about the rapidly changing face of marketing, and explains how important it is for marketers to anticipate customer needs and be proactive rather then being predictive and reactive. Here are some excerpts. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
Ramachandran: In this rapidly changing socio-economic environment, very often, people – including experts – say that strategic planning is not possible, and that you can’t find any patterns. Is it really possible to identify mega trends?
Dipak Jain: Yes. There is a term that Professor Philip Kotler and I use – ‘The Nanosecond Culture.’ Nanosecond Culture means things are changing very rapidly. Not only is change inevitable, but change is happening at an accelerated speed. So, when the world is changing so rapidly, anything that you predict is going to be wrong. By the time you predict, things would have changed. We believe that rather than prediction, you need to focus on anticipation. Anticipate the mega trends and prepare for it in a proactive way. That is leadership and vision - that you have anticipated a trend and are prepared for it even before the market has identified it. In this way, you are always close to customers, but ahead of competition. This is the simple mantra of success – ‘Close to customers but ahead of competition.’ Rather than being market-driven, be market driving. Drive the market towards the trend.
I always tell my students never to jump in the same river twice. The river is the same, but the water has changed. Anticipation rather than prediction, and anticipation of |
|
mega trends are areas where good visionaries have made a difference.
The emerging economies are rapidly changing and the socio-economic platform is also changing. In context of emerging economies, can you elaborate on mega trends and its relevance?
First, I don’t like the word ‘emerging economies.’ I think a better word would be ‘economies in transition.’ India, China and Vietnam are all economies in transition, though at different scales.
When there is an economy in transition, I put my marketing head in position, see the demographic profile of people and examine their demographic evolution. This is the first thing you have to anticipate. The second part is to look for the purchasing power. We have a large number of poor people, but we still have a fairly large middle-class segment. Middle class is the engine that keeps driving the economy and, as a leader, I want to make sure that this economic class remains stable and stronger. When it comes to economies in transition, you have to look at what is changing and how the economy can cope with the change. Rather than looking for growth in economies in transition, you should look at disciplined growth. By that, I mean, having the infrastructure to manage |
