Marketing in the new age is no longer about drafting a perfect GTM strategy. With the imminent advent of digital media, conglomeration of communication channels, disruption of distribution, dynamic consumer demographics, and decision making increasingly aided by cutting edge consumer insights – the science and art of marketing today is undergoing significant transformation.
We at IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB), Krea University are proud to host Inside Marketing 2021, with the theme ‘Marketing in the New Age’.
The conference will feature three panels that bring to light some of the recent trends that have changed the way marketing managers look at product, market, distribution and consumers. The panels are
– Marketing in the Age of Millennials
– Marketing in the Age of AI
– Marketing in the Times of Crisis
Hosted on the virtual platform, this half-day long conference will feature power talks, discussions and perspectives from leading industry practitioners and experienced marketing professionals from a cross-section of industry verticals, who will bring us one step closet to decoding Marketing 5.0
The new-age digital era is here to stay, with an emphasis on staying updated in terms of approaches, technologies and catering to a young generation. Be a part of IFMR GSB’s annual marketing conclave and interact with the brightest minds in the field, sharing their insights on what it takes to conquer the marketing world of today.
Prof. Shobha Das, Dean - IFMR GSB, Krea University
Dr. Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, Krea University
Shiv Shivakumar - Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy & Business Development - Aditya Birla Group
Panelists:
Hrishikesh Shende, Business Director, Adidas - Emerging Markets
David Appasamy, Head - Brand and Strategy, Social Beat
Moderator:
Kala Anand, Director - Communications & Partnerships, Krea University
Panelists:
Janani Dwarakanath, Head of Product Marketing, Freshworks
Girish Ramdas, Co-Founder and CEO, Magzter
Moderator:Prof. Sunanda Sangwan, Area Chair- Marketing, IFMR GSB, Krea University
Panelists:
Mudit Mathur, General Manager - India and South Asia, Dole Foods
L V Navaneeth, CEO of The Hindu
Moderator: Prof. Shobha Das, Dean - IFMR GSB, Krea University
Speaker: Chetan Gore, Vice President and Business Head (FMCG), Reliance Retail
Moderator: Dr. Sathya Saminadan, Assistant Professor - Marketing, IFMR GSB, Krea University
*the list of panelists are not final and subject to change before the event.
*7.30 PM session by Chetan Gore is exclusively for the students of Krea University, Links for the event will be sent separately.
Shivakumar or Shiv as he is popularly known is currently Group Executive president at Aditya Birla group for Strategy and Business development. He joined the ABG group in January 2018.
Prior to this, Shiv was Chairman and CEO for PepsiCo for four years and before that with Nokia as CEO for India and later Emerging markets for nearly a decade. Shiv has been a CEO for half his career and was one of the youngest CEOS in India. Shiv worked in HUL for a number of years, mostly in marketing. Shiv has worked with over 50 brands in his career and seen many business transformations.
Shiv writes and teaches regularly on Innovation, leadership, Followership, Business Models, Digitization etc. across the leading business schools in the world.
Shiv is an avid sports watcher, a great fan of Manchester United and Barcelona football teams, John Mc Enroe and Roger Federer in tennis.
Shiv is a believer in giving back to society. Shiv has been on the Board of Governors of IIM Ahmedabad between 2012 and 2017, he was on the Godrej Consumer products Board between 2009 and 2017. He was the president of the All India management association in 2012-2013. He was Chairman of the mobile marketing association from 2014 to 2019 and Chairman of the Advertising standards council of India for 2018-19. He is currently on the board of XLRI and IIM Udaipur.
Shiv has been awarded many times in his career – Best CEO, Best brand builder, for leadership, for Turnaround etc.. The awards most dear to him are the two distinguished Alumnus awards he got from IIT madras and IIM Calcutta. He is one of twenty people in India to have distinguished alumnus awards from both IIT and IIM.
Shiv is married to Hamsini, who runs her own brand, innovation and Semiotics consulting company.
Millennials have changed many ground rules for many industries. Particularly, with the growing impact of social media and sentiment of ‘instant gratification’ on integrated marketing comms strategy. In this panel discussion, Hrishikesh Shende (Business Director, Adidas – Emerging Markets) and David Appasamy (Head – Brand and Strategy, Social Beat), share insights on the importance of generational marketing and how it can aid brand building in the age of millennials
Hrishikesh is a leading sports industry professional with more than 15 years of experience with leading
organisations such as adidas, Liverpool FC and IMG.
At adidas he’s led its sports marketing division, Football division and for the past 3 years its Outdoor and
Specialist Sports division for Emerging Markets (India, South Africa, MENA, Turkey and Israel). Previously
he headed up IMG Reliance’s football division to come up with agency’s commercial and marketing plans
and began his career in the sports industry with one of the world’s biggest clubs, Liverpool FC, where as
part of its commercial team, he helped secure partnership deals worth £35 million. He is also a qualified
lawyer having worked with Mulla & Mulla, one of India’s oldest and leading law firms.
He’s a graduate of RA Podar College, Mumbai along with a law degree from Government Law College,
Mumbai before moving to UK for an MBA in Football Industry from University of Liverpool.
As a former athlete, he’s represented Mumbai and Maharashtra in Ranji trophy cricket as well as
captained Mumbai junior state, Bombay University, various club and corporate teams over a career
spanning 10+ years.
In 2017 he won the British Council’s Professional Achievement Award for achieving success in his
professional career upon graduation from a British University. He currently resides in Gurgaon with his
wife and daughter.
Awarded one of the 50 leading Marketing Strategists in the world by the World Marketing Congress 2018. Head- Brand & Strategy at Social Beat, one of India’s fastest growing digital marketing companies with clients across cities in India and overseas.
Expertise & Experience: Wide-ranging experience covering General Management, Business Strategy, Brand & Marketing Management, Advertising, Account Management & Sales. Experience includes work on diverse brands, products and services, extensive travel and networking overseas for marketing and investment promotion. Policy work with the International Chamber of Commerce and the Internet Governance Forum with regard to international Internet & Telecom policy & protocols.
Speaker at international conferences: WSIS, Internet Governance Forums (IGF) (2005-2008), Internet Society’s Global INET (2012), and Reg IGFs
Other Professional Experience:
Co-Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on the Internet and Telecoms Infrastructure & Services of the Commission on the Digital Economy from 2006 to 2011 (formerly the eBusiness, IT & Telecoms Commission (EBITT). As Co-Chair was leading the development of global business positions and practical tools.
Selected by the UN Secretary-General to serve on the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) on the Internet Governance Forum: 2010-2011; worked to advocate business priorities to governments, inter-governmental and international organizations, Internet technical community organizations, as well as civil society.
In the face of rapid changes and disruptions, organisations have recognised the importance of adopting agile architectures to address their ever-changing business needs. With newer technologies not conforming to the Hype Cycle, leading to a high churning rate, businesses now need to be diligent and aware of the technologies they are adopting in order to build trust and integrate with people. In this panel discussion featuring Janani Dwarakanath (Head of Product Marketing – Freshworks) and Girish Ramdas (Co-Founder and CEO – Magzter), learn more about how technology is now a key factor and tool in the business world of today and what the merging of technology and marketing means for new-age marketers.
Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making
waves in the global digital publishing business. Since its inception in 2011, Magzter has crossed 70
million downloads from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books
from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide.
He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and
Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses.
He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the
digital world. Girish’s deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made
him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.
He was voted the CIOL Technology Person of the Year for his contribution to the global digital
publishing business. He was invited to speak at the prestigious World Magazine Congress in Rome to
address the World publishers on digital publishing and its future. He was awarded the TiE Innovative
Entrepreneur of the Year award and was listed twice in the Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40 list of
global Indian Entrepreneurs.
Prior to Magzter, he was the President of a software company Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and the hugely
popular movie portal and magazine under Galatta Media. He also was a co-founder of the popular
music label Think Music which continues to be one of the largest music labels in South Indian cinema.
Fun facts: He has won six Indian national gold medals in rifle shooting and holds the national record in
one event. He has also completed a full 42km marathon. He is a proficient Tennis player and golfer too
and recently has forayed into badminton and yoga!
Janani Dwarakanath (JD) is a marketing leader at Freshworks. A passionate brand marketer, she started her career in FMCG building brands like Vivel, Fiama and the Kaya Skin Clinic brand. Post which she led branding for Cognizant in Asia Pacific, where she focussed on corporate brand strategy, building employee and employer brand experiences as well creating employee value proposition in collaboration with HR. She then joined the start-up team at Freshworks – it was called Freshdesk back then – and led the umbrella rebranding effort to consolidate all products into what is now the Freshworks brand. With extensive knowledge in strategic planning, product marketing, corporate communications, field marketing, sales, and partner enablement, she now heads global product marketing for CRM at Freshworks – One of SaaS’s fastest-growing unicorns. Apart from SaaS, she is passionate about empowering women and created Prism, aimed at improving gender diversity across levels at the workplace.
The pandemic prompted organisations to shift their focus from a transactional standpoint to more personal communication. With businesses addressing the crisis, providing support to their customers whilst still remaining relevant throughout — the Marketing narrative in 2020 was established, blending business with the human spirit. Albeit a daunting process, assessing strategies and pivoting the messaging to a more distinctive approach proved to work for a number of companies during this period of uncertainty. In this session, watch Mudit Mathur (General Manager – India and South Asia – Dole Foods) and LV Navaneeth (CEO – The Hindu Group) take this discussion forward, sharing everything they learnt and unlearnt in the past one year.
Mudit is a global business leader with over 24 years of experience across different functions including customer
development, supply chain, distribution and general management across multiple business units of Johnson &
Johnson Limited. He has worked across cultures and business environments in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam,
the USA & Australia. Mudit is currently with global market leader Dole Packaged Fruits to build their India
strategy.
His most recent assignment before this was at J&J as a Commercial Director for the Consumer business with
responsibilities of 2 P&Ls – Hong Kong & Taiwan since 2016.
His career has been built on high leadership standards and consistently delivering superior performance across
multiple challenging roles. His last few key roles included leading the organization through the Start-up and
expansion phase (Vietnam 2009-2012), followed by managing a high growth business in emerging market (India
2012-2016). Eventually was given the challenge to turnaround a strategic but declining business (Taiwan
2016-2018). His legacy has been built on creating compliant, long term businesses with very strong focus on
business, customer and leadership.
Mudit is passionate about teaching and is a visiting faculty at SP Jain Institute of Management. He is an alumnus of
the same and of University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School where he completed his courses on digital
marketing, social media marketing and e-commerce in business.
Mr. Navaneeth, worked in Mindshare, Jakarta, Indonesia as leader of trading between March 2016 and May 2019 before coming back home to The Hindu Group as CEO from June 2019. For him, this represents homecoming: he served this organisation between 1998 and 2006 in a senior position in Advertising and Marketing. Going on to get a diverse media experience in radio, television, media planning and buying, and digital advertising, he brings with him the expertise and hands-on experience to play an effective leadership role in the Company in the face of far-reaching changes and challenges in the media landscape and in an increasingly interconnected digital ecosystem.
Before moving abroad in 2016, Mr. Navaneeth led the programming teams at Sun Tv Network’s Kannada and Telugu language channels as vice president from September 2009-2015 . He has also worked with Radio One as station director and head of programming from August 2006-2009.
Mr. Navaneeth, gained varied and useful insights; thanks to working for traditional brands with heritage and enviable lineage, setting up a new business with an entrepreneurial outlook, working with entertainment brands that established market leadership positions in a reasonably short span of time and being part of businesses where the only constant is change. He also used his time to consult a couple of startups in the Food and Beverage space.
