The true Indian! On camera!

The man shares with Amir Moin & Neha Saraiya his career journey, the past, present and future of Fujifilm India, and why he loves India considerably

Kenichi Tanaka
MD, Fujifilm India

As we step into the plush interiors of Fujifim India’s office in Gurgaon, we contemplate how our delay in reaching this MD’s office – owing to the record rainfall in Delhi NCR – would affect the quality of our discussion. Much expecting to see a miffed Japanese face as we scamper through the corridor leading up to his office, what comes next is much pleasantly surprising. Sitting comfortably in his plush office, Kenichi Tanaka’s face splits into a smile on seeing us. Even before the ceremonial introductions, he confides to us the fact that the vagaries of Delhi’s rain and traffic delays are very well known to him. It hits us then that Kenichi Tanaka, MD of Fujifilm India, is perhaps more accepting of the Indian-way of functioning, than we ourselves. Here was a true blue global citizen! That said, despite being a globetrotter, Tanaka still deeply respects Japanese culture and values; something that keeps him rooted.

Tanaka started his corporate journey in 1978, when he joined Fujifilm. 32 years onwards, and Tanaka is one of the most respected multinational leaders in Fujifilm history. The respect bestowed upon him by his colleagues and peers for expanding Fujifilm in seemingly difficult geographies, is legendary. When Fujifilm decided to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India 2 years ago, Tanaka was the man of arms that the Fuji top brass chose. The market was replete with top of the mind recall for arch rivals Canon, Sony, Nikon and Olympus. But Tanaka had this great self belief that their products could be targeted at the mid range consumer segment. He excitingly shares, “Sony and Canon are considered as premium while Olympus and Nikon market cameras with value for money. We saw a market in between – the mid range segment – and concluded that our high quality offerings and a reasonable pricing would make for a potent combination to tap this market.”

It was tough going for the first two years. Tanaka confesses that the situation was tough as consumers were not even award of their brand. The first hurdle therefore was to make consumers aware of brand Fujifilm. Dealers and retailers were not willing to budge an inch. However, thanks to extensive investments in training and development of sales force, Fujifilm soon established its own fraternity among the dealers. “We overcame the initial challenge of establishing our products with the retailers and dealers. But still, we have the task of replicating the same with our customers. To make sure this happens, our company is in the process of conducting training sessions round the year wherein, we train our sales force to handle both the customers as well as retailers and dealers,” says Tanaka.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Makings of a great marketing escape!

Vivek Nayer hopped on to M&M after a vast experience in FMCG & consumer durables. And auto has been immensely exciting as well, as he discusses with Pawan Chabra of 4Ps B&M

Vivek Nayer
Executive Senior Vice President – Marketing (Automotive sector), Mahindra & Mahindra

It had been just a few days since the Marketing team of the automotive division at M&M was shifted to the Kandivali office at the Western Express highway from the Worli office when we landed for the interview with Vivek Nayer, Senior Vice President – Marketing (Automotive sector), M&M. However, even on a normal Wednesday afternoon, while the refreshing environment at the lush green facility was not matching with the usual scenario that one finds at the offices in the financial capital, the work was going in full flow.

Prior to this assignment, he was working with Reckitt Benckiser back in the UK, certainly one of the best names in the FMCG business. The decision to relocate to India was because of the India growth story. In fact, Nayer still misses his BMW 5-Series and the kind of Lebanese food he used to relish in London. He didn’t come into the automotive sector by design. The first offer that came to him was from M&M and he joined the company in 2005 to give it a shot for six months but comments, “Here I am five years hence, which clearly means that I am enjoying it a lot.” The kind of portfolio that Mahindra has is quite unique even compared to other players in the industry. However, he feels that the marketing foundations to engage with consumers remain largely the same.

Words like tough, rugged and solid are almost synonymous to the Scorpio, Xylo and Bolero models that Mahindra offers to Indian consumers. And that’s not all. The marketing philosophy that M&M follows in terms of advertising and positioning its brands is very different to what the rest of the industry follows. Be it the recent commercial featuring the ace photographer Atul Kasbekar for Xylo or the earlier campaigns, it has often followed the road less taken. “At Mahindra, we focus on the product and its positioning rather than the brand ambassador; unlike the case where the consumer has a recalls for the brand ambassador but not the products that he endorses,” avers Nayer. In fact, Nayer considers the success of Xylo without any cannibalisation in the Mahindra portfolio as one of the major successes that he has had so far in his M&M stint.

Nayer stepped into the corporate world after finishing his Master in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai back in 1987. After six years at Voltas, Nayer stepped into Reckitt’s premises in 1993 and was there for over a decade handling different brands and divisions. “But I was one of the lucky ones to handle Dettol in Reckitt,” recalls Nayer. He admits, “FMCG is one sector where one gets a clear understanding of marketing and sales concepts. Perhaps that’s why you see people with marketing and sales background in FMCG moving to the other sectors and not the other way round.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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May the force be with Indian fashion!

He’s responsible for taking Indian fashion to the global ramp. Sumeet plans to take the Indian fashion fraternity to the next level, as he reveals to Angshuman Paul

Sumeet Nair
MD, Incube Fashion

Sumeet Nair belongs to that extraordinary class of people, who believe in creating a different path and in trying something new. So it’s not surprising that, this alumnus of Stanford University started his corporate endeavor with the furnishing business and later forayed the fashion fraternity. Christened as Black Eye Design, his first venture of furnishing business won him leading global fashion clients like Donna Karen, Calvin Klein and French Connection. But Sumeet’s claim to fame comes from somewhere else – while undertaking his business, Sumeet actively became involved in the setting up of a fashion council, an endeavour that finally gave rise to the iconic Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) which gave India its first Fashion Week.

Framing the concept of the Fashion Week and giving it a global feel was not easy way back in 1997, particularly when the Indian fashion industry was at a nascent stage and very unstructured. The biggest hurdle was to bring all the designers under one roof; and managing creative people was surely not an easy task. But with his never-say-die attitude and instinctive managerial skills, Sumeet accomplished this feat and gave India its unique series of gala fashion events – firstly, the Lakme India Fashion week, and then, the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week.

Along with changing the landscape of Indian fashion, Sumeet was also credit with making it more financially viable. When FDCI was having a financial deficit, Sumeet was automatically appointed as the ‘doctor’, and more often than not, he would resolve it effectively. After leaving FDCI, Sumeet dabbled in various areas, till he set up Incube Fashion Private Ltd, an endeavour to take the fashion industry into the next level.

Incube Fashion’s basic objective is to generate more business and finance for Indian designers. As of today, Incube Fashion works as a financial consultant, provides licensing, and even assists in getting corporate brands to tie up with the country’s ace designers. Rohit Bal’s recent tie up with the Outlander Signature Collection from Mitsubushi was conceptulaised and finalized by Sumeet’s Incube Fashion. Even the Tarun Tahiliani-Timex agreement is being credited to Sumeet. As this is slated for a pre-Diwali launch, Sumeet refused to divulge any further detail to us. When we meet him now, he explains further, “I want to create a Calvin Klein and a Giorgio Armani from the Indian fashion industry and we at Incube Fashion are doing brand building at those levels.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM Links

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