ON TOP OF MY AGENDA Marketing guru Bernd Schmitt shares his insights on the dominant trends impacting the world of marketing today. Profile magazine caught up with the best-selling author between lectures at Columbia University.
Everyone understands that social media is an important trend in marketing. Consumers are moving beyond the Internet with mobile platforms that create an experience that is immediate, highly responsive, and interactive. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn for business people, social media provides opportunities for brand interaction that enriches the brand and makes the brand more relevant to customers. It also places control of the brand, to a certain degree, in the hands of customers, which helps create customer loyalty. At the same time, this new form of brand communication also allows for cost cutting, which is why so many companies are so excited about it. Traditional advertising and mass media communications are very expensive.
What have You learned about
Multitasking Kaisa KAISA TARKKANEN Head of Region Scandinavia at Orion Corporation, Orion Pharma
Tarkkanen?
HOW DOES MULTITASKING SHOW IN YOUR WORK? Multitasking means handling several things in parallel and in perfect harmony. My Scandinavian organization operates in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. We are a multilingual and highly mobile sales organization whose members are rarely seen at the office. We have several business areas with their own sales processes and customers in each country. Add to that the headquarters in Finland, and you see there’s a whole lot to juggle.
HOW DO YOU KEEP EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL? I prioritize all the time, and sometimes rather heavy-handedly, to put matters and schedules in an order of importance. I use Outlook like an old-fashioned paper calendar to remember things: I write notes and reminders, schedule tasks, add comments and make to-do lists. I conduct small performance appraisals with myself every day and keep up a positive attitude to work. I don’t waste time worrying about small things.
HOW DO YOU MAKE TIME FOR YOUR STAFF? I’m basically on the move all the time, either coming or going. That is true of our whole organization. Even though we are nearly always in different places, the feeling of togetherness is important. We get together twice a year for four days or so, agree on meetings in advance for the next six to twelve months and hold performance appraisals at least twice a year. I try to make as much time as possible for employees whenever I’m there. Our telephones, of course, are in heavy use.
DO YOU EVER HAVE FEELINGS OF INADEQUACY? Inadequacy was a familiar feeling especially in my younger days. With experience, you learn what you can and cannot do. Experience also teaches you to ask for help and perhaps enjoy changes in a different way. I’m happy in this job, and it definitely gives me more than it takes. Things get hectic, but I find it to be an uplifting and liberating force. My curious nature also keeps me going. 6