Interview Log - A Day In Life of Marketing Head

Marketing is indeed one of the most sought after career options for many aspirants due to its dynamic nature of work, fast growth, and closely-linked domains like advertising and branding.

But many aspirants get stuck in finding the right path to start a career in marketing. There are two reasons for that:

1. Marketing career is a multifaceted career – there is often no linear path to grow – instead, many paths can lead to a marketing leadership role
2. A lot of marketing efforts are non-quantifiable – which is why working on quality projects throughout your career is very important.

These nuances are difficult to understand early in one’s career. That’s why we reached out to a seasoned marketer Mr. Sundaram Malik – Marketing head at PTC for an exclusive interview where he shares his meaningful insights about ‘Marketing as a career and also walks us through how does a day in life of marketing head look like.’

Mr. Malik has over 16+ years of experience in marketing, new product development, and business communication. And through his marketing leadership and strategy experience for technology businesses, he is successfully leading the Emerging Geos and India markets for PTC. 

The idea behind this interview is to seize an inside look at how a day in the life of a marketing head and which are the most essential traits & skills to grow in marketing as a profession. 

Shiksha Online’s Exclusive Interview Log – A Day In Life of Marketing Head:

Here’s the exclusive interview where Mr. Malik is sharing his career journey with Shiksha Online, let’s begin:

Share a brief introduction about your role as a Marketing head- at PTC.

Mr. Malik – At PTC, my role is to lead marketing activities for all our products and brands in the region, work as a strategic advisor for the business leaders, planning and executing the strategy. 

Further, creating brand awareness, positioning our brand as an industry thought leader, and keeping customers in the center stage is a priority for my role.

In addition to that, I work with strategic and system integrator partners to leverage one another’s strengths in building and executing go to market plans.

What does a day in the life of Marketing Head look like?

Mr. Malik – There is no typical day! As a marketer, one can expect no day to look exactly the same every day.

Typically, I start by checking the emails and the calendar for the day. Depending on the meeting schedule, I plan everything else. Usually, the first half of the day is filled with team meetings, briefing sessions with the agency, reviewing creatives and content, and then strategy for various activities. And the day lasts till dinner because most of the calls with teams based out of other countries happen late evenings.

 

Please shed some light on how to start a career in marketing. Also, share something about your career path/career growth.

Mr. Malik – Marketing careers inside companies as opposed to working for agencies is often a constantly evolving role. Hence the career path could either expand your horizons or lead start-ups/new business into growth mode. 

The best thing about marketing is that one can assume a leadership role very early on, and it’s not a function of how many years one spends in the job. 

Tell us about some lessons that you have learned to excel in this field.

Mr. Malik – Marketing is not a creative job requiring only the left brain, but rather one needs to be close to business and customers. Being able to work with teams and leaders from different departments and geographies is vital to be successful. Sometimes one finds oneself working with strategic partners and other collaborators outside one’s organization. 

One of the most critical skills is to be able to listen and understand many points of view and work with a very diverse set of teams and then translate those inputs and ideas into a very structured plan. This brings to my most important skill that is execution and monitoring the impact of the ideas in the marketplace.

 

As per you, what are the most important skills you need to break into marketing? 

Mr. Malik – I think having an open mind and nurturing both left and right brains are key to being a happy evolving marketer. Just good at numbers or just being the artsy person may not be the best balance.

The second skill I look for when I hire talent is the diversity in your interests and network. When one can bring insights from a film or a completely different industry into their work is what I think is out of the box. 

For example, applying the fashion fund concept of Anna Wintour into a technology-led business could be an interesting way of looking at things.

The bottom line is not being myopic to one’s technology or one’s field instead of binge-watching a show on Netflix, and having an opinion about it is exciting to a marketer than being a nerdy problem solver.

Having an opinion and being in the company of diverse people of your network helps you understand one aspect from various perspectives.  

Also, having interests outside of your industry breaks the monotony and refreshes your mind. It puts you in a group of totally different industries and inspires you to pursue your passion or any other interests. 

What advice will you give to mid-level managers to move on to leadership roles?

Mr. Malik – Step into the shoes of sales and business leaders, and start looking at things from the business leaders’ perspective. In some situations, seeing things from the investor or board’s point of view is key in transforming into a marketing leader from a manager.

Secondly, have a vision that is aligned to your business strategy, then have the ability to sell it to your leaders/board as much as to your team who will execute the vision.

Which marketing certification courses, skill development paths, books, or channels do you recommend for upskilling to aspiring professionals?

Mr. Malik – To get some perspective of strategic marketing, I would recommend Strategic Marketing Management by Damien and David Aaker. 

During my MBA at Warwick, I could attend a class by Malcolm McDonald which was “marketing for the board,” and that was a really great insight in looking at things as a marketing leader. You may refer to his work and “On marketing planning.” 

Otherwise, just learn from anything and everything interests you. As a marketer, the world is your library, and observing society and human behaviors set the context.

Rapid Fire Question Round

1. What attracts you to choose marketing as a career?

Constantly evolving marketplace and consumers

2. As per you what’s the goal of marketing?

To enable finding and building revenue and providing a great customer experience so that the business retains its customer base.

3. What do you think is your leadership style?

Wild, agile, and authentic

4. How important is negotiation as a skill?

Very important, as marketers, we are negotiating every minute of our job.

Last words – Do you have any expert advice for our readers?

Mr. Malik – Be open and non-judgmental to people, places, and things that you come across in life – the world needs professionals without prejudices, and that is what will make you a better human, not just a great marketer. 

All the Best!

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