July 29th, 2006 Prasad Sangameshwaran
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Last week was special. Two respected men, both in their 70s, were in Mumbai. Age has nothing to do with the awe they evoke, but Philip Kotler (marketing’s messiah) and John Naisbitt (the acclaimed futurist), have it in them to turn black-suited business executives into star-struck children. At question time, a bespectacled delegate at the seminar told Kotler, “Sir, it’s a dream come true to see you here today.”
I had to keep aside an entire day for Philip Kotler, that too on a Thursday– the day our weekly issue of the strategist is put to bed. Stepping out of office on deadline day means earning your editor’s wrath. But anything for Kotler.
Or to meet Naisbitt, I travelled for an hour in the morning and still reached half-an-hour before the 8:30 am breakfast meeting schedule with Naisbitt (that’s an achievement for journalists who think, the day breaks at that hour).
As the week passed by, I wondered what makes these men so special? Kotler has become an XXL personality in the eyes of every marketing professional after he wrote the first version of Marketing Management nearly 4 decades ago. Naisbitt’s 1982 bestseller Megatrends, which forecast most of the events that were to unfold accurately and put him in the big league. After that, what?
Naisbitt mentioned to me in the course of his interview, that he started his career as a futurist was almost by accident. He quit a high-profile job with IBM, when he was in a position “that most others could have killed for” and set out on a mission to read the mind of a culturally diverse America. As local newspapers reflect the thoughts of the locals, Naisbitt subscribed to a 100 local newspapers. That was the beginning of his journey into the future. But don’t newspapers tell you what is happening now, rather than show what will happen tomorrow. Naisbitt says, “That’s the secret. I always tell you about the present. People think I am talking about the future.” According to him, most of the future is hidden in the present. It just needs a trained eye to spot them before the rest of the world. Even Kotler reads voraciously. In his seminar, “Marketing for results” he recommended several books. Importantly, those books are not authored by him. (The strategist in the coming will unveil the book names in the coming weeks. Before that, read some of Kotler’s lessons next Tuesday, August 01, 2006.)
Both Naisbitt and Kotler share a common secret of success. They both recognise the need to keep learning, when the world thinks they know it all.
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(14 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
July 30th, 2006 at 1:23 am
Hi…
That was a nice wise post from a seasoned Strategist
Actually, your piece has just inspired me to pick up that Kotler which is sitting in my bookshelf, once again!
Hopefully, I’d have the fate of meeting the man myself if he makes a presence in Dubai this year end (which, by the way, is just a rumour as of now) to speak at an annual conference, called “Leaders in Dubai”…. At last year’s conference, I was fortunate to meet a different sort of a Strategist — Spencer Johnson — yes, the same man who made a lot of people “move their cheese”!
Look forward to reading more of your posts!
Cheers,
S
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:23 am
So that’s what Prasad Sangameshwaran loks like huh…
Anil Jacob (Ex-BS, Strategist)
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:33 am
In a more serious vein, Prasad, I tend to agree with these two gentlemen about the need to keep learning. However, what’s so new about that? Did I need him tell me that?
Naisbitt’s Megatrends has been shown to be remarkably innovative, but rather full of more hot air and pontificating than real substance or even gravitas. I ceased even eyeballing Megatrends well before I finished XIIth — that’s how superficial I found that series of books…
I am not entirely convinced that the future is entirely merely an extrapolation of extant trends. Isn’t that a background assumption that governs Naisbitt’s work — and is apparent in your take on it above?
Perhaps by and large, and perhaps taking a segmented universalist point of view, one could project and extrapolate, but history suggests that disjunctures and seriously counterfactual occurrences and events tend to influence events rather more than popular writers like Naisbitt would care to admit.
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I always keep wondering if Indian market & marketeers are ahead of kotlerian thinking.
For eg. kotler was awe struck at the real retailing that happens in India (Cigarrete being sold in single numbers )Also his view that all our strategy should have the customer at the core.We in India are practicing it for quiet sometime ,atleast for the past 8-10 years very rigourously.
That’s why Kotler doesn’t sound contemporary to me .By the way i appreciate Kotler’s Marketing management a lot !.
August 6th, 2006 at 10:45 am
its right
August 9th, 2006 at 9:35 am
I am new to this section
i find this interesting
August 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
you got 2 b seen a stupid wasting time here
i ll think abt tat when i ll b old …………….. ok
August 16th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Its a neat one prasad! Glad to see u blogging.
September 16th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
hey why no more posts..?