My first experiences with Marketing in a professional setting surprisingly had little to do with technology nor with pure B2B, but were actually forged in the B2C world. In mid nineties, I was posted to Kazakhstan, Central Asia to pioneer the market entry for Cadburys Confectionery and Soft Drinks. After successful market penetration and growth there I found myself living and working in Moscow, Russia, heading up a very similar proposition for Mattel Toys. The roles were challenging in that I not only had to understand the cultural differences with local end consumers but also learn the way to conduct business in markets that were only just opening their doors to the West.

This international exposure had a profound impact and really helped to shaped me and provided the impetus to develop further, learn and apply myself more to marketing in highly competitive settings . I was not only excited by the prospect of international marketing but also a type of marketing that could demonstrate tangible positive performance to a business as it strives to achieve its underlying objectives. This really does stand out when you are dealing with physical consumer goods as opposed to services, some of which are perishable, since if you misunderstand your market, you can very quickly see the impact of your marketing decisions and actions against planned progress.

After returning back to UK and completing my MBA, I realized I could readily apply some of my existing and new found skills to the technology arena. I had always been passionate about the problems that technology based solutions could solve and have thus far, been fortunate enough to apply my skills towards several opportunities in the technology space, covering sectors across e-Procurement, Enterprise Content Management, CRM and even on-demand Sales Effectiveness - with traditional software and with newer SaaS delivery models.

Across all these adventures, it has been surprising to note more similarities than differences in the business challenges facing organisations, whatever sector of technology they may choose to play - such as the misalignment of sales and marketing, the continued need to differentiate oneself from convergent competitors, the increased drive to move more towards engaging with an audience and talking to the value of the offering rather than it's features and the continued debate on how to improve and demonstrate the performance of marketing and of course the desire and the business imperative for technology companies to grow beyond just their domestic markets.

It is for this very reason I established this site and why my personal tag line/strap line is: ‘Creating Customer and Shareholder Value Through Connected Marketing’. It might sound like a mouthful but that is intentional since I elected more for substance here than style because the sentence has deep rooted meaning and aligns to what I believe in, which you can find about here.