Owing to the digital prevalence in today’s digitalized world, marketing & communication have become increasingly challenging. Technology has dramatically emphasized the interaction between people & brands, and personalization has become a highly effective marketing strategy. To do that formulating marketing strategies for companies across industries requires well-crafted market messaging that well resonates with the consumer category. Formidably, when market trends continue to overwhelm industries across sectors with rapidly evolving consumer demands, several marketing leaders surface to assist and help take the lead.
Rohit Dadwal, CEO MMA Global APAC & Global Head of Smarties Worldwide, is one such distinguished leader who significantly partakes in this, charting a greater growth trajectory in the marketing and advertising industry across Asia Pacific and beyond. MMA Global is one of the leading global trade associations for marketers, leveraging essential resources and expertise to empower marketers to navigate the strenuous world of marketing.
A recognized industry advocate Rohit possesses three decades of experience in marketing and advertising especially in the Internet, and digital spheres, with experience spanning different senior management roles and across different industry verticals. Forming teams and executing go-to-market while building strategic relationships with key stakeholders across the industry ecosystems, he has catalyzed several new innovations and technologies in the marketplace, multi-market operations, business modeling innovation, and digital transformations.
Currently, based in Singapore, he has been driving the advertisement and marketing for the company in the region, building MMA’s presence, and forging relationships with industry leaders and key stakeholders to help shape the future of the marketing ecosystem.
In your professional tenure, how have you seen the way brands interact with customers over time?
There’s been a staggering change in how consumers are interacting with brands over the last couple of decades. While technology is the aggregator, the interaction between brands and customers is no longer about pushing a message out. Instead, it's about enabling communication and emphasizing two-way communication where brands can actively solicit feedback engagement from the customers. The adoption of digital providing an upper hand to businesses on data has made it easier for businesses to address consumer demands in a very specific and personalized manner (transparent/authentic) and thereby establish a business value statement led by better consumer behavior analysis.
How did your journey with Finance put you on track to becoming the CEO of MMA Global?
A fundamental grounding in finance helps top leaders build an extensive business acumen letting them understand the overall aspect of business, the P & L, and more, which is crucial for running a business. The combination of fundamental & financial expertise, and organizational and leadership skills together pushes one to the level of strategic thinking and then only success is recorded. This has truly worked for me even in my previous roles.
Normally, where the understanding is that leadership positions are generally occupied by business management holders, I believe that the management of business studies does help many to understand ‘what business is and how to drive it’ but the real knowledge comes from the actual on-the-job experience. My path has also been an interesting one participating as an advisor or a board member at the industry level. By learning a few things, I was able to give back to the industry by providing some strategic guidance and contributing to the growth and development of that industry.
Being a member of other Industry bodies across Asia, how do you navigate your path to help construct the right environment for your role?
Well, I am sure to add a structure/framework around which I could go to the extent of providing advocacy and most importantly facilitating networking and collaboration among the various industry stakeholders, be it businesses, academia, or the industry on the whole including government. This helps create an opportunity for knowledge sharing. Also, a lot of talent development comes from championing diversity and inclusion as a part of it helps create and foster a culture of belonging to the industry. From my experience, I would say doing so I have been able to make a positive impact on the industry’s sustainable reputation, and in the future maybe I will be able to provide some sort of legacy to the business.
Change is constant & the only way to deal with it is to lead it
Innovation per se, how are you revolutionizing the marketing operations at MMA? Also, did you face any challenges?
Leadership is instrumental in overcoming challenges paving the way for MMA Global to be a trailblazer in the marketing industry. Innovation is a core aspect of any business today. Especially when it’s marketing, it’s deciphered differently. The adoption of technologies (AI, ML, AR/VR, and more) and its incorporation into mainstream advertising and marketing operations helps enhance the customer experience by personalizing the marketing messages (advertisements) and delivering solutions with a clear focus on customer-centricity understanding customers’ needs, preferences & pain points.
From an industry perspective, innovation proves to be the catalyst to excel in this changing marketing landscape. MMA Global realizes that innovation helps foster collaboration or cross-functional effort within the various parts of the marketing ecosystem to understand this and invest in ongoing learning, knowledge-sharing, training, and developing path-breaking futuristic programs to get the marketing industry equipped with skills and knowledge, success is a given.
Talking about challenges, one of the biggest we have ever faced is how we can now sustain the business, and that aligns with the leadership philosophy that needs to be navigated well through a consistent learning culture and its implementation. Learning can be useful only when it is articulated with the vision and purpose very clearly so that all can work towards a common goal. However, sustainability remains a question which we do by empowering the industry leaders and our membership ecosystem through recognition & appreciation and by building a conducive ecosystem. This way trust can also be built into the system & framework and things can work out exceptionally.
Any conclusive advice you want to give leaders/ entrepreneurs venturing on the leadership path?
Learning is a continuous evolution, hence understand and learn and be honest towards your goal. Also, leading by example with integrity & accountability and prioritizing communication and feedback is important. Last but not least, agility is the key.
Rohit Dadwal, CEO, MMA Global APAC
Rohit Dadwal, a Digital leader, serves as the CEO of MMA Global APAC and the Global Head of Smarties Worldwide. With a passion for marketing innovation and transformation, Rohit is renowned as a speaker, adviser, and mentor in the industry. He has been honored with the APAC Visionary Leader award in 2021 and Industry Person award in 2021.
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