"Read A Lot... Even Your CEO Does That!" - Prof. Kumar Satyaki Ray

Online, July 20, 2012 (Newswire.com) - "Do you read Peter Drucker?" Professor Kumar Satyaki Ray, HoD, Usha Martin Academy, quizzes you. "Drucker had written 42 books in his lifetime. So far, I've read 20 of them. I hope to read all of them in due course of time."

Professor Satyaki fits perfectly into the image of a 'Professor.' Mention the word 'books' and you can expect a commentary on the course material at Usha Martin Academyand other premium B-schools of the country, or contents of some author or the other.

"I think Pankaj Ghemawat's 'Redefining Global Strategies' is quite a masterpiece."

His conversation seems almost idealistic.

"I don't believe that a good marketer needs to be a good liar. I don't believe a marketer needs to lie. Lies can never replace conviction in one's product, understanding of one's product and knowledge of one's customer. I don't believe moral standards need be compromised at all. Every product cannot be sold to everyone. Those who do not know their market, lie."

This idealism could be understandable in a career academician. Therefore it does surprise you when you are informed that Professor Satyaki is actually from a corporate background with extensive marketing experience with brands like Bajaj, Jindal Steel and the UB Group.

"I do not take Marketing as a stand-alone subject, but - as a part of the overall business strategy - in a holistic sense. Without proper marketing, nothing will fructify. The basis for any business is - and will always remain - who is your customer? What is your value proposition?And, can it satisfy the need?Every customer is a unique one; buyer idiosyncrasies will vary across segments. Mass marketing and segmented marketing are, at the end of the day, marketing to the individual. Therefore, companies akin to P&G come up with conceptslike 'customer immersion', where marketing managers are required to immerse themselves in the day-to-day realities of their customer's life. Marketing is becoming more and more demanding; everyday new ideas are evolving; Data Mining is becoming synonymous with customer insight. A marketer today - and very importantly a marketing teacher -has to keep abreast, and integrate himself or herself with the evolution of Information Technology."

While on one hand, Professor Satyaki is very particular about the assignments that are given to students at Usha Martin Academy, to the extent of being perceived as a 'hard task-master; on the other, he is liberal enough to actually insist that his faculty at Usha Martin Academy chalk out their individual syllabus.

"Social media marketing is playing a pivotal role today, but I don't think that the syllabi in even the best of the B-schools have the kind of flexibility to handle the ever-evolving spectrum of social media marketing. At the UMA, we strongly believe that we can expose our classrooms to this perspective by entrusting our world class faculty atUMAwith the responsibility ofdeveloping their own syllabus."

To Professor Satyaki, the greatest reward of being at Usha Martin Academy is when he sees the youth from a completely vernacular background enter the UMA, respond amazingly to the innovative pedagogy of UMA, and walk out, completely transformed like polished gems - ready to walk-the-talk in the corporate world!

"Read a lot," is whathis parting words to every batch are. "...Even your CEO does that!"

- Professor Kumar Satyaki Ray,

HoD, Marketing Management

Usha Martin Academy