Industry insights that aid companies in developing sustainable brands

1. AESTROAESTRO
076 // SEP 2014 // THE-MARKETEERS.COM
Joy abdullah is head of marketing & communication at INCEIF, which is a global
university of islamic finance, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I caught up with joy,
in order to get some industry insight - asking him to cast his mind back on his career
in advertising, and advising companies towards developing sustainable brands.
POST-COLONIAL
MARKETINGINASIAAn interview with Joy Abdullah

2. JONATHAN(BILAL)A.J.WILSON
SENIORLECTURER&COURSELEADER,
UNIVERSITYOFGREENWICH,LONDONUK
EDITOR:JOURNALOFISLAMICMARKETING,
EMERALDGROUPPUBLISHING.
THE-MARKETEERS.COM // SEP 2014 // 077
Joy, you’ve had a long career
in advertising and marketing
communications; can you share
some of your highlights and
lowlights
“At times I miss the agency life from
back in the early days of my career - full
of crazy deadlines and punctuated with
informal and sometimes clandestine
corridor chats.
Here are some of my favourite moments:
Working in advertising in Bangalore,
India in 1991.There were long nights,
innumerable cups of tea, and one tough
creative director, who simply refused to
understand the brand insight from one of
the campaign briefs that I’d prepared. In
this case, I was battling to manage a tea
brand that needed to be launched within
120 days, from scratch. Getting the agency
team and client to work in harmony on
packaging and got the product out and into
the market, was an exhilarating learning
experience. I learned that capturing retail
trade knowledge and buy-in from your
colleagues were key; but also that these
necessitated more than off the shelf
textbook management activities – we had
to create a culture of constant mentoring
to get the best out of everyone, so that we
could gel.
In 1996, cellular telecommunications had
just come into India. I moved to Kolkata,
India, where I had the opportunity to go
where it seemed like no man had gone
before. I managed what ended up becoming
the largest cellular operator account in
India.Then, mobile phones were seen as
a status symbol for the rich, famous and
powerful. Getting this business to roll out
across 43 towns was a major operation,
management experience up several
notches.
In 2002, I moved to Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, for a more entrepreneurial role;
where I set up a start-up operation for
a multi-national agency. Given the extent
agency’s threshold, they decided to start
a local version of the agency - targeting
government and large national businesses.
I had to wear almost two hats –the
entrepreneur and the salary man.
Then in 2009, I skipped between Kuala
Lumpur and London; quitting a well-
paying job in order to set-up shop in the
totally unrelated Halal industry. Given
my mainstream brand management and
business planning experience; I felt I had
a set of competencies that I could bring
to the Halal industry. So I set up a brand
consulting start-
up that focused on
developing value-based
to the community.
Perhaps the concept
was a bit ahead of its
time; just as a lot of
Sci-Fi gives us food
for thought and then
years later arrives in
industry helping to
advance technological
innovation.What
I found was that
the Halal industry,
unfortunately, was
still at a very basic
B2B level of business
planning (then). So in
order to move on, I
had to jump back into
the corporate arena.”
Simply put, these
experiences provided
me something that you
can’t learn in B-Schools
– professional wisdom.
That’s the knowledge
of brand building; importance of consumer
behaviour; the importance of employee
engagement; project management; and
most importantly, a strong understanding
business centre. Coupled with this
technical knowledge came the whole area
of soft skills - people management through
teamwork and team leadership.
Now lest you feel it’s all been upwards,
let me share a couple of the low-lights that
I’ve experienced:
People as assets: Having worked across
a few global agencies and a couple of
localised national agencies; one thing
that really irks me is the fact that people
are their last priority (or so it seems) in
agencies. High performance is rewarded
with a move (and a fancy designation),
to manage either a troublesome client
business, or bring into the blue a country
aspirations are not taken into account.
Non-performance, on the other hand,
needless to say leads to you receiving your
marching orders.
Lack of cross-functional opportunity:
Organisations, by far, are still pretty
stereotyped when it comes to providing
cross-functional opportunities. B-school
grads. are good business managers (or
suits as they are called), and thus go into
either strategic planning or client account
management – and not the creative area of
developing communications.Yet, they need
to provide the creative stimulus to their
counterparts; so that the creative guys can
crack a new communication idea – this is
often an area of disconnect.
These two factors made me move
out of the advertising industry and into
a totally unrelated sector like education

3. AESTROAESTRO
management. I came to realise that
education is the only way to have a
able to develop a brand that questions all
the known paths and provides tangible
value is what makes me tick.”
You’ve worked in several
countries; could you give us a
snapshot view of some of the
differences in working practices
amongst them?
“I believe I’m one of the lucky few in
this world to have had the experience of
learning in multi-cultural environments.
They have provided me with the ability to
be culturally adaptive, respectful and open
to experiences – and to learn from them.
Living in the UK, India and Malaysia are
each very different. Each country has its
own sociocultural background and certain
social nuances that they bring to business
practices; and these have impacted on
how I am today (and I’m still learning, still
adapting).
As you know
India is a vast
country. I worked
across four cities
in the early part of
my career there;
and I’ve had the
good fortune of
managing projects
in Pakistan &
Bangladesh, whilst
being based in
India. In terms
of work practice
across this region,
two phrases come
to mind:
not what you
know, but who you
know’.
The second -
will, there is a way’.
Business happens
based on who you
know and if you
are someone with
a pretty decent
set of connections
socially (thanks
to family) and
they can open
doors for business,
then you’ll very
much remain a favourite with the bosses.
The second practice has to be having a
mind-set of there always being a way to
either overcome obstacles, or maximise
opportunities, and for more than what are
apparent.
curve that covers street-smart, respect and
humility; and most importantly, the trust
created through the spoken word.Add
to this the value of networking, and you
have an individual with a very competitive
nature who can function anywhere in the
globe under any circumstances.Which
probably could be the main reason why
Indian managers are now running global
organisations in various industry sectors.
In comparison across ASEAN, a key
is never let down or sullied. Let me explain
that. Culturally,ASEAN has a lot of respect
in its DNA - perhaps a bit too much.The
classic family patriarch structure of the
colonial days had resulted in a behaviour
where elders are never questioned and
youngsters, seen but not heard [much
more than in the sub-continent].This
what we see is a sort of deference and
reluctance to question the status. Executing
orders and working hard had been the
mantra till very recently.
With millennials hitting the job market,
and the growth of social media; this
behaviour is now slowly showing signs
of change. Importantly, across the sub-
078 // SEP 2014 // THE-MARKETEERS.COM

4. continent and ASEAN, a common theme
emerging is the need for organisations to
be more transparent in their interactions
with society.This is impacting on how
organisations engage with their employees
and provide value to them.”
If you could wind back the clock
on your career again to do some
nips and tucks; where would you
wind back to, and what would you
do differently?
“Interesting that you bring this up.To
answer the question: I wouldn’t want to do
any nips and tucks.Those would only show
up with age!
But let me rephrase that question:
if I hadn’t started in advertising and
communications what would I have done?
If I could turn the clock back (by a couple
of decades), I would have gone into the
earlier, and worked my way towards being
organisations in the Halal services sector
So what are you up to now?
“I have a great day job as a marketing
head honcho for a specialised academic
institution; which is in the process of
establishing a global footprint and its
persona as a knowledge leader.This takes
up close to 80-85% of my time.The other
15-20% of my time, I write and speak on
brand sustainability; for online magazines
Halal industries.
My objective is to bring about a
change in the way businesses approach
doing business.After all doing the same
thing over and over again will not bring
different results. Given the changing social
and economic landscape for businesses
today: sustainability, the soft-skill areas
of leadership, communication, employee
engagement, and behaviourial competencies
are very important. I look to bring the how
and why to the table - through my writing,
speaking and training.”
What take-aways would you
give to us?
“Three take-aways I’d like to leave you
with:
Listening: Don’t just hear, but listen to
what is being said; in order to understand
what the real reason behind the issue is.
Always be an attentive listener and be in
the moment. If you listen carefully and
attentively enough, more often than not,
you’ll know the pulse of your audience.
That’s half the job done when identifying
where the problem is.
Adaptive: Be culturally adaptive
and not judgemental.Allow yourself to
feel the emotions you experience when
going through a new cultural experience.
that you can.Then, utilise them in ways
that strengthen your persona within that
culture.
Value Oriented: Always seek to
provide clear and perceived value. Be it a
business, or just a network contact, always
deliver value - even if it’s just making
someone smile.
When you listen attentively, adapt
to a new culture, and deliver authentic
knowledge value: you will be sought after
by people (and their business) - who will
add value back to you, and help you achieve
your goal.”

5. AESTROAESTRO
080 // SEP 2014 // THE-MARKETEERS.COM
This summer in July, the Rt. Hon.
the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC,
Chancellor of the University of Greenwich,
hosted a black tie dinner, in the Painted
Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich;
where Professor David Maguire,Vice-
Chancellor, presented me with the award
for Staff Member of theYear.
I beat off stiff competition from
academic and
non-academic
staff across
the faculties
of: Business;
Architecture,
Computing &
Humanities;
Education
& Health;
Engineering &
Science.The panel said:
“Jon’s impressive research output and
his equally strong commitment to teaching
make him a worthy winner. His community
are substantial and he has secured
extensive media coverage, raising the public
engaging as a teacher and highly valued by
his students in terms of unrivalled support,
motivation and guidance.”
Apart from sharing the good news, I
also wanted to say a massive thank you
to everyone at MarkPlus. Pak Hermawan,
team have been instrumental in helping
me to connect with people across the
globe, providing me with a platform to
share my ideas; and more importantly, all
of their support, hospitality, and friendship
are priceless. It’s also good to receive
recognition for my work, where I’ve tried
Muslim world - and to get the West to sit
up and take notice.Thank you for helping
this Scottish guy from Manchester - and
thanks for spreading WOW!
JOHNNIE-BOY,
ORBILALTOHIS
FRIENDS,PICKED
UPANAWARD