Great Lakes & NASMEI Organize 2-Day International Marketing Conference

Great Lakes & NASMEI Organize 2-Day International Marketing Conference

Dr. Seenu Srinivasan, Legendary Professor of Marketing, Conference Organizer, Stanford University

He started off by welcoming one and all to the international marketing conference organized by Great Lakes and NASMEI. This conference is being conducted under the auspices of the Kotler

Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing. He talked about the fact that the conference delegates had come from mostly the US, Canada as well as Australia and other parts of the world. He talked about the fact that this conference had created a community of marketing professors who could take marketing to the next level in India. This conference would provide the opportunity to critically examine the research work presented by their counterparts from various parts of the world.

Dr. Dipak Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management

He started off by saying that it was a privilege to be in the midst of legends like Dr. Seenu Srinivasan and every marketing professor considered it an honor to share the conference space with Dr. Seenu. He talked about his days at Tejpur, Assam at a time when India was backward and it took a long time for letters to reach abroad as well as secure scholarships for post graduate programs. He talked about his academic journey. He talked about the way to Success and he said that it was not all about luck and, in fact, it was due to the people he interacted with and heeding right advice at the right time. There are enough marketing professors in the leading management institutes coming from India. This is ample testimony to the fact that there was enough marketing talent in India.

He talked about Dr. Bala's initiative to start Great Lakes and he commended him for achieving this feat of running a management institute that was dedicated to marketing and fostering the development of marketing. He talked about the fact that Kellogg was known for Marketing and had managed to establish itself as a brand which he said was lacking with the Indian B-schools. Today, marketing has earned the respect of corporate America and CEOs think that marketing is a crucial element of their strategy and there has been a gradual shift towards marketing in terms of marketing professors heading leading management institutes.

He also talked about the opportunity for Great Lakes to create a marketing brand in India. Lot of people are interested in doing cross-cultural research and developing a global framework and Great Lakes could play a big role in bridging this gap. He said that when you are trying to promote research, pick a problem that appeals to people and provide credible results. The choice of the problem selected as well as methods used is important. He said that it was important to take risks and do cutting-edge research and to be known for creating something new and revolutionary. It is a great opportunity for NASMEI to provide Great Lakes a platform and a direction for Marketing in India. It is important to create a symphony with all the notes out there. He said that the challenge ahead of you is never tougher than the force behind you.

Concluded.

* Contributed by -
Ranjit Shankar (Campus Associate),
Class of 2009,
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

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