Entrepreneurs advised to focus on marketing

Tangibles are manufactured in factories but today's entrepreneurs have to be marketers selling intangibles, the promise or potential of brands, Bikram Dasgupta, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Globsyn Technologies Limited, advised aspiring businessmen trained at a marketing, selling and skill development programme by a select faculty of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) and sponsored by the Enterprise Development Institute (EDI) of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and government of West Bengal.

Dasgupta said technology was important but business had to be people-centric.

The essence of marketing expertise was to understand and align oneself with global societal changes taking place.

He said there had been a shift from hierarchical society to a more networked society, with unidirectional phenomenon giving way to multidirectional interface. Marketing therefore had become more complex and challenging, and exclusionist knowledge was no longer desirable, Dasgupta advised.

Knowledge without skills and application could not succeed.

"Business has shifted from a concept of "you need this" to "I want this" - the paradigm has totally shifted in favour of the consumer," said Dasgupta.

The key to success in marketing would lie in self-development and evaluation through constant unlearning from the past.

He cited the Bengali-language (Bangla) bands as a fine example of a good marketing combination, mixing a way of life with hard core commerce.