Nothing succeeds like innovation

Sales was his first love before he made a career in the broad spectrum of marketing. Vipin Tuteja discusses his success mantra with Virat Bahri & Shephali Bhatt

Vipin Tuteja Executive Director, Production Systems Group, Xerox India

There is one particular challenge that one faces when conversing with Vipin Tuteja, Executive Director, Production Systems Group (PSG), Xerox India. And that is making him talk about himself and his achievements! According to his perspective, Xerox is not a company that’s driven by an individual. It’s a team effort at the end of the day.

Five odd years in Xerox have been an exciting phase for Vipin, as he has been instrumental in enabling the transformation that Xerox has been going through in that period from a product centric to a solution centric company in the arena of documentation management. Ironically, the overwhelming strength of Xerox in the photo copying business and the generic nature of the brand name made it extremely hard to make the positioning shift. In an interaction with 4Ps B&M, which took place at the ITC Grand Central, Lower Parel, Mumbai, Vipin opines that the shift has been largely successful as he says, “We are today seen as a complete solution provider to the document need or the document management need of any organization. It is not to do just with the printing of a document in any organization. Rather it has a lot to do with how we can help in increasing the effectiveness of the communication within the organization.” Xerox now advises clients on how to make communication more effective and how it can be used to cross sell and up sell; which will lead to greater benefits both internally and externally. Vipin is in charge of deployment and implementation of the PSG portfolio, which includes colour and mono equipments and the digital colour publishing business in India. Going forward, he believes that the growth of Xerox India in the next five years will hinge greatly on how they can leverage on their solutions approach and how the other aspects like channels, technology, training, strategy, et al will work together. The company has also identified 3 key verticals for its future – telecom, insurance and banking.

Vipin Tuteja is a commerce graduate from Delhi University and did his MBA from Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), New Delhi. His career started with American Express, when they were launching their first Indian rupee card. American Express is a company that he deeply admires for its marketing. His experience spans a long 25 years which included an earlier stint at Xerox as Sales Manager (1984-92) and as Associate Vice President – Field Operations at Ricoh India Ltd. prior to rejoining Xerox. He was a part of the Xerox Honours Club and Grand Slam trips every year for his performance in those earlier years at Xerox. At that time, sales and marketing were considered two separate departments that worked in silos and marketing traditionally revolved primarily around events and advertising. He was one of those executives who led the transition to a paradigm wherein both could be effectively leveraged together; something that is taken for granted in today’s marketing world. Another change he points out to is the sheer depth of information that is available in real time today thanks to the Internet. While it makes it easier to access the strategic developments taking place across the world, it has also made the world much more competitive.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Flirting with the vantage point!

A well thought out and executed launch has enabled Ford India to change its fortunes dramatically in India. Nigel Wark goes through the ride with Sanchit Verma

Nigel E. Wark
Ford India, Executive Director, Marketing Sales & Service

My role,” feels Nigel E. Wark, the man behind the marketing and sales for Ford India Region. One should say the man behind why Figo reached the stature at which it stands today in the Indian market. He credits his success to the support he received from the team at Ford India, including Ford India’s President & MD Michael Boneham.

A Bachelor of Economics from Flinders University, Australia, Nigel E. Wark came to Ford India as Executive Director, Marketing & Services, in 2008 with the backing of a rich experience of selling and marketing products across 12 different diversities globally. He has been successfully driving and managing Ford India’s rapid growth, which has led to a third phase of capacity expansion for the company. The task at hand keeps him extremely occupied and longing for a bit of fresh air every now and then.

India is indeed a challenging market where one has to deal with tremendous diversity; in terms of differences in religion, region, languages, cultures, et al. Before coming to India, Nigel had worked in many other countries in Asia – Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser extent, China and Japan. He feels that the sum of all the diversity that he saw in those countries is wrapped up in India alone. How does Nigel manage to handle them all for Ford? He gives his take succinctly, “I don’t believe in averaging.” In other words, Nigel doesn’t believe that there is one approach to marketing that fits all. Yes, a brand positioning needs to be done, and yes, the market place will show the way eventually. But there is a significant difference in different regions and for the success of the product, Nigel feels that the easiest way to comprehend the market is to have a look at the market shares and the leaders of the different segments and look at what they did right or wrong.

Under Nigel’s command, Ford India achieved ‘big’ even as it went ‘small’ with Figo. The company posted an impressive sales record this year by clocking around 7,925 units in August, which is three times higher than the total reported sales in August last year. Brand Ford has scripted a remarkable success story since Figo was launched in March this year, as it remains a hot cake for the company – even 25 weeks since it was introduced. Nigel took the complex responsibility of creating the brand and changing the perception of Ford India, and he did this by believing in going ‘right through the basics’. “You can really make the business complicated or you can simplify it and try to get it right in the simplification process – and Figo was the pro duct where we actually made the market understand the product right,” he comments quite proudly. Nigel had started the research for Figo almost 3 years ago. Ford started researching on the customer base for the segment in question to understand the gaps to be filled. Research teams spent a lot of time with customers to know what they liked, what they did as far as entertainment was concerned, how they spent their weekends, what they watched on television, movies, internet, et al. And once the customer profile map had been generated with precision, the part about positioning the product in the consumer’s mind became much easier – and more effective too.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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