Dr. Adya Sharma, Director, SCMS Pune is a dedicated professional with more than 20 years of experience. She brings with her rich practical experience from the corporate world that perfectly blends with theory and enhances academics. She has also been connected to the industry as a corporate trainer in companies like Goldman Sachs Women Entrepreneurship program, Tata Motors Development Centre. She brings with her a missionary zeal to keep the learning environment vibrant and energized. An avid researcher, she has a number of case studies to her credit which are based on real time events.
In conversation with Women Entrepreneur magazine Adya shares her views on the best marketing strategies that start-ups could learn and execute. In the conversation, she also discussed about how management education differ from traditional education.
What are some innovative teaching methods that can help students retain knowledge better and be more engaged in their learning?
As a teacher, as a faculty, we have to keep ourselves updated on various fronts. Practicing the most relevant new teaching methods and strategies helps in creating an environment of excellence and innovation for both the teacher and the student. Some effective learning methods can be:
- Peer Learning: The professional world is all about collaborations where people from diverse backgrounds pool their expertise for the best results. Students, especially MBA students, must be prompted to collaborate on various projects to not only pick up new skills but also get used to the style of working in the business arena.
- Flipped Classrooms with Case studies: Make it compulsory for students to come prepared for the class. Assign them a topic with guided pointers to research or hand them reading material and ask them to present the topic or solve a problem related to the topic. With the students prepared for the class, professors can begin their real job, which is sharing insights and clarifying concepts. This saves the class time from being used in discussing the basics and helps professors explore real-world problems with case studies etc.
- Project-based Learning: To execute is to imbibe. As students get hands-on with projects, they not only get to sharpen their understanding of the domain but also, more importantly, get the opportunity to test the prevalent notions that classrooms have imparted.
Explain about management education. How does management education differ from traditional education?
On several occasions, I am asked the question, and I have referred to it in several pieces of my writings, that management education differs vastly from a traditional science or humanities course in a fundamental way. To begin with, unlike management courses, many traditional degrees needn’t have an industry-specific thrust. Take, for example, physics. Although owing to the advancements in physics we have come so far in the tech revolution, a physicist may or may not be interested in the applications of the subject and instead be more inclined towards expanding the theoretical frontier. Thus, it is not obvious, given the theoretical scope of the domain, that it is incumbent upon physics courses to teach industry applications. But this is not the case with an MBA. Management education refers to a specialized form of education that focuses on equipping individuals with the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to effectively lead and manage organizations.
Some key points of management education are:
1. Practical Orientation: It emphasizes the application of concepts and skills to real-world business scenarios.
2. Holistic Skill Development: It equips individuals with a diverse skill set, including communication, teamwork, negotiation, critical thinking, strategic planning, and adaptability, enabling graduates to excel in various organizational roles.
3. Integration of Business Concepts: Management education integrates various disciplines such as finance, marketing, operations, human resources, and strategy. It provides a comprehensive understanding of how these functions interrelate within organizations, enabling students to grasp the big picture and make informed decisions that consider multiple perspectives.
4. Industry-Relevant Curriculum: Management education is designed to align with the dynamic and evolving needs of the business world. The curriculum is frequently updated to reflect industry trends, technological advancements, and emerging business practices.
5. Experiential Learning Opportunities: Management education places a strong emphasis on experiential learning, providing students with hands-on opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills. Internships, consulting projects, and industry collaborations offer practical exposure, allowing students to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
6. Emphasis on Leadership Development: While traditional education may not explicitly focus on leadership development, management education places significant emphasis on cultivating effective leadership qualities. It helps students develop self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to motivate and inspire others.
Management education unlocks the potential to lead and navigate the complexities of the business world, while traditional education lays the foundation for knowledge, but it is the combination of both that propels individuals towards true success.
How will consumer behavior shape the digital advertising industry?
Perhaps the most obvious example of consumer behavior is the digital advertising industry itself. As social media became integral to our lifestyles, marketers began leveraging these platforms for their campaigns. With advanced Analytics tools at their disposal, marketers can now study consumer behavior patterns across platforms to glean insights such as gender ratio, age groups, comparative analysis of time spent by a specific demographic on a certain platform, and other demographic data.
For example, with this consumer behavior data, marketers can decide which platform their target group uses the most and concentrate their efforts there. Or if they are targeting an untapped audience, consumer behavior data could help them not only identify the channel via which they can most effectively reach their target group but also gauge their response, quantifying digital marketing metrics such as Brand Lift, Search Lift, etc.
What is the importance of marketing strategy? What are the best marketing strategies that start-ups could learn and execute?
Marketing strategies can break or make a company’s growth trajectory. Right now, the market is inundated with so many similar products and services. To stand out, brands need to effectively capture the attention of the consumer. At the same time, marketing is an awfully expensive affair. All in all, much like any strategy, marketing efforts too need strategies for that maximum ROI can be clocked.
As for start-ups, the marketing strategy needs to be further optimized. The objectives of the marketing efforts in new organizations are twofold: firstly, establishing brand awareness, something traditional business houses have to worry much less about, and then, driving sales. The new-age marketing avenues such as email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing, among others, not only prove to be some of the most effective marketing strategies but are also often significantly cheaper and more accessible for small enterprises than the traditional marketing routes.
A 2019 report from McKinsey and Company report titled “The new growth game: Beating the market with digital and analytics”[1] shows a correlation between growth and digital marketing, saying that companies that have used the digital marketing route have seen better performance than their competitors. In terms of ROI on specific routes, it is worth mentioning that according to Aweber’s 2020 report named, “Small Business Email Marketing Statistics Report”, around 60 percent[2] of small enterprises claim that email marketing has given them good traction and results. Similarly, in an article entitled, “Three Reasons You Should Be Advertising On Social Media In 2021”,[3] Jonathan Durante, the Co-founder of Expandify Marketing, mentions that the typical ad spend of social media marketing has 3 to 5x return and some of the campaigns his company has conducted has seen 75x returns in sales. These are but a few statistics to illustrate the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies.
How do you manage your work-life balance as a women leader, and what strategies have you employed to overcome any gender-specific hurdles in the business world?
Work-life balance is imperative, but it's a dynamic balance that can only be best defined by the person in question. Sometimes this balance means you work more because that makes you happy, and sometimes it means you spend more time with your loved ones because your personal sphere and your emotional needs demand so. I have been fortunate to have a good work-life synergy. Strong support from my family and a good working environment, and sound management practices at my place of work have helped me achieve, learn, contribute and grow in both my personal and professional life.
Working women, in fact, all professionals, need to have conversations with their families, partners and children and set the right expectation in terms of what they could contribute to each other. Be it for the division of household chores or the amount of time spent together, heart-to-heart dialogues would help both the professional woman and her relations to know where they can each pitch in and help each other out. Everyone, regardless of their gender or profession, needs a support system, so once we get that right, the rest follows.
