VP - Sales & Marketing, Ceat Tyres, Speaks at TISS

VP - Sales & Marketing, Ceat Tyres, Speaks at TISS

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, on Saturday, 11th August 2007, played host to Mr. Arnab Banerjee, the Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Ceat Tyres (RPG Group). Mr. Banerjee visited the campus to throw light on Sales & Distribution set-ups in organizations, specifically discussing the tyre industry and the FMCG sector.

Mr. Banerjee, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta worked with Berger Paints and Marico before joining Ceat in 2005.

Teeing off with a brief discussion of the key concepts of sales and distribution, Mr. Banerjee stressed on the fact that "Customer Centricity" is infact the corner-stone of any S&D model. The primary objective of professionals in this function is to facilitate sales and enable distribution. The need of the hour is, however, to generate innovative options in order to create a push-driven demand for a product.

"Channel Interface" is the essence of the role played by a distribution team. Mr. Banerjee brought huge value to the discussion by painting a pen-picture of the channel landscape, as it exists presently in India. Speaking of the various responsibilities assumed by manufacturers towards the channel partners, he drove home the importance of "Channel Engagement" and outlined the tools that companies developed for the same.

Mr. Banerjee went on to discuss the nuances of the S&D function in the FMCG sector and gave interesting insights into innovation and trends in this arena. Completing the learning loop, he then discussed the Sales and Distribution practices for commercial tyres and wound up by highlighting the differences between the two, thus, reinforcing earlier concepts amidst a flurry of questions which brought to the fore the immense wealth of his experience.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Mridula Shukla,
HRM & LR Forum,
TISS, Mumbai.

MBA Alumni \| MBA Students \| MBA Aspirants \| MBA Forums