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| Sunday, 18 January 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Personality plus Mohamed Saifulla : Innovative approach to marketing
Family His parents were M. Lariff, a gem merchant, and Rahamath-Ul Kairiya. Saif was born as the eldest son and has two younger sisters. Education "From my young days, I had a dream of joining the forces," he recalled. For his primary education, he went to De La Salle College, Mutwal and for his Advanced Level examinations, he went to Zahira College. He sat for his exam in the Maths stream. Career Around this time, Saif got the opportunity of joining the Navy as a Trainee Naval Architect and was trained at the Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee. "I was in the Navy for an year and was attached to the Artificer Unit". Subsequently, he quit the Navy and joined a shipping company as a Shipping Clerk cum Computer Operator. "The job was challenging since I had to work alone. However, I learnt many things by working alone". During this time, he saw a newspaper advertisement of Eagle Insurance calling for Business Development Associates. He applied for this job and was selected after an interview. "I was trained by the company and selling Life insurance became an interesting job," Saif said. "I also learnt sales and salesmanship. This was the turning point in my career and I am always grateful to Ranjit Weerasinha, who is now attached to Asian Alliance, for guiding me in the correct path. Even now, I go to him for advice and guidance". Saif worked at Eagle for four years before moving to Computerland as an Account Executive to promote Compaq computers. "I never wanted to be in one place for long. Therefore, after working there for one year, I joined Lanka Bell in the same capacity. I handled the military and government sector. I set up this division and we covered 18 per cent of the sales". Opportunity "Once I got tired of this job, I left and went back to Computerland under V. Ramanah to promote a new IT concept (document management system) from India. I was offered this opportunity at a time when I was looking for a chance to display my skills and prove myself. "I was asked to promote the concept the way I pleased and succeed. I created a marketing plan for the product 'data scan' as well as finding the sales staff and creating a logo." Barriers "I spoke to organisations, but it was difficult to promote a new concept in our country as nobody wanted to try out the product. I did demonstrations alone". First Customer "My first customer was Suntel, which helped and supported me a lot. Then came Dialog, National Development Bank, Eagle Insurance, Colombo Municipal Council and Ceylinco General. At present, we are the number one provider of solutions in the area of document management systems". Innovation Most of the management and salesmanship approaches taken by Saif are innovative. "I have taken a lot of risks and I do not follow the routine of an average manager in Sri Lanka. I now sell my product even in the UAE. The leadership and salesmanship I learnt have helped me to come to this position. "The ability to identify the skills of a person at the correct time is lacking among our senior managers as well as human resource managers," he said. He added that salesmanship is an art which a good marketer should master. This art can be acquired only through selling and walking in the street and hunting for customers for your product and not by sitting in the office and sending memos and writing reports. Salesmanship is the basic ingredient to become an effective marketer in any industry. It is important to get the feeling of how customers react to your product through his/her own voice and body language before we write marketing plans and strategies which can easily be done by a non-Marketer who knows Marketing theories. Saif said: "Most Lankan managers are looking for status through the designations assigned to them by their companies or they adopt some strategy to distinguish themselves from their subordinates. This is a well-known fact even though it is not that noticeable to the outside world. This kind of attitude is very common among Asian managers, especially in developing countries. "I do not think this style is acceptable in the modern business environment and developed society. Managers should use their charisma and knowledge to handle subordinates and not the power they possess through their designation or their backgrounds or connections which is very common in Sri Lanka." "The style of managing subordinates or peers has great impact on the productivity of the company and the personality of the product he or she promotes. "A prominent walk on the office floor or limited smiles will not take you anywhere in the competitive world. The modern manager needs to understand what exactly is meant by "charismatic leadership" and innovation which can be developed only though continuous learning, honesty, openness and simplicity even though there is bio-chemical (genetic) influence on this type of leadership". Advice "Take decisions according to your gut feelings and be open. The ability to adjust and not being status-conscious will take you to where you are aiming for. Everybody can be good managers, but not good leaders," he said. Fact File Name: Mohamed Saifulla Schools Attended: De La Salle College, Mutwal Zahira College, Colombo Present Post: Manager Sales and Marketing, Infolume (Pvt) Ltd Wife: Sima Begum |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
The many harassments he had faced in life, courage and love of god are
the pillars of success for Manager Sales and Marketing of Infolume (Pvt)
Ltd, Mohamed Saifulla, better known as Saif within business circles.
