The Rigour of Excellence.

A Marketer's Journey from Corporate to Campus

15 years in tourism and hospitality: airports, red eye flights, late nights, pitch decks, investor presentations, boisterous media campaigns, deep discounting, celebrities, influencers, global agencies, long work days, longer networking evenings, endless beers, espressos, red bull, adrenaline, dancing, barbecues, card parties, incentives, and a lot more.

6 months at a university: 0830 checkin, 1700 checkout, punctuality, discipline, approval forms, tons of documentation, academic calendars, notices, meetings with minutes (for all meetings), governance, student events, competitions, cultural performances, endless piles of content, academic manuals, writing, editing, publishing, printing, photography, chai, samosa, and collaboration.

Why would I do it, you ask? Let me answer.

Education serves 'lifetime' consumers. Students who buy into your promise of a sound education, make the commitment of a lifetime, add your university badge to their own names and resumes, and carry it for the rest of their lives and careers. They trust you to a point that their own professional and personal lives depend on your reputation as an institution, and hence you must keep doing better, each day.

What we offer as a university is life altering. It serves young adults who are contemporary, questioning, aspirational, willing to challenge the system, and today, increasingly 'woke'. The parents of these students dig into their own, savings, all to ensure that their children live better lives than they themselves could.

There is no bigger joy than one of enablement, needless to say that not all students who come to a university look for enablement; but every cohort has those few with a twinkle in their eyes who you know will not grow up to commoners but will struggle and strive and not rest till they achieve true success. It is for these few deserving ones that you must deliver consistently, and commit to creating an ecosystem that will transform their lives.

This ecosystem, needs a 'system'. A system of learning, collaboration, value creation, measurement, and tons and tons of a certain kind of rigour of discipline. It may not be enticing for corporate professionals from the outside, but once you're in; you're probably in for a lifetime.

Education changes lives, and in doing so, it changes you as well.

I have come to realise and I say it openly; what should matter to a marketer the most is the 'brand story'. One that goes beyond valuation, growth, and numbers, and pegs itself on actual societal impact. It is endearing to see students from diverse, many a time economically challenged backgrounds, disparate homes and families come, study with you, and then return a decade later - accomplished, successful, and proud.

The Strive for 'Meaning'

Endless execution of admission intakes, campus events, convocations, fests, an endless publishing calendar, multiple rounds of revisions to communication keeping in mind the sensitivity of the audience; is taxing and takes a toll on you, but then, know this: The best of institutions in the world have become the best of institutions because they have enabled students and academicians to research, innovate, collaborate, and bring about positive change. It is a great feeling. One where you get to share the joy and change lives while doing so.

The power of the 'brand story' is incredible. What you do as a marketer at a university is never 'sell', but 'build aspiration'. You create visibility, help forge partnerships, co-create value and serve as a catalyst between students, academia and industry. You build an infinite loop of learning and empowerment.

Delivering Excellence Continually is a Challenge

There's no rest. You will welcome a new batch of students every year; a fresh, younger, more aware, more conscious, more demanding batch of students who will have more choices every year, and you must keep delivering excellence, continually. How do you do this; you better your own systems by bringing in stronger faculty, new pedagogy, immersion techniques, facilities, international partnerships, student opportunities, funding, endowment, and a lot more. You strengthen research and innovation and you strive to deliver a more holistic and rewarding student experience; a better one not just every year, but every semester. It's taxing, but then the end goal of enablement is always worth it. When the university and its students win accolades, get placed with stellar brands, secure funding for research or register a new patent, you know it was always worth it.

The Curious Thrive, the Competitive Survive

Universities are highly competitive beings (and I call them beings because 'they always need to be in motion'). They compete for rankings, quality benchmarks, and given the mushrooming of universities this decade; even quality students.

While the competitive ones play up on mass student recruitment through advertising and rake up numbers in thousands, they're unable to deliver a consistent quality of education purely basis the fact that it often becomes difficult to deliver a high quality of education, let alone the measurement or management of it.

I firmly believe that institutions (private or public) who have been conscious of inorganic growth but positively critical about academic reputation, have what it takes to not just survive, but thrive. Their own students achieve great things and proudly carry the legacy of the institution forward. In many ways, they are societal heirs of the institution and its reputation.

The Rigour of Internationalisation, Digitisation, and now the very Liberal NEP 2020!

Oh well. This one we all know about. The future is collaborative and collaborative means digital. Also, multidisciplinary and liberal. So well; the rigour of up-skilling, infrastructure, and creating seamless journeys and engaging content for students is no easy challenge. It's a marketer's delight though to work with a large student body with varied interests, aspirations and capabilities.

Cut the Chase, Why am I in It?

I needed this, I've been fortunate and I'm thankful. Somewhere, I was getting burnt out. Now when I turn up at the university campus at 0830 in the morning, I see young adults full of hope, brimming with ideas, not scared for success but rather genuinely wanting to achieve so much more for themselves and their families.

Once in a while, some of them come to your office for mentoring and what you think was common 'corporate knowledge' greatly serves their curiosity and they earnestly thank you for it. What you may have learnt over a decade as a professional but never valued much may be 'gold' to their own curious minds, and suddenly; you feel that you're adding value to this ecosystem as well. It is a privilege.

It's great to be a part of the university. As a university enables, you enable too. It makes you a better person, and certainly, a better parent too. One who sleeps on time because 0830 hrs is reporting tomorrow. I'm late today.