Arun Shankar[EC] Why have you pursued marketing as a career?
Marketing excited me because it allowed me to pursue my passion in connecting with people, owning campaigns and projects while collaborating with other shareholders in the organisation, like sales, channel, solution architect, and others; and is a main contributor to the organisations’ sales and generated pipeline.
I felt that this career path suits my personality and energy. A marketing career is cool and fun, it involves a lot of creativity, being a trendsetter, understanding the customer’s behaviour, monitoring market trends, and meeting the market’s needs.
Marketing is a dynamic role, you keep accelerating your skills and knowledge and facing new challenges every day, which is exciting! Add this to the cybersecurity world that is essential in todays and future business needs; I think this mix is great. The marketing career path, especially in cybersecurity is tremendously motivating and very rewarding.
[EC] You recently won the Catalyst Award for Best Competitive Marketing Strategy. How do you feel about that?
I am very proud of the accomplishments and the campaigns I’ve worked on within this year, and happy to see that all the efforts are paying off! It has been a great year on all levels, I am super glad to see some of the campaigns I have introduced, like The Deep Dive in Dubai, is a trendsetter campaign and many players in the market followed our lead.
[EC] Being a woman in technology, what advise do you have for anyone considering a career in the industry?
Look for a diverse network. Diversity can help a person grow on so many levels, everyone in your network has an influence on you, whether directly or indirectly, especially when they have a different viewpoint than you, there so much to learn from everyone around you.
Look for opportunities that you feel confident taking on, and always start on positive ground. Keep the positive vibes even when things do not work out, mistakes are a learning experience.
Lastly, do what you love, it is much more fulfilling to find a job that keeps you interested, and you are passionate about, rather than choosing a career path because it feels like a safe choice.
Ranim’s tips to succeed
- Career path that suits personality and energy
- Look for a diverse network
- Diversity can help a person grow on so many levels
- Look for opportunities that you feel confident taking on
- Always start on positive ground
- Keep the positive vibes even when things do not work out
- Mistakes are a learning experience
[EC] Why do you think diversity in the workplace is important?
Studies show diverse teams are more productive. Today, many organisations are adopting the modern mindset that emphasizes bringing fairness to the game and ensuring society’s representation is accurate in the work world, particularly in the cybersecurity space. I believe that building an equal-opportunity culture isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the smart thing.
It’s very interesting how much a person can learn from diversity. I know this as I experienced it through the past years of my life, where I have had the opportunity to live in Germany, France, Turkey, UAE, and Jordan, which allowed me to grow on so many levels. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in different countries that gave me a huge cross-cultural background, which is much needed to grow in today’s world.
[EC] Do you consider yourself to be a powerful woman?
I see myself more as a woman of influence and strength!
[EC] How has hybrid work, changed and enabled your role in marketing?
It is definitely a game-changer. The pandemic accelerated both planned and unplanned IT modernisation across organisations to keep pace with hybrid work. It gave more space for creativity, and I think it showed the difference between a normal and successful marketer.
Not only in terms of keeping the marketing activities running, de-risk the process of generating leads that will influence the sales pipeline, and retain the brand awareness; but also it shows who was already ahead of the game! Digital marketing is a different level, and it certainly helped in the past 2 years.
The pandemic did bring a new level of challenges, especially for women with kids, flexibility for women with families is key and the hybrid work model helps in finding the right balance to maintain or advance a career. For me personally, as a mother of a toddler, this model encouraged me to be doing more with less.
Infobox’s Ranim Atour shares her thoughts on marketing as a career and passion, role of diversity, and the impact of hybrid work, with Enterprise Channels MEA.
