MAR 2008 - From Where I'm Standing
by Sue McCarty
As published in DLB #70 January/February 2008 Issue
Well I am just six weeks into the job and, being a passionate marketer myself, I am thrilled to be working with the board, the team, our regional committees and special interest groups, our business partners and our members to launch the New Zealand Marketing Association to the next stage of its evolution. The Association has a fantastic foundation from which to do this – my focus is now on facilitating the working together as a marketing community to embrace the full integrated marketing story and to ensure we, the Association, are providing value to businesses of all sizes and at all stages of evolution and to marketers at every level and/or area of specialisation.
In this month’s Marketing Magazine I talk about a number of themes for the Association this year and I would like the opportunity to summarise these here to reinforce our commitment to a step-change for the New Zealand Marketing Association.
Firstly, I spoke of my vision for the Continuing Professional Development initiative recently launched by the Association: “To expand the education opportunities offered by the NZMA, both directly and through partner organisations, to ensure a full suite of ever-evolving learning opportunities with relevancy to businesses of all sizes and marketing professionals at all stages of their career.” This is very dear to my heart as I am totally committed to the concept of learning throughout life and I know how important it is to have an industry-recognised method of furthering careers, recognising milestones and assisting with the recruitment and placement of professionals into business.
The next thing I mentioned related to the power and necessity of networking. I hear the Association has provided pretty good networking opportunities for its members, but we know we can improve and we will be seeking your input into how these opportunities can best support the integrated marketing environment and best meet your needs moving forward.
Finally, I spoke of the importance of the Association to provide relevant and practical tools, advice, market intelligence etc. in order to encourage and promote excellence in marketing at all levels. The team here at the Association will be working on adding to the vast resources we already provide to ensure you, our members, can access advice, information and tools in a timely manner in order to support you in what you do on a daily basis.
Before I close, I just want to share a story to demonstrate to you another key area of focus for me this year … when I arrived in New Zealand in 1992 I was blown away by the fact that everyone here used EFTPOS cards – New Zealand was way ahead of the rest of the world for implementing electronic financial transactions for general use, and it wasn’t too long before I realised why … New Zealand is the ideal test bed! It is a relatively sophisticated first world country, with every industry well represented, with an ideal economy of scale and a relatively simple technological and political infrastructure, where it is possible to get business, education, government, industry and the consumer to work together with relative ease – AND there existed in the culture of New Zealand an unmistakable pioneering spirit and creativity that set it apart from the rest of the world. I am determined to use my privileged position here at the New Zealand Marketing Association to work with leaders in New Zealand to re-ignite a sense of pride in these facts – after all, product development is at the heart of marketing! So if you consider yourself a thought leader and would like to be involved in this conversation, call me - I’d love to hear from you.
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