ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE – JULY 18, 2011 — Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from South and East Asia are meeting in Singapore on July 21 for a series of peer-level strategic dialogues organized by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. Major agenda items include marketing transformation, talent sourcing, cross-border data integration and the rapidly evolving micro-enterprise market in the region.
Marketers attending represent global and regional powerhouse brands such as IBM, Acxiom, BlackRock, Brocade, Canon, MasterCard International, Fuji Xerox, Philips Electronics, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Kodak, Intel, Lawson Software, Microsoft, Symantec, Telstra, Google, Dell, Heinz, Avaya, Aspect Software, Nokia Siemens Networks, Travelzoo, Olam International, Aspect Software, National Geographic/Fox, Godfrey Philips, Steria India, OCBC Bank, Godrej Industries, UOB, CTC Holidays, and Yahoo!
The meeting will be hosted by Vivek Kumar, the CMO Council’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board Chairman. "We are honored to host this gathering of influential marketers from across Asia in Singapore. We also welcome delegates of the CMO Asia Awards program from India.
"We’re expanding the CMO Council’s thought leadership role in Asia with a range of initiatives. First, a study on the state of marketing in Asia with a focus on emerging opportunities. Second, a unique regional repository of sales and marketing case studies designed to build peer-powered learning. Third, and perhaps most important, is the CMO Council’s plan to mentor and groom promising marketing talent in Asia," he added.
"An important area of discussion at the gathering will be the dynamic market opportunities in Asia’s rapidly evolving micro enterprise sector," noted Donovan Neale-May, the CMO Council’s executive director who will be traveling to Singapore from Silicon Valley, where the Council is based. "Understanding how to size, segment, target and engage this hugely diverse and rapidly evolving sector of the economy is critical for the future growth of many brands and service providers in the region," he stated.
For example, Neale-May added, small businesses with fewer than 20 people employ roughly 90 percent of the labor force in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country with more than 230 million inhabitants. And this is not dissimilar to other Asian economies. Recognizing the value of social entrepreneurship and other economic benefits, governments throughout the region are finding creative ways to support, nurture and assist micro enterprises.
A plethora of new organizations and online communities are now active including Enterprise Asia, SearchSMB Asia, the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia, the Asia Foundation, StartUpRootsSG, SGEntrepreneurs and Business Angel Network Southeast Asia.
