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By Alawi Masare
BusinessWeek Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Having worked for various blue chip firms for 28 years this Nigerian marketing guru feels it is now the right time to start on his own.After his contract with a local mobile firm ended suddenly Ikechukwu Kalu decided to make his expertise available to all and sundry, and specifically SMEs and other organisations which have no marketing departments.
He came to Tanzania in 2010 as an expert with Zantel, a local mobile phone network provider, but after his contract was recalled unexpectedly, he decided to stay. He then went ahead to establish a marketing consultancy firm.
Prior to coming to Tanzania Iyke as he is fondly called by his friends, colleagues and business associates, worked at Guinness Nigeria for 19 years.
In 2002 he joined MTN Nigeria which is the network with the biggest number of subscribers in Africa.
In 2004, Mr Kalu was recognised in an award in South Africa for his outstanding performance while working with MTN Nigeria. He managed to recruit one million customers a month through a promotion called “Life is Beautiful” surpassing the target set at 300,000 customers.
At MTN he held several positions such that by the time he left to join Zain Nigeria (now known as Airtel) as head of customer care services and later on as head of segments (consumer segment, business segment, corporate segment) in his home country, he had already become one of the senior personnel in the marketing department.
In May 2010, Zantel recruited him as a marketing director. As it was a two-year contract he decided to bring in his family as well.
Unfortunately, his contract was terminated in December 2010. He had two options after that; either to go back to Nigeria or remain here and look for another job.
“It was a very hard time for me. Remember my family was enjoying the stay here in Tanzania and the kids had already started school here. It was going to be difficult to take them back to Nigeria,” says Mr Kalu.
After deep consideration, Mr Kalu decided to start a consultancy firm.
“Having worked for 28 years, it would not make sense for me to go back in Nigeria and look for a new employment.
I have had vast experience in marketing, administration, and auditing, among others. So I established my own company, a value creation firm, called Customer Passion Point,” he adds. The company started operations in April 2011 with three main focus activities; marketing advisory services (consultancy), training and development and brand asset marketing.
“I am one of those who believe that marketing is the engine of any enterprise. If you get your marketing right then your business will easily grow well. That is why I decided to start this consulting firm here in Tanzania to help SMEs and other organisations which have no marketing departments,” explains the marketing guru.
Mr Kalu advises young marketers to concentrate on building their careers instead of jumping from one job to another until they have enough relevant skills and experience that makes them stand out.
“They should also focus on developing their professions. The experienced marketers on the other hand need to look at best ways of recruiting fresh graduates from various colleges by looking for people who share the same value with the organisation. Sometimes the academic disciplines of the graduates do not matter because even an engineer may end up being a very good marketer if trained,” advises Mr Kalu.
Although his firm is still new in the market, he has already provided services for several organisations including BenchMark Productions for the recently ended Bongo Star Search Second Chance.
Customer Passion Point also organised the recent Tanzania Marketing Communication Conference meant to stimulate knowledge and discussions on marketing and marketing communication.
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