Nandana brings Sri Lanka more honour and glory

Meet Nandana Wickramage. A quiet, soft-spoken man who radiates an aura of greatness that is almost visible to everyone around him. Talking to him, you would never realise that you’re talking to the World Brand Congress’s Outstanding Marketing Professional of the Year.

Nandana’s journey to this immensely prestigious accolade began at Trinity College Kandy, where he excelled in sports, winning College and Public School Colours. Even as a youth, Nandana was driven to excel in everything he did. Hailing from a multi talented family, Nandana’s journey has been interesting and full of challenges that have all been successfully met.

Nandana’s foray into marketing has seen him head some of the leading companies locally and see them grow to market leadership position without an exception. Most noteworthy are his achievements at Maharaja Organisation with S-Lon and ‘Pepsi Mega’ brands at Keells Foods at its inception changing over from the Brand Atlas to Keells and at Cargills taking the concept of super marketing to the masses, all of which, it goes without saying, dominate their respective categories to date.

Nandana’s achievements are all the greater when you consider the fact that he has build brands up from scratch to complete market dominance. Yet, Nandana is the first to admit that he has not done it on his own, but with his team.

When pressed, Nandana will admit to having a very special way of leading his marketing teams. It’s a route that he has perfected for his training session – for he is a professional trainer known as the ‘practical coach’. His training philosophy is ‘hands on drive’ – the practical approach.

The marketer and the artiste

At his current place of work, CBL, Nandana has contributed immensely by way of strategic planning and implementation taking brands such as Munchee, Ritzbury, Lankasoy and Tiara to market leadership position with a comfortable margin over their competitors.

Today all brands under his preview are clear market leaders. He believes that understanding the local consumer psyche was a key factor for this success.

Most people pay lip service to the well-known marketing adage ‘know your consumer,’ but not Nandana. His knowledge of the consumer leaves one breathless. He actually says knowing the consumer is relatively easy – it is to have a complete understanding of the consumer that one has to achieve; this reporter thinks it is safe to say that Nandana has as complete understanding of his consumers as is possible.

The evidence proves it. Less than a month ago, Nandana had four out of the top 20 most downloaded songs in Sri Lanka which included number 1, 2 and 4 on the music.lk web site which is the most popular music website in Sri Lanka. Yes, not only is he a marketer extraordinaire, but also a talented lyricist too.

Nandana is much sought after by musicians and singers who wish to have lyrics for their songs. To date he has penned over 250 songs, most of which have topped the Sri Lankan music charts. Such a person has to have a deep understanding of the Sri Lankan psyche – and thus, a deep understanding of the consumer.

Many of the local brand and sales personalities have at some time of their career gone through the guidance of Nandana who has parted with his skills and knowledge to nurture and mould them in to practical professionals.

Nandana’s passion to develop people is also seen by his contribution to the SLIM National Sales Congress where sales professionals receive recognition and training to develop their career. In the same way Nandana’s contribution to the music industry, where he has penned the lyrics for the first solo of most of the popular young artistes of today, is commendable.

 The ‘Know’ Factor

The word ‘in-depth’ doesn’t exactly cover Nandana’s knowledge of sales and marketing but it comes as close as we can get. In fact, Nadana’s knowledge of marketing and sales is comprehensive, rigorous, exhaustive, complete and meticulous – all put together.

Starting his career as a trainee sales representative and working his way up to the level of a Group Director/Head of Marketing and Sales of the largest local FMCG company, Nandana has a distinctive advantage in that, as he says, he knows how to get it done – and he knows how it is done.

From the lips of anyone else, this would sound like a platitude that any sales and marketing professional would fall back on, but not Nandana. Pity the sales professionals who tell Nandana that something can’t be done, because Nandana will take him or her and show exactly how to do it quickly, efficiently and profitably too. He is that kind of man.

Besides the people who he teaches professionally, Nandana also teaches each and every person who works for him. He shares his knowledge, knowhow and experiences, building up his people in the process

The global local

Nandana is a firm believer in all of the Kottlers of the world – but he would never use any foreign marketers’ knowhow or advice blindly. He does this for good reason. He says quite plainly that what works in the USA cannot work in Sri Lanka. He freely admits to studying every single marketing principle that is released internationally. But he never follows them blindly. His interpretation of the principles and the strategies he evolves from them are uniquely Sri Lankan. You might even call them uniquely his. Nandana will happily quote instances where multinational campaigns that have worked everywhere in the world have failed when they reached Asia. There have even been instances where campaign that have worked in one part of a country have fallen flat in another part because of cultural nuances – and this is a phenomena not only in large countries like China, India and The States, but even in some instances, in our little island of Sri Lanka.

“That’s why,” says Nandana, “It’s absolutely crucial to come up with strategies that will work locally – no matter where in the world you are – even though those strategies are based on the learnings and principles of marketers of international repute.”

From ‘know’ to knowledge

Nandana also, almost impossibly it seems, finds time to be a professional trainer, specialising in leadership, motivational and presentation skills both locally and internationally. A generous man, he says that it is his duty to give the opportunity to people to share in the knowledge his experiences have taught him.

As anyone who has been to a dealer convention organised by Nandana and the team, or where Nandana has been the keynote speaker, you would know that his prowess in these arrears are on par with the recently departed Steve Jobs.

Concise. Clear. And above all, motivational, Nandana’s very presence on stage seems to electrify any audience he is in front of. Yet, talking to him, he is adamant that anyone could learn to be as effective a presenter and motivator and, in fact leader as he is. This is what his training sessions aim to do.

He calls himself the practical coach and his training the ‘hands-on drive’ because in fact, he teaches exactly what it is to lead, motivate and present.

The best in the world

Nandana’s latest achievement has been one that not only brings him glory and fame, but has put Sri Lanka firmly on the map of international marketing professionals and it happened last weekend.

At the recently-concluded World Brand Congress, Nandana Wickremage of Sri Lanka was adjudged the ‘Outstanding Marketing Professional of the Year,’ the highest accolade presented to an individual at the World Brand Congress.

This was not the first time Nandana was recognised internationally, just last year he received the Global Brand Leadership Award at the World Brand Congress and early this year he brought honour and fame to the country by clinching the ‘Asian Marketing Professional of the Year’ in an award ceremony conducted by CMO Asia.

And now, he brings home the ‘Outstanding Marketing Professional of the Year’ award. This is the first time a Sri Lankan has brought this award home to Sri Lanka; a unique achievement, for this unique man.

Dave Porter, the Global Chairman of the CMO Council of USA and the World Brand Congress says, “Nandana is an extremely talented professional. His resourceful insights and in-depth knowledge on branding has made brands he leads, brands to reckon with. His efforts in promoting brands are commendable. He is also an integral part of the Global Advisory Board of the World Brand Congress. He has been instrumental in building ties between Sri Lanka and India. We are thus honoured to present him the ‘Outstanding Marketing Professional of the Year.’”

The World Brand Congress has been run for 20 years. With the participation of people from 100 ‘partner countries,’ it is seen and positioned as ‘the single largest rendezvous of the best brains behind some of the world’s most successful and sought after brands’.

And in this field of giants, our very own Nandana Wickremage strode proudly to collect the top award. A great achievement for the man. A proud moment for our country.