To add value to another, you do not need to be wealthy
At a recent ceremony in Lagos, Interswitch’s Group Chief Product and Marketing Officer, Cherry Eromosele was named one of the Most Inspiring Nigerian Women. A dynamic, performance-driven professional with more than 20 years of strategic marketing and product innovation experience, Eromosele has served in diverse industry sectors such as FMCG, Telecoms, HealthCare and most recently Payments/FinTech.
The University of Benin graduate currently provides leadership and strategic direction for product innovation, product development, customer value management, and product marketing functions, while continuing to champion the Group’s brand management, corporate communications, and corporate social responsibility functions to drive key business objectives across her company’s entire business portfolio.
In your view, are women who are in more privileged positions doing enough to lift up other women?
This is a very interesting question which interestingly came up at a women forum I recently participated in. My view would be largely subjective as the issue in itself really is, but I find it to be mostly based on individual experience, as it wouldn’t be ideal or fair to stereotype matters. In my own case, (perhaps I have been extremely fortunate) I have found many mentors and pathfinders in women who were senior colleagues, more experienced, or who had walked certain paths ahead of me, and who were happy to empower based on this. I suppose this has colored my own disposition as far as the resolve to replicate this for others is concerned. As women, the least we could do really, and ideally is to help one another up, as much as is within our capacity to do!
How can this be improved in your opinion?
It starts with a conscious effort and resolves, and with knowing that you don’t have to necessarily be wealthy or have all the years of experience in the world to be of value to another. A lot of times, we err in thinking that we need to have more to be channels of impact/blessing to others. Again, it is back to the realization that what we have in our hands is a lot more than we imagine, most times, to enable us to positively impact the lives of others.
As a mentor to younger women and girls, what is your philosophy?
Strength, industry, grace, and decency are personified in femininity, not feminism. That’s what Kofi Annan famously captured in that timeless assertion that “the empowerment of women is the most effective tool for development.” Also, the empowerment and rise of women is not, and can never be the downfall of men. In the end, it is complementary, not a zero-sum game of ‘winner-takes-it-all’.
Technology is disrupting most professions today, including Marketing… In reality, one does not even need to be a marketing professional to come to an appreciation of the dramatic way technology has shifted paradigms in marketing, media, and communications. What I’d, however, like to add, for the benefit of marketing professionals is that at the risk of being carried away totally by these technological advancements and their benefits and impacts, it is fundamental, for success, to always be conscious of the need to go back to first principles. Some things never change, and much of the underlying concepts and philosophies that underpin the practice of marketing and communications remain eternal truths.
What is your final word for young, ambitious girls looking to build a career in Marketing?
Hone your craft. Do your homework and pay your dues. Being in marketing offers you the incredible latitude to infuse your validated thoughts and perspectives into the construct of brands and thereby, ultimately, culture and society, shaping people’s expectations, experiences, world-views, etc. The marketing/creative sphere is so lateral, iterative and engaging as compared with some other more strait-jacketed fields of endeavor which are more linear in orientation. So, I don’t think it gets more exciting and engaging in any other sphere! At the initial stages, it may turn out not to be as glamorous as it looks from the sidelines. In many instances, pay at the early phases may actually seem like peanuts when juxtaposed against the expectations and deliverable and you’ll often have to roll up your sleeves to do dirty work. But remember that in the quest to build capacity, what you earn is secondary to the sheer extent of what you’ll learn. I never fail to emphasize this to upcoming professionals. In the end, the hard work definitely does pay off after all.
Source – Vanguard
