Zachary Harding Marketing is his Passion

Barbara Ellington, Acting Lifestyle Editor

AT 31, Zachary Harding is the director of marketing for the Wisynco Group of Companies. He has so far spent 15 months in the position but previously worked as brand manager for Smirnoff Ice and conversion development manager at Red Stripe; two years at Jamweb as marketing manager and he also worked with the team at GraceKennedy Remittance Services.

But he began to whet his appetite for marketing at Dunlop Corbin and Marketing Counselors, having abandoned his earlier desire to pursue a career in law. Contrary to what some may think, Harding was never forced to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father, Dr. Oswald Harding. He chose to end that course after one year, having discovered that it required more serious reading than he cared for.

With the necessary qualifi-cation from the University of New Orleans and the Institute of Management and Production under his belt, he gleaned valuable insight from industry giants such as Brian Goldson, Adrian Robinson, Sue Fox, Greg McLure, Grace Silvera and Gurney Beckford, among others.

Married, with two children, Mr. Harding is the consummate gentleman and firmly grounded in solid family values. He tells his story.

BE: Have you found your calling in marketing?

ZH: I am working on it, but I love what I do so every day I try to understand it better; watch what other people do, understand how consumers think, because knowing that will make me better communicate my message to them.

BE: What is your mandate at Wisynco?

ZH: I have overall responsi-bility for marketing all of the over 50 brands we represent. These include: General Mills, Betty Crocker, Haagen-Dazs, Ocean Spray, Bigga and Wata, as well as our own line of plastic products including paper plates, Samson and Big Boygarbage bags and Wisynco foam boxes.

I am responsible for trying to effectively position these brands in the marketplace and in the minds of the consumer. I must make them understand the key benefits of each brand and why they should choose ours over others.

BE: What is your biggest challenge?

ZH: My biggest challenge is managing so many brands; it's a lot of work, but internally there is no politics and I report directly to Chairman, William Mahfood. We have a great relationship and he's a visionary whose thoughts, dreams and mandate I try to carry out. Wisynco is a family business which makes things easier. The hard part is managing so many brands from the high to the low end and they all have different messages; there are different types of consumers so I have to think in different spectrums all the time.

BE: What do you like about the job?

ZH: I like seeing the brands grow. My side of the business is about development of strong brands, and if I do that sales will come, otherwise it will be difficult to get products off the shelves.

BE: In your experience and career to date, what has surprised you most?

ZH: How difficult it is for people to remain objective about their work; people tend to get very emotional and that clouds their ability to think clearly about the job. For many people everything is about them and not the brands they represent. That's a surprise because one would think people in the industry would be on the cutting edge and leading change by studying other success to make improvements.

But many players still make old mistakes because they are ego-driven. If you can separate that and zero in on what consumers want rather than impose your own view of what you see as right on them, it's easier. It still surprises me to see how many people still don't get it.

BE: What are your views on current international marketing trends and how is Jamaica stacking up; are we keeping up with the pace?

ZH: Some organisations are. The telecoms companies do a great job in a tough business. The alcohol companies do a reasonably good job in what is a competitive and mature business. The biggest impact globally is the access to information. There is so much out there; one hardly knows what to believe and getting your message ahead is a challenge.

As far as trends go, one of the biggest challenges is getting your message across the millions that bombard people daily. Gone is the scatter-shot, mass-media approach that used to blanket everyone in an attempt to get to the core audience. Now marketers have to focus on that core group of people referred to as 'sneezes' who spread idea viruses.

BE: What about the other aspect of your youthful ambition ¬ to be a business-man? Is that still on the cards?

ZH: I have a small company that does some telecommuni-cations work. I will be expanding soon but time is a factor now and I have to devote off-work hours to it.

BE: So you are not planning to work for someone else all you life?

ZH: A few years ago I did not want to, but being at a family-owned business, I'm feeling that this is my final stop and I can see myself working here for a long time, even after I start something of my own. I like technology but marketing is my passion.

BE: And what about politics, any ambitions there?

ZH: I think about it and would do it for the sake of service but my family would have to be safe and there is no point if the current political environment does not encourage new and fresh ideas.

Jamaicans are all preoccupied with crime and the lack of opportunities to support their families. But some members of the media contribute to the malaise; not everyone is objective, many put a spin on things and embellish instead of doing more probing and investigating.

BE: At 31 you are still very young, do you see many opportunities in Jamaica for young potential entrepreneurs like yourself? The criticism is often made that our education system does not prepare people to go into business for themselves but rather to graduate and get a job.

ZH: There are many oppor-tunities in the environment now but accessing them is where the challenge lies. Borrowing money and doing business with banks is very difficult. You have to have some other source or be willing to take risks. Some of the entrepreneurial spirit is fostered by the ability to access needed resources.

Many young people have bright ideas but it is how to train them to translate those ideas into something executional that is lacking. Schools don't train us to think that way; we are still trained to memorise things.

A lot of people don't spend enough time to do the research prior to setting up business. They get excited about a 'wicked' idea without checking whether it was tried before and if it was a success or failure research. Many young people don't think they can create new things; fear prevents them from taking something and turning it into something brand new. The approach has to be changed.

BE: How do you feel about the society we now live in? Jamaican businesses operate in an environment that is overrun by crime.

ZH: If Jamaica was burning to the ground, I'd be the last person on the beach with my family; I have no plans to go anywhere else. I was born here, raised here and what I am now and would like to be is as a result of that so I owe it to my parents and all who have played a role in my life to try to improve things to get to a state where we would all like to see the country.

The situation is sad, rough and unnecessary; if Jamaica did not have so many natural resources one could wonder what we could do to generate income to make things different. But we have so many natural resources and smart people we should be among the world's richest countries. There are no reasons for our condition but greed, selfishness, politics and corruption.

I think about it a lot and my gut reaction is that for the sake of my children, whatever happens to my generation and older, we should endure the sacrifice and just take whatever resources we have and dump it into education.

BE: Over the years, we have transitioned from a manu-facturing to a consumption/ import-driven economy, (with our resources). Wisynco imports several items while it manufactures others. How can we return to manufacturing to earn money for education and other sectors in the long run?

ZH: Manufacturing is still the focus of Wisynco. For more than two-thirds of the business, the revenue comes from manu-factured goods. Synthetic products, Bigga and Wata account for 60 per cent of what we earn. The import side is growing faster than locally manufactured items but we are going more aggressively into manufacturing.

BE: But can we survive economically without pro-duction? Remember the 'export-or-die' slogan?

ZH: Export or die is still relevant. We should be producing goods in order to survive, but we don't have to think in terms of traditional goods. We have to think more innovatively.

BE: Can you think of any three items that we consume a lot of that we could produce ourselves instead of importing?

ZH: The area we could look at more is the export of intellectual property such as in the film industry. Over 2000 docu-mentaries/films/videos are produced here annually. The diversity of our landscape is almost unparalleled anywhere else in the world. We have raw human talent here too but the industry is not properly set up to drive growth in that area. We don't have a co-production treaty in spite of struggles for many years. Those treaties would open doors to massive revenue.

Music is another area; there are Jamaican musicians making millions just from their talents but bringing musical equipment into the island is still a hassle. We need to look at what is working for us and look at the growth areas. If we took the music industry seriously we would produce more Bob Marleys. Sean Pauls and Shaggys. They must be encouraged to invest their earnings here.

We have writers who are doing very well now and there is potential for them to evolve if they are invested in. Telemarketing is opening up and so is gambling. I cannot understand our politicians.

Gambling, which has the potential to change the economy, is still used as a political football because of the fear of the backlash from the Church and the public. No government wants to lose an election over it. It's short-sighted behaviour since we already gamble so heavily here. That convinces me that our leaders are not thinking about what's good for the country.

BE: Where do you see yourself in the next 10-20 years, have you mapped out a strategy for that?

ZH: I am very satisfied with my current role and I don't have desires now for wanting to be CEO or president. Ten years down the road, I will be very fortunate to have worked with some great people and some great minds and to have been exposed to some life-changing experiences.

I would like then for someone to say they worked with me and learnt something from me. Ideally I would go into the direction of training so as not to make my information stagnate with me.

Leadership is lacking in Jamaica, many don't see it as part of their responsibility. There is a difference between leadership and 'egoship'; the former is about taking charge in a motivating and uplifting way; the latter is self-serving and belittle and discredit others.

BE: What's your wish for Jamaica?

ZH: Serious vision and unity and leadership and sacrifices. It should be for the generations to come and a clear plan encompassing all our brilliant minds, agree directionally on some core drivers for change and all making sacrifices towards those drivers for a long period of time - irrespective of which government is in power or who is the MP. We have to focus on the long term and dump all resources into educating the nation.

I wish to see a Jamaica where we take the drastic steps to find the money to transport children school free because lack of bus fare should not be a hindrance to education.

(Gleaner)