The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing appointed Pradeep Edward as the 40th President at this year’s Annual General Meeting. Edward has immense experience in the fields of Sales and Marketing.
He joined SLIM in 2000 where he completed most of his marketing related studies. He was appointed the Charter President of the SLIM MBA Alumni and the Director of SLIM CPM Society. In 2013 he was elected to the Ex-Co of SLIM and moved up the ranks as Assistant Secretary, Secretary, Vice President and President.
According to Pradeep, he did not ‘stumble’ upon marketing as it was a conscious choice to join the dynamic field.
His career began in sales, which made him aware of the value that marketing could bring into his profession. “I liked the side of sales and marketing which enabled me to meet new people every day and gave many networking opportunities,” he said.
“I am a firm non-believer in having role models. My personal view is that there are leaders whom one can look up to and be inspired by, but one should not try to imitate them. It is important to understand your inner strength and develop yourself”.
Pradeep Edward is the CEO of Lanka Hospitals Diagnostics (Pvt.) Ltd. Pradeep is a Certified Marketer and Chartered Marketer of CIM – UK, and a Fellow member of the Institute of Management Specialists – UK.
The country lacks international exposure and the President of SLIM is proud to declare that SLIM is in the forefront in bridging this gap. “We initiated this by bringing down Philip Kotler. Last year we had Ron Kaufman conducting a Knowledge Forum and CEO Forum on Services Marketing. This year everything is ready for the forums with none other than John Mattone, coach of Steve Jobs,” said Pradeep.
At events such as SLIM Brand Excellence, excellent products are showcased but are not marketed well enough to be brought from the village to the city, let alone to be marketed internationally. This is one of the reasons behind SLIM introducing Gamata Marketing, where village based manufacturers are educated about the importance of marketing.
Under his leadership SLIM is also working on a few projects to address the need of the hour in the marketing industry.
“We are currently planning an awards programme for young entrepreneurs and start-ups, which is definitely the future of marketing”
Under Edward’s leadership SLIM will be gearing up for a special year celebrating its 50th anniversary. The year is themed as ‘The Year of Gratitude’.
The laying of the foundation for the new SLIM building too is part of the plan for the year as well as setting up the SLIM archives to document and record the work and achievements.