MW talks to Motorola's Zulkifi Mat Jusoh

 

What is your role as Head of Marketing?

 

I oversee the advertising, branding, public relations, collaboration and retail side of the business which includes the formulation, development, evaluation and implementation of all marketing programmes. I am also responsible for growing Motorola's entertainment marketing business which is fairly new in Malaysia yet is almost as crucial as any other marketing sector.
I have been with Motorola close to 7 good remarkable years and I am only in charge of Malaysia now. I used to handle South East Asia during my early days at Motorola.

Bond Wireless

What led you into the wireless business?
I was an associate dean of IT at Bond University in Australia and I got frustrated with my fellow academics who were enthusiastic in conducting pure research but not in developing marketable products, which was unfortunate, since neither government nor industry would finance development without the possibility of commercial return.

So in 1992, I established Bond Wireless together with a graduate student to develop an SMS solution for a transport company wanting to alert commuters about train delays.

It's been almost ten months since you took over at Nokia. What's it been like since then?
I am enjoying the job. I've worked previously at telcos like Sprint and TimeDotCom so it's not like I'm in a totally new industry. My last job was also with a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company so you can say I'm at home at Nokia.