Continuous Improvement Fuels Career Growth and Marketing Success
By Sunita, principal marketing specialist
Before I joined MathWorks, I worked for a large corporation, a place so big that it was challenging to get visibility for your work and find an individual foothold. Looking for a company where I could make an impact, I came to MathWorks. When I stepped into the Bangalore office, my first feeling was that of belonging to a close-knit and friendly circle of colleagues.
The Marketing team then was just one person, and I took on broad responsibilities for the commercial and government sectors. In my role, the primary objective was to furnish a steady supply of high-quality leads for the Sales team to work on. Alongside were other responsibilities like acquiring strong customer testimonials and building executive-level relationships. With the guidance of my manager, I planned and created my own marketing initiatives and successfully completed campaigns ranging from seminars, webinars, and workshops to participation in external conferences, all with the objectives of awareness and demand generation.
Expanding EXPO’s Reach
At that time, we did not have a flagship event in India. In several other countries, MathWorks held the annual MATLAB EXPO, bringing together engineers, researchers, and scientists to hear real-world examples, see live demonstrations, and learn more about the latest features and capabilities of MATLAB and Simulink. It was our dream to have our very own MATLAB EXPO in India. I undertook MATLAB EXPO India as my single big project.
Here was an opportunity to build a large project from scratch, showcase my work, and make an impact. It involved planning goals for the event, identifying the scope of the audience, finalizing the venue, managing the budget, creating promotion campaigns to meet the registration numbers, and putting together the technology showcase, alongside finalizing the agenda, content, and speakers. My first MATLAB EXPO India conference was a resounding success, and eventually this event grew in both stature and value, becoming a key campaign for generating awareness for our products and solutions.
The event team for MATLAB EXPO, the company’s flagship user conference.
I grew along with the EXPO. Working on such a large project, along with other campaigns, helped me hone my marketing skills and made me a strong team player. From gathering content with the Application Engineering team and working with Sales for promotion aspects to qualifying leads through the Sales Development team and working with the Creative Services team for design implementation—it was cross-team collaboration all the way!
Observing the impact of our products on crucial essential engineering and science projects that make human lives better made me especially proud to work at MathWorks!
In a boundaryless organization like MathWorks, I got to design review and brainstorm with others and obtain their opinions and ideas too. I also got the opportunity to work with external teams like the event management agency, venue managers, MathWorks partners, resellers, industry associations and publications, and PR. The project scope also included in-depth analysis of post-event data and the identification of revenue-generating opportunities—which were perhaps the best returns we got from the campaign!
Sunita with Cleve Moler, chief mathematician, chairman, and cofounder of MathWorks.
A Marketing team outing.
More than 11 years have passed since I joined MathWorks, and today MATLAB EXPO India has expanded to three cities with more than 2,500 attendees, requiring more than nine months of planning and execution. Above all, I’ve found it enriching to work with our customer speakers at the conference and learn about the immense value our solutions brought to their work. Observing the impact of our products on crucial essential engineering and science projects that make human lives better made me especially proud to work at MathWorks!
Becoming More Strategic
My work became more and more focused on event execution, and I mentioned to senior management that I wanted to expand my role. My voice was heard, and my role evolved to enable me to better participate in strategic planning activities. This was an important step for me since it prepared me to take more responsibility for directly impacting the business. I now worked closely with the Sales and Application Engineering teams to better plan and align campaigns with their revenue objectives. I was pursuing self-improvement and developing leadership skills. As the Marketing team expanded, and I was also able to coach and guide my team members. Teaching others is the best method to learn more.
There is always a better process, a better campaign, a better report, a newer approach because we are encouraged to never be satisfied. At MathWorks, my journey never ends because we are constantly looking for a better way!
Company Values at Work
In recent years, I have volunteered to work on diversity initiatives at MathWorks India, which has helped me appreciate the importance of inclusivity in our work culture and in our environment. These initiatives gave me an opportunity to work with talented women engineers both inside and outside the organization. My efforts were focused on offering our events as a platform for them to express and share the work they do, thus gaining visibility, support, and recognition. I worked with conferences that support women engineers including Grace Hopper India (Asia’s largest technical conference for women) and NeurIPS and organized “Women in Tech” sessions at MATLAB EXPO India, the MathWorks Advisory Board, and other MathWorks events. Through these initiatives, I saw first-hand the true meaning of diversity: Each of us is different and adds value to an organization because of these differences. At MathWorks, we strive to respect and support these differences.
I also value the pursuit of excellence in every project. Every campaign is followed up by a “plus-delta” meeting in the true spirit of kaizen. The discussion centers on what could be done better, tabled, and implemented the next time. What inspires me most at MathWorks is the relentless pursuit of improvement, which is one of our company’s core values. Never be satisfied—things can always be improved. There is always a better process, a better campaign, a better report, a newer approach because we are encouraged to never be satisfied. At MathWorks, my journey never ends because we are constantly looking for a better way!
