8Minute Talk show —Hadi Atrianfar Brand & Strategy manager at Alibaba Travels Co.

Mansour Kiarash: Hello, we are beside you with another 8minute talk show. Today, I’m going to introduce Hadi Atrianfar, brand and Strategy manager at Alibaba Travels Co, to you. Hello, dear Hadi.

Hadi Atrianfar: Hello, Thanks for your invitation.

Mansour Kiarash: could you please tell us a little about your career?

Hadi Atrianfar: this is Hadi Atriandar. I got my MBA masters degree at Sharif University, and I got my DBA at Tehran University. I’m the Brand Manager at Alibaba travels Co now.

Mansour Kiarash: What was the biggest challenge you have faced during these years?

Hadi Atrianfar: the challenge that I want to talk about is in many businesses. The challenge is strategy failing. Sometimes, you prepare a strategy, but it doesn’t fulfill your expectations. If I want to talk more about it, we are working in an active and dynamic system. The taste of our auditor is changing, our competitor is presenting new products, many outer problems like Covid-19, etc. they all affect the business. Sometimes, you have to prepare new competitive strategies to stay updated in the market. Strategic management planning is in 3 steps; the first is the formulation of the organization’s strategy, In this step, you collect data, do market searches and get familiar with competitors. These data help the organization’s strategists to implement the strategy, and at last, they evaluate the strategies. The reason that strategy fails is the gap between formulation and implementation. If the members understand the organization’s strategy, the gap will decrease. Sometimes, there’s a gap between formulation and implementation, because the staff doesn’t know about the strategy, so they face problems while implementing. If you engage staff in preparing a new strategy, you’ll get good feedback. Our strategy implementers are in touch with many parts, and they have many data. If the lower and higher positions discuss the data well, they can prepare better strategies. The first and the most important feature to implement is staff loyalty to a strategy. When staff participates in preparing a new strategy, he is more loyal to the new strategy.

Mansour Kiarash: What habitual activities help a manager to stay at high levels?

Hadi Atrianfar: Market is like a front. Sometimes, there is lots of dust on this front, and we can just do our routines and made targets. This may prevent us from developing and seeing the long-term goals. I suggest preparing a long-term competitive strategy, work on new trends in marketing. On the other hand, every strategy manager is an expert in a field such as; branding, digital marketing. I suggest improving their knowledge in different fields, such as; finance, human resources.

Mansour Kiarash: could you introduce some study resources to our readers?

Hadi Atrianfar: I suggest The new strategic brand management by Kapferer. Kapferer is a French brand researcher. This book is very famous in international universities. The next is Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach by Orville C. Walker.

Mansour Kiarash: Who would you like to invite to this talk show?

Hadi Atrianfar: I’d like to invite Javad Nouri Javid. He is the brand manager of Kalleh. He is very knowledgeable and has experienced many things in branding, marketing, and brand researching. I’m sure you’ll have a good interview with him.

Mansour Kiarash: thanks for participating in our talk show.

Hadi Atrianfar: thanks for inviting me.

Mansour Kiarash: we talked to a professional manager, and we’ll talk to others, too.