Introduction
I am Sunard (Mac) Thanasanaksorn, CEO and Co-Founder of Rabbit’s Tale. I completed my masters, majoring in Marketing. I spent 3 years at a consultant company before leaving to gain more experience through my family business and established one of the leading “Customer Experience Agency” in Thailand.
Journey in Becoming a CEO of Rabbit’s Tale
Starting from the typical expectations of having to study engineering or medicine. Back then, I did consider myself as one of the well-performing students and ended up choosing Industrial engineering during my second year. Honestly, I chose it because it contained the least “physics” side of engineering which also led me to a module called “principal marketing.”
The lecturer played a big role in introducing me to the beautiful world of Marketing which made me decide to walk this path. I joined a consulting company, Accenture, and worked there for 3 years. I have actually learnt a lot from them which I still appreciate until this day but it didn’t feel like it was the right path so I left.
I continued growing my marketing knowledge by working for my family business. I familiarized myself with the digital trends like Facebook and realized that this might be the future of marketing and will be fascinating to work with. This was in fact when marketing agencies did not even exist, I created Rabbit’s Tale.
Describe Yourself as a CEO
I am a CEO with empathy and a continuous growth mindset
It is important to have empathy and to be able to put yourself in others’ shoes because it will positively enhance how you work with the people around you. Moreover, maintaining a growth mindset will keep you moving forward where you are always aiming to make a change since things won’t always go the way you want.
This links to how I always keep learning. Yes, people have different parts they specialize in but as a leader, we should at least try to always understand what is outside our borders to make visions and create a strategic mindset.
Challenges When Being at the Top?
There are two main “curses” CEOs will usually face. One, you will have to always be able to answer your subordinates’ questions when they come to you. But Second, when CEOs want the answers to their questions, who do they go to then? It is normal for CEOs to also have mentors or the board to support in finding those solutions but it is also very important to keep improving your ‘hard skills’.
Advice:
People say “All Leaders are Learners.”
They try to gain as much input as possible through books, courses, the internet or anywhere to be able to have the answers ready for their employees. Another way is to actually take action and personally experience the work process to actually know what kind of advice to give in that situation if it was them. To add on is to network a lot with people that have experienced what you will be experiencing to learn from them and to follow what they know.
What is a Good Marketer in Your Perspective
The common question I get is; should a marketer know everything?
Marketers usually know the basics of the majority but there is a concept of “Specialization.” For example, digital marketers should get their heads around technology, ecommerce, social commerce and performance marketing where brand specialists and data marketers may need to ace other skills. BUT in the end, I cannot say enough about how active of a learner we should all be.
It’s good to be an all rounder. Be curious in everything whether it is the marketing, the managerial aspects or the entrepeurneur side. Your curiosity will bring you forward as a marketer
The Future of Marketing
As for Rabbit’s Tale, we call ourselves an “experience agency”. We are not just an Advertising Agency but we value the experiences of every party from the first step until the very end whether it would be through personalized or end-to-end marketing. This, I believe, was the result from the ever changing trends of this field.
“Experience Agency” has been a topic amongst marketers for the past few years where we have recently changed to this directly as well. After being a digital agency for nearly 12 years, I also expect to be working with “customer experiences” for another 10 years, but with more advanced technology to enhance the accuracy and convenience of it.
What Skills Should Juniors be Aware of in this Industry?
It is important to know the basics of Marketing. Yes it can be learnt along the way, but do not stop learning. Try to find interesting ways of learning like online courses, joining communities where you can exchange knowledge as well as from social media where you can access to in your everyday life.
Any Final Advice for All the Aspiring Marketers Out There?
At Rabbit’s Tale, we do not think we are ordinary. We always value the aspects that make us unique. For our interviews, we always ask “How do you think your extraordinary aspects will contribute to our company to make positive changes?”. With a growth mindset, we believe that your uniqueness will grow even further into a valuable contribution that will eventually lead you to your job/ self achievement.
Lastly, I would like to mention ‘Teamwork’. It is important to know how to maintain relationships and do effective communication whether it’s internal or external. This will definitely reflect in your work performance. The hard bit is that ‘trust’ will have to be maintained as well which is not as easy, but try to open up to your colleagues and clients more; you will realize quicker on the path you really want to take.
