Separate skills needed to negotiate moves

Many of us reach a point in our careers when an attractive salary, healthy working conditions, a desirable location and other favourable circumstances persuade us that we have reached our ultimate level.

For many, once initial goals have been achieved, ambition is replaced by a feeling of comfort and security and the pathway to more career development becomes obscured, or buried. But it doesn't have to be that way.

As a marketing manager, you are skilled at research and analysis, advertising, sales and promotions, product management, brand development, new product development, forecasting, pricing, packaging, planning, merchandising.

A good marketing manager may have a level of capability that has been fashioned by the type of work and complexity of the business they are involved with. Individuals working within large organisations often develop considerable business and management skills through exposure to a diversity of different conditions and circumstances within their role as a marketing manager, and a GM's position could be well within their grasp.

Added to a thorough knowledge of the industry, marketing managers seeking this path to career development will be expected to develop further their analytical capability, as well as effective strategic planning and people development skills. The GM will be accomplished at dealing with complex issues, able to lead by example and resolve staff issues, while possessing strong awareness in corporate image and identity, as well as government relations.

For many business-driven individuals, a realistic move from marketing into Business Development will be a sensible move. Working as part of a senior management team, many marketing managers will already have gained great exposure to many aspects of business development.

They may have been involved in building joint ventures or strategic alliances, and will have developed strong finance skills, while also gaining experience in establishing a sound business presence within a region for their employers, with responsibility for everything from ensuring product source to delivering to the consumer.

Marketing managers who are particularly accomplished at managing relationships with customers and developing offers, often bespoke relative to their needs, may find a move to Customer Relationship Management a logical step forward. CRM is all about managing relationships with customers and requires the ability to develop detailed and often innovative strategies that create a competitive edge for the customer.

CRM is a highly specialised area of customer management for individuals skilled at forming close working partnerships with customers, clearly understanding their needs, developing offers that meet their requirements, conducting research, developing strategic business plans and performance initiatives, and creating profitable solutions.

For the creative professional who may not want to continue the commercial route, nor indeed the path into general management, a move into Corporate Communications may allow them to develop their interest in the brand association and shareholder value side of business.

At some point in time, the prospect of running our own business and becoming an entrepreneur becomes an attractive, if at first daunting, proposition. Experienced marketing managers often have the prime skills that are a pre-requisite for "going alone". Many are ideally placed to take the plunge, capitalising on their market research experience, and the ability to influence consumers and develop realistic and attainable business goals.

Whichever new career path you choose, and whatever skills you have to offer any new position, you will need a separate set of skills to negotiate your next move, to attract backers for a new enterprise, to get the attention of employers and persuade them that you are the right candidate, and to negotiate a package which takes your career to a new level.

New skills. A new career path. All well within your grasp.

- Based in Dubai, the writer is the principal of career management and mentoring specialists Career Partners in the Middle East.