New skills, related to marketing and sales, among others, are being acquired by Greek engineers, as both the crisis in the profession itself and the budgetary situation have left thousands of them out of context, mainly young people. Based on this finding, TEE / TKM, in collaboration with the Marketing Laboratory (MARLAB) of the Department of Business and Management Administration of the University of Macedonia, organized the event on the evening of Monday, November 27 with the title: “The Value of Marketing for Engineers: MarketING + MarketENG = MarketWIN”.
Sending greetings to the event, the president of the TEE / TKM, Mr. Paris Billias, highlighted that: “In recent years the crisis in the profession and the financial crisis have left engineers without a purpose” and confirmed that based on the new data in Greece “The acquisition of skills, related to marketing and sales, are very important”.
In his greeting at the event, Professor Mr. Ioannis Hadjidimitriou, President of the Department of Management and Business Administration at the University of Macedonia, noted that “in the US and Europe the combination of a first degree in engineering and a second in business management is considered a perfect combination”.
For her part, MARLAB Director and Professor of Service Marketing Ms. Rodoula Tsiotsiou began her speech by dismissing widely-held “myths”, such as that she argues that marketing generates fictitious needs or is merely advertising. “Marketing can create desires, not needs. Advertising is a very small part of marketing. Sales are also part of marketing, but they are not marketing per se. All of these – advertising, sales, etc. – are just marketing tools, which are in fact defined as the social process in which businesses and organizations, usually non-governmental, create value for stakeholders and build strong relationships with them to gain in return value from them. So the purpose of marketing is in no way to sell useless products, as many believe” she said.
The engineer must be a seller at the same time. The fact that an engineer, who wants to build profitable and long-lasting relationships with his customers, must be both a salesman and create a bond with his clients after the sale, establishing a “win-win” relationship in his partnerships, was supported by Assistant Professor of the Department of Management and Business Administration of the University of Macedonia, Mr. Leonidas Chatzithomas.
Following took place a roundtable discussion with: Ms. Ioanna-Maria Nella, civil engineer, marketing manager of the groundbreaking startup company “Fieldscale”, civil engineer Mr. Constantinos Aslanis, “ISOMAT” technical support and marketing director, Professor Mr. Ioannis Hatzimidis President of the Department of Management and Business Administration of University of Macedonia, Marketing Professor Ms. Rodoula Tsiotsiou, Director of MARLAB, and Assistant Professor of the Management and Business Administration of University of Macedonia and the Assistant Professor of the Department of Management and Business Administration of University of Macedonia, Mr. Leonida Hatzithoma.
In the first part of the event, the coordinator was the chairman of the Standing Committee on Competitiveness-Entrepreneurship-Innovation, Mr. Yiannis Tsitsopoulos.