MEET MAHESH ENJETI

Professional background

Mahesh Enjeti, Director, SAI Marketing Counsel Pty Ltd has an Honours degree in Physics and an MBA with Marketing and Finance as majors.  He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Member of the Graduate Management Association of Australia.

Starting as a Management Trainee in the consumer durables space in 1975 (just after leaving business school), Mahesh spent the next 25 years in industries as diverse as financial services, agri-inputs, building products, advertising, hospitality, tourism and entertainment. Accomplishments along the way included:

·         achieving a record breaking customer acquisition target for a bank

·         establishing market leadership for a multinational agri-inputs manufacturer

·         securing a 12% market penetration in the very first year of a new building product

·         successfully repositioning a hotel chain as the business travellers’ preferred choice

·         turning around a consistently loss making suburban business hotel

·         repositioning a tourist destination based on its natural equity

·         re-orienting an entertainment venue’s strategic direction that enlarged its market footprint and increased profitability.

During this period, Mahesh’s contributions were recognised, among other things, with the Adrian Advertising Award, New York and the Australian Marketing Institute Award for Marketing Effectiveness.

Mahesh has been a presenter at many international conferences and his paper titled “Strategic astigmatism, the need to balance focus and perspective” published in the Marketing Review, a Washington, D.C. based professional journal received special acclaim. Mahesh has been associated with the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) as Adjunct Faculty, Marketing for over 3 years and continues to be involved with Deakin Prime University as examiner, Business Strategy & Leadership for CPA Australia.        

Consulting profile

After nearly 13 years in executive level marketing positions, Mahesh set up his own marketing and brand strategy consulting practice, SAI Marketing Counsel, in early 2001.  His key competencies are marketing strategy, competitive analysis and business innovation which represent the letters S, A and I in the business name.  Most of Mahesh’s projects have focussed on building brands, altering paradigms and improving marketing effectiveness/efficiency.

Mahesh’s ability to creatively solve the smallest of problems and to apply learnings from one business to another has attracted clients of all sizes – from global players to boutique businesses and from all sectors - financial services, infrastructure, technology, tourism, beverages, real estate, mens wear, medical research and education.

Mahesh is passionate about brands and believes them to be the foundation of a business, not merely a function of its marketing. He is driven primarily by a desire to help clients not maximise billable hours.  He wants his engagements to be a rewarding experience both for the client and himself - materially, intellectually and personally. Mahesh places professional candour above political correctness and values honesty and integrity in everything he does.