Marketing veteran Rajesh Kumar, has launched his new book, ‘Decoding B2B Marketing,’ a comprehensive work that seeks to reposition business-to-business (B2B) marketing as a critical driver of corporate growth and global competitiveness. Kumar believes that the country’s next global leap will not come from engineering alone, but from brand building with conviction.
When Rajesh Kumar reflects on his journey into B2B marketing, he does not present it as a calculated move. It began, unassumingly with forklift trucks. “I trained as an engineer and later earned a business degree, but my career started with selling forklift trucks to factories and industrial units. After business school, I moved across industries—first alcohol, then confectionery in the consumer space. Later, I transitioned into technology, and from there, into B2B. It was not a calculated move. Just a little serendipity,” he says.
What began as circumstance evolved into a two-decade commitment. “After moving into B2B from tech, I stayed there for over 20 years and truly enjoyed it. It was deeply rewarding, both professionally and personally. I realised it was a path not many had known or thoughtfully considered,” Kumar reflects. That sense of missed opportunity is what drives his latest book. Kumar admits that he wants to reposition B2B marketing from a niche specialisation to a strategic imperative for India’s global ambitions.
The moment of realisation
The idea for the book crystallised when Kumar addressed students during a career session. “After 25 years, I went to my alma mater to do a career session for students. I realised that even after 25 years, there wasn’t a mainstream course on B2B marketing. It was some elective somewhere that made me feel this was a story that needed to be told.”
Speaking about how the B2B sector remained practically unchanged, Kumar adds, “When I looked around, there wasn’t a single comprehensive source for B2B content, which is what I struggled with when I moved to the sector in the year 2001. Even 25 years later, not much had changed. I still couldn’t find something which was comprehensive and easy to consume.” The result of that epiphany is this book that attempts to consolidate frameworks, real-world insights, and practical guidance in one accessible volume.
Not just a textbook
Kumar is clear that he did not want to write a dense academic manual. “This book compiles all the essential topics into one cohesive resource. At the same time, it is designed to be easy to consume. It does not read like a traditional textbook. It is fully illustrated, highly visual, and structured for clarity rather than density.”
Each chapter is anchored by a practitioner’s voice. The book features 12 interviews, one aligned to each core topic, offering insights from industry leaders who have lived the realities that are being discussed. Readers are not just reading theory; they hear directly from the experts themselves. Every chapter includes a QR code that links to a video conversation with the featured practitioner, adding a first-hand, unfiltered dimension to the learning.
He describes the book as unapologetically practical. “At its core, it reflects a practitioner’s perspective. It is grounded in real world application. It distils what you truly need to know, explains how to approach it, and illustrates it with examples from those who have actually done the work.”
Economic reality
Kumar anchors his argument in economics. “Two-thirds of global trade is B2B, not consumer. So how can we ignore two-thirds of the opportunity and focus only on one-third?”
He points to some of the world’s most aspirational workplaces. “Many of the largest companies on the planet are B2B—Amazon, AWS, Google, Microsoft. These are brands people aspire to work for.” Beyond prestige, he underscores culture and compensation. “They consistently rank among the best places to work at, offering strong pay, benefits and wealth-creation opportunities through stock ownership.” Yet, Indian campuses continue to channel talent toward consumer-facing roles. “More than half the students in top management institutes are engineering graduates. But many end up in sales across categories — from food delivery to soap and cosmetics. There is nothing wrong with that. However, in a B2B environment, they could apply their analytical ability and technical depth far more meaningfully.”
The supplier trap
Kumar’s larger concern is structural. India, he argues, has historically operated as a supplier economy. “Suppliers get low margins and can be easily replaced. Whereas brands that play on their strength are generally irreplaceable.” In a volatile geopolitical climate, that vulnerability is amplified. “If you are selling just a commodity, then you are going to get marginalised. The next lowest cost producer will win. But if you make something which is unique, then your customer will stay with you and you get to command the premium.”
He is blunt about value capture. “We are creating value but our companies make 5%. The brand owner makes 95%. So, the risk is the downside. Brand owners can replace us but we cannot replace the brand owner.”
From product to brand
What must change? Kumar believes the shift starts with clarity. “We have to look at what it is that’s unique about us? What is it that we can do significantly better than others and then position ourselves on that strength. For people to always want to contact us,” he says.
He lists India’s inherent advantages: craftsmanship, engineering precision, frugal innovation, scale. He questions why global benchmarks must always be Western. “Why do we have to look westward for all the models and all examples of success? Time has come for us to build those examples out of here and the others follow us.”
Marketing at the foundational stage
In his advisory work as a Fractional CMO, Kumar sees a recurring flaw in how many start-ups are built. “In Silicon Valley, when people start a company, a go-to-market (GTM) or marketing expert works alongside the technology expert from day one. The product and the market strategy evolve together,” he explains. “In our situation, we often have bright young technologists building a product first and only later asking, ‘Now who will buy it?’ It’s very difficult to fix that post facto.”
His point is straightforward: in any commercial venture, technology alone does not determine success. “Ultimately, in a commercial scenario, it’s the market that decides whether you succeed or fail.”
A role model in plain sight
Asked to name an Indian B2B brand that is getting it right, Kumar responds without hesitation: “Zoho.” Elaborating on his choice, he says, “They are completely homegrown and have grown organically. If you look at their communication, it’s brilliant. More importantly, there is a strong partnership between the founders, the CEO and the marketing team to drive that narrative. In my view, marketing is the number one job of the CEO.”
For Kumar, this alignment between founder vision and marketing strategy is non-negotiable. When leadership actively shapes and champions the brand story, marketing stops being a support function and becomes a core business driver.
What CMOs must rethink
Kumar has little patience for tactical marketing divorced from business outcomes. “One capability Indian CMOs must urgently build? — Think big and think business. I feel a lot of marketing gets focused on communication and tactics. To me, the CMO is a business-man first, marketer later. It should not be the other way around.”
A message to the next generation
At its heart, Decoding B2B Marketing is not just a book about frameworks. It is a call to rethink ambition. When asked what he would tell MBA students choosing their first job, his answer echoes the closing line of his podcast.
“Don’t follow the herd. You are the shepherd of your own destiny,” Kumar concludes. In a country aiming to shape global enterprise rather than merely supply it, Kumar believes that mindset may be the most important differentiator of all.
