Martin Roll

Martin Roll (born 2 March 1967^[3]) is a Danish^[1] author, brand strategist^[2] and management consultant.^[4][5] Roll appears regularly in global television and print media.^[6][7][8][9] He holds an MBA from INSEAD where he is a Distinguished Fellow^[2][10] and an Entrepreneur in Residence.^[2] Roll's first book, Asian Brand Strategy, was named one of the "Best Business Books: Marketing" in 2006 by Strategy+Business magazine.^[11] He is the founder CEO of Martin Roll Company, an advisory firm based in Singapore.^[12] He advises Fortune 500 companies,^[3] Asian firms, family-owned businesses^[13] and also served as a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company.^[2][3]

Martin Roll
Born	Copenhagen, Denmark[1] (1967-03-02) 2 March 1967 (age 58)
Nationality	Danish[1]
Alma mater	INSEAD (MBA)[2] Copenhagen Business School[1]
Occupation(s)	Business and brand strategist[2] Founder and CEO, Martin Roll Company[2]
Website	Official website

Early life and education

Martin Roll received a bachelor's degree in business and marketing management from Copenhagen Business School in 1989. He attended Young Managers Program in 1998 and completed his MBA from INSEAD in 1999.^[3]

Career

After completing his bachelor's degree in 1989, he worked in marketing and advertising firms including Bates and DDB Worldwide, handling global accounts like Ericsson and McDonald's.^[3]

In 2000, he took on the role as chief marketing officer (CMO) with a Danish tech company, whose regional headquarters was in Singapore. Martin Roll founded his own management consulting business in 2002 aimed at helping companies to build their global brands.^[3] He advises Fortune 500 companies,^[3] Asian firms and family-owned businesses^[13] on strategy, leadership, branding and marketing.

Roll was appointed as Senior Adviser to the global public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller in December 2011.^[14]

In October 2017, he was appointed as Senior Advisor at Singapore based venture capital firm, Cocoon Capital.^[8] He is an Associate fellow with the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).^[15] Martin Roll was appointed Senior Advisor to freelance-based agency Superson in March 2019.^[16]

Roll has served as Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company.^[3]

Publications

In 2005, Martin authored his first book Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands, published by Palgrave Macmillan. Asian Brand Strategy is regarded as one of the best books written on Asian branding strategy^[17][3][18] and was rated a top global marketing book of 2006 by Strategy+Business.^[11]

Professor John Quelch at Harvard Business School called it, "An important handbook for Asian executives aspiring to build strong brands. It provides a solid foundation for future success in the global marketplace."^[3]

The Daily Telegraph in its book review wrote, "In Asian Brand Strategy, he [Martin] sets out 10 ways to create an Asian brand in a marketplace that in the past has often dismissed image as unimportant."^[19]

In a review of the book, Dominic Barton from McKinsey & Company said, "Martin Roll provides a compelling and practical roadmap on how to do this based on his extensive experience advising Asian corporations."^[3]

Martin Roll co-authored the book, The Future of Branding in 2016 together with a team of global business and marketing academics including Kevin Lane Keller, Don E. Schultz and Rajendra K. Srivastava.^[20]

Martin Roll is a business columnist with Harvard Business Review^[21] and INSEAD Knowledge.^[22]

Public speaking

Martin Roll is a frequent keynote speaker and EMCEE at international conferences on business and brand strategy with a focus on Asian brands, global strategy and leadership.^[23][24] He has spoken at business events like Thinkers50,^[25] Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Arab Luxury World,^[26] TEDx,^[27] World Knowledge Forum,^[28] The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR),^[29] Strategy Summit^[13] and Global Leaders Summit,^[30] PowerBrands Glam Las Vegas.^[31]

Academic

Roll teaches MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programmes at Nanyang Business School.^[8] He also lectures at INSEAD,^[32] CEIBS and ESSEC.^[14]

Bibliography

• Roll, Martin (2006). Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-4039-9279-6.
• Roll, Martin (2015). Asian Brand Strategy (Revised and Updated): Building and Sustaining Strong Global Brands in Asia. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-349-67574-6.
• Roll, Martin (2016). "Branding and Emerging Markets". The Future of Branding. United Kingdom: SAGE Publishing. ISBN 978-9-3515-0316-3.

Personal life

He is a Danish citizen^[3] and a Permanent resident of Singapore. He currently splits his time between Copenhagen and Singapore.^[12] In an interview with China Daily, Roll said he spent about 250 days a year travelling globally on client engagements and keynote speeches.^[3]