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Victor Essoka - Achieving Success and Living the Dream
"There are so many people out there who are working to help their communities through education and recreation. Most of them are doing it with little funding, and I've always said that I would do something to help."
Victor Essoka was brought up to believe three things: if you work hard and stay humble, good things will happen; to be successful means becoming a doctor or an engineer; and if you are serious about being successful you must have a U.S. education. Victor has achieved all three.
"Actually, I gave up engineering a long time ago for a career in business," said the senior vice president and general brand manager for La Redoute USA, France's leading women's apparel catalog company.
Born and raised in Cameroon, a small country on the West African coast, Victor said that his parents always emphasized the importance of education when he was growing up. "In particular, they and everyone in my community felt it was crucial to obtain a U.S. education because it's a matter of fact that the U.S. still leads the world in higher education and technology."
With that in mind, after graduating from high school, Victor followed his older brother to the United States. Together they lived in New Jersey, where Victor attended and graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
"My first job was working for a chemical research company. I worked there for three years until I finally realized that I was more interested in the business side of the company. That's when I decided that it was time for a change," he said.
Of course, with education such a vital part of his upbringing, Victor knew that if he wanted to be successful in business, he would need a business degree. In 1987 he came to Atlanta and enrolled in Robinson's MBA program.
"It was the mid-80s and Atlanta was really beginning to make its mark on the country and the world," said Victor.
He visited Emory, Georgia Tech, and Georgia State, but it was Georgia State that won him over.
"When I went to the admissions office at Tech, they gave me an application. When I went to Emory, it was the same. But when I came to Georgia State, they gave me a chair and told me to sit down. They asked me about my goals. They made me feel as if they had a vested interest in my success. After that, my decision was made," he said.
He majored in marketing, and while he found all of his classes beneficial it was a strategic planning course that he says made the biggest impact on him because "it was the class that really pulled all of the pieces together."
With his new degree in hand, Victor headed back up north in search of a job.
"Believe it or not, I found my first marketing job through the New York Times classified section and was interviewed and hired over the phone," said Victor.
But he wasn't quite prepared for what he found on his first day.
"It was a very humbling experience," he said. "It was a direct-mail company but a very blue collar type of operation, nothing fancy. They had just moved to a new building, and my position was part of a new department. On my first day they pointed at an unopened box and told me that I'd have to assemble my own desk," he said chuckling.
After he got his desk together, he was handed some documents and began the glamorous task of keying data into the computer. "Remember, this was back in the late 80s, so computer systems weren't what they are today. Fortunately, I was familiar with Lotus and other programs," he said. Soon Victor had figured out ways to improve the process. He worked hard, always the first to arrive eachg morning and the last to leave at night. Within six months he received two promotions and worked his way up to marketing and circulation manager.
In 1990, just two years later, Reader's Digest recruited him for an assistant product manager position within their Recorded Music Division. After just one year he was promoted to product manager of the company's General Books Single Sales division, where he increased profits 20 percent per year for three years. Victor continued his steady rise up the chain at Reader's Digest until seven years later, when he was recruited by a direct response marketing and investment company out of Boston.
Within a year he was back in New York, were he landed a position as director of marketing with his current company, Redcats USA, a division of PPR, a French conglomerate and global holding company specializing in retail shops, direct response, and luxury brands. Once again, his hard work paid off, and after just two years with the company, Victor was promoted to his current position.
While his days are filled with countless meetings, analyzing sales numbers, and figuring out ways to stay ahead of the competition, Victor says he still manages to get back home to Cameroon at least every two years. In addition, he says that he's now at a point in his career where he can do what he's always dreamed of, which is helping people who are helping others.
"There are so many people out there who are working to help their communities through education and recreation. Most of them are doing it with little funding, and I've always said that I would do something to help," he said.
True to his word, Victor and his brother have started a foundation in an effort to give back and support individuals and communities who are trying to make a difference. Global Reach Network aims to bridge the gap for individuals and communities worldwide. "We are starting small, working with our respective communities, but we hope to expand to other parts of the country."
Ultimately, Victor said that Global Reach Network will become a global organization that will reach out to many distant communities in Africa and other parts of the world. Of course, that's a big undertaking, but with focus, hard work, determination, and a relentless spirit, four things that Victor has never lacked, his dream is sure to become a reality.
This article was published in the summer 2007 issue of Back to Business, an alumni publication of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business.
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