Channel Chief
“We are looking at a growth of 30 percent”
After joining Samsung India as the Director for IT Business, Ranjit Singh Yadav has reorganized the business and entered the fast-growing mobile PC segment. CRN Editor, Dhaval Valia caught up with him to discuss his priorities and strategies for Samsung’s IT biz in 2009
Samsung has recently reorganized its IT division. Take us through this realignment and the reasons behind it.
We have strengthened our IT division by organizing it into two verticals—volume and printer business, with retail, B2B and marketing being the integrated functions across both verticals. While the volume business, comprising LCD monitors, OMS and notebook PCs, reports to Gurpreet Brar who recently joined us as General Manager, the printer business reports to Uday Bhatt. The B2B function for the entire IT division is handled by Bhatt and the retail business integrated across the volume and printer business reports to Brar.
Both these business heads report to me, as do the product management, marketing and supply chain management teams. The objective of the realignment is to help us synergize better internally and aggressively grow our IT business.
 How does this internal reorganization impact your present distribution and channel strategy?
It doesn’t. We presently have three distributors—Ingram, Neoteric and Redington—which distribute both volume (LCD and OMS) and printer products. Ingram, which earlier was only doing volume products, was signed up for printers in the last quarter of 2008. Going forward, we will be looking at strengthening our reach in the market and enhancing our presence in upcountry locations.
You didn’t mention your distribution partners for the recently launched notebook PCs. Also, this is not the first time Samsung is getting into the PC segment. In the past your entry into the notebook segment met with failure.
For notebook PCs, Redington and Ingram have been appointed distributors. And yes, we have been in the notebook market before but had to withdraw. Earlier, our focus was only on high-end premium notebooks. Also, the notebook market then was much smaller than what it is right now. Thirdly, we have seen the emergence of a completely new category of mobile PCs called netbook, which we believe is going to be a game changer. They have opened up the mobile PC market to new entrants.
Globally, Samsung has had a strong play in the notebook market over the last few years. The advantage, we have over other OEMs, is that we manufacture nearly 70 percent of the components that go into the making of a notebook.
Unlike last time, this time we have launched the entire bouquet of models starting from Rs 25,000 to the high-end premium products priced at over a lakh. Our range includes our netbook offerings, and we have also framed a wider channel strategy.
What will be your USP in the notebook market at a time when your staunch competitor LG is withdrawing from the category?
From the USP point of view, I have already stated that with more than 70 percent of the notebook’s components being manufactured by Samsung we control much of the product line from chassis design to hardware and software integration.
In addition, we have introduced a unique pick-up warranty service for our mobile PCs. This, we believe, will be a strong USP in India where consumer notebooks mostly come with carry-in warranty. We have rolled out the pick-up service in eight cities and will gradually take it to other places.
What is the marketshare you aim to achieve for this business?
Since it’s the first year for notebook PCs, it’s a little difficult to estimate numbers. But we should be looking at a double digit marketshare by 2010. Our focus in the first year is to create awareness about our products, generate brand-pull, ensure product placement and set up the right channel for these new products.
We are setting up a network of micro-retailers across top eight cities in the country, as well as relying on large format retailers such as Croma. Also, we will sell our products through select and exclusive consumer durable outlets.
What’s your overall outlook for the IT industry in what seems will be a very difficult year? What’s the growth outlook for Samsung?
In overall terms, I expect the IT industry to show flat or single-digit growth in 2009. For Samsung, again in overall terms, we are looking at a growth of 30 percent even in a tough year.
In 2008, based on our addressable market estimates, we closed the year with a 26 percent marketshare in LCD monitors, 34 percent in the OMS category and 16 percent in printers.
We intend to outpace the overall market growth, and this means we will be increasing marketshare in all the categories we operate in. The two sectors where we have a strong B2B presence are government and education; we have not seen any let-up in the demand among these customers. These two sectors are likely to drive demand in 2009, and this will work to our benefit. Consumer demand too hasn’t dipped much for us. Our present focus is to enable partners to sell-out products and build end-user demand. The focus on sell-out has helped our partners reduce their inventory levels and improve working capital turns.
In laser printers, Samsung was recently voted the most-preferred vendor in the annual CRN Channel Champions survey. Kindly share your views on the fact that despite trailing HP in marketshare you are ahead in mindshare.
We are proud to have been conferred this honor by our partners. In 2008, we strengthened our printer line-up considerably by adding new products, including India-specific products. We added manpower to support our channels, and also launched the Printelligence campaign to create brand-pull and customer awareness. We are happy that our partners have appreciated our efforts. |