“Consumer electronics will get more storage attention”

Spurred by a promising market scenario, hard disk storage players such as
Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate and now Western Digital (WD) are in the process of
further sharpening their India focus. Once the front face of Seagate India,
Sharad has just joined WD as sales director for India and South Asia. In a chat
with Zia Askari of CyberMedia, he tells how WD is now all set to inject vigor
into its India plans.

Why did you move to WD?

I had moved to Singapore in my job role with Seagate and it was a good
experience. I have always looked up for challenges and this new job is a part of
that endeavor. At the same time, WD wanted to focus on India in a big way and I
saw a challenge in that. In this job role, I will have scope to build the
company's business extensively in the region.

What are your priorities at WD?

First, I want to build up a team within the company and then would like to
streamline the distribution channel strategy. The most important part would be
to enhance our service and support infrastructure in this region. There is a lot
of potential in this market, especially the way the upcountry segment is shaping
up. We feel that this is going to be a major driver for growth. Training and
customer education are the two areas where we would be concentrating on. We have
a wide range of storage products in the offering. We also have products for the
enterprise range of customers.

Sharad Srivastava

Suddenly, there is a lot of activity in the storage space. Maxtor has just
opened its office in Mumbai, Samsung is showing renewed aggressiveness and WD is
strongly focusing on the country.

Why has storage suddenly become so important?

Storage has always been an important aspect of the overall IT scenario. The
sheer size and potential of the Indian market is attracting more and more
companies and that's why we see a lot of activity in this segment. At the end
of the day, it all comes down to the level of customer satisfaction that a
company can bring to the table. Moving forward, as segments like consumer
electronics further open up to storage, I believe this space is going to get
more attention in the near future. Thus, as the market matures at different
levels, there is an activity on the customer awareness front, service front and
this is good for the overall market.

What channel structure would WD put in place for India?

Presently, we have four distributors in the Indian region. We will continue
to enhance our channel network in the Indian region and this will primarily
depend on the market dynamics. At present, we have five service support centers
in all the major metros in the country. We would be enhancing this as we move
forward.