company
operating with only 11 employees in India, and four of them playing just a
support role. What do you expect the company to do? Not much perhaps. However,
if the company concerned is Samsung, the perception changes. It grew by 54% to
notch up a revenue of Rs 501 crore and move up four rungs on the DQ Top 20
ladder. Translated to figures, this meant an impressive productivity level of Rs
46 crore per employee.
Samsung has reason to justify a 6% drop
in its revenue growth rate–54% compared to 60% in 1998-99. The company has
been working
towards building huge volume demand and gaining market share through timely
introduction of a wide range of computer peripherals. It also consolidated its
position in the color monitor and HDD market spaces during the year. Samsung’s
flagship product, the Samtron line of color monitors, continued to woo the
market, clocking a volume of 435,000 pieces. Add this to its Syncmaster range of
high-end monitors and it sold a total of 451,000 color monitors, an increase of
61% over previous year’s figure. That included its original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) contract supplies to PC manufacturers–HCL and Zenith.
STRATEGY
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PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
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While
Samsung continued to be among the top players in the color monitor segment with
approximately 50% market share, it also narrowed the gap in the hard disk drive
(HDD) market, catching up fast with industry leader, Seagate. The company
shipped a total of 248,000 units of HDDs into the country, including supply to
its OEM partners. However, considering the growth of 29% in the domestic IT
spending, it could have done better than the 10% growth in volume terms. Samsung
also sold a total of 185,000 CD-ROM drives to considerably increase its presence
in India. The company’s foray into the laser printer market in the last year
was also noteworthy and it claims to be number two in that space, overtaking
companies like Xerox during the last quarter (January-March) of fiscal 1999-00.
It sold a total of 2,600 laser printers.
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The company plans to launch as many as
20 new products during 2000-01, including the 10ppm laser printers and the
six-in-one multi-function printers. It also plans to launch a variety of color
monitors, ranging between 14-22 inches, a battery of new generation storage
devices, and a new range of optical disk drives (ODDs). To further strengthen
its consumer orientation, Samsung also made considerable investment in
developing a strong service network. In fact, it has gone a step further in
establishing e-relationships by implementing a unique web-based replacement
service for its HDDs. The system will also help Samsung maintain a database of
all HDDs imported into the country by its distributors. The company was also
quick to realize the importance of MIS and claims to have implemented the best
CRM system in the country.
Its channel focus, customer orientation and tech
expertise are clearly the strengths that have helped Samsung to grow
exponentially in the last few years, almost doubling its turnover every year
since 1996. Apart from further consolidating its color monitor market, the
company is looking at capturing a 35% share in the HDD and ODD segments. What is
more, its aim is to achieve the Rs 800-crore target during 2000-01 and become a
Rs 2,500-crore company by 2003. Not an unrealistic target, going by its present
growth rate. DQ