'We have crossed $1 billion in India'

After seven years, the world’s third-largest PC manufacturer Dell managed to break HP’s stranglehold in the Indian notebook market. Dell India Country General Manager Sameer Garde and Executive Director & General Manager (Consumer Division) Mahesh Bhalla tell Shivani Shinde the reasons behind the success, and the way forward. Edited excerpts:

Asia has performed well for Dell during the fourth quarter (October-December). How did India perform?
Garde: India’s contribution to Dell revenue is 2 per cent. We have crossed the $1-billion revenue mark in India. On a year-on-year basis, India revenue grew 52 per cent. In terms of units, we grew 82 per cent in India. Sequentially, revenue grew 8 per cent. For us, both SMEs and consumer segment grew over 100 per cent.

What do you attribute this growth to?
Garde: We have done a lot of things in the past five to six quarters that have led to this growth. These include building the brand and doing phenomenal amount of advertisement. We will also increase our product lines despite contraction of the market.

Do you think you will be able to hold on to this position?
Garde: We will continue to add new products, focus on customers, and continue to be competitive. We will also focus on our channel (distribution) strategy. We will continue to expand our desktop and notebooks range, drive more solutions for our clients in the large and the public sector domain.

In a way, Dell’s strategy to move to the indirect marketing has worked?
Bhalla: Going into retail and increasing the number of points of sale is one of the reasons for the success. But the essence has been listening to the customer. We have had a multi-channel strategy that has allowed us to reach newer markets and customers. Earlier, Dell was available online and through telephone only. But today, Dell is available across thousands of retail outlets as well as in large retail formats like Croma. Within these outlets, we also have Dell shop-in-shops managed by the company. With 35 Dell exclusive shops, we plan to expand this in future. We have also powered our sales persons as experts and help people buying online.

Do you think desktop market growth will be slower compared to the portable products?
Bhalla: There is variation across segments. In the consumer segment, the majority of growth is coming from the portable section (notebook and netbooks). But that does not mean that the desktop is not growing. We have see the all-in-one-category becoming interesting. Customers are choosing it as it gives simplicity — you need one power cord to connect. You get a much smaller form factor. Besides, PC penetration is still low in India. There is a lot of headroom to grow, as well as the various form factors to grow.
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