Key personnel resigning leaves Samsung high and dry

Close on the heels of Vivek Prakash leaving the Korean major Samsung, the Indian operations of the company have come under a major shake down as three of its top executives have resigned from the company. Three top notch officials, Volume Products Deputy GM, Sonal
Anand; National Lifestyle Products Marketing Manager - Sanjay Peer and Value Products Senior Manager - Aseem Kumar, have exited the IT major's marketing department.

"I have got a better opportunity so I am moving on. I resigned last month only and am taking a bit of a break at the moment. I am looking forward to taking up my new assignment from April 1, 2005," informed
Sonal. Harry Ahn from Korea has been called to take over Sonal´s responsibilities from now on.

At a time when the company was in the process of coming to terms with Vivek's resignation, will the recent spurt of resignations mean loss of market share to the company? "I don't think that these resignations will have any effect on the Samsung brand as such, the company has a very strong and robust brand. A company like Samsung is always more than just the people. So I sincerely think that the brand should do well in the future," Sonal explained.

However, there is a certain section of resellers who think that this will have a major impact on the way the channel community perceives Samsung. With its key movers and shakers leaving - the company's standing in the market is likely to go down. More importantly, it was people like Vivek or Aseem who have made the presence of the brand Samsung felt across all IT segments. 

"Even Vivek resigning was enough for us to worry and now these people have quit. These new resignations would further erode the company's trust among its channel. We are already facing some problems with regards to payments. Now its high time for the company to streamline its internal structure," informed a big Delhi-based Samsung products reseller on conditions of anonymity.

On the other hand, according to Sonal, it was the company's policy structure that allowed people like Vivek to interact with the vibrant channel community in a fluent way. Sonal assured that that will not change. 

"It's true that we worked real hard to make Samsung the number one choice of our consumers as well as the channel community. There are some solid policies behind this and those policies are not going to change. Only the people implementing those policies will change," he quipped.

Concurring with this view, Director at New Delhi's Nehru Place-based Modi Peripherals, JP Modi said that the only important factor is how the company moves forward with its dealings involving the channel community. "I don't think that this will have a major impact on the way Samsung moves forward. Building relationships with the channels is now important for the company. I think that the brand Samsung will continue to be what it is - only the faces will change," he added. As of now it has not received any official statement from the company on this, but very soon there would be one.

ZIA ASKARI

NEW DELHI