"Training and customer education are the two areas where we would be concentrating to increase our visibility in the market"

Spurred by a promising market scenario in the Indian region, hard disk
storage players like Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate and now Western Digital (WD) are
in the process of further sharpening their focus in terms of better
understanding the market needs and providing storage solutions in the region.
Once the front face of Seagate India, Sharad has just joined WD and is now all
set to inject the much-needed vigor to the company's India plans.

How and why did you move on from Seagate to WD?

I had moved to Singapore in my job role with Seagate and it was a good
experience. But 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 towards India in a
big way and I saw a challenge in this.

Sharad Srivastava

I have just joined Western Digital as Director, Sales, India and South Asia
(Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam). In this job role, I will have scope to
build the company's business extensively in the region, which is something I am
looking forward to.

What are your priorities at WD? How do you want to establish the company's
presence in the region?

I have set three major priorities for myself in this company. Firstly, I
want to build up a team within the company and then would like to streamline our
distribution channel strategy. Lastly, and the most important part would be to
enhance our service and support infrastructure in this region.

Since I have recently been inducted here, it would be too early for me to
comment on the strategies part. But we would certainly be enhancing the overall
operations of the company in this region. This would include adding vigor to the
existing channel network as well as increasing their number.

Where do you think will growth come from? What initiatives would you take
to ensure this growth?

India is certainly one of the most vibrant markets in the world at the
moment. 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 to increase our visibility in the market. We have a wide range of
storage products-from 40 to 400 GB in the offering. We also have products for
the enterprise range of customers.

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 to different levels, there is activity on the
customer awareness front, service front and this is good for the overall market.

Western digital spends a lot on research and development activity. The
company is continuously moving forward to stretch the limit of storage and we
have manufacturing facilities based in Thailand and Malaysia.

What channel structure will WD put in place in India? Which are the likely
changes on this front?

Presently, we have four distributors in the Indian region-Ingram Micro, Esys,
Priya and Inspan Infotech. We will continue to enhance our channel network in
the Indian region and this will primarily depend on the market dynamics.

There are lots of opportunities as the Indian market is growing at a fast
pace. In a scenario like this, we would like to add value to our new and
existing channel partners by making ease of doing business with Western Digital.

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. I would not be able to comment on the changes that we are
likely to make in the business strategy, but certainly the focus would be to
enhance our overall distribution channel network in the region and put customers
first.

ZIA ASKARI