'Our India strategy won’t change materially'

Of late, Cisco Systems has been in news in India for undesired reasons. Not only have rumors been floating over the sudden resignation of Manoj Chugh, the company’s ex-president for India and Saarc, there is also a heightened concern among its channel partners and customers. VOICE&DATA caught up with Cisco’s Asia-Pacific headquarters to clear some of the clouds. Here is what Terry Alberstein, director (corporate affairs), Asia-Pacific has to say on behalf of Owen Chan, the newly appointed acting country manager (India), Cisco Systems.

It seems Cisco made an exception of the norms followed during country-head transitions, by accepting Manoj Chugh’s resignation within 24 hours and relieving him of his responsibilities almost right away. Why this urgency? 

With respect to Manoj’s departure, he had been with Cisco for approximately three years and had made it clear that he was resigning for personal reasons, and that was his decision to make. We, of course, wish him well in his future endeavors. 

Did Cisco meet the targets set for India during the current fiscal year (2002—03)? 

We do not break out revenue figures for India or any other country in the Asia-Pacific region–we only provide the percentage of revenue that Asia-Pacific makes up of Cisco’s global revenues, which was 10 percent in our most recent quarter. 

Is somebody already being groomed for the post of president, India and Saarc? How long will it take to fill this important vacancy? What immediate measures are
being taken to lessen the impact of this significant executive movement on your company’s business prospects as well as current responsibilities to partners and customers?

We have stated that we expect to fill the role to lead our India and Saarc team within six to eight weeks. We do believe that we will be able to meet that timeline. We, of course, believe that it is very important for our
employees, customers and partners that the role be filled as soon as possible and we will endeavor to do that. Until we have a permanent replacement on board, Owen Chan will be the acting country manager and we believe that there will be no disruption to our business for partners and customers.

Going forward, what would be Cisco’s India strategy in general? 

With respect to our business strategy in India, we remain very optimistic about the market and we do not plan on changing our strategy in any material way. We will continue to focus on helping our customers build reliable and world-class
communications networks. We will continue to stay focused on capturing as much market share as possible and we will continue to offer the best products and post-sales service in the industry. 

Nareshchandra Laishram