The 'Zebra' lines of innovation

Established in 1969, Zebra Technologies is one of the known provider of solutions to identify, track, and manage the deployment of critical assets for improved business efficiency. Zebra claims to have large customer base which comprises 90 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies.

Anders Gustaffson, Global CEO, Zebra Technologies believes that the economic slowdown has provided opportunity for track and trace technology namely barcode, RFID, card, mobile printing, Kiosk and other such technology to provide customers rapid return on investment and help them streamline there essential business operations.

In line with this, even in the current tough times, Zebra claims to have spent twice what its closest competitor spends on product development. Gustaffson, on his visit to India, discussed the company’s engagement and strategy for Indian market with Prasoon Srivastava of CIOL. Read on...

What are the global business trends you see that would increase demand for Zebra products?

The world economy is global today and has made supply chains much longer and complex. Owing to this globalization, organizations today are focusing on becoming more efficient, reduce cost of doing business and want to remain flexible across different geographies to successfully manage their assets more competently.

The chain becomes even more complex with newer addition of products, customers and partners in different geographies. Another important trend we have observed during the present economic slowdown is that organizations are adopting much leaner practices by focusing more on deploying solutions which not only streamline their essential business processes but also help generate better Return on Investments (RoI).

This increasingly complex business model demands for path-breaking and innovative solutions. Zebra has a wide range of innovative products and services which are well poised to leverage these present global trends by helping companies increase output while decreasing the costs of doing business and by also enabling them to deploy their critical assets smarter.

What has been Zebra Technologies' engagement with the Indian market?

Zebra Technologies has been operational in the Indian market since the last seven years and has an employee base of about 150, predominantly working in our Software Development Center in Chennai along with sales and marketing resources in Mumbai and Delhi. We have identified India as the highest potential market for growth over the next several years.

To achieve our growth objectives, we are investing significantly in the India operations, hiring more people here, recruit more channel partners and valued re-sellers to expand our reach not only geographically to get more coverage across entire India but also to get access into more specific markets.

Besides this, we are also expanding our vertical focus from the currently strong manufacturing sector and are eying the government, healthcare, retail, transport and logistics and mobility segments to penetrate new industries for growth.

What has been Zebra's go-to-market strategy in India?

We largely work with distributors and valued resellers who are the face to our end users. In 2009, Zebra Technologies launched the PartnersFirst program in Asia to drive profitability through business growth. The objective of the program is to bring discipline in channel management, promote cooperation and enhance capabilities of channel partners which will directly lead to addressing customer demands and ensure customer satisfaction.

In India, at present Zebra Technologies has 81 channel partners which comprises two national distributors namely Ingram Micro and Westcon, four major system integrators and the remaining are resellers.

What has been your strategy during the economic slowdown?

Economic downturns are difficult and create obstacles to survive and grow. However, by focusing on constant innovation and implementing best business practices these difficult times could also provide tremendous opportunity to stay ahead of competition and gain larger market share.

We have adopted the strategy to invest twice the amount our closest competitors have spent on innovation which enabled us to continue deliver cutting-edge products even during the slowdown and helped our customers increase their productivity and manage cost effectively.