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“We have strengthened the India case for IBM”

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CIOL Bureau
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During his visit to Bangalore a few months ago, Sam Palmisano, IBM’s chairman and CEO showed the company’s commitment to India by announcing an investment of $6 billion over the next three years.

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Shanker Annaswamy, who is the first Indian to lead IBM India, oversees the various aspects of growth and expansion of the company’s various divisions whether it is services, consulting, products or global delivery centers. The company’s staff has almost doubled from 24,000 during the time he joined in 2004 to 43,000 at present.

The head of Big Blue’s operations in India is a busy man as the onus of executing plans like expansion of the delivery centers, telecom research center, broadening the scope of work with the Indian government lies with Annaswamy and Priya Padmanabhan of CyberMedia News caught up with him to discuss the company’s plans for India.

What kind of changes have you brought into IBM India since the time you took over two years ago?

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There was a phenomenal opportunity to bring the power of IBM India to the benefit of both IBM and our clients, and IBM has so many divisions like the chip engineering division, research and software labs. I saw an opportunity to bring these teams together and present one IBM India picture to employees and customers.

Employees themselves did not know a lot of things within the organization. In fact, in 2005, at an event where I made a presentation, the GM of Ford admitted that he did not know that so many activities were happening in India and that IBM was so big in India. This caught my attention and I decided to set a vision to leverage the power of “One IBM” to become technology leader and market leader, drive open source and also become a national asset. India fits in very nicely both from the market point of view and also a very good component of the global integrated enterprise of IBM. We presented that visibly to the world. We have strengthened the India case for IBM.

What have you done to leverage the various synergies that exist between the various divisions of IBM?

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I launched a leadership forum called India Leadership Forum or ILF where I brought different cross-functional teams together so that we can informally understand the opportunities ahead of us and also strategize on how to drive the markets and put together a learning process. Various divisions have varying issues and it is important to integrate them.

We have various groups like the server group, services group, the consultancy group and software group. When we go for a tender in India, each group has its own view- point and operates independently. I put together an operating mechanism called mega-deal mechanism. So whenever there are big opportunities we brought together all these teams since it is a common cause to go and win in the market. This is now beginning to pay off some results. It has made some impact on some of the big deals.

What do you think are the reasons behind IBM’s success in the domestic market?

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Firstly, IBM’s technology, products and services are very good. Our success in India is due to the openness and keenness of the top management in putting together strategies and providing all the support to execute the plans. I also think it is cause of the IBM India team. A cross-functional team can be a great success. The commitment to $6 billion shows IBM’s commitment to the Indian market and also our belief in India being of key component of GI model.

Some analysts would have us believe that MNCs like IBM and HP resort to under-cutting while bidding against local companies for IT service projects. Is it true?

In services, it is difficult to win only on pricing. We have won projects like Bharti in the past, based on our core competency, and the depth and breadth of our capabilities. One cannot win on price in services. People buy IBM for its technology or its capabilities in services and solutions. I don’t think we get into these price war discussions at all.

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What kind of growth do you expect from the market this year?

This year, we expect significant growth. We grew our business by 55 per cent in 2005 and by 45 per cent the year before. If you are growing at two-three times the market, people take the growth for granted. Expectations keep growing. We are identifying new opportunities outside the normal realm. We find our market potential big in SMBs. To tap this segment better, it is an advantage if we are closer to customers. We recently started operations in Kochi and we hope to expand to other cities as well.

Indian IT majors like Infosys, TCS and Wipro are increasing their headcount by many thousands this year. With IBM also looking to expand its presence, how will you attract talent in India?

According to a recent survey, IBM is voted the most preferred company to work by college campuses. We have a powerful brand and our recent announcement of the $6 billion investment sends out our message of how committed we are to India. We offer a lot of opportunity to grow and for employees to take on different roles. IBM offers a lot of flexibility and also has many women-friendly policies in place.

© CyberMedia News

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