Parting Thoughts from D Shivakumar (LT Nokia Operations Head-India): Interviews ...
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A Video of the 1st Interview is at the link below ...
>> Nokia has followed Indian tax laws to a tee: Shivakumar
After an eight-year stint, Shivakumar will quit Nokia on June 30. Sivakumar led Nokia India between 2006 and 2011 and has seen the company rise to the top and lose market share over the last few years.
CNBC18 | MoneyConrol India Financial Portal
June 18, 2013
moneycontrol.com
The outgoing Nokia senior vice-president (India, Middle East, Asia) D Shivakumar defended the company against the tax departments claims of tax evasion. He also said to operate in India, corporates need patience.
After an eight-year stint, Shivakumar will quit Nokia on June 30. Sivakumar led Nokia India between 2006 and 2011 and has seen the company rise to the top and lose market share over the last few years.
In an exclusive exit interview, Shivakumar says “I would really be surprised if any global CEO said India is not an important market for us.”
Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18
Q: What will drive Nokia, will it be Asha or will it be Lumia?
A: I think both.
Q: Can it really be both, I mean Apple is Apple, it is the iPhone and the challenge that they are also facing right now is should there be a cheaper iPhone or not?
A: I think they will do a cheaper iPhone. That is my guess because if you want to grow it is required. The world has seven billion people. This year for the first time two things are going to happen in technology.
1) Smartphones will sell more than a billion units this year.
2) A very important one is the mobile internet will be bigger than the fixed internet.
So, this is been a talk which is being going around. People used to say mobile internet, we will see, etc. Today it is reality. That will fundamentally alter the way people will look for information, the way people will buy and more important the way consumers will transact will brands and companies. I think every company will have a digital or a mobile business model in the future.
Q: But you have a brand problem don’t you because as far as the high-end smartphone market is concerned, one thinks of Apple, Samsung or Blackberry and not Nokia necessarily. So, you are probably ahead as far as products is concerned, you may have all of the features and so on and so forth but there is a brand problem?
A: If you look at all the traction for the Lumia range whether it is the 920, 820, 720, 620 you will see that it is gaining ground significantly.
So, for example Nokia has sold as of March 2013 19.9 million units of Lumia already. Almost every quarter we are doubling. It is on line with the strategy that trajectory is right.
Q: Let us talk about Asha because you just said that you believe Apple will do a cheaper iPhone. You have tried to do the cheaper smartphone with the Asha, USD 99 is what you are talking about. How much lower can it get?
A: Price in every sector has never generated value. The only thing that has generated value is innovation. For example, 60 percent of the phones sold here in India will not be allowed in most of the European countries or America because the basic standards are not met.
Q: With the income tax department slapping the Rs 2000 crore notice on Nokia how much of a setback is that been as far as doing business with India is concerned?
A: We have followed all the laws, to the letter, every single thing. The issue is interpretation. Someone who is looking at the same thing will interpret it differently and so no you need to pay a profit on this transaction also. We have got enough legal, consultant and international opinion to say what we have done is right.
In this case a constructive dialogue is the answer. It is not for the media to repeatedly say here is Vodafone and here is Nokia, here is somebody else and they are tax evaders.
Q: But where does the constructive dialogue actually led you because you moved to Delhi High Court, there has been no positive movement for you on that front, where is the constructive dialogue?
A: That is the democracy. If you operate in markets and democratic institutions like India, it takes time. So, one of the things on dealing with India is you have to have enormous patience. One needs to have patience for the process to go through, for the institution to take its view and do the right thing.
Q: Is the global headquater (HQ) losing patience with having to do business in this sort of an environment?
A: I don’t think people will lose patience. People invariably look at India and say: "Here is a great country and a great market. We really wish they could iron out these little things which hamper smooth progress". That is the way most people will look at India today.
I would really be surprised if any global CEO said India is not an important market for us. They will not be able to say that because India is too important today and will be even more important in the future. ###
>> Slow innovation is what really hurt Nokia: Shivakumar
CNBC18 | MoneyConrol India Financial Portal
June 18, 2013
moneycontrol.com
From being a market leader to just having 20% market share now, Nokia lost out because of slow innovation, says D Shivakumar, VP IMEA, Nokia. Right in the middle of a very big transition, from the Symbian operating system to the Windows operating system, Shivakumar is calling it a day.
He says it wasn’t an easy decision, with so much emotional stake in the company. He further adds, for Nokia, Indians and India mattered a lot and Nokia mattered to them. It’s possibly one of the few brands that fundamentally altered and impacted individuals in a very big way.
Below is the edited transcript of D Shivakumar's interview with CNBC-TV18
Q: It has been an exciting and perhaps disappointing eight years because you actually helped Nokia catapult to the number one position in terms of the kind of customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, so on and so forth. Towards the end of your tenure, if I could call it that, the company seems to have lost the plot.
A: In the tech industry, you have rapid changes. These things happen quite a lot in the tech industry. All I would say is, every business and every leader needs to look at his own tenure as there are some positives, some challenges and the fight continues and you handover the baton to the next bunch of guys.
Q: What happened? You went from having an almost 70 percent market share down to 40 percent in 2008, down to about 20 percent currently today. You got squeezed at the bottom end from the likes of Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, etc, and at the top end by the likes Apple, Samsung. You are somewhere stuck in the middle. How do you move from here?
A: I would say when markets expand and Nokia drove the expansion of that market, the primary role of a market leader is to grow the market, which Nokia did brilliantly and we absolutely got things right. As the market reshaped into the smart device, into other segments which started happening like the touch screen, dual SIM, etc, I think our innovation was slow. I think that’s what really hurt us.
Q: Is that the curse of market leadership? When we talk about innovation not being able to anticipate the change enough, not being able to respond to consumer preferences, consumer choices fast enough. Is that the curse of the market leader because there is a sense of complacency?
A: I don’t think that it is the curse of the market leader. I think Clayton Christensen says that perfectly when he says the innovator’s dilemma - that’s what it is. Nokia has always been innovative. Nokia has never been arrogant. It has never been a company that has rested on its laurels. In the tech business, you tend to lose some innovations. I always say that if you get 6 out of 10 innovations right in the tech industry, you are fantastic, 3 out 10 is par to the course. The key thing is when you are missing innovation, how quickly do you come back and recoup lost ground - that’s what is critical. If you look at Nokia right now, we are in the midst of a very big transition from a Symbian operating system to the Windows operating system.
That’s a huge transition and I don’t think people recognise the magnitude or the severity of it. It involves building of a completely new eco system and that’s what Nokia is doing right now and it is on its path. So if you look at Windows and how Nokia is doing with the Windows platform, Nokia is doing brilliantly there. The challenge is to grow it and make it more affordable as more and more people in the world move to smart devices at the USD 75-100 mark. I think that’s the critical thing.
Q: There were questions raised when you decided or when your role was moved out of India to an emerging market role. There have been questions now as to why you are quitting Nokia at this time because the company is making an attempt to turn its story around as far as India is concerned, India continues to be one of the growth markets for Nokia, the second after China. Why the decision to quit now?
A: I looked at it and thought to myself - I think Sunil Gavaskar said this best, you should leave when people say why and not why not. So, I looked at it and said I have done my stint, I have done my bit and my best over eight years. I needed to comeback to India, my family is here and I was there, so over a period of time I came to this conclusion and it took me about six months. It is not an easy decision ever. When you have so much of your emotional stake in a company, it is not easy, but then I said okay.
Q: But as you leave, do you feel more reassured about where Nokia stands today and I want to understand where Nokia is going to be positioned over the next 10 years, for instance, in a market like India. You talked about how the move from Symbian to Windows has been a huge transition, a transition that you are in the midst of. You talked about the challenges of smart and affordable, but how would you like to position yourself because again I come back to my point that you are somewhere stuck in the middle and this is where you started getting squeezed from both the bottom and the top?
A: For any company at any point of time, in technology, the only way out is to out innovate everybody else. If you fall behind on innovation, you will always be challenged. That is why, in technology companies, if you look at the big history of turnarounds in technology companies, there have been very few, Apple and IBM, that’s it. So, if you don’t innovate, you will get left on the sidelines.
On Nokia’s position over the next 10 years in a market like India, all I can say is Indians and India have mattered to Nokia and Nokia has mattered to them. It’s possibly one of the few brands that has fundamentally altered and impacted individuals in a very big way. Second, it has impacted society in a fundamental way and third trend that I am seeing right now is informally it is impacting governance. I believe it will formally impact governance, mobile technology and brands like Nokia in the future. ###
- Eric - |
