The Indian IT market is still evolving’

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This is his second slap-dash visit to India and he is due to come in again next month too. But it is work, work and more work always, so Shaz Khan, president and managing director, Asia Pacific, GN Netcom hasn’t had the time to snatch a few hours and see the Taj Mahal.

Anyway, there’s a lot else that is keeping him upbeat.

He is happy that GN, a leading global leader in headsets, is launching seven new models in the mobile segment in India now. Also, that within a year of its regular operations in the country (earlier they didn’t have an establishment in India, they only sold their products through the general retail distribution network), Jabra, GN’s star brand, has doubled its sale of Bluetooth headsets. And, there’s more — now they have tied up with Essar Telecom Retail’s ‘The Mobilestor’ to strengthen the brand presence further. Among the new line of headsets to enter the Indian market, the highpoint was the showcasing of the Titanium-plated JX20 Pura that has been designed by the globally renowned Jacob Jensen studio.

Speaking about his company’s success story, Khan says: “We started with a target of securing our presence in over 1500 POS here, which today stands at 1675+ POS. Now we have a dedicated sales team here in India, which will target the presence of the Jabra brand in over 2200 POS by year end.” And this he says emphatically based on research that says the Indian Bluetooth headset market is set to grow at a faster pace than China’s.

About the company’s India operations, Khan says so far so good. “Since we have a very small team here, we are able to monitor it, train the people and get them to relate to GM’s work culture…and so far there haven’t been any resignations.” This is quite in contrast to what large organisations experience he feels — no personal interface, no identification with company goals and perhaps because of that, no sense of belonging.

But there are hurdles that the company faces in India. The steep 50% duty is one. “Because of this,” Khan says “our pricing suffers here compared to that in other countries. But then we aren’t the only one’s feeling the heat. There is a long line of companies before us who are also addressing the same issue.” Also, he realises the Indian IT industry is still not very well defined. People are trying to find their way around, and this applies both to the IT companies and the consumers.

Prior to joining GN Netcom in January this year, Khan worked for Dell Asia as director, Enterprise Sales and Operations, Asia Pacific and Japan. He has logged over 15 years in the IT service sector and has done both his graduation and management studies from Australia.