Ajay Mohan, vice-president marketing, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett Packard, Asia Pacific and Japan feels that the current economic slowdown only serves as an opportunity to drive the company in delivering quality products and service to its customers. In an interview with FE?s Swarleen Kaur he talks of HP?s long-term approaches, strategies for increasing the customer base and HP?s commitment to environmental responsibility. Excerpts:
Hewlett Packard had planned to roll out 7,500 stores in 1,000 cities across Asia-Pacific, with a strong focus on India and China . How has the plan progressed?
HP is on track with our retail expansion plan. Till date, we have already completed two-thirds of the expansion of HP experience stores, partner stores & city reach. We continuously review our plan to reflect current market realities.
Has the economic recession affected your business? What measures have you taken to tackle the slowdown?
The global financial downturn has affected everyone and these factors are beyond our control. However, what we can control is our cost structure and addressing the needs of customers. We have also witnessed a strong and balanced performance of our recent HP PSG Q2 results and will continue to focus on delivering value to our consumers by bringing in innovation. We are aware that the market conditions have been challenging, but an environment like this provides an opening to improve our competitive position. HP has significant strengths that allow us to gain a greater market share and expand our earnings despite the macro economic challenges. Our market strength, disciplined cost management and diverse portfolio allow us to keep HP ahead of its competitors and gain a greater share in key markets.
What is your market share in India and what is your strategy for expanding the customer base here?
In terms of market growth, as per IDC?s Asia-Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker 2009, May 2009 release, HP has maintained its lead and gained share in PCs (desktops and notebooks) in India and captured 18.2% market share in terms of unit shipments. HP has been ranked first in the India PC market consistently every quarter over the last four years. HP has also claimed the top spot in the US PC market. Additionally, HP leads in Asia-Pacific with 14.6% market share for PC shipments and is one of the few vendors to post a year-on-year growth. We achieved a sequential growth of 14.9% in Q1?09 and a year-on-year growth of 6.4%.
HP takes a long-term approach in mapping growth strategy and we?ll continue to invest in emerging markets in the country. By continuing to drive innovation, building sales and customer support and investing in growth, we will have the opportunity to create a meaningful, competitive advantage for years to come. We believe our market and brand strength, disciplined cost management and diverse portfolio differentiate us in a competitive marketplace and this will also enable us to keep growing.
What has been the investment in CSR activities per annum and has the economic slowdown impacted such activities?
An amount of $46.2 million was donated globally in social investment (philanthropy) for 2008 by HP. We also run recycling programs (environmental sustainability), provide flexible work options such as telecommuting (human rights and labor practices), enforce a company privacy policy which meets or exceeds legislative requirements in all countries where we operate (privacy) and run an annual, mandatory ethics training program for our entire workforce of more than 310,000 people (ethics and compliance). The economic slowdown has not affected out commitment to be an asset our business communities. We will continue to focus on the five pillars of our global citizenship strategy.
How did the idea of teaming up with Cartoon Network, to launch an online platform for children, come about? Please give the relevant details about this project?
HP and Cartoon Network are combining HP?s market leadership in personal computing with Cartoon Network?s experience in family entertainment to create an interactive platform for young aspiring animators. We have shared values of creating meaning innovations and promoting self expression and are confident that it will provide a platform for HP to reach out to a broader audience of young consumers and proactively engage with them. The objective of the association is to encourage young animators to explore their imagination and provide them a platform to express their creativity and increase awareness and usage of computer technology education in schools to prepare children for the academic and creative challenges of tomorrow. The Toon Creator Awards is a regional animation contest for children aged 6 to 14. Cartoon Network will create an online platform where children can create short animated clips of familiar cartoon characters Ben10 and Chowder. The winners will have the opportunity of seeing their works broadcast on Cartoon Network and receive HP products like HP TouchSmart PCs
What do you think is the strength of your group and what are the limitations?
The uniqueness of our proposition is our product coverage. Our understanding of different customer segments and the wide range of products and solutions enable us to cater to our huge customer base across nations, across metros to small towns. HP uses a bouquet of brands within the HP portfolio. While on one hand the luxury brand Voodoo is targeted at the top-end, Compaq is value-driven and is our fighting brand?the fact that it was the second-most searched item on Google in India reiterates its inherent strength. HP Pavilion?s brand promise is an entertaining, powerful and feature-rich computing experience.