Guest of the Month : Alok Bharadwaj

Alok Bharadwaj
Senior Vice-President, Canon India  

How do you find yourself sailing the company in this period of global recession?

Canon operates in B2C, B2B, B2G and B2 Commercial segments. While recession hit B2B biz, we did well in B2G and B2C biz. When it hit B2C biz, we launched new streams like management document services that created a proposition ideal for enterprises during recession. As companies began to shrink their Capex, our new services helped them convert their Capex to Opex and it worked well during recession. 

What are the steps you are planning to expand the Indian VARs? 

Canon has created a separate business division called “System Integration” (SI) division which is building a separate channel partner network of VARs. In the forthcoming year, Canon India would work essentially on technologies and provide solutions in many other areas of VAR, including surveillance and security, apart from MDS etc. Education, healthcare and e-governance have opened enormous opportunities for such alliances.

How do you find the Indian hardware industry's growth strategy in the coming days?

India is a Rs.70,000-crore IT hardware industry. Last year's Thailand floods and Tsunami caused supply line disruptions to a great extent. Apart from other socio-political crisis, devaluation of the Rupee made IT imports expensive and many Indian and MNC IT companies got a severe hit on the bottom line. However, to enhance reach, productivity and scaling up, IT is a necessity. I see very optimistic scenario in the future. 

What makes you successful amongst the channel community?

Canon follows a one-door policy. It means an “entry” door where we invite partners to join Canon and there is no “exit” door. Only in situations where partners stop adding value and begin to erode value is when we show the exit door. Our retention of partners is 98%. Canon India believes it is essential to recognize the efforts of its channel partners. It is the partners that essentially drive the sales of Canon's products.