“HCL is India’s answer to the global tech brigade,” says Vivek Seigell, Head–Retail, HCL Infosystems

At a time when pundits cannot but stop peddling India as the emerging IT superpower of the world, thanks to world-class IT service companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS, the dampener comes in the form of Indian brands in the global IT space (both software and hardware), which are conspicuous by their surprising absence. Forget the globe, in the Indian market itself, there is a lamentable dearth of strong desi IT brands, with perhaps a lone contender being HCL Infosystems, which has been able to hold its own against strong global hardware brands like Hewlett Packard (HP), Compaq and Lenovo.

“Indian IT brands are virtually non-existent today because whatever few players were there have been unable to keep pace with the vagaries of the Indian IT market. Either they were small players, who grew up and died as local players or those who could never work in a consolidated fashion at a national level,” affirms Vivek Seigell, Country Head–Retail, E-tail & Consumer Finance, HCL Infosystems Limited.

And Vivek should know. High on the recent launch of HCL’s ultra-portable sub-14K laptops for the Indian market – HCL MiLeap X and Y Series – HCL is gung-ho on the latent potential for its latest offering. A few years ago, the company had also launched its sub-10K desktop PC, and successfully marketed it across class B and C towns, bundling it with good finance options. Small surprise that while HCL has managed to make a sizable impact in the domestic PC market, it is trailing behind in the laptop segment, where HP, Compaq and Lenovo rule the roost.

According to the latest IDC data, HCL Infosystems claims a tall 15.5% of the Indian desktop PC segment (behind HP); while in laptops it trails at a poor number 4 position (with a 7.4% market share), behind HP, Lenovo and Dell. But Seigell is quick to point out that comparing HCL market share figures to HP will not be a true apple to apple comparison. “After all, HP market share figures include data for Compaq as well,” he quickly retorts. However, one of the first Indian ‘IT garage start-ups’ in 1976, Seigell believes that HCL has entered the high-growth stage today. “The market as we know it today has matured considerably,” Seigell says, adding that way back when HCL began operations in 1976, the company largely depended on and catered to enterprise business. “At that time, consumers came last for HCL as IT was more enterprise than personal. That’s the way markets threw up the opportunity,” he reiterates. Given that the last link standing was the consumer, the IT major now not only hopes to bridge that gap with its MiLeap Series, but also with its enhanced focus on the retail end of its operations – spearheaded by Seigell.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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