|
Home> Executive Track> Portraits
|
| Rajesh Khurana: It pays to listen |
| Good technologies need to be backed by good marketing |
|
| Monday, November 07, 2005 |
Untitled Document
 |
 |
| Life's inspiration |
Life is too short, so make the best of it. Take every
opportunity as a challenge. At the same time, be kind and polite
to people around you. |
| Ambition |
Would like to do something for society-education, consulting so
that I can use whatever I have learnt in my professional career to
create a positive change. |
| What I would like to change about myself |
Devote more time to my family |
| Hobbies |
Listening to soft music and old Hindi film music, going to the
mountains-Himalayas |
| Best moment |
Getting into Seagate |
| Worst Fears |
I shouldn't do anything wrong to society, try not to act in haste |
| Passionate about |
My work, and about technology |
| Fav gizmo |
iPod |
| Fav destination |
Himalayas |
| Fav Book |
Four Pillars by Tom Peters |
| A lesson for life |
Listen more and speak less. Be polite to people |
|
|
 |
Hard disk drive company Seagate has had a dream run ever since the company started operations in India in 2000. And one person who kept in step with every move of the company is its first employee and current country manager, Rajesh Khurana.
He was appointed country manager three months ago to fill into the shoes of Sharad Srivastava who left Seagate to join Western Digital.
According to the AC Neilson tracker, Seagate today commands 79 percent market share. Khurana who joined the company almost five years ago as business development manager, feels excited about stepping into the helm in a dynamic market scenario.
Khurana's new role involves strengthening the company's market share, managing channels and evolving methodologies and strategies to address both IT and non-IT segments in a balanced way for the SAARC region.
Industry watchers feel that Khurana's would be a tough act to follow after Srivastava's able stewardship. But Khurana is confident. “All individuals have their own ways of working. Ultimately the results should be good. That's all that matters,” he says.
He feels that the consumer market in India is set for a boom with the proliferation of a multitude of digital devices from MP3 players, digital cameras and movies. “There is a pent-up demand for personal storage. Since the consumer is demanding these products today, we have to be attentive and respond to their needs.”
Khurana attributes the strength of Seagate to its innovative technologies and application-oriented products like a storage drive for the automotive segment or one that can work withstand severe atmospheric conditions.
Good technologies need to be backed by good marketing and this has been Seagate's strategy right from the start. Khurana attributes Seagate's market leading position to the support, trust and confidence level that partners invest in the company.
“We evolved significant initiatives that our competitors could not match such as a five-year warranty on our products, which was a market first and 43 service centers.”
And what about his personal contribution to the company?
Keeping an ear on the ground and acting accordingly, he reckons. “I tried to understand the environment including colleagues, channel partners and customers. Most of the work done in the market is about listening to them and compiling and strategizing based on that. So the channels also feel that they are involved in the process.”
Explaining this style of working, he says, “My philosophy is that God has given us two ears and one mouth. So it is better to listen more and talk less and implement based on that.” This strategy has worked for Khurana who has been part of the industry for over 13 years.
|
|
An electrical engineering graduate from GB Pant University (now in Uttaranchal), Khurana was brought in the rarefied academic atmosphere of the IIT Delhi campus where his father worked as a math professor. His father was involved in a NASA project, which kindled the young Khurana's scientific spirit further. In 1992, he joined Allen Bradley, a Programming Logic Controllers (PLC) company, which proved to be the springboard for his future career in electronics.
He worked for short stints in companies like Infocomm Digital Systems (as R&D engineer); DCM Data Systems, and also worked with IT distributor Tech Pacific for five years. He considers the Tech Pac experience a good learning ground in managing and developing channels.
Khurana hopes to enhance the special relationship with channels and take Team Seagate to even greater heights. |
|
Priya Padmanabhan Page(s) 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
