CxO of the Week: Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director of Barco

Barco Electronic Systems Pvt. Ltd. India, formed in 1996, is a 100% subsidiary of BARCO NV Belgium. Barco designs technology to enable bright outcomes around the world. Seeing beyond the image, we develop visualization and collaboration solutions to help you work together, share insights, and wow audiences. Our focus areas include three core markets: Enterprise (from meetings, classrooms, and control rooms to corporate spaces), Healthcare (from the radiology department to the operating room), and Entertainment (from movie theaters to live events and attractions).

In April 2020, Barco India was recognized as a “Great Place to Work for”, the second year in a row, by the Great Place to Work Institute, a global authority on recognizing high-trust and performance culture at workplaces. The recognition is a testimony of Barco’s commitment to fostering an environment and culture of camaraderie, fairness, respect, pride, and credibility amongst its employees.

In 2020, Barco realized global sales of 770 million euros and a global team of 3,300 employees, whose passion for technology is captured in 430 granted patents.

Please tell us about a personal episode of your life that you think is interesting and inspiring for you.

I am greatly inspired by adventure sports as they have taught me that nothing is impossible if we set our mind to it. The most important lesson I have learned through my sports experiences is that no matter how fast we are moving, sometimes we need to slow down in our lives and pay attention to our surroundings and enjoy the beauty of life. It is very interesting that I developed my passion for adventure in my 30s, as compared to most people who find their passion in their teenage years.

A personal episode that has inspired me greatly is the team-building exercise back in 2005, when I participated in white water rafting at Colorado Spring, USA. The adrenaline surge experienced that day has kept me hooked and I have never looked back. I have since then participated in varied high voltage sports like tandem skydiving, paragliding, soaring, and cliff jumping, and I believe that these thrilling escapades help me live my life to the fullest.

What brilliant professional advice have you had that motivated or changed your life?

One of my biggest influencers, in terms of my career and my life, has been the ex-chairman at one of my past organisations. His brilliant professional advice on what it takes to succeed in India has really helped me navigate the different roadblocks I have faced in my career. The one piece of advice I always heed is to remain hungry for growth and challenge the status quo. Often, a successful individual is his/her own biggest enemy. One needs to avoid falling into a “complacency trap” and learn to get out of one’s own way. It is important to see reality the way it is and not the way one wants it to be.

What trends in the market are more critical for the technology industry? Where do you see your company in the coming years?

The pandemic has necessitated the adoption of software and technology to enable a new hybrid workforce and businesses are now implementing a digital strategy focused on flexibility and agility. According to the recent Barco hybrid meeting survey, the ideal work model for employees is hybrid. Within the hybrid work model, there is a greater preference for working more time remote than in the office, making it imperative that organizations adopt hybrid work technology liberally and wisely. Work-life balance has for many been positively influenced by working remotely or hybrid. Half of the respondents in the survey expressed a (strong) positive influence, indicating that the hybrid work trend is critical and here to stay.

Another trend we have foreseen is that futuristic businesses are focused on reduced carbon footprints and sustainable solutions. We believe that technology will enable greater flexibility and organisations and operations will be supported by increased adoption of innovative technology and tools. Companies are also investing in training and skilling talent with the advent of Industry 4.0. Technology sectors now require several updated skills in terms of manufacturing, R&D, sales, and marketing, and few skills like flexibility, resilience, a desire to learn and adapt, and the ability to drive change remain relevant in all the sectors and timelines.

Which upcoming projects of your company do you envision to expand the technology industry? Can you describe a conflict or crisis that you had managed effectively?

We believe that our new Barco GEAX or Globally Empowered to Accelerate Xperiences center, our largest center of excellence for R&D and software innovation, globally, will play a leading role in expanding the technology industry. Our hub at Noida contributes towards enhanced software capabilities in all our products, with a focus on enterprise, entertainment, and healthcare segments. We are expanding on cloud technology and the GEAX center is now offering SaaS solutions over all the three main segments.

Some of the upcoming projects set to power the industry are:

• we connect in the learning experience
• XMS for flagship ClickShare Conference and its cloud-based management platform in remote work collaboration
• Cloud Device Management software for the complete range of Smart Cinema projectors

Regarding a conflict that I encountered during my career when I joined Barco in 2016, Barco was during strengthening its position in the market and we were focused on boosting sales and enabling growth. I realised that even though Barco was a global leader in visualisation technologies, and India was a great center of excellence, we were facing challenges in terms of domestic sales. Our teams were not able to completely leverage on-site capabilities and there was a need to change this situation. My priority was to drive exponential domestic sales growth and put to action the‘ In-Country for Country’ philosophy that involves India-specific value definitions, products, price points, and go-to-market strategy. We localised our product offerings, go-to-market approaches to target consumers, India-specific value definitions, and price points and this helped us to double our sales in three years.

What is your success mantra for your company? How do you balance business, customer, and employee relationships?

At Barco, we strive to see all challenges as potential opportunities and every failure as a learning opportunity to course-correct, strengthen our core competencies and revise our go-to-market strategies. Our success mantra involves our cultural building blocks which emphasize growth being driven whilst caring for our people (customers, partners, and employees), caring for the planet, and caring for our community. We “Team up together” to win globally and we have learned that customers look for solutions that solve/address their problems instead of simply buying a product. They are willing to pay a premium if their needs are met and understood. Barco has learned that in today’s fast-changing digital world, agility and innovation are more important than ever.

In terms of balancing business and employee relationships, I am proud to state that Barco India had been recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’, twice, by the Great Place to Work Institute, a global authority on recognizing high-trust and performance culture at workplaces. Pride, trust, resilience, and camaraderie are pillars that define the Barco India Team. We optimise employee satisfaction through state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and the software development center at Noida.

Do you think Digital India and Make in India working as a catalyst for Indian technology? How much influenced is your company by these projects?

Barco has viewed Digital India and Make in India is a call to action for business leaders and Indian innovators. Both these initiatives are a part of the PM’s vision to make India a global tech superpower. We believe that these initiatives can transform India into a global manufacturing and design hub from an import-centric customer market, reviving infrastructure projects and bringing a measure of digitisation in all aspects of life- from finance to commerce to education and governance. It is also an invitation for potential investors and partners around the world, indicating that India is ready to become more than just a huge consumer market.

We are offering all possible support and participating wholeheartedly in these initiatives.

Did the pandemic scenario affect your business model? How did you ensure smooth operations?

The pandemic undoubtedly affected our existing business model, but we have ensured smooth operations by looking at it as an opportunity instead of a challenge. The lockdown created a whole new style of work, including opportunities like hybrid work, gig work, and contract work. These made it necessary for organisations and employees to invest in continual reskilling and relook at skilling. At Barco, we quickly understood that the future of work was changing, and with businesses adopting digital strategies focused on flexibility, we began fast-tracking solutions aimed at the innovative and agile workforce. Barco now has a broad portfolio of hybrid solutions, and our key priority is to enable hybrid and remote workspaces through verticals like operator experience, meeting experience, healthcare, and events. We ensured smooth operations by offering absolute flexibility to employees and enabling them to meet targets and deadlines through optimal virtual and remote collaboration.

Please describe the role of your business partners in the technical market ecosystem.

Recently, we’ve announced the launch of an updated service program for our end-users and partners, reiterating Barco’s commitment to bright outcomes and superlative services. Our focus is on our customer’s needs in everything we do, from building high-quality hardware and innovative software solutions to also ensuring reliability in those solutions. Our revised strategic service framework is called Enable – Protect – Optimize and it is a global offering that contributes to partner service excellence and drives customer satisfaction in the field.

The three pillars of the updated framework are designed to deliver positive outcomes, with service packages that have the partners’ and customers’ back, from start to finish. They unify and strengthen our service strategy, helping increase Barco’s software and hardware portfolio while catalysing business growth. Our business partners play a major role in the technical market ecosystem and help us with training and pre-sales technical support as well as professional services and commercial support aimed at enhancing customer outreach and satisfaction.

How do you see your company's services across the nation? What kind of strategy do you apply to expand it?

Barco is at the forefront of the digitization process; across the verticals, we cater to. We are leveraging our capabilities to offer new-age control room services for surveillance and security, smart city solutions, and hybrid workplace solutions aimed at the digital transformation of enterprises. Our strategy is focused on offering customers quality products at competitive prices and we are creating India- specific solutions, market outreach, value definitions, and price points.

We are leveraging our extensive R&D capabilities, and local manufacturing and commercial ability to foster local product management capable of handling and optimising India-specific opportunities. With our new research-based facility in Noida, we are also investing in local talent and fostering growth by unlocking bright and brilliant outcomes for our customers.