CXO of the Week: Sudhindra Holla, Director, Axis Communications, India and SAARC

Axis enables a smarter and safer world by creating network solutions that provide insights for improving security and new ways of doing business. As the industry leader in network video, Axis offers products and services for video surveillance and analytics, access control, and audio systems. Axis has more than 3,000 dedicated employees in over 50 countries and collaborates with partners worldwide to deliver customer solutions. Axis was founded in 1984 and has its headquarters in Lund, Sweden.

Sudhindra Holla is the Director for Axis Communications, India and SAARC operations. He is an industry veteran with a rich experience in building and driving the consultant, partner & client base for the India & SAARC region at Axis Communications.

He leads the Axis Communications’ operations in India and SAARC, driving business strategy in addition to overlooking the sales and marketing verticals. Mr. Holla helping shape the sales, marketing and channel strategies of high-technology businesses from the ground up. Under his leadership, the Axis India team continues to tap SAARC’s growing physical security market and drive the ongoing shift to IP-based surveillance.

On the personal front, he is also a renowned Yakshagana artist, having given over 1000 performances across the country. He has participated as a member of the Karnataka Troupe in interstate cultural exchange programs held across different states in India.

In a recent chat with Sudhindra Holla is the Director for Axis Communications, India and SAARC operations, he talks about the startup journey and what Axis Communications has been up to.

Introduction - (A brief non-promotional profile)

The pandemic has been a defining moment of the way we perceive the role of security and surveillance. Organizations are scrambling to adjust to an extraordinary level of disruption brought forth by the pandemic and are reassessing their legacy tools and systems to meet the increasing demand of employee safety.

By combining intelligent technology and human imagination, Axis Communications offers intelligent solutions for a broad spectrum of industry segments and applications that enable a smarter, and safer world. As the industry leader in video surveillance, we develop, and supply innovative solutions that easy-to-deploy and improve security and business performancein critical infrastructure, education, retail, banking and safe city solutions. We empower our vast customer portfolio through our strong channel partner ecosystem.

Our Axis family includes over 4,000 dedicated employees in over 50 countries and collaborates with partners worldwide to deliver customer solutions.

How has the pandemic shaped/changed the work culture?

The pandemic has trulymade all business leaders rethink the assumptions and norms about the nature of work and business models. Organizations across the world adopted remote work or a hybrid work model, which has now, become the new normal. Though this style of work limits face to face interactions, it has unlocked the tremendous potential of the effective utilization of digital tools.Collaboration has become the secret sauce toproactive communication during work, business continuity and employee engagement while leadership styles have evolved to become more unconventional.

How did you manage your business during lockdown, and pandemic crisis?

During the pandemic, one of our key focus areas was to be maintain consistent communication with our all employees with minimal disruption. Staying connected was crucial and we encouraged our employees to be available across different channels of communication. We launched some employee-centric initiatives to maintain constant engagement and well-being like yoga and meditation sessions, frequent tea-time catch-ups, virtual appreciation meets and inspiration hour, among others.

As per our global organizational guidelines, we are sharing best practices and being responsive in terms of technical support with our chatbot 24*7. This helps us in extending immediate support in case of any technical glitch faced by a customer. We also have a strong tech team working meticulously from home to solve any such issues that may arise.

In terms of our channel partners, we maintained round-the clock communication with our distributors and partners while keeping them updated with information to ensure a seamless business continuity. We utilized several digital platforms like WebEx and Microsoft Teams to host training programs, educational series, academy trainings, virtual partner summits and webinars that saw good participation and engagement rate. We additionally made empathy calls to our channel partners to check in on them periodically.

What is your recent development in terms of your product and solution? Which particular solution or product did well in the last year? And which particular solution or product, will be the game-changer in the new normal?

In terms of our products and solutions, we have shifted from being the best suppliers of network cameras to becoming a leading integrated player in the market. This means that we take charge of integrating different products and devices (like AXIS Control, audio systems, radar system, video door stations, etc) – all into a single IT analytics infused platform. We are gradually becoming a comprehensive solution provider to the end customer than just a point product.

We witnessed a surge in the demand for our end-to-end solutions especially for the medium sized installations. Additionally, we saw the increasing adoption of our connected Axis devices. Our audio systems, too, did well last year. In fact, I believe, that our audio systems and end-to-end portfolio will be a game changer moving forward. To top this, we had announced a 5-year warranty on our entire product portfolio during the pandemic. Not many vendors give a warranty for such an extended period. This has further reinstated confidence in the minds of our customers and encourage them to invest in our products and solutions.

What, as per you, are the five important things that Axis should be looking at today?

Firstly, we are trying to deepen and strengthen our engagement with our solution partners through extensive training programs and certification courses as our whole channel partner program is designed to generate leads for the partners.

We have also created a subsegment that specifically caters to our end-to-end and audio specialist partners. We are aiming to acquire more customers in areas/segments that we have not tapped earlier with the help of our specialist partners. We want to drive more engagement with these two solution categories for enhanced customer satisfaction while increasing our reach.

One of our primary goals is to expand and increase our presence in cities while also strengthening our channel partner ecosystem. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have been highly focused on implementing digital marketing initiatives to create demand for our partners and generate leads.

Additionally, we will also be looking deeper into our non-core or extended video products such as Thermal, Explosion Protect Cameras among others.

What is the biggest lesson that you learnt in your first job?

One of the key things that I learnt in my first job is the how customers satisfaction determines the success of an organization and how to be more customer centric. I would also like to emphasize on learning sustainable and ethical business practices. I realized that there is no short cut to growth – you need to inculcate the three values ofdiscipline, perseverance and hard work to succeed in life.

What changes is Axis bringing to the industry?

As mentioned earlier, our mission is to aim at building a safer, smarter and sustainable world. Sustainability forms the very core of how we conduct our business. We ensure sustainable practices in our entire value chain that reinforces our aim of innovating responsibly. We align to the sustainability development goals across all our functions –less carbon emission, energy efficient products, recyclable materials, and BFR/CFR-free products, among other practices. We are also very vocal about maintaining transparency in a robust cybersecure framework.

One book that you would recommend to the freshers that can help.

One book that I would like to recommend to the freshers is “The Leader Who Had No Title” by Robin Sharma. The book is highly inspiring, and it teaches us how you can empower yourself by adopting an attitude that can help you in unlocking your true potential and going beyond your capacity to accomplish great heights in your career. A title, designation and position doesn’t always determine your capability but your outlook to learning and working matters.