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Richa Mishra
P.T. Jyothi Datta

NEW DELHI, Feb. 18

IS it a spin-off from the cricket mania or just a natural process of attrition?

The last couple of months have seen a dramatic movement in the top echelons of the consumer durables and electronic industry. The efforts are obviously to put the best team at the helm of affairs with an eye to enhance those sales figures. But whether this game of musical chairs will actually yield the winning numbers is something that is being watched with keen interest.

Though the reason cited for such movements vary from a good offer to health problems, a section of the industry is agog with talk that the top-level movements have taken place since sales have not been picking up despite excessive expenditure on sales promotion. However, another school of thought maintains that "it was not so". "It is not correct to link up corporate movements with cricket or sales. It is a natural process, which takes place in any industry," an industry representative told Business Line.

End-2002 witnessed Mr Ram S. Ramasundar moving out of Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL) to a Satyam group company. Subsequently, Philips India saw Mr Rajeev Karwal quitting and taking his place at EKL. Following close on Mr Ramsundar's exit was Mr Anand Bhardwaj, who was at the helm of marketing at EKL.

Then it was National Panasonic's turn. Mr Gurdeep Singh, Director (Consumer Products Division), National Panasonic, put in his papers on February 15.

If this was not enough, LG Electronics followed suit. Mr Pradeep Tognatta, Senior Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), with LG put in his papers on Monday. Meanwhile, LG has decided to fill the vacant position by appointing Mr Ganesh Mahalingam, LG's General Manager (Marketing).

But the merry-go round does not end here. Sony India Pvt Ltd has also seen a top-level movement, with Mr Prem K. Nair, Deputy Director (Sales), quitting and Mr N. Matsumoto replacing him.

Even Samsung India saw a change of guard with Mr C.H. Yoon taking over as the new Managing Director, replacing Mr S.S. Lee.

Commenting on these movements, Ms Radhika Roy, National Head - Quality Research, NFO MBL India, said, "I do believe that the durables industry today is a high pressure one. There is severe competition, with many international, features-heavy biggies coming in the last four-five years.

The margins in the industry are wafer-thin, retail push is imperative, little scope for differentiation on product, heavy pressure of promotions, etc. to sustain sales. The traditional orientation of the industry has been to a sales approach (vs. branding). All of this must impose immense pressure on people responsible for bottomlines, especially with so little incentive to innovate. In comparison, many other industries may seem attractive."

Further, she added that the experience in durables industry tends to be a little specialised and limited; perhaps some may also be moving out to give their track record the required rounding up.

"For example, in mobile/telecom services companies, there is a marked preference for FMCG/service industry professionals rather than those from the durables sector," Ms Roy said.

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