After crossing the $1-billion revenue mark in FY 2015, Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India and SAARC, is aiming to more than double India revenues over the next three years. From a two per cent contribution to global revenues, Malkani now has the onerous task of taking it to 10 per cent, in line with the expectations of Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins, who during his first visit to India as CEO, last October, said he expects India to contribute to 10 per cent of the company’s total revenues in the next few years. BusinessLine caught up with Malkani to find out whether the company is on track to achieve its revenue targets.
Are you on track to meet the revenue targets of $2 billion in FY 2018 and $5 billion in FY 2020 that you blueprinted for your team to achieve under ‘Project IndiaGo?’
Three years ago, we embarked on a transformational journey, which was called IndiaGo. We have renamed it - Project Peacock, in line with our national bird, with the intent to spread the wings of transformation. It’s about making sure that we address all the white-space opportunities in the country such as smart cities, e-governance & citizen services, public safety, IoT, broadband access, community Wi-Fi and Digital India. With smartphone penetration rates and customers expecting digitisation of everything they do, we want to co-innovate with our customers/partners locally, to create a product set that will help us address India-specific needs.
We continue to outpace industry growth that is 9-10 per cent and have had a phenomenal run from Q4 of FY 2014 with 18 per cent revenue growth to beginning Q1 of FY 2017 with a bang at 28 per cent growth. India was called out as ‘Country of the Year’ for FY 2016. We are betting on India big time and I have no doubt that if the Indian IT industry continues to grow at the pace at which it is growing, we will also continue to grow. Project Peacock is not only about today’s numbers but it’s also about creating the right opportunities for us, whether it is 12 months down or even 36 months down the line.
What are the drivers that are fuelling double digit growth rates quarter-on-quarter for Cisco?
Our growth story is driven by the strong mandate in organisations to digitise their businesses, which has been further fuelled by demonetisation; the Digital India initiative, which is inspiring States across the country to invest in digital infrastructure; and our service provider business, which is witnessing a lot of disruption — we partnered with Reliance Jio to build out its entire 4G network infrastructure.
We have set up 6 innovation centres in Bengaluru, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jaipur and Gujarat to co-innovate with customers, start-ups and partners to build new solutions, products and engage in rapid prototyping around IoT and other digital technologies. We are co-innovating with Reliance, Genpact, Tech Mahindra and Sterlite, among others. Under our Country Digitisation Acceleration programme, we have deep engagements with 6-7 States across 45 projects, with more States in the anvil. Our intent is simple – we want to be the No. 1 strategic partner for customers on their digitisation journey.
What are your hiring plans to support growth targets?
We are looking to hire specialised skills, to complement what we have and have been hiring professionals with vertical expertise in IoT, Cyber security and software. We set up a Digital Transformation Office recently, a team that is headed by Lux Rao to drive the digital transformation agenda across multiple verticals including smart cities, IoT, digital banking, smart healthcare, smart education etc, which is tied to our global initiative. They are a team of specialists on digitisation, who will engage with customers, understand their industry-specific requirements, share best practices and drive innovation with customers in our innovation centres.