“REMAIN HUNGRY FOR GROWTH AND CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO”

RAJIV BHALLA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BARCO INDIA

Q: What was the problem that you were grappling with?

A:

I joined Barco in May 2016, following stints in Intel, NEC and Microsoft. The company was in the midst of consolidating its position in the market and the focus was on enabling growth and boosting sales. I realised that despite Barco being a leader in visualisation technologies, and India being a great centre of excellence, we were facing a challenge in terms of sales and the teams were not able to fully leverage on-site capabilities. There was a need to turn around this situation.

Q: Who did you approach and why? A:

While trying to resolve this issue, I sought inspiration from the experience and learnings acquired during my stint at Microsoft India. I am greatly inspired by the ex-chairman of Microsoft India, Ravi Venkatesan, and his advice on what it takes to succeed in India. It helped me navigate the situation that we were facing at Barco India.

Q: What was the best advice you ever received?

A:

The best advice I ever received was to remain hungry for growth and challenge the status quo. I realised that some of the obstacles we face on our path to success are of our own making. To reach our potential, we must learn to overcome them. Often, after achieving success, we sometimes become our own enemies. To realise our potential, we must learn to get out of our own way.

Q: How effective was it in resolving your problem?

A:

The first in my list of priorities was to drive exponential sales growth. We put to action the ‘ In Country for Country’ philosophy, which involves India-specific value definitions, price points, products and go-to-market strategy. We localised our product offerings, price points and go-to-market approaches to target consumers and this helped us double our sales in three years.