Micromax market share dips in professional regime

Increasing pressure from competing brands and shrinking market share may have proved fatal for the company's professional team

Micromax may have recently featured among the top global brands, but its professional management team has failed to maintain its toehold in the market. Since its latest set of management professionals joined India’s second largest mobile handset company, mostly during mid-2014, its market share has declined by 3.3 per cent.

Micromax’s latest team of professionals led by Sanjay Kapoor joined the company in June 2014. Kapoor, a former chief executive and a veteran from Bharti Airtel, joined the handset major as chairman. Vineet Taneja entered Micromax as its chief executive (CEO) in September 2014 from its arch rival Samsung, where he served as country head for mobile and digital imaging business.

During July-September 2014, Micromax had a share of some 20 per cent of the domestic smartphone market. A year later, its market share dropped to 16.7 per cent, according to International Data Corporation’s latest report. While Kapoor departed in October last year, speculation is rife in the industry that Taneja may leave the company, too.

When asked, Micromax co-founder Rajesh Agarwal told Business Standard, “We have not received any resignation from Vineet Taneja. It may be that he is planning something.” He declined further comments. Taneja also maintained that he had not resigned yet.

Micromax has been in the news, especially since 2010, for frequent changes in its management, many of which, according to sources , were the result of differences of opinions between its co-founders (and owners) and the professional management team.

Variances in both the manner in which the business has been run as well as the company’s valuation over time have been a bone of contention since the beginning.

The company has been in a fix ever since it first looked at opting for an IPO in 2010 to sell 10 per cent stakes at a valuation of $1 billion. However, it withdrew the offer in July 2011. In October 2013, Deepak Mehrotra, the then CEO, quit abruptly, followed by Ajay Sharma, who joined the company from HTC to lead its smartphones division but exited in January 2014.

According to industry experts, misreading the market trend has cost the company smartphones some market share during the year 2015, apart from pressure from its Indian peers including players like Intex and Chinese major Lenovo. While in Q3, 2014, both Intex and Lenovo held less than five per cent market share each and featured below the top five brands in India. In Q3, 2015, they held 10.8 per cent (Intex) and 9.5 per cent (Lenovo and Motorola), respectively. Intex is currently the third largest smartphone player, followed by Lenovo.