Nokia India MD Shivakumar elevated to head 90 countries

Announcing restructuring of its global sales network, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia today said its India head D Shivakumar has been promoted to head business in around 90 countries across the Middle-east, the African region and India.

"Shiv [Shivakumar] has done an exceptional job in India. He brings the best of talent from the India market. We would like to capitalise on his experience and capability that he has and bring it to the Middle-East and the African region," Nokia Corporation Executive Vice President (Sales) Colin Giles said.

Shivakumar took over Nokia in India amid rising competition from other low-cost phone makers, especially Chinese. Besides, the company faced intense competition in the smartphone segment from companies such as Samsung, Apple and BlackBerry.

The company had seen erosion in its market share from about 75% a few years ago to about 39% overall, according to some estimates.

However, Nokia manufacturing operations in India came to a full swing during his tenure with some part of the production going to export markets as well. In the entry level segment, however, Nokia continues to be a dominant player.

Shivkumar has steered the Indian operations during the most challenging times the company had seen in the country as well globally, keeping Nokia's market share in India still above its global average.

Nokia had 8 sales unit globally which were further divided in to 40 local sales unit. After the rejig, there would be 4 regions and 21 sales areas.

Shivakumar will head more than 90 countries under (India, Middle East and Africa) from the Dubai regional head quarters. According to sources, this region accounts for 35-40% of the total sales for Nokia and is one of the fastest growing region for company.

"I will be based out of Dubai. We are making Dubai the head office for IMEA because of the connectivity to various countries I will be looking after," Shivakumar said.

Colin said that Nokia will shutdown its manufacturing plant in Romania and the existing volume will be shifted to its plants in Asia, including India.

He said the decision to regroup various sales region under fewer areas is to develop customised product as per the needs of the region and increase the speed of response to meet the need of the local markets.

The three other new regions announced by Nokia are the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Americas will look after sales network in North and South America. This region will be headed by former Microsoft employee Chris Webber.

Europe regional head office will be based out of Finland and the region will be headed by Victor Saeijs.

Nokia has now incorporated China in Asia-pacific region. This region will be headed by Olivier Puech from regional head office in Beijing.