Nokia's Shivakumar to head biz in 90 countries

Nokia India MD D Shivakumar has been promoted to head the business in 90 countries across West Asia, the African region and India, which contributes 35-40 per cent of the company’s total sales. Dubai will be the hub for the region.

The company will appoint a new head for its India operations, who will report to Shivakumar.

The Finland-based handset maker also announced a major restructuring exercise to realign its business, that may result into 3,500 job cuts globally.

But it would have minimal impact on India, the company said.

As part of the realignment, Nokia has decided to scale down the number units globally to four from the existing eight units, and 21 sales units from 40 at present. After the restructuring exercise, there will be four regions and 21 sales areas, said Nokia Corporation executive vice-president (sales) Colin Giles.

The restructuring move was prompted by rising competition from smartphones manufacturers Apple and Samsung, among others, that resulted in Nokia losing out on market share. The company’s share in the Indian market also saw a decline from 75 per cent a few years back to less than 40 per cent.

The three other new regions announced by Nokia are the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. The Americas will oversee the sales network in North and South America. The region will be headed by former Microsoft employee Chris Webber. The Europe regional head office will be based out of Finland and will be headed by Victor Saeijs.

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

The company will also shutdown its manufacturing plant in Romania and the existing volume will be shifted to its plants in Asia, including India. The move to regroup various sales region under fewer areas was part of a plan to focus more on customised products that would cater to local needs.