' Consumers are getting back to mkt'.

Focus is on youth to drive the company's growth

LAST year, when the credit crisis hit the global economies, consumer markets suffered massive fallout, as credit literally dried up. For HCL Infosystems, India's largest manufacturer of personal computers ( PCs), it translated into a long and painful gap period in its growth story, with several quarters of negligible or lacklustre growth. But with the global economies now showing signs of recovery, and the Indian banking system reinstating easy consumer finance schemes, things have started looking up.

For 59- year old Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and chief executive officer ( CEO) of HCL Infosystems and one of the six founding partners of HCL back in 1976, the surest indicator of revival is already here, " Consumers are getting back," he says.

That didn't look like happening in a hurry even last year, when both corporates and consumers slashed spending on IT products. For HCL Infosystems, hived off as the hardware subsidiary of HCL a few years ago, the downside of being in a cutting edge sector was the accelerated impact of the financial meltdown, even though the economy as a whole had only slowed down and not stopped growing.

" We were caught in this threepronged problem -- of dealers and distributors not having funds to buy inventories, banks not lending, and consumers shying from spending," he says.

But now, " The worst is behind us and we are now in the early days of revival," insists Chowdhry, adding, " the festival season will further boost the buying mood." With the consumer market ' Consumers are getting back to mkt' revival on track, HCL recently unveiled its new marketing strategy focused on the Gen Next mobile consumer. All of HCL's Digilife stores and retail outlets have been rebranded as part of this strategy, and the focus is to reach out to the youth in all possible ways.

Says Chowdhry, " We are very well recognised in the government, SME and corporate sector but now it's the turn of the youth. The life of the youth literally revolves around a PC. And here we are offering products that offer maximum excitement and value for money. The features, right from the key board to the screen, all have been custom- made keeping youth's preference in mind.

High- end gaming systems to the sleekest laptops are on offer from the company's stable." The idea of working on new strategies and tapping new consumer segments is nothing new for this IT industry veteran, who completed his B. Tech from Jabalpur Engineering College over three decades back and joined Delhi Cloth Mills ( DCM). During his four- year stint with DCM, Chowdhry came in contact with Shiv Nadar, Arjun Malhotra, D. S. Puri, Y. C. Vaidya and Subhash Arora. In 1976- 77, all of them set up a small computer assembly unit in Noida, then a new satellite development outside Delhi.

The products were designed and marketed under the label of Hindustan Computers Ltd. In 1994, Chowdhry took over the reins of the company from Shiv Nadar. Since then it has grown from Rs 400 crore to a present Rs 13,500- crore IT goliath.

The progression from a small unit to an MNC has been meteoric and for Chowdhry the progression in his own words was from travelling in a battered Fiat to market products at IITs to driving his favourite machine -- a Bentley.

With diversification being undertaken at each and every level, an important area of focus for the company has been on research and development ( R& D).

Internally, as far as the company's management is concerned the next league of leaders has been trained well to take on charge. Says Chowdhry, " None of my children are going to join the company. Each SBU is now headed by a strong leader. The DNA of the management team is capable of taking on any challenge and I shall continue working as long as I can."

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