Smartphone maker Xiaomi has finally announced Alvin Tse as the replacement of out-going India head Manu Kumar Jain.
While Manu Kumar Jain is still with Xiaomi – he has transitioned into a role of a Group VP and is now managing International strategy marketing and PR based out of the Middle East.
Along with Alvin, who’s been leading the Indonesian operations for the company, Xiaomi has also brought back industry-veteran Anuj Sharma as its Chief Marketing Officer. Sharma has been leading Poco India and will now look to bolster Xiaomi’s position in the market.
According to the company, the rest of the leadership team – which includes the likes of Muralikrishnan B, Raghu Reddy, and Sameer BS Rao-- remains unchanged. Sharma’s replacement at Poco has not been announced yet.
Challenging times ahead
Though the new leadership isn’t actually new to the Indian market as Xiaomi’s new India and had helped the India team during its early days in the country, the market dynamics have changed drastically.
The company is facing government scrutiny and ED has recently announced the seizure of its assets worth over Rs. 5500 crores in the country. The company has been accused of flouting FEMA or Foreign Exchange Management Act and remitting money out of the country, illegally.
While Xiaomi has declined any wrongdoings, the Karnataka Government has put an interim stay on the order. The company has been allowed to carry out business as usual till the next hearing which is slated to take place on June 8.
Dip in numbers is a concern too
Xiaomi is known for selling its devices, especially smartphones at razor-thin margins. This coupled with aggressive marketing has helped the company dethrone South Korean smartphone maker Samsung for the market leader position in India.
However, data from various agencies reveal that after a few years of slow growth, Samsung isn’t giving up easily and is fighting back strongly. Though Xiaomi enjoys a market share of 21 per cent, it has experienced a dip of 21 per cent. On the other hand, Oppo’s offshoot, Realme is fast catching up and has registered a staggering 40 per cent uptick annually.
Hence the task of the new leadership team is cut out to not only fight the challenges from the government agencies but need to quickly find ways to arrest this dip. This needs to be done while still offering devices at aggressive price points because the competition is leaving no stone unturned to increase their market share.
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