Michel Riva, CEO of Swiss cable maker R&M, discusses with Pankaj Maru the company’s business, the impact of slowdown, new technologies used in cabling products, plans for the Indian market and much more.
Excerpts…
Please brief us about the company’s overall global business in the past year or so.
R&M has been able to grow steadily over the last couple of years. We have been able to see a double digit growth for the organization and win key global accounts across various regions. The future of the cabling industry looks bright and we are making strides in the right direction. The organization will continue to bring innovative, technologically superior products to the market. We invest heavily on R&D to ensure that the products we develop and launch are ready to meet requirements that arise in the future.
Given the sluggish economy, how much impact are you seeing in demand of cabling products?
The perception that global recession has had its effects on the best of economies is true. India has not been insulated from this effect, but there’s predominantly been a slowdown. This can be seen in the way the markets have performed and the cautious steps that are being taken by investors too. From the industry standpoint, we have seen many expansion plans that were stalled and recruitment frozen. Today, the market has recovered and there are many positives toward growth. We witness this positivity as companies previously hit by recession have moved into expansion mode with hiring of new staff, and infrastructure. Through these companies, we foresee larger volumes of business transactions and with it higher data and voice transmission requirements emerging. R&M has invested time and money into innovation even during this sluggish growth. We have seen positives through our unique differentiation in product design and we believe we will continue to see this in the future too.
Over the past few years, there’s been a rapid growth in telecom networks like 3G and 4G, evolution in enterprise mobility along with cloud computing. How do these developments go with cabling products and technologies?
The telecom sector is experiencing a revolution with relatively new market entrants and services like 3G being introduced in the India. The next technological wave coming into India is the 4G network and we can see that India is now getting onto that bandwagon. The telecom growth will require better networks which will have a direct impact on structured cabling. Telecom along with key sectors such as retail, automotive, manufacturing, IT/ITES as well as the public sector will need more stable, reliable networks and R&M will continue to provide newer, robust solutions for networking requirements of these sectors.
We can see cloud computing in enterprises requires higher bandwidths that can be effectively met by deploying fiber-optic based solutions. As these services gather more momentum, it will increase
the demand for fiber-optic solutions. Requirements set by business customers are becoming tougher and tougher. In this dynamic scenario, R&M sees its role as ensuring that the physical layer of next generation networks is reliable and allows for high-performance networks.
R&M has been a late entrant in the India market, so how are you trying to make your space among the customers and competitors as India is a price-sensitive market?
R&M has entered the Indian market relatively late in comparison to our competitors but this has in no way hampered our growth over the years. R&M’s innovative, Swiss-quality cabling products and solutions have really gathered momentum. The product quality and technical features help the market to offer a greater degree of differentiation and value to the end customers. R&M will continue to focus on developing our presence in all the sectors across India and also have a focus on the channel market, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Through the R&M Qualified Partner Program (QPP), we continue to train and certify partners and system integrators. We will continue to offer innovative products and solutions for office cabling, data center and FTTH (fiber-to-the-premises) markets, with the introduction of new products that help achieve higher performance and reliability to our enterprise customers.
What challenges are you facing in the Indian market?
R&M faces the same challenges in India as in any other market across the globe. The challenges of such an ever-changing market are of higher speeds, reliability of networks, their expandability, and offering a greater value proposition. But at present, the main challenge has been the currency fluctuations of the Indian economy.
How has the company performed in the Indian market despite being a late entrant here? What are your expectations from the India unit in terms of sales, revenues and overall growth?
We have been gaining key accounts even if we arrived late into India. R&M products and solutions are used across a myriad of sectors like IT/ITES, manufacturing, BFSI, healthcare, education, automotive, telecom, etc., to name a few. Each market has its own distinct set of requirements and given our portfolio of end-to-end cabling solutions, we are able to cater to those requirements. In 2012-13, the demand in Tier 1 cities and from major enterprises functioning in these cities contributed the highest. However, the emerging Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities also attracted demand and contributed significantly to our growth. R&M grew consistently year on year at a rate of over 20% and we would like to achieve this once again as we look to strive to success.
Which segments of the Indian market are you focusing on?
We as an organization would like to do business in all segments. Structured cabling forms the foundation for any communication or data network. This makes it an almost ubiquitous requirement in any sector. IT/ITES continues to be a major vertical which has the highest demand of structured cabling. The growth of data centers has also fueled demand for faster, high performance and high density structured cabling (Cat.6A) solutions. Manufacturing and automotive sectors also require an industrial grade of structured cabling that can shield the networks from foreign particles and water splashes.
Other sectors that we see growing are telecom, healthcare, hospitality and retail. R&M’s specialized portfolio of cabling solutions enables us to offer solutions that best suit each sector’s different requirements. For instance, with R&M’s end-to-end solution for data centers and FTTH networks facilitates organizations and system integrators for greater flexibility while designing their solutions such that they are future proof and can be administered with ease. R&M’s Swiss quality products and solutions facilitate the creation of higher performance and reliable IT infrastructure.
How strategic is India as a market for R&M compared to other regions or countries?
India as a market has a huge amount of potential. R&M feels that India at the moment is one of their main markets mainly due to the reason that the country has shown positive signs over the last few years. India as compared to other markets holds a huge importance. It is surely one of our important markets for business. Structured cabling forms the foundation for any communication or data network. This makes it an almost ubiquitous requirement in any sector. IT/ITES continues to be a major vertical which has the highest demand of structured cabling. The growth of data centers has also fueled demand for faster, high performance and high density structured cabling (Cat.6A) solutions.
