BackCisco rejigs India ops; appoints Dinesh Malkani as president sales
Changes reflect the strategic importance of India for the company
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New Delhi: US-based technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. on Thursday announced a new leadership team for its Indian operations, which includes Dinesh Malkani as president (sales) for the country as well as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) region.
Amit Phadnis will be president (engineering) and India site leader, and V.C. Gopalratnam will be president (strategy, planning and operations) for India and chief information officer (CIO), Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China.
The changes reflect the strategic importance of India for the company, Cisco said in a statement.
The California-based firm, which currently derives about 2% of its over $48 billion global revenue from India, expects the contribution to grow to 5% over the next five years on the back of strong demand for cloud and networking services.
“Together, this leadership team will help accelerate Cisco’s momentum in India by strengthening its focus on innovation to lead market transitions," Cisco said.
It added that working with the government to bring technology and services to villages, which will “benefit the masses", is a key priority for the company.
Malkani takes over from Jeff White and will report to Irving Tan, Cisco’s president, Asia Pacific and Japan.
He is to push the firm’s senior level external engagement, including those with government and industry associations, to drive growth and market leadership in India and the Saarc region. Malkani earlier held the position of vice-president (sales).
“The India site has been at the forefront of innovation with a wealth of engineering talent and skill. Cisco remains committed to the development of strong local leadership in the region," Tan said.
The three new leaders will focus on greater integration between sales, engineering and other functions at the India site, he added.
Phadnis will lead Cisco’s focus on innovation, ecosystem and talent development in the country.
He will also drive the university relations strategy and talent development for the employee base in India, which is core to Cisco’s emerging markets strategy.
Gopalratnmam, with the newly created role of president of strategy, planning and operations for Cisco India Ltd, is to improve synergy between the firm’s internal information technology (IT) organization and the company’s technology roadmap.
He will also oversee the enablement of Cisco’s priorities of inclusion and diversity (I&D), employee volunteering and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
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