Nokia has announced restructuring of its global sales network into 4 regions and 21 sales area, with Nokia India MD, D. Shivakumar being promoted to head the company’s business in India, Middle-East and Africa, reports The Economic Times. Shivakumar will look after Nokia’s business in 90 countries across the region, and will be based out of the company’s regional head quarters in Dubai.
New Regions
The other new regions are the Americas, which will be headed by former Microsoft Employee, Chris Webber; Europe which will operate from Finland and be looked after by Victor Saeijs, and Asia Pacific which will operate out of Beijing and will be headed by Olivier Puech.
Nokia’s Executive VP(Sales), Colin Giles said that the restructuring would allow the company to develop customised products suited to the requirements of the region and allow it to respond quickly to meet them. Nokia will also shut down its Romania manufacturing plant, and production will be shifted to other units including India.
Losing Market Share
Going by Nokia’s last quarterly report, the company’s market share in the Smartphone market has declined significantly, particularly in Europe and China. Device sales for Nokia were down 20% year-on-year and 18% sequentially, at 88.5 million units. India, Middle East and Africa are regions where Nokia is still holding fort, since Nokia has good market penetration through the sales of its feature phones.
Although, other players including local ones, are eating into Nokia’s marketshare. In the US and to some extent in Europe, where smart phone penetration is high, Nokia has already losing share to Apple’s iPhone, and Android powered devices from handset makers like HTC and Samsung. The company is now betting on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform, for its revival and hopes that the move will help it in making a comeback in the smart phone business.
We feel that the restructuring would allow Nokia to focus on different regions with specific strategies, since the needs of emerging markets are different from the more mature markets.
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