Srivastava claims that he never had any predisposition for sales and marketing. But taking challenges was something that he valued a lot. This is probably what prompted him to take charge of Western Digital though the company has very low brand recall in the market.

Never say die andgive your 100 percent to whatever you do. These are the twin philosophies that Sharad Srivastava of Western Digital believes in. As Director of Sales-India and South Asia, Western Digital he has taken the mammoth responsibility of making the brand known to every PC user in the country. For Srivastava sales is the byproduct of marketing and it is effective marketing that concludes into sales.

Since childhood, Srivastava had an enormous passion for pursuing higher studies in engineering. He holds a degree in electronics and communication engineering from the NIT Kurukshetra. He has also acquired an MBA diploma in international marketing while he was serving Seagate in Singapore.

As a child, Srivastava used to toy around with household electronic gadgets to see their internal mechanism. He recalls, "Since childhood I had some sort of inclination for research and development activities, mostly related to electronics. It was this very tendency that translated into my fascination for dissecting electronic devices to see through them as to how they were made, for which I frequently used to get scolding from my elders."

Sharad Srivastava, Director-Sales, Western Digital

Education Graduate in electronics and communication engineering from NIT, Kurukshetra. Diploma in international marketing from Singapore First job Hindustan Computers Ltd in 1985 Best-known qualities Aptitude for doing things differently, approachability and punctuality Immediate goal To make Western Digital a household name Fond of Listening to instrumental music and old melodies and reading management books Favorite adage Change is a constant thing

Sticking to jobs
In an industry that is infamously famous for frequent job hopping by company executives Srivastava has changed jobs only twice during his career spanning more than 20 years. He embarked upon his journey of working in the IT trade in 1985 with homegrown PC manufacturing company HCL. Initially, he served in the R&D division of Hindustan Computers Ltd (HCL) where he bore responsibility of diagnostics department of peripherals and storage division of HCL.

After spending five and a half years in HCL, Srivastava shifted to Seagate in 1991 as field application engineer and soon rose swiftly up the corporate ladder.

He was transferred to Seagate's Singapore office in mid nineties. It was in 1996 that Srivastava shifted to the sales and marketing division of Seagate, the area that bore a very imperceptible connection with engineering. Srivastava clarifies, "I have faith in doing things differently. Although I never had any predisposition for sales and marketing but taking challenges is something that I value a lot. I believe that as an individual one should not be averse to changes and take them into strike effortlessly."

Carrying on in the face of adversity
It is his never say die approach that keeps Srivastava going all the times. He opines, "One should not loose hope if they don't see results coming instantaneously, but try to keep their spirits high in order to arrive at results."

In his current position of Director-Sales in Western Digital, Srivastava is responsible for upgrading and building the channel sales network, improvising service support infrastructure and devising brand-building initiatives. The door-to-door warranty support service and appointing regional volume distributors are the brainchild of Srivastava.

He said, "The current competitive scenarios are entirely different from the ones that were prevalent in early days when IT was firming its position in India. Today's customer is well informed and has very high expectations from vendors. Hence in order to keep customers faith alive, top-of-the-charts service support is the mantra."

Respected by peers
Srivastava's image amongst the channel is that of a well-informed and committed manager. Says Ajay Singhania of Venktron Digital Systems, "Srivastava is a man of multiple talent. He always has fantastic knowledge about the products he brings to us and his relationship building capabilities with channel partner inspires us to work with him."

Singhania knows Srivastava since he was associated with Seagate. Singhania reminisces how one day, after joining Western Digital, Srivastava offered him distributionship of Western Digital products. He explained, "It was a short five minute meeting during which Srivastava asked me if I was interested in selling Western Digital products, and the process which otherwise would have taken rounds of discussions and paper work was
finalized in a spilt second."

Partners feel that Western Digital would now log superb growth in the Indian market place since it has got the backing of a man who possesses the competence to bring success to the brand. Agreeing with the statement Kapil Wadhwa of Delhi-based Champion Computers opined, "I have known Srivastava since more than a decade. It is his image, or more precisely his brand that will make all the difference to Western Digital, which earlier lacked the sheen to attract partners and customers alike."

His friends know Srivastava for his simplicity and focused approach. Ritesh Chopra, Srivastava's close friend and ex-colleagues added, "His aptitude for looking at things from their simplest perspective makes him a person admired by all. I remember the times when we used to travel frequently and start thinking crazy stuff, which eventually turned out to be the pioneering business initiatives."

On his good standing among channel partners Srivastava says, "Since the time I have started, it has been part of my agenda to maintain unremitting contact with channel partners. I usually spend 70-80 percent of my time in the field, meeting partners to help them develop a sense of confidence in the brand."

ANJALI CHOUDHARY

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