'Getting to the forefront of premium quality tech'

It’s a Sony! A company Made in Japan, yet reverberating in the heart of India’s electronics market since 1994. The company has come a long way, offering cutting-edge audio visual goodness to patrons. Even an onslaught of powerful competitors with an array of great products has not deterred Sony, which is striving to remain the quintessential electronics brand.

Sony India Managing Director Kenichiro Hibi tells DH’s Hrithik Kiran Bagade what has made the country the company’s fourth biggest market globally. Edited excerpts:

How has Sony’s journey in India been?

Sony started India operations in 1994. For the last 23 years, Sony India’s vision of serving the market with strong products and a good distribution network of 10,000 counters has gone well, considering that India is a huge country and market. Today, we have 25 branches, which include offices, sales force, accounting and so on. Across zones -- East, North, South, and West -- we sell hardware products, and have set up over 300 service points. We have 30 warehouses to stock products.

Over the years, we’ve continued on a strong growth path, owing to the country also developing. Last year, we grew at a CAGR of 20%, over 2015. We aim for better growth this year.

What is driving growth for the company?

As said, our growth is led by the market which has continued to mature and develop itself, getting much bigger. We are also developing innovative, attractive and class-leading products which help us gain more share. In order to grow the business, there are two ways: when the market grows, we grow along; and, if we are more competitive, we can still garner more market share.

As one can see, the electronics market in general is growing at 20%, while minutely different between categories. For instance, with our main focus area, panels/TVs, the industry is growing at around 15%. Our endeavour is to grow in accordance with the industry, or bigger than that.

When it comes to TVs, there is tough competition especially from Korean brands. What is your counter-strategy?

The booming TV industry has a lot of big players, and each product is driven by some strategy. Our strategy has constantly been to provide more premium products, along with superior quality, with no compromise on lowering input costs in order to economise with the market.

Sony has never, and will never compromise with quality. Our customers are on the lookout for new technologies all the time, and we strive to meet those requirements. And we always bring in new innovations, which feature premiumness. We don’t innovate something new as an entry-level product. In our view, premium also refers to delivering differently. In terms of our differentiator, let’s take an example; when we talk about TVs, where we can differentiate is in quality, picture, audio, navigation/user interface and design.

Where do you see demand for Sony products?

The market is continuing to develop and grow. For instance, in the TV segment, when we see metros, demand is more for bigger TVs, and we can make big business as we have a robust portfolio. Even upcountry, due to budget constraints, there could be less demand for big TVs, but demand for 24- or 32-inch sets persist. All across, the market has been demanding products, albeit driven by different trends.

In terms of audio too, once everyone demands a mobile phone, they want good-quality headphones, so the latter is growing along with the former. Music is shifting from pen drives to mobile phones. Demand for one product is creating and driving demand for another. In this way, the market, the industry, and even our business continue to grow. We are bullish across categories, be it TV, mobile, or audio, among others.

Gaming hasn’t caught on with India, as it has in the US and Japan. Do you feel it’s still relevant to lay as much importance on PlayStation, as much as on the Bravia?

Both are growing. No doubt, TV is a major chunk of our business, but PS has started gaining traction, since gaming in general (mobile, PC, etc) has become very popular. However, Indian parents’ mindset is that games are not good for kids, who still manage to play on their mobiles. The gaming (consoles) market is growing, and we are definitely the leaders. But we must create demand. As far as the PS segment is concerned, we are also involved in market creation.

What is your R&D and manufacturing plan for India?

We have a software centre in Bengaluru which employs 1,500 engineers, who are involved in developing software for Sony products around the world. We assemble TVs in Tamil Nadu, while media devices are made in Noida. All other products are imported from plants in Japan, Malaysia, China and Thailand. But, we are looking at more input localisation every year.

What are the latest products from Sony?

In line with the upcoming festive season, we are launching new products. We just launched the OLED A1 TV and professional camera Alpha 9. We are planning to launch new mobile phones this month. We’re expecting 20% sales growth during this festive season, compared with last year. Most of our sales are from the offline channel.