Marketing IT in India, perspectives of Mr. Murali Raman, country manager, IBM India

• Published date: 01 July 2003
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.10081
• Author: Aruna Chandra
• Date: 01 July 2003

T

399

Interview: Marketing IT in India,

Perspectives of Mr. Murali Raman,

Country Manager, IBM India

Aruna Chandra

INTRODUCTION

he transition of big emerging markets to freer open markets is of interest to both

academics and practitioners alike. More recently, the information technology rev-

olution has swept across the world, transforming several industries and

economies. Attracted by the growth opportunities in big emerging markets such

as India and China, firms are entering these markets at a rapid pace. India, in par-

ticular, has been attracting investor interest due to its advantage in IT-related

high technology, its large domestic market, its well-developed R&D infrastruc-

ture, its pool of cost-competitive technical talent, and the sophistication of its IT

vendors. The software and information technology industry is one of the most

dynamic sectors in the Indian economy. Since 1991, the sector has grown at an

average annual rate of over 50% to sales of $8.3 billion in 2000, constituting 15%

of India’s exports (Economist, 2001). NASSCOM, the information technology

trade association in India, predicts expor ts in this sector to rise to $50 billion by

2008. While this figure may seem unduly optimistic, the conditions for IT

growth are favorable in India, with its strong institutions of higher education

training world class technical talent, new entrepreneurial activity in the IT sector

spurred by returning nonresident Indians (NRIs) as well as home-grown

entrepreneurs, and a government determined to remove the bottlenecks to

growth in this sector, i.e., power and telecommunications.

Several leading global IT firms have been entering India to take advantage of the

growth in consumer and business markets for high technology products and ser-

vices, as well as an outsource base. One company, IBM, provides a prototype

Thunderbird International Business Review, Vol. 45(4) 399–407 • July–August 2003

© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

DOI: 10.1002/tie.10081

Aruna Chandra is an assistant professor of management at Indiana State University, Terre Haute.