Key personnel resign from Samsung

Close on the heels of Vivek Prakash leaving the Korean major Samsung, the
Indian operations of the company have come under a major shake down as three of
its top executives have resigned from the company. Three top notch officials,
Volume Products Deputy GM, Sonal Anand; National Lifestyle Products Marketing
Manager - Sanjay Peer and Value Products Senior Manager - Aseem Kumar, have
exited the IT major's marketing department.

"I have got a better opportunity so I am moving on. I resigned last
month only and am taking a bit of a break at the moment. I am looking forward to
taking up my new assignment from April 1, 2005," informed Sonal. Harry Ahn
from Korea has been called to take over Sonal´s responsibilities from now on.

At a time when the company was in the process of coming to terms with Vivek's
resignation, will the recent spurt of resignations mean loss of market share to
the company? "I don't think that these resignations will have any effect
on the Samsung brand as such, the company has a very strong and robust brand. A
company like Samsung is always more than just the people. So I sincerely think
that the brand should do well in the future," Sonal explained.

However, there is a certain section of resellers who think that this will
have a major impact on the way the channel community perceives Samsung. With its
key movers and shakers leaving - the company's standing in the market is
likely to go down. More importantly, it was people like Vivek or Aseem who have
made the presence of the brand Samsung felt across all IT segments.

"Even Vivek resigning was enough for us to worry and now these people
have quit. These new resignations would further erode the company's trust
among its channel. We are already facing some problems with regards to payments.
Now its high time for the company to streamline its internal structure,"
informed a big Delhi-based Samsung products reseller on conditions of anonymity.

On the other hand, according to Sonal, it was the company's policy
structure that allowed people like Vivek to interact with the vibrant channel
community in a fluent way. Sonal assured that that will not change.

"It's true that we worked real hard to make Samsung the number one
choice of our consumers as well as the channel community. There are some solid
policies behind this and those policies are not going to change. Only the people
implementing those policies will change," he quipped.

ZIA ASKARI

CYBERMEDIA NEWS