Will Asus get a new MD for India?

Amrita Tejasvi

New Delhi

September 20th, 2007

The three-year contract of Andrew Tsui, currently MD of Asus India, is about
to expire. And it is rumored that it is unlikely that his contract will be
renewed. This indicates that he will now return to the company's headquarters in
Taiwan and will be replaced by someone else shortly.

When Asus was contacted, they preferred to stay
neutral on the issue and clarified that it is against the policies of company to
make its footnote on any issue that is based on market sources. Interestingly a
representative from another Taiwan-based motherboard company was also aware of
the rumors, but was unsure of the final decision by Asus' management.

Meanwhile, Asus is keeping the future gameplan of the imminent change in
management, very close to its chest. But this has not stopped dealers in India
from discussing the subject amongst themselves. This is largely because they
feel that in the past three years Tsui has been successful in providing the
brand a robust position in Indian market where today it gives tough competition
to other players.

"I have not been informed whether the MD of Asus India is going to
change so I cannot comment anything. But one thing is sure that Tsui has done a
good job for Indian market and today Asus motherboards are ranked well among
other players," commented S Choudhary, proprietor of Unique Compusofts, one
of the major dealers of Asus in India.

While Asus' channel partners are not aware of Tsui's likely departure they
were more or less uniamous in their statements that it really does not matter to
them whether the Indian market is managed by Andrew Tsui or anybody else. It is
simply because they don't have to interact with the company's MD for daily
business so it does not affect them anyway.

"It does not bother me who is the MD of Asus India. Asus products are
just a fraction of my business and I know how to sell it. The channel knows how
to make or break any brand in the market. So if Asus want to continue its
business in India they will have to approach us in any case no matter who the
'big boss' is. Even if they don't operate in India, its dealers won't face any
loss as there are plenty of other brands floating in the market," shared
one of the prominent Asus dealers in India. At the same time, they do agree that
having a proactive leader heading the company will help Asus gain more market
share in the country or at least maintain their existing market share. This is
of particular significance because the motherboard business is heating up with
the increased aggression from other players like Gigabyte, ASRock, Foxconn, ECS,
etc.