Mukul Mathur
Director, Business Partners & CSI
IBM India / South Asia
Please share your past industry experiences.
I was appointed as Director - Channels & CSI, IBM India / South Asia in January 2010. In this role, I am responsible for developing initiatives and programs to drive simplicity, greater profitability and growth for the enterprise channels across the ISA region. In addition, I am responsible for managing IBM relationship and business with the Computer Services industry customers in India. In my twenty years of IT industry experience, more than fifteen years have been with IBM. Prior to this, I also held multiple responsibilities in client relationship management, Brand Management and Sales.
What is your strategy around support?
16th of June marks a very significant milestone for IBM. It is our 100th year as a Corporation. People who are familiar with IBM's history are often struck not merely by our longevity, but with the fact that the company has continually changed. Over the past 40 years, Business Partners have played a key role in helping drive many of the innovations that have led us up to this, IBM's centennial year. Way back in 2003-04, we began focussing on helping the channel build skills and capabilities to offer client more than just point products to focus on solution selling. That piece of work and investments we did, way before other vendors in the industry, helped us set a strong base for the robust channel network that we have today.
[ He holds an MBA in Marketing & Finance (1993) and is an Engineering graduate (DU - 1988). He is amongst select few who successfully completed advance management programs, namely IBM Client Executive Certification (Harvard), IBM Bright Blue Program certification (Duke) and eCornell Certification on Strategic Thinking and Planning (Cornell). ]
How do you differentiate IBM from competiton?
Over the last two years, we have enhanced our focus around three key pillars - Simplicity, Growth and Profitability. We have continued to deliver on our promise to simplify the way we do business with our Business Partners and help them improve profitability and accelerate growth. Above all, I think our biggest differentiator is the clarity of our vision. Our partners have a clear vision for where we are going for the next five years, our 2015 roadmap, and that is allowing them to think longer term about their business models and where they want to go with IBM.
What makes you successful amongst the channel community?
I would attribute our success to our core values and are determined that actions will be driven by these values. Jointly with our partners, we are dedicated to our client's success. This is our vision of a Smarter Planet, where we work with our partners to solve the biggest and the most niggling problems that our business and society face. And we have to do all this by taking personal responsibility for all of our relationships with our key stakeholders including our partners, built on mutual trust.
