With over three decades of experience in the field, Harish has shown great mettle in his skills as he led the transformation of Acer India from a predominantly PC brand to a diverse IT technology brand with presence across PC, gaming, IT hardware business solutions, projectors, monitors, workstations, supercomputers, Virtual Reality, and Smart City Solutions. Under his astute leadership of two decades, the brand has gained a magnanimous identity on international platforms and held 6.3 percent of the global market share in consumer PC sales, in July-September 2019.
Harish has been instrumental in charting Acer business growth by laying a strong foundation across Commercial and Consumer business over the last 20 years.
Currently, his focus is on getting Acer established as a leader in the gaming arena. Under his aegis, Acer has entered the market at the right time with a wide range of products under the Predator series. Their payment options are helping budding and pro gamers to make ownership easier through our range of payment plans, free accessories, extended warranties, etc. They are also organizing key gaming events like Predator Gaming League in India to build and increase awareness. In 2018, Acer was the only brand to have launched the first Windows Mixed Reality Headset in the country.
Acer has two lines of gaming laptops; Helios and Nitro. Acer has also launched a series of gaming accessories to further enhance the gaming experience.
In addition, Acer is planning to put out a platform called planet nine, which will have both gamers and coaches registering on it and anyone can get trained by experts from any part of the world. In order to do all this, it also has partnerships with many software and hardware players.
THE JOURNEY AT ACER
Having joined Acer as General Manager – Sales in July 1999, Harish was later empowered with the leadership of the India Sales & Marketing function for the erstwhile Enterprise Product division, and successfully built Acer India’s portfolio in all market segments. He became the Managing Director of Acer India in December 2011 and was elevated to the position of ‘President and Managing Director’ in May 2016. He has been efficiently fulfilling his countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability besides ensuring that the brand meets its long term vision of ‘Breaking barriers between people and technology’. Since September 2016, he has also been heading the Acer ‘Pan Asia Pacific (PAP) Regional Commercial Task Team’ which handles commercial strategy planning and implementation for the PAP region.
Under his exemplary leadership, Acer India has won numerous awards including India’s Most Trusted Computer Brand, Brand Excellence Award and the Best Customer Service Initiative award, No.1 PC gaming brand in India, No.2 PC monitor brand in India, No.1 PC brand in Government segment, No.1 PC desktop brand in Education segment, Golden Peacock award for Innovation, Best Customer Service award, and Retail Excellence Award.
A SOLUTION-CENTRIC APPROACH
Staying true to the Acer philosophy of presenting cutting-edge modern solutions to everyday computing and IT requirements, Harish has led his team at the company with a strong solution-centric approach, where the products and services are designed to serve the modern consumers.
In his 20-year long journey with the brand, Harish has never differentiated between the customers based on the geography they come from. For instance, one of Acer’s large customers is Jammu and Kashmir Bank and 75 percent of the branches are in J&K. To make sure the bank receives uninterrupted support and assistance all the time, the brand built up a system to make sure that both spare and technicians are available on-demand and also trained the team to go into a hostile region like that.
Harish makes sure that they have a much more robust system for premium products and in well-developed regions of the country, especially for the consumer segment and not just for enterprises.
NURTURING PHILOSOPHIES
His philosophy is that running a company is like establishing a garden. One has to sow the seeds, feed, and water, and then watch as the plants push their way into the light. The hard part that follows this is keeping the garden alive, coaxing it into providing as much fruit as possible, and constantly adding new plants and getting more production out of the same patch.
He aims to nurture longevity in the brand’s consumers, ensuring they maintain long-term partnerships with Acer.
Instead of a one-off seller, he wants to come out as a full-time supplier that keeps on innovating and introducing new technologies matching pace with industry updates.
Highlighting his approach, Harish once shared with a media portal, “When I approach a potential customer, my pitch is: ‘I’d like to be your IT partner’, which means I must make sure I supply fresh technology and long-lasting products that will perform the task they’ve been bought for. I also need to be able to maintain the system to the customer’s satisfaction and offer roundthe-clock service, back-up service, and spare parts delivery 365 days of the year.”
Harish is a farsighted strategist who maintains ethical business standards, encourages his team of experts to adopt an entrepreneurial spirit and promotes a culture of teamwork.
He is constantly hungry for new business opportunities and keeps himself up-todate with all the latest developments, and keeps updating the consumers with advantages of switching their procurement — promising focus, attention, maximum 4-hour response times, service, and proof that the processes and systems are in place so Acer can deliver on its promises.
