India not a low cost destination: Alcatel CEO

Global communication solution provider Alcatel-Lucent is bullish on India according to CEO Ben Verwaayen, who is here to attend the India Economic Summit.

Verwaayen, who recently took over the reins of Alcatel-Lucent, rates Indian talent highly. In fact, that is one of the two reasons he cites for Alacatels presence in India. The second reason is the huge size of the market. He does not look at India as a low-cost destination. Rather, he would be in some other country if it was only the cost aspect on which Alcatel was focused he says. He sees India as a high talent destination.

Verwaayen is confident of continued growth even in the present economic climate and maintains that it is the drive for quality that is important for the market. He pegged his expectations from growth of the company in India to be in high single digit or even double digits. In the Indian market, he said, one can see the involvement of technologies much faster.

According to Verwaayen, India is a very demanding market. He is, however, not willing to compromise on pricing and has a more disciplined profit-centric approach. One needs to be willing to say `no' if one can't make a profit, he said.

The company at present has a workforce of 5,000 and  the number is likely to substantially increase in about two years time, he said.