Since going public for the second time in December, Dell Technologies is seeing a healthy growth in margins. However, even as the global economic environment continues to be uncertain, India is turning out to be a beacon of hope for the technology giant.

In a conversation with BusinessLine , Thomas Sweet, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice-President, Dell, said that India is one of its fastest growing market.

“India is our second-fastest growing country right now.” said Sweet. “We’re progressing, growth is good. So we’re going to continue to push this business. We are close to $3 billion in India.”

 

Despite India being the second-fastest growing market for Dell and the company being overall bullish here, Sweet said challenges in the business environment continue to loom and that the government needs to do more.

“India is a very fast growing market for us but there needs to be maturity in infrastructure, around government initiatives, education and the unemployment dynamic. Healthy technology environment is fuelled by an educated population that has a rising standard of living. I do think there’s work to do here and more progress is needed,” said Sweet.

Dell is building plans based on all possible outcomes of the US-China trade war, which has led to a challenging business environment, he said.

“There is caution out there as companies are trying to understand what direction we are headed in. We’d like to see a trade agreement as companies like us can plan our supply chain appropriately,” said Sweet. He remained positive on the manufacturing capability of China which he feels will not be easy to match elsewhere, including in India. “Will India be an alternative for Dell for manufacturing? Probably not. But manufacturing is catching pace for Dell’s plant in India,” he said.

“We have a manufacturing plant in India and we are actually adding capacity to that plant for the Indian market consumption. But we’re absolutely producing in China. A vast majority of electronics supply chain moved there 25 years ago. That doesn’t move overnight,” he added. Sweet said that going private helped Dell transform itself and going public back again in December is further helping it gain financial flexibility for mergers and acquisitions, but fundamentally he doesn’t expect any change in the company’s direction.

“We needed to go private to re-transform the company in terms of adjustments needed to be made in business models. The company had become too cautious and risk averse. Being private allowed us to change the culture quickly and get everyone focussed on growth over the intermediate to long term,” said Sweet.

But the operating principles of the company haven’t really changed, he said.“Michael Dell owns a majority and he’s focussed on long term growth. So our focus on how we’re running the company post going public hasn’t changed,” he said.

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