CHANNEL CHIEF
Launching tomorrow’s
telecom brands
Sandeep Saihgal and tchannel are specialists in go to market
strategies for tomorrow’s mobile and telecommunication
brands. By Arun Shankar.
Every brand has
had challenges
and each journey
has been a
memorable one.
Sandeep Saihgal is CEO
and Co-founder of
tchannl
S
andeep Saihgal is CEO and Co-
founder of tchannl, a strategic
partner for telecommunication and
consumer electronic businesses across
the Middle East and Africa. Saihgal has
previously established and headed various
operations in different regions, including
the Middle East and Africa, India and
Europe, and also within various market
segments, including telecommunications,
air conditioning, home appliances,
consumer electronics and electrical. He
was recently Vice President in Huawei’s
Device division. He also headed the
RIM BlackBerry operations in the
Middle East, as well as managing the
telecommunications business unit of
Samsung in the Middle East and North
Africa. For Saihgal, every brand, with
which he has been engaged, has had its
challenges and each journey has been
a memorable one. From launching the
Samsung business in India, to establishing
the Samsung mobile footprint in the
Middle East, to finding his feet in Europe
with Videocon, then making Blackberry
the most loved device in the region, and
setting up Huawei’s operations. “Through
26 years, I have had memorable times
with each brand with which I have been
associated and the excitement has never
stopped,” he reflects.
From Saihgal’s point of view, the most
challenging part of his role at tchannl is
to analyse and understand the objective,
placement, positioning, significance and
segmentation of the brand with which
tchannl choses to partner. And after that
to match it with the changing IT and
telecommunication needs in the market,
followed by injection of the brand into
the market.
From his college days, Saihgal was
attracted to technology and used to
repair devices for his friends. In 2004,
after working for 14 years in consumer
electronics with brands including
Kelvinator, Whirlpool, and Samsung, he
felt he was at a crossroads. Even before the
era of smartphones had started, 13 years
ago, Saihgal felt that telecommunications
and mobile phones was an industry that
would change people lives and how business
would be conducted. “I wanted to be part
of this evolution and joined it before the
smartphone era started,” he explains.
Saihgal’s management style rests in
developing people who are leaders and
managers, and team players. For him,
giving empowerment to the team with
responsibility and accountability has been a
mainstay. While building his teams, Saihgal’s
approach is to find a leader who has the right
attitude, rather than finding a leader with
the right experience but maybe not a suitable
attitude. “I always wanted to be a leader and
not a manager who micro manages.”
Looking forward, Saihgal believes a hot
technology will be machine to machine
connectivity and the ability to manage
everything around us from a hand-phone.
Away from work, he spends time
reading up on new technologies and other
global updates, spends time with his family
and plays golf. Does he need to destress?
Not necessarily, feels Saihgal. “If you enjoy
what you do, it automatically copes with
stress. I have always enjoyed my work with
the travelling it brought, brand building,
and channel development.”
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