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Samsung is reducing its workforce in India after a sharp drop in sales, leading to the company's lowest value and volume market share in over a decade. Layoffs will impact functions such as sales, marketing, and operations, with job losses possibly affecting up to 20% of its Indian workforce, Moneycontrol reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

While some insiders estimate the layoffs to be in "high single digits," others suggest a more significant reduction is underway. 

A restructuring process is already in motion, with the potential for key executive departures. Another source told Moneycontrol, "The numbers could go as high as 20 per cent of the Indian workforce," highlighting the depth of the cuts. 

Samsung has faced stiff competition from Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Vivo, which have rapidly gained market share. Additionally, Samsung's relationships with offline retailers have soured due to pricing discrepancies between online platforms and large-format stores, lower margins compared to Chinese competitors, and uncertainty over product unavailability.

These challenges have triggered an exodus of senior executives, with around 30 high-level staff from retail, marketing, and business development leaving the company and moving to competitors like Xiaomi.

The company's difficulties are exacerbated by ongoing disputes with the All-India Mobile Retailer Association (AIMRA), which has demanded improved margins, consistent pricing, and better support. 

In 2023, Samsung reclaimed its status as the leading smartphone brand in India. However, it was short-lived. According to data from market research firms IDC, Counterpoint, and Canalys, the company faced a steep decline in the subsequent months. By the second quarter of 2024, from April to June, Samsung had slipped to third place in terms of smartphone shipment volumes. It had a 15.4 percent decrease in shipments which resulted in Samsung's volume market share falling to just 12.9 percent.

Another data shared by IDC with Moneycontrol, Samsung's value market share plummeted to 16 percent in 2024, seeing a sharp decline from the 23 percent share it held in the previous quarter. This also marked a significant YoY drop from the 21 percent share in the same period the previous year. 

Samsung to make staff cuts in sales, marketing functions in India: Report

The labour union of Samsung Electronics has declared an indefinite strike, demanding better pay. The labour union of more than 28,000 workers is likely to impact the impact the production of the world's largest maker of memory chips.


According to Bloomberg news agency, thousands of workers rallied on Monday outside the chip-making complexes of Samsung in Seoul, South Korea. It is the largest "organised" labour action in South Korea's biggest company in half-century history.


<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/cheil-india-appoints-mandeep-sharma-as-the-national-head-cheil-india-samsung-business-33494.htm">Cheil India appoints Mandeep Sharma as the National Head, Cheil India – Samsung Business</a>


The union told Bloomberg news agency, "We have identified line production disruptions and the company will regret this decision".


<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-marketing/samsung-partners-with-paytm-to-bring-travel-entertainment-services-to-samsung-wallet-in-india-34144.htm">Samsung partners with Paytm to bring travel, entertainment services to Samsung Wallet in India</a>


The union added that the management will eventually relent and come to the negotiating table.


According to a Bloomberg report, most of the production of Samsung is automated but the company cannot afford any manufacturing snarls as it is trying to convince Nvidia Corp to use its high-bandwidth memory. The strike also coincides with Samsung’s biggest product launch of the year in Paris, where it’s expected to unveil new foldable phones and watches with AI and novel health tracking features, the agency added.

Samsung labour union kicks off 'indefinite strike', demanding better pay in Seoul

Keep up with all the key people movements in the brand marketing ecosystem in Storyboard18’s CXO Moves. Here’s a round-up of the executives who are in, out, and in-between in the past two weeks.

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Rajneet Kohli

Previous: President and Chief Business Officer, Domino's India

Present: Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Britannia Industries

Britannia Industries has appointed Rajneet Kohli as the executive director and chief executive officer, effective from September 26. Kohli's appointment to a newly created position of CEO at Britannia, comes at a time when the industry is grappling with margin concerns amid soaring inflation. Kohli, who has more than two decades of experience, has worked with Asian Paints and The Coca-Cola Company, in the past. He will report to Varun Berry, who was elevated to the executive vice-chairman and managing director of the foods major.

Vishal Jacob

Previous: Vice President, Wavemaker India

Present: Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Digital Officer, Wavemaker

GroupM-owned Wavemaker has designated Vishal Jacob as the chief transformation officer. Along with this new position, he will also continue to hold the position of the chief digital officer. In this extended role, Jacob will work with office heads and business leads to structure and create diverse skill sets within business teams to manage current and future business requirements. He will also work along with practice leads to break silos and create more cross functional teams to deliver unified solutions to clients, which is one of Wavemaker’s key focus areas. Further, Jacob will also work on strengthening existing capabilities beyond digital and incubating new ones. In his previous stints, Jacob has worked with Mindshare and Maxus. 

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Burzin Mehta

Previous: National Creative Director, Publicis Worldwide

Present: Chief Creative Officer, Gozoop Group

Independent marketing group Gozoop Group appointed Burzin Mehta as the chief creative officer. Mehta will partner with Samrat Bedi, the chief executive officer to focus on building brands of the future. Mehta, who has more than two decades of experience has worked across Ogilvy, Raka Advertising, DDB Mudra Group, Abans Group Sri Lanka and Indigo Consulting. 

Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon

Previous: Senior Creative Directors, BBH India

Present: Executive Creative Directors, BBH India

BBH India, which is a part of Publicis Groupe, has promoted Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon to executive creative directors. Gurnani, who has more than a decade’s experience, has worked across Ogilvy & Mather, Contract Advertising, Leo Burnett, McCann Worldgroup, Amber Communications, Qrious Digital Marketing and Publicis. Menon has worked with PHD Worldwide and FoxyMoron, in the past. 

Two weeks ago, BBH India elevated Radhika Burman to VP, Head Delhi. In her new role, Burman would be responsible for current clients, people, and new business performance in Delhi. Along with that, she will drive strategic thinking across clients.

Abhishek Sen

Previous: Senior Vice President - Integrated Campaigns, Cheil India 

Present: Not known

Abhishek Sen has stepped down from his position as the senior vice president of integrated campaigns at Cheil India. At Cheil India, he led the 360 integrated campaigns across ATL (Above the Line), BTL (Below the Line), digital, social, influencer, publishers, events, e-commerce and community marketing for Samsung India's MX portfolio across smartphones, computing, wearables and community marketing. Sen has more than two decades of experience, and he has worked with agencies such as Rediffusion Y&R, Dentsu, Ogilvy & Mather and DDB. In May, Cheil India had appointed Umesh Bopche as the chief executive officer for its digital agency Experience Commerce.

Sharad Sharma

Present: Chief Business Officer, Boddess Beauty

Multi-brand beauty and tech retailer Boddess Beauty has appointed Sharad Sharma as the chief business officer. In this role, Sharma will be responsible for building and expanding the brand across online and omni channel and hyper-local models across the nation. Sharma, who has 25 years of experience in e-commerce, retail, business consulting and digital marketing, will play a key role in the expansion of the brand in tier 2 and tier 3 markets. Sharma held leadership roles in companies such as Havells, Welspun, Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) and Times Internet.

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Amlan Pati

Previous: Head E-Commerce, D2C and Digital Marketing, CavinKare

Present: Senior Professional - Product Marketing (IM Biz), Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics has appointed Amlan Pati to the position of a senior professional - product marketing. As he announced his new position at Samsung Electronics, he added, “Will be working on the flagship smartphones product range.” Pati, who has 10 years of experience has worked across Panasonic India, realme, etc. At CavinKare, Pati was instrumental in launching the D2C business and the first D2C brand Buds and Berries. 

Renu Somani

Previous: Executive Creative Director, Thought Blurb Communications

Present: National Creative Director, Thought Blurb Communications

Full-service advertising and design agency Thought Blurb Communications has elevated Renu Somani to the position of a national creative director. Somani, who has two decades of experience has worked with McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi in the past. Somani now takes charge of managing the creative product of the company that has a presence in Mumbai and Kochi. She will be overseeing a diverse team of creative talent in these cities, helping in the development of brands across the country and also in planning the creative strategy for new clients here on.

Asheesh Malhotra

Previous: Executive Vice President, Branch head, Dentsu Aegis Network

Present: Executive Director, NEXT

NEXT by Rediffusion, an agency with focus on startups, fintech, e-commerce, edtech, and eHealth, has appointed Asheesh Malhotra as the executive director. Malhotra, who has 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, has worked with Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy & Mather and Bates CHI&Partners. 

Mausami Prasad

Previous: Executive Vice President, Kantar

Present: National Head - Strategy & Insights, Mindshare 

Mindshare has appointed Mausami Prasad as the national head - strategy and insights. In her new role, Prasad will be responsible for contributing to Mindshare’s ‘good growth’ journey by creating exclusive strategies for clients. Prasad, who has more than two decades of experience, has worked across Indica Research, IMRB International, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd and Colgate Palmolive India Ltd etc. At Kantar, Prasad developed client relationships for a global account, consulted client stakeholders and provided consumer insights across the entire brand portfolio of clients. Few days ago, Mindshare strengthened its leadership team by appointing Sam Thomas as head – performance and product, Rehan Ali as Partner – Performance (North and East), Atishay Agrawal as senior director – performance (South), and Pratishtha Dehariya as partner – performance (West).

Rakesh Varma and Abhay Godbole

Present: Vice President & Executive Business Director; Vice President & Client Servicing Director, Wunderman Thompson

Wunderman Thompson has appointed Rakesh Varma and Abhay Godbole. Varma has over 15 years of advertising experience and has been associated with leading brands like Hotstar, Radio City, FBB, Gelusil and Tata AIA, amongst others. Godbole, who has previously worked with Wunderman Thompson Mumbai, during his previous stint with the agency, was instrumental in leading the much lauded ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’ for AMFI. He has close to two decades of experience in marketing communications working across FMCG, Automobile and BFSI. Varma and Godbole will report to Anurag Tandon, managing partner, Wunderman Thompson Mumbai.

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Bhawana Sharma

Previous: Digital Marketing Lead, realme India 

Present: Head of Digital Marketing, CavinKare

FMCG company CavinKare has roped in Bhawana Sharma as the head of digital marketing. Sharma, who has more than a decade’s experience, has worked with HCL Technologies, Cheil India and Hakuhodo, in the past. 

Manesh Mahatme

Previous: Director & Head of WhatsApp Pay, WhatsApp

Present: Director of Product, E-Commerce, Amazon

Manesh Mahatme, who served as the director and head of WhatsApp Pay at the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, has joined Amazon as the director of product for the e-commerce division. As per a media report, his exit comes at a time when WhatsApp is seeking to ramp up its payments service and compete with established brands like Alphabet Inc's Google Pay, Ant Group-backed Paytm and Walmart's PhonePe. Mahatme, who has more than 10 years of experience has worked with Citibank, Mashreqbank and Airtel, in the past. 

Pallavi Mohan

Previous: General Manager, DLF Limited

Present: Head of Marketing and Communications, Elan Group

Real estate company Elan Group has appointed Pallavi Mohan as the head of marketing and communications. Mohan, who has an experience of more than two decades, has worked with Philips Lighting, Britannia Industries Limited, Target, Cafe Coffee Day, Papa John’s International, Royal Orchids Hotel and Samsung Electronics. Mohan has worked across functions like social/digital marketing, sales, business operations, strategic retail, corporate communication, public relations and corporate social responsibility. 

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Girish Menon

Previous: Partner, KPMG India

Present: Chief Strategy Officer, JetSynthesys

Digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys strengthened its leadership team through the appointment of Girish Menon. The other appointments are Pushan Puri and Sheetal Bapat who joined as chief technology officer and head of social impact initiatives. Menon, who has 25 years of experience, has worked with KPMG, Balaji Telefilms and Grant Thornton India, in the past. Online music education platform Artium Academy entered into a strategic partnership with Global Music Junction — the digital entertainment subsidiary of JetSynthesys and Warner Music India. This is aimed at helping these entities to identify, nurture and scale aspiring talents at the Academy while collectively building on content-creation, artist management, revenue generation, digital monetisation, branding, and sponsorships. In June, it was announced that JetSynthesys is in talks to go public.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy

CXO Moves: Britannia gets a CEO; Execs in at Gozoop, Samsung, realme, Rediffusion, Mindshare, CavinKare, JetSynthesys

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