Interviewee :   Sanjeev Keskar, CEO, Arvind Consultancy 

Question 1.)  Why Electronics? What drew you to the field of Electronics?

SK :   I did my Diploma in Electronics and Communication from Maratha Mandal Polytechnic, Belgaum and then started my job at a small scale industry at Pune in 1985, where in my 6 years with them I got an opportunity to work in every aspect of Electronic industry Design/ Engineering / Production / Testing / Sales and Marketing which created strong foundation for my career, got early exposure and responsibilities in that small set up. During that time, I also completed my part time B.E. Electronics from Pune University. Then I decided to focus on Sales and Marketing as a long-term career and got first opportunity to work for a semiconductor company and since 1991 I am in semiconductor and Electronics industry.

Question 2.)  Tell us about your professional endeavors before your present company?

SK :   After 6 years at SAJ Froude, Pune which was a Dynamometer and control systems manufacturing company, I joined CDIL ( Continental Device India Limited) as Pune region sales executive. Then got an opportunity to work for Max Electronics ( Now it is Avnet India) who were distributors of Motorola Semiconductors . In these 2 companies I was managing west region Sales of their components to Electronics Industry and grew their business rapidly.

In 1996 I got an opportunity to move to Bangalore to join global semiconductor company National Semiconductor ( NSC) as All India Distribution Manager and later on got promoted as Country Manager of NSC. They acquired Cyrix processors, and I was instrumental in successfully promote Cyrix in Indian PC industry.

Then in 2001, I got an opportunity to be the first Country Manager of AMD in India, we were just 3 people team with 2% market share as per MAIT, in 4 years of hard work and strategic work, established AMD in India to reach 20% market share as per MAIT report and 10X revenue growth . AMD established excellent channel network, and OEM wins in this period .

In 2005 got an opportunity to be Country Sales head of Freescale Semiconductors ( earlier Motorola) and as worked with their distributor earlier was excited to take up this responsibility. In 5 years at Freescale we grew more than 5X in revenues.

Every 5 years I moved out of comfort zone and took up new challenges so in 2010 I joined PMC Sierra as MD Sales for India and SEA. It was mainly into Telecom and Networking domain. Worked with PMC for five and half years , during that time also got elected as Chairman of IESA ( India Electronics and Semiconductor Association) .

In 2015 I joined Arrow Electronics as India MD with an objective to make Arrow #1 component distributor for embedded electronics components. In 2020 after achieving that objective , I was thinking what to do next , after managing 5 American companies as India Sales head I thought I must contribute to Indian Electronics ecosystem so on 31st Oct. 2020 after 35 years of corporate career decided to start my own consultancy firm to support Start Ups and MSME in Electronics sector. For last 4 years I am CEO of Arvind Consultancy , an advisory firm names after my father Arvind Keskar, who was my mentor since my childhood.

Question 3.)  What is the latest project Arvind Consultancy is working on?

SK :    Arvind Consultancy work on 4 major activities :

1.  To Support Start Ups and MSME in Electronics to resolve their roadblock or challenges , it can be Technical issue, Customer Connect , Supply chain or production issue or distribution strategy. With my network I ensure to connect them with right solution which helps them to solve their issue. In last 4 years supported more than 80 Start Ups and MSME, this is voluntary work without any fee.

2.  I am advisor to 4 Indian companies where I am driving some specific goals and objective and its on retainer basis.

3. After Semiconductor policy was announced I am engaged with some global companies who are interested to come to India in JV and some Indian corporates who are planning to enter Electronics and Semiconductor manufacturing.

4. I am part of IESA Executive Council, active in TiE Bangalore chapter, Executive at EPIC Foundations, Member of MeitY taskforce for “ India as an Electronic Product Nation”, advisor to KDEM of Govt. of Karnataka, Chief Mentor of IOT Open lab at STPI Bangalore, program management committee member of ELectroprenuer Park at Delhi and Bhubaneshwar.

Very happy in doing multiple activities without restriction for working for one company and contributing to developing high value added eco system for Indian Electronics Industry.

Question 4.)  What is your “go to” thing after a long day of work?

SK :  I enjoy Hindi Movies , Music , Walking and traveling . But I love to work even though I am now 60 plus a senior Citizen , I enjoy working.

Question 5.)   You recently moderated the Sweden-India round table discussion at the vision summit, what are some major takeaways from the discussions?

SK :  I was moderator for both Sweden and Soth Korea round table discussions at Ahmedabad event , in both discussions my focus was about how we can leverage each other in the area of Electronics and collaborate on each other’s strengths.

For South Korea my request was their Industries like Samsung / LG who are leading Indian consumer Electronics market should invest into backword integration with Semiconductor / Display / Passive component manufacturing in India. There were more than 30 south Korean companies present in the room along with their India Ambassador, who shared what support they need from India.

Overall both the round table discussions were very interesting and collaborative.

Question 6.)   Before we let you go, what will you suggest to the aspiring young minds of electronics?

With the current PLI scheme lot of Electronics manufacturing has grown in India however our biggest challenge is that of local value addition, currently it is less than 20%. India Electronics Market will grow to $400Bn by 2030 but if we work at current level of local value addition it will not be good for country.

Govt. is working on developing Component manufacturing Eco System which contributes to 50% value however another 30% value is in CHIP design, Electronics Product Design, IP and Technology. So my suggestion to aspiring young minds in our country is do work for global Multinationals or Design Services companies for 5 to 10 years to gain experience and earn money but later focus your talent in local CHIP and Electronics product innovation which will make India Self Reliant , today we to development for all major global companies but we get “JOBS” IP value goes to them this needs to be changed by young minds of Electronics, we have great talent that has to work for improving local design creation by which value addition will improve.