New Site Dedication in India
I am in India to dedicate our new site here. I wore a traditional Indian outfit—a tunic called a kurta decorated with an intricate pattern of gold and red thread, pyjama pants, and traditional embroidered shoes. I cut the ribbon and lit the flame and broke the coconut. Don't ask me to explain the flame or the coconut. I can't even explain why we cut ribbons at dedications, but that's the tradition.
When we first started a technology center in India, the reporters I talked with here were very interested to know how big we would get and how fast we would grow. I felt that they were asking the wrong question. To me, the size and speed were less important than building a solid foundation. At that point, I cared much more about how to establish strong roots, how to get a set of "old timers" in place who understood NetApp culture and had a track record of success.
Three years later, we have the foundation in place so we can talk about head count and growth rate. Today we have 270 people in India, but the new site that I dedicated has capacity for 750 people, and we have an expansion option that will take it to 1200. Over the next two years we expect to spend at least $150 million in our Indian operations. These are the details that the reporters were hoping to hear three years ago, and now I feel comfortable sharing them, because we have that solid foundation to build on.
NetApp is very lucky to be successful enough that we can grow our Indian operation in parallel with growth in the U.S. Many companies are cutting U.S jobs as they hire people in India or China, and I know that must be an incredible challenge for their cultures. For those companies, it must be so hard for existing employees to honestly welcome the new ones, when they know that old friends were fired to pay the salaries of the new employees overseas. So I think it is very healthy for NetApp that even as we expand into India, we are—right at the same time—continuing to hire in the U.S, both on the West Coast and the East Coast. I hope that helps our U.S employees offer a genuine welcome to the newcomers.
They say that what goes around comes around. Therefore, I find it fitting that NetApp is now tied with HP for top share in the Networked Storage market in India.
When we first started a technology center in India, the reporters I talked with here were very interested to know how big we would get and how fast we would grow. I felt that they were asking the wrong question. To me, the size and speed were less important than building a solid foundation. At that point, I cared much more about how to establish strong roots, how to get a set of "old timers" in place who understood NetApp culture and had a track record of success.
Three years later, we have the foundation in place so we can talk about head count and growth rate. Today we have 270 people in India, but the new site that I dedicated has capacity for 750 people, and we have an expansion option that will take it to 1200. Over the next two years we expect to spend at least $150 million in our Indian operations. These are the details that the reporters were hoping to hear three years ago, and now I feel comfortable sharing them, because we have that solid foundation to build on.
NetApp is very lucky to be successful enough that we can grow our Indian operation in parallel with growth in the U.S. Many companies are cutting U.S jobs as they hire people in India or China, and I know that must be an incredible challenge for their cultures. For those companies, it must be so hard for existing employees to honestly welcome the new ones, when they know that old friends were fired to pay the salaries of the new employees overseas. So I think it is very healthy for NetApp that even as we expand into India, we are—right at the same time—continuing to hire in the U.S, both on the West Coast and the East Coast. I hope that helps our U.S employees offer a genuine welcome to the newcomers.
They say that what goes around comes around. Therefore, I find it fitting that NetApp is now tied with HP for top share in the Networked Storage market in India.
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