After Hugo Barra’s exit from Xiaomi (Barexit?), Xiaomi have given a bit of a push to their India boss, Manu Kumar Jain.
Manu’s been part of the Xiaomi family ever since the brand announced itself in the Indian market in mid-2014. Prior to that, Manu was known as the founder of popular e-commerce store, Jabong.com.
The promotion will mean that Manu is now the Global Vice President and Managing Director for India. Prior to this, Manu acted as the Country Manager (India) and India head.
Xiaomi made the announcement via their various social media platforms, including a short-and-sweet tweet.
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Xiaomi has, of late, has gone back to its merry ways (of shipping a lot of phones all at once). This has propelled Xiaomi into the #2 brand in India by market share, something that looked like a far-fetched dream after the dismal performance of the Mi 5 in the country.
The Redmi Note 4 has, in many ways, gotten things back on track for Xiaomi. A few days back, Xiaomi revealed how it was looking to expand its presence in the offline market in India.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Manu on multiple occasions, and like Barra (who’s now headed for Facebook), Manu is an unassuming personality who seems to know what he’s up to. The new responsibility is certainly a huge step — both for Xiaomi and Manu — which is why we’re going to keep a close eye on how it turns out for the company.
Good luck to Xiaomi and Manu!