Amit Malik, Vice-President and Sales Leader, Ciena India
Amit Malik has over three decades of experience in the telecom industry. During this tenure, he has managed global teams across multiple geographies including Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Greater China Region. He has extensive experience working with customers across a wide variety of segments including enterprise, public sector, small and midsize businesses, and service providers.
In his current role as vice-president and sales leader at Ciena India, Malik is responsible for driving the company’s sales strategy in India. Backed by visionary leaders and resilient teams, he works towards shaping the future of the world’s second-largest telecom market, with a subscriber base of 1.2 billion.
According to him, the underlying drivers of bandwidth demand in India will continue to push growth, with mobility, 5G, cloud automation and artificial intelligence applications moving to the network edge. “We are only at the start of this journey and while there is not much data about its impact on the network, we believe that over time it will certainly be a contributor to greater connectivity needs, not unlike the Metaverse,” he says.
Malik has expertise in fostering growth and enabling customers to generate new revenue streams, in areas such as information and communication technology, urban infrastructure, smart cities and 5G projects.
When asked about his most memorable assignment, he says, “I was tasked with driving transformation across multiple facets of my customers’ businesses. It allowed me to take a consultative and strategic approach when speaking to a service provider, driving operation and architectural excellence, and covering all functions of their businesses.” He found the role particularly gratifying, as he was able to leverage his expertise to make meaningful impacts.
Malik believes in following a participative style of management. “Organic communication channels are essential for building trust, which is the bedrock of effective collaboration,” he says. He exemplifies his management style with his favourite Marvel quote, “ONE is better than one”. This simple yet powerful statement reflects his belief that the collective power of a team is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Malik has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology. In his spare time, he likes reading and playing tennis. He is passionate about exploring new places and experiencing new adventures, and enjoys scuba diving and travelling to off-beat destinations. His family comprises his wife and two daughters.
