Xiaomi India CMO Anuj Sharma Steps Down After 8 Years

Anuj Sharma, CMO, Xiaomi India, has stepped down from the role after nearly eight years. Talking to select media earlier this week, Anuj hinted that the decision was made quite some time ago, rather than being a sudden flashpoint. 

"I want to take this opportunity to share personal news with all of you guys. So I took this call a while back, but it's only now that we can talk about this. I'll be moving on from Xiaomi at the end of this month. I mean, this is obviously a tough decision, but I think I've been on the Xiaomi journey for a while," he added. Anuj joined Xiaomi India in September, 2018. 

"It's been eight years. I used to have dark hair when I joined, so things have changed quite a bit," Anuj said jokingly. 

Interestingly, Anuj isn't walking away entirely as he remains deeply invested in Xiaomi's financial upside. He explicitly mentioned his equity in the company, signalling that he still believes in the long-term roadmap Sudhin and Sandeep are executing. "I obviously continue to hold a lot of Xiaomi shares, so I hope they do well, but I could basically be following a different path next," he added without sharing future plans. 

Anuj also validated the next line of leadership, ensuring the market knows the ship is stable. He points directly to the fresh faces leading recent launches—specifically naming Gautam, Ritij and Sandeep.

Talking about his first launch day anecdote at Xiaomi, Anuj said, "I actually remember this one particular day, I think it was 23rd of November 2018 I had just joined, and we had launched the Redmi Note 6 Pro, which had gone on sale that day, and I had obviously, we've been in the industry for a while, but I got the first numbers, and it was massive." 

"By 8:30 at night, we had hit about 625,000 units in a single day, so obviously it had been really huge, and I had to approve all those numbers before they went out to the media. It seemed insane, and on that journey, obviously, it was incredible and quite fast-paced, exciting," he added.

Anuj has made critical pivots within the company, such as in 2020, when he left the core Xiaomi brand to architect the resurrection of POCO as an independent, highly agile, and structurally profitable spin-off. He then returned to Xiaomi after Manu's exit, which can be called the company's most vulnerable operational phase, marked by high-level executive exits and a changing global landscape, and focused heavily on restoring team confidence and product identity.

He added, "I think Manu had moved on to a different region (in 2022), so I had to come back from Poco and look at the brand. The last four or more years now have been about stabilising, I think, to a point where we had some good sparks in certain quarters. We again reached the number one spot, but of course, now with a completely new relapse strategy that Sudhin will also talk about, the team actually is in a very good place."

Xiaomi India also announced it will enter the large appliances category in 2026. The company confirmed that testing is underway, and they will share more on this when the India launch is around.