PHONES HAVEN'T stopped ringing for 40-year-old Sunil Bharti Mittal ever since 1992, when he decided to step into the cellular business. The wily Scorpio, known for his business acumen and for keeping wife Naina and his three children away from the public eye, had humble beginnings. 

 

The son of a politician, the Harvard Business School graduate started out as a manufacturer of bicycle parts and selling telephone instruments. Today, his company Bharti Enterprises, controls 20 per cent of the telecom market in India. With the satisfaction of a man who has lived his dream, Sunil Bharti Mittal answers some questions on the past, present and issues that will touch tomorrow…

 

 

I started my career at 18 after graduating from Punjab University. In 1976, I founded Bharti Enterprises, a company that had its beginnings in an altogether different industry. The first inkling of what was to come happened only in 1986 when I set up Bharti Telecom, signing collaboration with Siemens to manufacture the country’s first push button telephones. Private participation in telecom those days was really a peripheral activity to the monolithic government monopoly public convenience services.

 

Came 1992 and the new telecom policy and suddenly it was a different world all together. While the world’s biggest telecom players threw their hat into the ring along with India’s largest corporates, the relatively unheralded Bharti stepped into the ring as well. Bharti was recognised more as a manufacturer of phone instruments. There was, therefore, a little surprise that the high profile Delhi GSM mobile circle had gone to Bharti Cellular Ltd.

 

For me, it was not merely a matter of a extension of what Bharti Telecom was doing. We early enough appreciated that to success in the Telecom business, we needed the vision. I set myself one goal: to forge world class alliances across the telecom value chain from basic to cellular to internet to V-SAT to provide world class services to a people who hungered for choice and excellence.

 

 

In sheer numbers, our strongest presence would be where our journey into telecom services started – Delhi, which today boasts of over 8,00,000 customers However, that is as much a factor of history and longevity of presence as it is a tribute to the dynamic nature of the market. We are today a pan-India telecom player and hence it is difficult to pin down the strength of presence for Bharti by just that one dimension. Given our pioneering presence in most service areas of telecom, we are possibly equally positioned to realise the potential as much in mobile service as in fixed line, domestic long distance, broadband and international long distance services.

 

 

The rate at which the market is exploding certainly augurs well for those targets to be reached for telecom services as a whole. In the first quarter of the year, the cellular subscriber base went up by about 7,00,000. By the fourth quarter, we expect penetration to deepen. I wouldn’t be surprised if, by the end of the year, the cellular industry doubles those numbers for a quarter. Quite clearly after China, India is where all the action really is.

 

 

Well, at present I am working on my venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant. This project is most important to us. Where the telecom business is concerned, it is established and successful and now, new areas fascinate me. I am fervent about both retail and agriculture. It’s the next big opportunity for me.

 

 

We believed in constant innovation, adding value to the customer and sought to keep expanding the market by dramatically reducing prices to the customer, at the same time adding value. Quality choice exercised financial prudence as an organisation and we continuously invested with speed in our projects in order to ensure that we were never behind. We also sought to benchmark our services and customer care against international standards and seek a constant technology edge. Finally, we have a unique relationship with our customers and take pride in going beyond marketing strategies to understand and respond to the pulse of the people. We seek and build relationship of trust and honour with our partners…our biggest competition today is ourselves. We need to keep bettering what we have achieved.

 

 

Our experience in Andhra Pradesh has been very gratifying. The rural areas are showing some fascinating characteristics and we actually have four large non-metro cellular circles, which today are gearing up to meet the challenges of a very different market. We do see a strong potential in the rural market since on one hand the disposable income available is high and on the other, long distance communication needs are also high, therefore, offering a huge opportunity for us.

 

 

All have been equally close to my heart. From the jewel in the crown, Delhi, where we started to my homecoming by acquiring the Punjab circle, each project has been equally precious and demanding.

 

 

Yes, absolutely. We believe that SMS will emerge as a very strong option to simple voice calls. We believe that over a period of time the revenues from data services will strongly supplement those from voice in WAP and GPRS and in IN platforms to exploit growth in data services.

 

 

There were no milestones on the road we chose to travel and we recognised that we would have to find our own road, take risks and put milestones along the way for others to follow. We had ambition that was backed by commitment and determination, a huge degree of confidence and a belief in people. But fundamentally and most importantly, we were committed to making a difference to our customers, to society, to our shareholders, to India…not simply to making a buck.