The Year 2002 belonged to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group. In this year, India's telecom price warrior single-handedly managed to bring down the abnormally high phone tariffs in the country. He started with national long distance, and went on to change the landscape in international long distance as well-forcing others to cut call rates to stay in the running. In the cellular telephony space, Mittal's flagship service-Airtel-led the price wars. By the year-end, lower STD, ISD and cellular rates had changed the face of telephony in India, fuelling furious growth in subscriber base.

But 2002 belonged to Mittal for yet another achievement-one that has gone largely unsung-and one which really made easy his choice as this year's IT Man of the Year. At a time when regional security concerns placed a question mark over India's emergence as the hub for IT services and BPO operations, Mittal put in place the country's first submarine cable link-a $650-million undersea line connecting Chennai and Singapore. Once lit, the link will totally de-risk Indian IT and communications links with the rest of the world, for the cable totally bypasses strife-ridden geographies.

Mittal also garnered $1.2 billion in foreign equity investment for the Bharti Group.

Now, with a fiber backbone the stretches over 24,000 km across the country, Bharti is setting its eyes on greater opportunities in the converging ICT space.

It is for changing the face of the Indian ICT space, that Dataquest presents the IT Man of the Year Award 2002 to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group.

No time for a game of ten-nis. Can't stop to check out another new feature on another new mobile phone. Long, involved hours at headquarters 'Sultanate 1' working on the next big telecom thing... Anyone care to guess what's on Sunil Bharti Mittal's mind?

Peace, as it happens
At 45, even as he heads a successful enterprise with a market capitalization of approximately $ 2 billion, employing over 5,000 people, he is a man who's at peace with himself and the ringing, buzzing, speeding world around him. He believes in tuning out with Yoga and he's unruffled, self-assured, and quite completely down-to-earth. Of course, it's a world he's helped create in the first place, because if there's one person you could pick out as having spearheaded the telecom revolution connecting this country-that would be Sunil Mittal.

Mittal has to its credit the breaking up of the 100 year old monopolies of state run companies to operate telecom services in India. This telecom king heads the largest mobile phone company on the subcontinent; one that's growing at a breakneck speed of over 70% as its base widens to address a potential market of one billion customers. And that's in bad times. In his Sultanate, he tells his story easily. Comfortably. And rather good naturedly for one who's probably been asked the same questions dozens of times. Where did it all start? It began with bicycles. And why not. A lot of good things begin with bicycles.

As a youngster of 18, Sunil knew exactly what he didn't want. He did not want go get into politics. Not that he didn't admire his father who became a member of Parliament when Sunil was very young. "My father was one of the most intelligent and driven men I've ever known", says SBM. Despite the admiration he felt for his father, Sunil didn't feel drawn to do what he did. "Politics held no allure for me" he says. To always be in the public eye, to have people streaming in and out of your life-he didn't quite see himself fitting that role. Even at that age, he had the heart of a businessman. The early years saw him dabbling in a variety of businesses including knitwear and stainless steel utensils. "I think my father saw that too", he says. Sunil puts it down to the "enterprising spirit of Ludhiana". "Almost everyone in Ludhiana works for himself and the entrepreneurial energy flows in the city," he says fondly of his hometown.

The next big thing
And so it was that soon after he passed out of Punjab University, Sunil got together with a college friend and drummed up the small sum of Rs 20,000 to start a business manufacturing crank shafts for bicycles.

"Money was hard to come by and it was a tiny unit. But it was the point of learning," he recalls, describing how he started learning how to handle commerce. Persuading banks to lend you money, suppliers to give you material on credit and buyers to pay up in time or before, accepting rejects...this small business exposed the young Mittal to it all, driven by the burning desire to make an impact and to excel in what he did. But by 1979, Mittal had realized that these business would remain small. He moved out of Ludhiana, spent a few years in Mumbai and in 1981, was running an import and distribution operation out of New Delhi and Mumbai. (Incidentally, the same bicycle parts manufacturing business still runs profitably, though Mittal sold his shares to his business partner when he moved to New Delhi several years ago).

By 1982, Mittal had moved a notch higher, running a full-fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan. "Importing anything was tough in those days given the high duty structures. One had to be creative in making things work," he smiles. It was this business that gave Mittal the wherewithal to involve himself in front-end activities like marketing and advertising. Things were hunky dory until the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies had been awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally.

Push-buttons for success
Luckily for him-and the rest of us-Sunil Mittal happened to bump smack into a push button phone while on a trip to Taiwan. Not only did he think it looked cool and futuristic, he had a feeling it would do a great job of replacing the quaint but cumbersome rotary phones that were in use then. In 1982, he was the first to furnish India with push-button phones and sure enough, you don't see rotary phones around anywhere easily. The company entered into a partnership for the manufacture of push-button telephones. By the early 1990s, Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.

The turning point came in 1992 when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time. Two years later, Sunil secured rights to serve New Delhi.

In February 1992, one of the conditions for the Delhi cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. He clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi after a three hour session with the CEO. On March 31, the deadline for the Delhi metro license, Vivendi backed out saying it would go with the Modi Group. After mustering all his strength, Mittal persuaded Vivendi to work with him. He won the deal.

Telecom: Revolution Part II
Despite his history as a serial entrepreneur, Mittal focus is now on telecom and telecom alone.

The Bharti Group is focused on different areas of business through independent JV companies: Bharti Cellular for cellular operations, Bharti Telenet for basic services, Bharti-BT Internet for Internet services, and Bharti BT for VSAT and WAN consultancy. Others include Bharti Telesoft for telecom software development, Bharti International for JVs in global markets, Bharti Televentures for projects, and Bharti Telecom for telecom equipment development.

Bharti's world
So what does Bharti, the corporate house stand for?

"Everybody is an owner. Technically, each employee has stock options and each one decides how much work to put in to decide your destiny, no questions asked. Each one does what they have to do, travel when they feel the need to do and enjoy the freedom to take decisions," says Mittal pointing out that the important thing is that every evening, when each one goes back home, it is with the feeling of having achieved something special.

While this makes a case for great HR practice and may be true at a more general level, every company has its share of problems to mop up. Known to be a "good employer", the Bharti group has traditionally dithered from firing employees. In the age of building lean organizations and when the concept of RoI (return on investment) applies to human capital as well, will Bharti switch to the "right-sizing" mode too?

Turning Points In 1985, Bharti tied up with Siemens for the manufacture of push button telephones. Not only did this gradually ease out the rotary phone instruments in India, it also marked the company's entry into the telecom business Bharti made a bid when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time in 1992. Two years later, Sunil secured rights to serve New Delhi. In 1995, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel Bharti launched India's first private sector national long distance service under the brand name IndiaOne kickstarting a price war that changed the face of Indian telephony 2001: Bharti launched basic services in Haryana under the Touchtel brand giving century old government giants a run for their money First-mover Advantage First private basic telephone service provider in India Bharti became the first Indian company to provide comprehensive telecom services outside India (Seychelles) The first Indian company to provide Internet services on a multinational level Touchtel is launched as India's first private sector telephone service provider to cross the 300,000-mark First telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark Bharti rolled out IndiaOne-the country's first private international long-distance service leading to sharp drops in STD/ISD rates in the country

Mittal does talk about burning the excess fat that has accumulated in the next nine months, attributing the magnitude of the mass that has accrued to "a personal problem of not being able to fire people". This, he says, is one of the drawbacks of having started off as an entrepreneur with no B school grounding. As happens with organizations across industries, Bharti has its share of loyal employees who have been unable to grow and hone their skill sets at the same pace. The company has plans to "handle" 15 such employees in the year to come. Ruling out plans of any "large scale retrenchment", Mittal informs that in the year gone by, three employees with the same problem were "assisted in going on their own." One was given startup money for becoming a franchisee, another was awarded a contract to start digging for laying cables...

"These are people who have given their lives to the company and one has to be sensitive in dealing with them. I feel sorry when someone tells me his daughter's wedding plans will be affected if he loses the job," says Mittal proposing that such employees should be allowed to continue, may be given a smaller role so that company performance is not affected in the long run.

In fact, "consequence management" was one of the two issues brought out by a McKinsey study on Bharti concluding that though people love to work here, some of the HR expenses have been made a year in advance. The other weak area McKinsey highlighted was the company's formal review processes. Mittal says there has review processes too have been overhauled recently.

And then, there is the sticky issue of Sunil Mittal as a brand being stronger than his brothers Rakesh (elder) and younger Rajan. So what do the Mittals do to ensure that Bharti does not face the strife other family owned businesses often have.

"There has always been freedom and space among the brothers. We live separately. In fact we decided years ago that we needed to be away from each other after work hours in order to give each other that space, and it has worked," he replies.

Mittal also maintains that he has never looked at Bharti as a family business. "It has been professionally run, right from the beginning and in fact, the family interest is being reduced by the day," he says.

Challenge next
Mittal has never liked to stay on to one thing. For him, the excitement lies in creating a new project. So, does the phenomenal success of Bharti Televentures mean it is time to move on?

"Will I build a new business after this business, no. Start from scratch and do all this again, no, " he says indicating that there will be new projects but only those that make a great impact, among them a larger role in Bharti Foundation (which has funded 50-odd schools in Madhya Pradesh.

The company also donated Rs 200 million to IIT Delhi for building a Bharti School of Technology and Management.)

Or else, one could find Mittal involved in building a strong lobby for developing areas like education, public health or population control. New ventures could be in the form of building a world class airport or building infrastructure that will have a high impact on society. "I do see myself in some form of public life, not necessarily politics in about another five years when I hit 50," he says.

But as for now, he enjoys his work far too much to allow himself to be called a workaholic. He's a risk taker, but a very clear thinker to whom a risk must be well calculated and executed with perfect timing and speed. He believes it's as important to know when to get out of a business as it is to know when to go for the kill. He's equanimous and difficult to annoy or ruffle. Mittal attributes that to not being "emotionally attached" to the business. While he'd mostly rather be working than doing anything else and is intensely focused on telecom, he doesn't let it get under his skin.

Today, there are many people who would love to be Sunil Mittal. Who does Sunil Mittal want to be? He can't think of anyone in the country, but finds himself deeply impressed with the Singapore leadership. "Whether it's the Prime Minister in Singapore, younger ministers in the Singapore government or CEOs of companies, I believe they're driven to the point where they want to build something for their country and making their country something different". In that sense, Mittal believes that the businesses he's built up are incidental, the real mission is to make things better, on a larger scale and affecting a large number of people.

People around Mittal sometimes think he's serene to a fault. But if there's one thing he certainly deserves, it's the sense of detachment and peace he gets with yoga and that untroubled walk in the park with his dog.

Team DQ

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Nothing but Telecom: Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & MD

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