In the cover story titled “Wireless Wonder: India's Sunil Mittal” Fortune magazine pays rich tribute to Mittal’s entrepreneurial drive and innovative business management approaches.
When faced with the daunting task of matching the scale and resources of rivals like TATA’s and Reliance, Bharti in 2003 took to outsourcing its networks and backend. This Fortune says was a bold move and helped Bharti to survive and thrive. Fortune writes, “How did Mittal rise to the challenge of managing breakneck growth? By taking a quintessentially Indian solution - outsourcing - and standing it on its head. Egged on by his CFO and a core of in-house technology specialists, Mittal resolved to give away his network. In 2004 he signed contracts worth $400 million to hand over operation of Bharti's entire phone network to Sweden's Ericsson, Germany's Siemens and Finland's Nokia. The deal means Bharti no longer has to worry about buying and maintaining equipment.” Says Mittal, "I got calls from around the world saying, 'You've gone nuts, this is the lifeline of your business, it's something you can't afford to lose.'"
Today Bharti Airtel is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of over 23.29 million customers as of end of May ‘06, consisting of more than 21.86 million mobile customers. The Company was the first private operator to provide mobile services in all the 23 circles in India. The Company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 15 circles. The Company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The group is also into insurance business.
Mittal’s strategy of partnerships and alliance has been highlighted by Fortune. Fortune quotes Mittal saying, “the core of my strategy is partnership."
Noting the recent tie-up between Mittal and world’s largest retailer WAL-MART, Fortune writes, “Inside the company his priority is the new retailing tie-up with Wal-Mart, an endeavor he says will have a "transformational" impact on Indian life.“
The global recognition of Sunil Mittal is another shot in arm for brand Indian and its business leaders.
