ENTREPRENEURSHIP ASSIGNMENT

The business I like best! Knowing an Entrepreneur closely

NAME: Sunil Bharti MittalOCCUPATION: Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises REGISTERED ADDRESS: Bharti Cresent, 1, Nelson Mandela Road, Delhi, New Delhi-110070

Presented by:Atish Mukherjee(56)

SECTION B

TEAM NO. 15

Mohd Zeeshan(74)Pritesh Desai(81)

Sunil Mittal (The Originator of Cellular Phone Revolution in India)

Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Group

We present here the story of one of the well-known Entrepreneur in India, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, the man who revolutionized the cellular phone industry in India and is now the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group, which owns India’s largest GSM based mobile phone service, Airtel and the seventh richest man in the country with a net worth of $7.2 billion.

In Mr. Mittal words, “Practice is the real thing, rest is all theory. I didn’t go to a B-School, instead learnt lessons on the streets and at every opportunity, tried to assimilate, gather and absorb some of the practices that were required to create an enterprise.”

The story of Mr. Mittal is divided into 5 stages: Before the start up, opportunity identification, growth path and challenges overcome, turnaround situations and finally present the learning points for budding entrepreneurs like us.

Stage 1: The life of Mr. Mittal Before Start-up.Mr. Mittal was born and brought up in a middle-class family in Ludhiana. He was the son of Late Sat Paul and Lalita Mittal. His

father was a politician, a two term Rajya Sabha Member. He graduated in economics and political science from Punjab University.

Sunil did not follow the footsteps of his politician father and became an Entrepreneur at the age of 18, the inclination he had in doing business. He borrowed Rs. 20,000 from his father and started his first venture that was making crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers. Within three years, he had expanded the business and had set up two more plants, one plant produced yarn and other produced sheets of stainless steel.

He mentioned in one of the interviews that these initial days were very difficult because he earned very little from these ventures. Added to it was travelling and the business was not growing in-spite of lot of hard work. That’s when he realized that he had to move out of Ludhiana and search for some bigger business opportunity. He went to Mumbai after selling the ventures of Ludhiana and along with his two brothers, founded Bharti Overseas Trading Company, which was an export import trading company. Mittal purchased import license from exporting companies in Punjab and imported thousands of Suzuki Motor’s Portable Electric Power Generator from Japan. He then started a full-fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan.

All was not good. Within a year, in 1983, Government banned import of Generator and granted manufacturing rights to the companies present in India and he was out of business overnight.

Stage 2: Opportunity Identification

The government’s decision had halted his business and he was in trouble. He was in Taiwan when he noticed the popularity of the push button phone – something that India hasn’t seen before. India was using the rotary dials then. He sensed this opportunity and jumped into the telephone business. In 1986, he entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG in Germany for the manufacture of electronic push button phones. He was then marketing telephones, answering and fax machines and other telephone gears under the brand name Beetel and the company picked up fast. He brought to the country the first push button phone, the first fax machine, the first cordless. The Beetel phones revolutionized the telephone market in India and the rotary disc phones were replaced once and for all.

It was in 1992 when the government opened the telecom sector and began issuing licenses for mobile phone services for the first time. He bagged the deal with a French Telecom Group Vivendi for the Delhi Cellular Circle. The Government of India approved his plans in 1984 and in 1995, Bharti Cellular Limited was launched which offered cellular services in Delhi under the brand name Airtel. He was one of the first Indian Entrepreneur who identified mobile telecom business as a major growth area in doing business.

Stage 3: Growth path and challenges overcome

In 1995, Sunil Mittal established Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) to provide cellular services under the brand named AirTel. Before long, Airtel came up as the first telecom establishment to reach the 2-

million mobile subscriber mark. BCL also provided India's first private domestic as well as transnational long-distance service with the brand name India-One. In the year 2001, Bharti Cellular Limited got into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650-million cable project, India's maiden under-sea cable link connecting Chennai and Singapore city. 

Airtel has more than one million recharge stores and outlets. With per annum revenues of INR Thirty Eight Thousand Crores for the financial year 2008-09 and profit before tax (PBT) of INR. Fifteen Thousand Crores, Airtel is amongst the most well-organized money machines and by the end of year 2015, Bharti is projected to become a more than a trillion-rupee group. In 2006 the Bharti group entered into a contract with the US retail giant Wal-Mart, the largest company in Fortune 500 catalogue, to initiate a number of retail stores all over the country. The group is now looking forward to the South Asian and African markets to build a worldwide empire.

Mittal has to his credit the crucial breaking up of more than hundred year old monopoly of state controlled companies to drive telecom services in India. Now he is in charge of a prosperous domain concentrated on different areas of business through independent JVs with companies with a market capitalization of close to USD 2 billion, recruiting more than 5,000 people and still developing strongly. 

‘Airtel’ as a dependable phone network surpassed its competitors with its matchless and incredible star power which includes the likes of reigning Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Vidya Balan and Sharman Joshi.

At the age of 57, Mittal can be correctly termed as the ‘Ring King’ solely due to the fact that in a business where he is competing with Tata, Ambani, Birla and Vodafone, he has reigned supreme and come out on top. Bharti Airtel has a lead of 25 million over its nearest competitor. Its overwhelming leadership in the telecom sector can be gauged from the fact that even if Airtel stands still, it may take the closest competitor nearly one year to catch up with them.Mittal  is engaged in the metamorphosis of telecom into a lifestyle business, extending from calls to games, from music to movies, creating a big play for the Indian mind-share with Bharti Airtel Triple Play, Broadband, Telephone, on a single line.

Branded as the most motivated telecom entrepreneur and a strong thinking risk taker Mittal has transformed the face of the Indian telecommunication space and has been honored with many awards.  He was adjudged as one of the leading entrepreneurs in the globe for the year 2000 and was also awarded 'Star of Asia', by the magazine 'Business Week', he got “IT Man of the Year Award 2002” from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award (World HRD Congress). He has won lots of awards including the Asian Businessperson of the Year by the Fortune Magazine in 2006, and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.

He is a member of Federation of National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Chairman, Indo-US Joint Business Council, Member, and Member of Advisory Committee constituted by Ministry of IT. 

Stage 4: Important turnaround situation

Sunil Bharti Mittal used to work for 16 to 18 hours each day, but his business just didn't take off. After considering various opportunities, he changed track and tried other things. He started importing portable generators. It turned out to be good decision and he became one of the biggest importers of generators at time.

However, the major turnaround came in Mittal’s business in 1992; when the Indian government started allotting licenses for mobile phone services for the first time. Having learnt the importance of availing opportunities and striking at the opportune time, he did not let go of this golden opportunity and he sealed a deal with the French telecom group named Vivendi for the Delhi cellular circle.

He was one of the very first Indian entrepreneurs to recognize the mobile telecom business as a chief growth area. His ideas were finally approved by the Government in the year 1994. After that, he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was created to offer cellular services with the brand name AirTel. Soon, Bharti became the first telecom company to have more than 2-million subscribers. It also set up India’s first private national as well as international long-distance service under the brand name IndiaOne.

Stage 5: Learning points for the budding entrepreneur

Practice is what matters, and getting your hands dirty is essential: Mr. Sunil Mittal did not attend any B-School but instead learnt from experience. He tried to derive the maximum out of all the situations which enabled him to create an enterprise and a successful one at that.

Dreaming big is the key: A small step is often the beginning of huge achievements. It is essential that we dream big and have huge aspirations. After graduating from Punjab University, Mr. Mittal started a small bicycle business with his friend on borrowed capital in 1970s. However, in 1979, realization dawned on him that nothing big can come out of this bicycle business. Therefore he moved out of Ludhiana and experimented with other things so that he may carve a niche for himself.

We need to trust our gut feelings, our reflexes: In 1982, Sunil Mittal had a full-fledged business which involved selling portable generators imported from Japan. This provided him an opportunity to be involved in the marketing as well as advertising aspects of business. It was all going smooth for him until the Government of India banned the import of generators. Two other leading companies got the license to manufacture the generators locally. This taught him the importance of availing the opportunities and being ready for the opportune moment to strike the hammer. The turnaround for him came in 1992 when the Government was awarding the licenses for the wireless services for the first time. He availed the opportunity immediately.

Recognition is ephemeral: One should always be willing to take calculated risks, to strive to achieve more and to always be active and mentally alert. According to him, it was exciting to be featured in the Forbes or receiving various laurels like the IT Man of the Year Award. It gave him a momentary high. Moreover, it is important that one never stops trying- For e.g.: Right now, Airtel has competition in India but Mr. Mittal has to keep trying to ensure that Airtel provides credible competition from India for the world.

Work requires compromises: Sunil Mittal has worked for 16-18 hours for most of his life and therefore had to let go of his favorite pastimes. Mittal had a penchant for flying planes, pursuing sky-gliding and playing golf and tennis. However, due to his busy schedule, he could not find out time for his favorite pastimes.

You too can overcome -- I have: Sunil Mittal: Sunil Mittal’s words of wisdom for the budding entrepreneurs are, “If you have a dream, chase it”. The key to success is to sense opportunity at the beginning of curve and explore the uncharted territories- like the way he did in the case of push-button telephone. There might be difficulties on the way but nothing is impossible in life.  

The customer is always the king:  Bharti Enterprises has always believed in taking the competition head-on and for being a monopoly-buster. They ventured into basic telephony, international calls and other government-run services. Customer centricity has always been the mantra of his company. If they are benefitted, so will the company

Everything has a price, even smiles: It is extremely disappointing to see how child labor is still rampant and a menace to the society. It is imperative that we strive to create a foundation for the next generation-provide an environment for them wherein they can just enjoy their childhood without worrying for the finances and thus create a better tomorrow for them. Also dreaming is not enough, what is important is that we wake up and act on our dreams.