Top10: 2 - Bharti: Mobile Warrior

BHARTI





Area of operation: Mobile

Services, Fixed Lines/Broadband and Internet Services, ILD, and DLD



Address: Bharti Airtel Limited, Qutab Ambience, Mehrauli Road, New
Delhi - 110 030



Phone: +91-11-4166
6000




Fax: +91-
11-4166

6011/12

• Started services in
  
  the 23rd circle, thus becoming a pan-India player

• Continues to lead
  
  mobile services with a market share of 21.5%

• Vodafone invested
  
  approx Rs 6,700 crore to acquire 10% stake in Bharti Airtel

'The best of

Bharti is yet to come'

Bharti has come a

long way. How would you rate its performance over the years?



Our performance has been gratifying over these years. The 10-year-old

company has become the island of excellence in the Indian economy. It is

the island of entrepreneurship and passion.

It has been

institutionalized into a long-term, sustainable leadership brand. We think

we have just started the journey, but the best of Bharti is still to come.

President Manoj Kohli

What's going to be

your next growth strategy?



We have adopted a new vision of being the most admired brand by 2010.

It would be a brand that is loved by customers, targeted by top talent,

and be a benchmark for business. We have initiated huge transformation.

There are certain areas where change would be seen in the coming

days-customer service, an ethical work culture with no place for

bureaucracy, hierarchy, and politics, and more importantly unique business

model. As we move into the future, we will make our business model more

unique and healthier.

What were the

challenges that the company has faced after completing a decade of

operations in the country?



Though there were numerous challenges, but we have been successful.

The first big challenge was the regulatory challenge, second was a market

challenge. Till 1999, the market was not growing and later on when it

started growing, there was intense competition. There are seven market

players, but we are still leading. Third was financial challenge. We

emerged as a company that had no capital and today, we have achieved the

status of top 5-6 companies with good financial health.

What is going to be

your growth strategy?



Retail and distribution would be a very important strategy for Airtel.

We call it a 'Matchbox' project. This simply means that Airtel service

will be as easily available as a matchbox. We have about 900 exclusive

showrooms and 4,000 multi-brand retail outlets across the country right

now. In the next 12-18 months we will add another 300 exclusive showrooms

and retail outlets will also increase it by 30-40%. All these retail shops

will be based on franchisee model, as we don't have any strategy to own

these outlets.

What is your rural

strategy?



We have divided the rural market into three parts. The priority is top

100 towns, which has more than 60% telecom revenues. In the remaining

5,000 towns, small and medium services would be launched by March 2007. We

have a strong rural strategy for third category towns. Our initial

experience in 80,000 villages has been quiet positive.

What kind of

investment have you planned for the next generation services?



We have capex of Rs 2 bn, of which two-third would be spent on mobile

and the rest in other non-mobile services. At this stage, we will like to

invest as much as possible for growth. As soon as the government announces

its spectrum policy, we will be ready to launch our 3G trials. We are

looking at metros for the first phase.