Sunil Bharti Mittal is exuberant as the company announces its first dividend since it started the business
B&E: What makes Airtel one of the most admired companies in terms of their service offering amongst their subscriber base.
SM: At Airtel, the customers are at the heart of every service that we offer and this is what makes us special in their eyes. We have always believed in being relevant to the entire customer base that we have; be it the rural customer, semi-urban and even urban and would continue to do in the times to come as well.
B&E: Going forward, what would be the expected future drivers for Bharti Airtel’s growth?
SM: Well we are hoping that 3G would be available soon, which would lead to better data services. Already, music-related services are quite popular and we would hope that in times to come, their popularity would continue to increase.
In fact, there is an interesting tale that an India Inc. insider shares with this magazine. The person was on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai on the day the Reliance Power share opened to hallelujahs on Dalal Street. In the same flight was a close lieutenant of Mukesh who gently asked this insider to just wait for a day or two to see the ‘fate’ of Reliance Power. We all know what happened – the Reliance Power share crashed and tarnished the hitherto golden reputation of the Ambani family to always handsomely reward shareholders. Talk of sibling rivalry and the gossip that surrounds it!
To come back to the MTN deal, in June 2008, Reliance Industries Ltd. wrote a formal letter to MTN claiming that the terms of agreement of the split between Mukesh and Anil made it very clear that Reliance Industries (controlled by Mukesh) had the first right of refusal over the shares of Reliance Infocom. Basically, the letter asked MTN to say out of Reliance Infocom or face the consequences. The Anil camp, predictably, reacted furiously and issued a press release saying that the claims that were made by the camp of the elder brother were “legally and factually untenable, baseless, and misconceived.” For a while, the MTN top brass made polite public noises about being still excited about the possible deal with Reliance Infocom. But then, that letter from Reliance Industries had effectively killed the deal. One year down the road, it does look as if the coup de grâce being planned and executed by the Mukesh Ambani camp is successful, since it is Sunil Mittal and Airtel who are publicly having the last laugh now!
B&E: What makes Airtel one of the most admired companies in terms of their service offering amongst their subscriber base.
SM: At Airtel, the customers are at the heart of every service that we offer and this is what makes us special in their eyes. We have always believed in being relevant to the entire customer base that we have; be it the rural customer, semi-urban and even urban and would continue to do in the times to come as well.
B&E: Going forward, what would be the expected future drivers for Bharti Airtel’s growth?
SM: Well we are hoping that 3G would be available soon, which would lead to better data services. Already, music-related services are quite popular and we would hope that in times to come, their popularity would continue to increase.
In fact, there is an interesting tale that an India Inc. insider shares with this magazine. The person was on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai on the day the Reliance Power share opened to hallelujahs on Dalal Street. In the same flight was a close lieutenant of Mukesh who gently asked this insider to just wait for a day or two to see the ‘fate’ of Reliance Power. We all know what happened – the Reliance Power share crashed and tarnished the hitherto golden reputation of the Ambani family to always handsomely reward shareholders. Talk of sibling rivalry and the gossip that surrounds it!
To come back to the MTN deal, in June 2008, Reliance Industries Ltd. wrote a formal letter to MTN claiming that the terms of agreement of the split between Mukesh and Anil made it very clear that Reliance Industries (controlled by Mukesh) had the first right of refusal over the shares of Reliance Infocom. Basically, the letter asked MTN to say out of Reliance Infocom or face the consequences. The Anil camp, predictably, reacted furiously and issued a press release saying that the claims that were made by the camp of the elder brother were “legally and factually untenable, baseless, and misconceived.” For a while, the MTN top brass made polite public noises about being still excited about the possible deal with Reliance Infocom. But then, that letter from Reliance Industries had effectively killed the deal. One year down the road, it does look as if the coup de grâce being planned and executed by the Mukesh Ambani camp is successful, since it is Sunil Mittal and Airtel who are publicly having the last laugh now!
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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