Srinath N, MD & CEO, Tata Communications, a young and dynamic CEO in the
Indian telecom industry, has many achievements to his name. The last six years
of transforming VSNL to Tata Communications, a company with a global foothold,
was eventful for Srinath. The initial challenge, of course, was of changing the
mindset-from a monopoly to a customer-focused, competitive, and, more recently,
global organization. This involved a major redesign of the company's processes,
investments in robust IT systems and, most importantly, intense training and
people development. Even while the company was doing this, it expanded and
diversified into new areas including the international market (with its
acquisitions and expansion). It had to shift gears and work toward creating a
global mindset. Hence, when the eight-member jury met in New Delhi to decide the
V&D 100 Telecom Person of the Year 2008, the selection of Srinath was unanimous.
Excerpts
Congratulations on your winning the V&D100 Telecom Person of the Year
award. What would you list as your key achievements in the last one-year?
I think that is best answered in terms of what the company has achieved.
During the last year, we launched the integrated Tata Communications brand
globally. This will enable us to leverage the tremendous equity enjoyed by the
Tata brand worldwide. We also launched several innovative services, including
managed hosting, security, content delivery networks and telepresence as part of
our conscious shift toward managed services for our enterprise and service
provider customers. We also introduced WiMax services for both businesses as
well as for broadband for consumers in select cities of India.
You have played an important role in the transformation of VSNL from a
domestic player to a multinational telecom company. How difficult was the
transition?
The last six years have been a period of exciting changes in the company.
The initial challenge was around changing mindsets within the system-from a
monopoly to a customer-focused, competitive and, more recently, a global
organization. This involved a major redesign of our processes, investments in
robust IT systems, and intense training and people development. Even while we
were doing this, we expanded and diversified into new areas including the
international market (with our acquisitions and expansion). We had to shift
gears and work toward creating a global mindset. This was led by re-organizing
ourselves along global business and functional units, and supplemented by
providing many of our managers new responsibilities and challenges that enabled
them to fully display their capabilities and potential. The fact that our teams
successfully stepped up to that challenge is really what has brought us to where
we are today-one of the emerging players in the global telecom space.
What are your focus areas today and what is the road ahead for Tata
Communications?
Tata Communications today has an advanced global network and services
capability; we are already one of the leading global players in the wholesale
space. Our focus in the coming years would be to emerge as a leading provider of
managed services and networks to global multi-national corporations and to
continue to maintain our leadership position for different services in the
carrier and enterprise markets in India. Toward this goal, we are continuing to
invest in the creation of new infrastructure, development of new managed
services, entry into new markets and the service capability to support our
customers to the best international standards. Beyond India, we have already
begun building our footprint in South Africa, Sri Lanka and China.
Are you looking at more inorganic growth? If yes, what kind of companies
are you targeting?
In the past we have seen a blend of both organic and inorganic driven
growth, and we will continue to evaluate all options in the future as well. We
see acquisitions more as a way to expedite market entry and to build scale in
new services or customer segments and not as an end in itself.
I believe you are planning to raise $2 bn for expansion. What are these
plans? And what are your future plans regarding both the domestic and global
markets?
Tata Communications has chalked out an expansion plan of $2 bn in investments
over the next three years. These would include new submarine cable capacity in
Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as strengthening our existing
connectivity to Europe and the USA, broadband, and WiMax roll-out in India, and
the expansion of our data center/hosting capability in India, Singapore, UK and
the USA. In addition, we continue to expand our core data services (MPLS and
Ethernet) network and managed services portfolio.
What is your vision for the broadband segment?
I am very confident about the potential of broadband in India. I believe the
true potential of broadband and the impact that it can have on both businesses
and the way we as individuals lead our lives is just beginning to be tapped. I
am also very optimistic about the role that broadband can play in a country like
ours in taking important services like education and healthcare to rural and
other underserved markets.
There are still some challenges to be overcome, including availability of low
cost computing/broadband devices as well as last mile connectivity. With the
broadband wireless policy, we believe that broadband growth will begin to
accelerate as operators rollout new wireless networks for the last mile. WiMax
is expected to play a major part in this creation of the new last mile.
What is your strategy for garnering maximum market share in Africa and the
Middle East markets?
Tata Communications is already one of the leading providers of international
voice, data and IP services in Africa and the Middle East, working in
association with its partner carriers in those regions. Our investments (Neotel
in South Africa) and partnerships (with various Middle East operators) would be
part of our strategy to strengthen our presence in the region.
Tariffs are likely to decline further with the entry of more players. How
does TCL plan to protect its margins?
Increasing competition and impact of new technologies will continue to put
pressure on tariffs and margins of telecom players. We believe that scale and
customer intimacy are important to our success. We are continuing to invest and
build our capabilities on both counts. Being one of the largest global providers
of international voice, data and IP services, we have created a strong platform
of both network and service delivery. We also serve and are strengthening our
relationships with a large number of service providers and enterprises globally.
What challenges are you facing now?
Telecommunications is an intensely competitive industry; this is compounded
by rapidly evolving customer expectations and technology trends. The mantra for
success in such a market is to be able to deliver world-class customer solutions
and delight the customer constantly. Another major challenge that the industry
faces, particularly in India, is the war for talent. We need to invest more in
training, developing and retaining managers to lead global responsibilities.
Gagandeep Kaur
gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in
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