Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group, feels the company’s retail initiative with Wal Mart would be a major success by offering Wal Mart’s business model of ‘everyday lower prices’ clubbed with efficient supply chain management. Bharti Retail is planning to spend nearly $2.5 billion by 2015 to build hypermarkets, supermarkets and small stores.
NDTV: People who work with you say that you’re highly focused, workaholic, down to earth and you never seem nervous. Do you think it is a fair description of how you are at work?
Sunil Mittal: I would say broadly yes. I don’t lose my cool! I never had any occasion to shout at anyone. If I am angry then I internalize the situation and deal with it.
NDTV: What about nervousness?
Sunil Mittal: Well, you can never say never. At times when stakes are very high, you are worried about the enterprise that you have built up. Broadly, I have that strong resilience about my attitude and the strong belief that there is large part of our life, which is preordained.
NDTV: Many say Bharti and you are synonymous with speed and agility?
Sunil Mittal: Speed is very important to us. As all know when we have no money and resources, the only weapon we used was speed. In fact, we used to have a slogan that said if you are caught between speed and profession, choose speed and profession will follow. Of course things have moved now and we now say quality first and speed always.
NDTV: What is next chapter in the dramatic India telecom turnaround story?
Sunil Mittal: There is no doubt that telecom has been an outstanding success story in India. To be the second largest in anything in the world especially in a vital infrastructure area is truly commendable. And while we’ll claim a lot of share of the success, I think the successive policy makers have also played a role. I think telecom is a story now which has its future written on the stars. India is poised to have 500 million mobile phone users in 2010 and before 2020 the figure is going to cross over 1 billion phones. Clearly, it will remain now the second largest market in the world after China and it will be comparable to China in the next 10 years. I think if India has to be a knowledge-based society, it will need broadband connectivity and we’re all waiting for that to happen.
NDTV: When you look at the future how you are going to define your USP?
Sunil Mittal: I can say we are fortunate now that we have crossed the economies of scale. We are now at 1 billion minutes a day and anybody coming into this industry with 30-50 paisa tariff and has 20 million minutes a day, is going to find it very difficult. I think we have now built a very strong defense mechanism by the sheer volume in the country. Out of the 7-8 existing operators, we are not only holding the top position but the difference between us and second is fairly large.
NDTV: Do you still feel that ‘Airtel is a company that is rocket to the moon.’
Sunil Mittal: No, it can never be that way because you to have pause, halt and consolidate and then move on.
NDTV: What do say when in 2004 you decided to outsource your network? At moment like that do you ever doubt yourself and say is this too big a risk to take?
Sunil Mittal: It is true that we have done some path breaking activities because when you do things which have not been done in the industry in 100 years in the western world and suddenly a young Indian company wants to attempt things like that, it does cause shock. Even chief of networks within Bharti was a strong opponent of this and therefore our board was not very happy. So those were the times when I actually put my neck on the line and say that I have gone through it and if this doesn’t go right I will hold myself completely responsible. So you take those chances and move on.
The fact is whenever we are driven to a decision that is very critical, I think we get a lot more strength to do it. Every time people have said that we don’t think you can do it, and we say just ‘watch us.’
NDTV: Do you think you will get enough spectrum for growth at the right time?
Sunil Mittal: Well, spectrum is a very vital input for the telecom industry or more appropriately ‘oxygen’ for us. The issue is you can’t substitute for the need of spectrum. There was policy in place and some parts of it probably needed tightening up but dense urban areas like Delhi and Mumbai are actually gasping for oxygen. When TRAI came with the recommendation our reaction was only natural that leaving out of Delhi, how we’re going to handle it. We protested and moved to court and while things are still in the court, the spectrum has been given to new players. For the past five years we have been screaming for more volume of spectrum but it was not available. Suddenly there is lot of spectrum available because the government has decided to pull it out of other users. My belief is while there be not enough ever for everybody the government is now ensuring a balance and also we’re okay with new players so long as we keep on getting our spectrum.
NDTV: What is the source of strength for you?
Sunil Mittal: My innate belief is that whatever happening in my life and my environment is preordained. I truly believe that my Lord will take care of things that go wrong because this is my personal experience that everytime I am about to be hit very badly, some angel has always come in front of me. I had that personal experience many times! So I do believe that when things were really get to that point something dramatic and magical in my favour will happen.
NDTV: Do you really feel that at the height of the WLL crisis in 2002, Bharti was vulnerable strategically and financially. It was a pretty scary period, wasn’t it?
Sunil Mittal: Yes, it was. When our stock was down to Rs 20 and the question was not if, it is only when we would collapse, it was scary. I remember at Agra conclave there were a lot of dark clouds at that time because our small team of 35 people was vertically divided over how to tackle that situation. We agreed to let the storm pass and rise afterwards and we did it very well.
NDTV: Do you think the retail chapter of Bharti Enterprises is going to be tougher than telecom?
Sunil Mittal: First of all I enter businesses where I feel we can make a big difference. For me difference is not in market capital and profitability but it is making an impact on society. If a business does not make an impact on the society then I won’t do it. My innate belief is retail will do a transformational act for this country as it will save money in the pockets of middle class customers besides giving more money to farmers. I think this cannot come unless organized retail comes into picture and to do that we chose the finest partner – Wal Mart. I like its business model of ‘every day low cost and every day low price’ – which is what India needs. We’ve opened 3 stores in Punjab by the name of Easy Day. On the competition issue I think there is large amount of misunderstanding of any new business that starts. We need to demonstrate for two years the benefits of retail to the nation. So I am going to quietly carrying on our work with our partner Wal Mart to ensure that we have the best practices.
NDTV: Was it flattering at one level that every global retail major wanting to partner with you?
Sunil Mittal: To be honest it is a tough one when you have so much of choice. To choose our retail partner we ran through each and every parameter that was important for us and while it may sound flattering but it was a tough call. By the end of day I think Wal Mart was more appropriate for India. I would stress out the fact that we are approached by very large companies in different areas of business but we keep on saying no because we’re not interested in those businesses but at times we say we must have created a global brand. I would say we must be the only company in India where no foreign partner has ever lost money or faith.
NDTV: How many more peaks do you want to scale?
Sunil Mittal: After building and then scaling a peak like telecom, it is going to be hard to big one like this. Telecom is unstoppable now and our next big thing is to take telecom model from India to the world and personally in the next 2-3 years I will work on this area to ensure that Bharti becomes a global telecom story.
NDTV: In the history books how would like to be written up?
Sunil Mittal: A man who made a difference.