Leaders emerge out of tough times: Sunil Bharti Mittal

And it is these hard times that lay foundation of great leaders and their institutions. Thats the message coming from Indias telecom Czar Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal. While delivering the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award Lecture at AIMAs Foundation Day, he said, I and my company faced a series of challenges right from the time I was an 18 year old college graduate looking to do business, to the time when in 2003, with the sudden entry of Reliance and Tatas, clouds loomed large over Bharti Telecom in the telecom space.

It is overcoming series of these challenges that has made me the leader that I am. Mr Mittal was speaking in capital at the AIMA Foundation Day and National Management Day celebrations on February 21. On the occasion, Mr Mittal also received the prestigious JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award. Recounting his entrepreneurial journey, Mr Mittal went back to his days in industrial town of Ludhiana where he was brought up as part of family of politicians. Said Mr Mittal, At the age of 18, when I looked around to do business, I didnt have high qualifications. I was a simple graduate. But I got started in bicycle parts business and there I faced the first leadership challenge: to secure business and keep the production going inspite of various crises. I had to rely on power of persuasion!

In his deeply passionate and candid address, Mr Mittal then took the audience through his various ventures in 1980s from importing Honda generator sets from Japan to push-button phones. By early 1990s, when mobile telephony was opened up to private players, Mr Mittal was ready to outplay fancied rivals.

In early 90s, I faced my second leadership challenge. I was a rank outsider in the mobile telephony business. Our total turnover was just Rs 25 crores. We somehow managed to get Rs 300 crores required to bag the license for Delhi circle. Rest, as they say, is history, said Mr Mittal.

Persuading top talent from IITs and IIMs to join fledging Bharti telecom was an important step in Mr Mittals journey. We got out there to become a company of choice. We persuaded people to join by sharing our vision and creating a great working environment. Our people felt liberate, recounted Mr Mittal.

Year 2003 was another landmark year in the journey of Mr Mittal and his company. When big players like Reliance and Tatas joined the telecom war, skeptics said that end of Bharti was near. Stock price plummeted. This, according to Mr Mittal, was his third and most important leadership challenge. Facing these clouds, at the famous Agra Conclave Mr Mittal chose to lie low. The storm passed over, and Bharti was still around, tougher and better organized from the experiences.

During the onslaught of several big-players, at the Agra Conclave, we decide to lie low. We decided to let the storm pass. During that critical time, my job was to just meet as many employees as possible. I traveled the entire length and breath of the country. I just said this we are expected to not win this battle, but if we do win, we will create history. Thats what finally happened. Today, the Bharti story is toasted around the word.
Indeed, the journey of this remarkable entrepreneur resonated with hundreds of professionals and academicians present at the AIMA National Management Day celebrations. Mr Mittal received resounding ovations for his lecture and well deserved award.