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NAME:
MANOJ KOHLI
AGE: 48
DESIGNATION: President
& CEO
COMPANY: Bharti Airtel |
He is the managing director-designate
of India's largest mobile phone company, but given his motto of
"never be satisfied", is already casing out the next
mountain to climb. But more on that later. "We have to create
burning platforms and raise dissatisfaction levels within the
company," he says. That's a shocker of a statement at first
glance, but it encapsulates Kohli's philosophy. And it's designed
to help retain Bharti Airtel's numero uno position in a market
that is extremely unkind to complacency. It's a philosophy that
works-Bharti's revenues have grown nearly six fold since 2002,
when he joined the company.
A graduate from Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce, Kohli
began his career in the hr department of the DCM Group before
moving on to operations and then finally, into telecom with Escotel.
"I learnt a lot in manufacturing and after liberalisation,
when the services sector was really taking off, I decided to jump
onto the telecom bandwagon," he says. The stint in hr did
come in handy at Bharti, where Kohli introduced the now-common
Six Sigma concept.
A quick decision maker-he never keeps a decision pending for
more than 24 hours-Kohli's management style is very hands-on.
"I don't know if there is something called a hands-off approach,"
he quips. And while he is willing to trust and delegate-giving
high priority to character and values-he admits that he's extremely
demanding when it comes to performance and delivery. He also likes
to wear his nationalistic pride on his sleeves; conversations
are invariably punctuated with references to India's great economic
potential. "Airtel is a global company with an Indian ethos,"
he says with visible pride. What's next on his agenda? Kohli is
now readying for Airtel's forays in Sri Lanka and select us cities
and the new IPTV venture that is expected to be launched by the
end of this year. Then, he's also trying to create an organisation
that's flat and informal-not an easy task when it already clocks
more than Rs 18,000 crore in annual revenues. These will challenge
his acumen, but then, no leader has ever attained greatness without
passing a test by fire.
-Tejeesh N.S. Behl
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