Sunil Mittal – A Case Study
Introduction
Sunil Bharti Mittal, born October 23, 1957 is an
Indian businessman.
Son of a politician, Sunil Mittal is from the town
of Ludhiana in Punjab.
A former student of Harvard Business School
graduated from Punjab University.
Son of a parliamentarian.
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of
Bharti Group
Entrepreneurial Ventures
A first generation entrepreneur.
Started his first business in 1976 at the age of
18 with a capital investment of Rs 20,000
(US$1500) borrowed from his father.
First business was to make crankshafts for local
bicycle manufacturers.
Closed in 1979 and moved to Bombay
importing a variety of products -- steel,
brass, zinc, zip fasteners and plastics.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Started a full-fledged business selling portable
generators imported from Japan in 1982.
First to bring portable generators to India.
Government banned the import of generators as
two Indian companies were awarded licenses to
manufacture generators locally and Sunil had to
close is business.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
1982 - First Step in Telecom
Introduced the push button phones to India, ,
replacing rotary phones.
Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated.
Entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG
of Germany.
1990s - Started making fax machines, cordless
phones and other telecom gear.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
1992 - Turning Point.
Awarding of licenses for mobile phone services
for the first time by Indian Govt.
Secured rights to serve New Delhi.
1995, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed
to offer cellular services under the brand name
AirTel.
Instrumental in bringing down the high STD/ISD,
cellular rates in the country by rolling the
countries first private national as well as
international long-distance service.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
2001- Entered into a joint venture with
Singapore Telecom International for a $650million submarine cable project.
Countries first ever undersea cable link
connecting Chennai in India and Singapore.
Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002.
Airtel - India’s largest integrated and the first
private telecom services provider with a
footprint in all the 23 telecom circles.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Entry into Finance Sector.
July 2007 - Joint venture between Bharti
Enterprises and AXA Group of France. (world
leader in financial protection and wealth
management).
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Retailing - November 2006, Sunil Mittal struck a
joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail
giant, to start a number of retail stores across
India.
Launched neighborhood format stores called
"Easy Day". The stores are a one stop shop to
cater to every family’s day-to-day needs.
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Launched the Bharti Airtel's Digital TV.
Partner
with
Narayanamurthy's
Infosys
Technologies to DTH service.
Bharti Realty Private Limited - the in-house Real
Estate Arm for Bharti Group - facilitates by
extending support to the Group Companies for
Identifying, Developing and Maintaining Quality
Real Estate in line with their Business Models.
Philanthropic activities
Joined hands with the All India Football
Federation and pumped in over a hundred crore
rupees to help the country attain global
standards in the sport.
First step, the telecom company will start a
world-class football academy, to be named
'Bharti-AIFF Academy.
Wants a "football revolution" in the country and
is ready to invest "any amount of money“.
Philanthropic activities
Bharti Foundation
Set up in the year 2000 with the vision, “To help
underprivileged children and young people
of our country realize their potential“.
Initiated a School Improvement Program (SIP),
where it works with government schools.
In the process of setting up pre-primary and
primary level schools under its Satya Bharti
Schools program.
Philanthropic activities
Joined hands with Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) Delhi to establish the Bharti School of
Telecommunication Technology and
Management (BSTTM).
Has committed Rs 20 crore towards BSTTM.
Students enrolling in the institute, are completely
funded by the the Bharti Foundations.
Key learnings
Ability to take decisions amidst uncertainties is
at the root of new leadership paradigm. Sunil
Mittal is first to enter many sectors of the
business, which
involves
the risk of
uncertainties. Here it is his vision of the
entrepreneur that makes him successful.
In this era of me-too products that flood the
market place, the key to survival and success of
an innovation is speed to market. Sunil Mittal’s
company Bharti has followed it by coming into
the retail sector, insurance sector, and finance
sector and now in the entertainment sector.
Key learnings
Out-of-the-box thinking is one of the essentials
of new leadership.
Managing the current as well as future breed
of volatile customers, reading their mind and
predicting the future consumption trend.