Indian Entrepreneur's Strategy Pays Dividends
Bharti Airtel Chief Rallied
Troops During Tough Time;
From Bicycles to Phones
August 14, 2006Three decades ago, Sunil Bharti Mittal followed a business path common to his native Punjab and started a small factory to make bicycle parts. But he soon broke away from the pack, letting his entrepreneurial zeal take him away from bicycle parts and into imports -- steel, plastic and power generators. His plan was to strike it big during India's era of government-mandated economic scarcity. To do it, Mr. Mittal charmed bank managers over table tennis matches and schmoozed foreign suppliers to ensure the steady flow of capital and goods.
Today, the 48-year-old Mr. Mittal, who isn't related to Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, is chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile-phone company by number of subscribers. Airtel's mobile, landline and broadband services stretch to remote corners of the country, reaching 25 million customers. The company, known until early this year as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., reported that net profit rose 48% to $165 million in the April-to-June quarter from the year-earlier period on a 53% jump in sales to $841 million. Important stakes in Bharti Airtel are held by foreign telecommunications partners, including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. with 30.84% and Vodafone Group PLC of the U.K. with 10%.
As the Indian entrepreneur sets his sights on extending his business empire into retail and agriculture, it's the foreign executives and bankers who are now schmoozing him for business. Rasul Bailay discussed Mr. Mittal's managerial principles with him at Bharti Airtel headquarters just outside New Delhi.
WSJ: What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
LEADING IN ASIA
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Leadership@wsj.com. Please include your name and country.Mr. Mittal: I started a company in 1976 to manufacture bicycle parts like crank shafts for pedals. I come from a city called Ludhiana [in the northern state of Punjab] where almost everybody is engaged in the manufacturing of cycle parts. You get influenced by what you see around you and you attempt to do the same. What you learn is what business teaches you -- supply chain, manufacturing quality, payment collection. There is not just one lesson that you learn creating a business. Every day, every week and every month you are learning new things.
WSJ: How did you expand?
Mr. Mittal: We decided to make tractor parts and some automobile parts for Bombay companies. A couple of years later, it was clear that this was not a business that had a huge future, so I sold my share to my partner, who still runs that business. Then I moved to Bombay [now called Mumbai] and started importing a lot of stuff, such as generators, plastics, steel and selling into the Indian market.
WSJ: You were into many different businesses. Did you adopt any consistent management principles?
Mr. Mittal: It was purely opportunistic -- whatever one felt could be imported. Those were the days when imports were not easy. A lot of controls.
WSJ: Do you still observe that opportunistic ethos?
Mr. Mittal: In the early days, you needed to be opportunistic to live for the next day. You really didn't care very much about a big vision; all you needed was capital to carry on. Anything that could make money would be brought and sold.
WSJ: What was the attitude of local bankers to entrepreneurs like you in those days?
Mr. Mittal: Tough. Raising money was a huge issue. It was a constant struggle of charming the bank manager and foreign suppliers. When you made a sale, you gave a discount to get cash upfront. I used to give the bank manager a game of table tennis because he was fond of it. The return gift to me would be to pass my checks.
WSJ: What was it about operating in India at that time that honed your skills as an entrepreneurial manager?
Mr. Mittal: Times are more relaxed today in India. In those days we had to fight the huge bureaucracy. Today the whole economy is open and if you have a great idea and a small amount of capital you can do things. But opportunities were also greater then because very few people were willing to walk the [entrepreneurial] path. Today, you have many more who want to walk the path.
WSJ: Do you pass along things you learned at that time to your new hires?
Mr. Mittal: I like entrepreneurial capability in our new hires. But of late -- say the past two, three years -- we are now betting and putting more weight on those people who are comfortable with management process. Entrepreneurs by nature and design are not organized. They like to thrive in chaos. I think the company is becoming more organized and more comfortable with processes. We cannot allow the risk-taking we had earlier. Today, we are into managing risks and I think that's a big transformation. It takes away some spark in our organization, but the challenge is to keep the entrepreneurial spirit completely ring-fenced by general management.
WSJ: What was the toughest decision that you had to make?
Mr. Mittal: Four years back, if you go into the history of Bharti Airtel, it was not a question of if, but when this company would collapse. Our stock was at 20 rupees (43 cents) compared with 380 rupees today. The whole market capitalization of the company was three-quarters of a billion dollars versus $16.7 billion today. This company had operations, it had revenues and it had brand. But it was dying because we were faced with unfair regulations. One decision we had to take was whether to stand up and fight with all that we had, or to lie on the ground and let the storm pass. Either you win or die, or conserve your energies for another day and retreat. We retreated. Then we rose, and rose very strongly, and came back.
WSJ: How did you know the storm had passed?
Mr. Mittal: In those days, I knew one thing was important for the company: hope. My only job at the time was to fly around the country, roll up my sleeves and be with my troops. Talk to them about our strategy, customers, vision. In the evening, dance with them -- literally dance with them, celebrate and move on. When I would see people, I knew that those were the places where we could win the battle. My job was to continuously give hope to our people.
印度电信大王的经营之道
30年前，在印度旁庶普邦长大的苏尼尔?巴帝?米塔尔(Sunil Bharti Mittal)与很多邻里一样，开起了生产自行车零部件的小厂。不过，没多久他就改弦更张，投入到了进口行业──从钢铁到塑料再到发电机，不一而足。他当初的想法是，在实施政府管制的经济稀缺时代，也许他能把进口业务做大。为了实现这一目标，他甚至用乒乓球比赛来取悦一位热衷于此的银行经理，并随时与海外供应商保持联系，以确保稳定的资本和货物供应。
如今，48岁的米塔尔已成为印度头号移动电话商Bharti Airtel Ltd的董事长兼董事总经理。（他与印度钢铁大亨拉克希米?米塔尔(Lakshmi Mittal)并无亲戚关系。）Airtel的手机、固话和宽频业务伸向了印度的每个角落，用户达到2,500万。公司在4至6月的财政季度净利润增长48%，达到1.65亿美元，销售额较上年同期增长53%，至8.41亿美元。公司有大量股权为外国合作伙伴持有，比如新加坡电信(Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.)和沃达丰空中通讯公司(Vodafone Group PLC)分别持有其30.84%和10%的股权。
在这位印度企业家力图扩大业务领地、将触角伸零售业和农业的时候，有很多外籍管理人和银行家在为他出谋划策。
近日，《华尔街日报》记者勒苏勒?贝雷(Rasul Bailay)在Bharti Airtel总部对米塔尔进行了专访。
《华尔街日报》问：你的第一份工作是什么？从中得到了哪些收获？
米塔尔答：我在1976年注册了一家公司，生产诸如踏板曲柄轴之类的自行车零部件。在我的家乡卢迪亚纳（旁庶普邦北部的一座小城），几乎所有人都在从事这类生意。你就自然而然地融入其中，也做著和大家一样的事情。但我从企业运作中学到了很多──供应链、生产质量、催帐等等。我学到的经验不只一两点。每天，每一周，每个月，我都会学到很多新东西。
问：你是如何扩展业务的？
答：起初，我们决定为孟买的企业生产一些拖拉机和汽车的零部件。但几年后，我们发现这并无发展前途。于是，我把股份卖给了合作伙伴，他目前仍然经营著这家公司。我来到了孟买，开始进口杂七杂八的东西，比如发电机、塑料、钢铁等等，然后在国内市场销售。
问：你经营过很多业务，是否有一个统一的管理原则？
答：我纯粹是个机会主义者──人们需要什么我就进口什么。那时候进口并不好做。有很多限制。
问：你仍然崇尚机会主义吗？
答：早些时候，你必须靠机会来维持生计。那时并不太在意长远的未来；你只希望能够得到资金来维持运营，任何能够赚钱的东西都买进来，然后销售出去。
问：那些日子银行对企业的态度怎么样？
答：很苛刻。融资一直很难。取悦银行经理和海外供应商绝对是一件令人头疼的事情。当你的业务做得更大的时候，你就可以给他们一些好处了。我曾经陪一位喜爱乒乓球的银行经理打比赛。他后来慷慨地贷给了我资金。
问: 那个时候磨练了你的企业家素质。当时印度企业的经营环境怎么样？
答：在今天的印度人们比以前要轻松多了。以前，我们不得不花费很大精力对付庞大的官僚体系。今天，整个印度经济很开放，如果你有一个很好的主意，还有一些资金，你就可以做点什么了。但相比起来那个时候机会更好，因为只有很少人愿意走独立创业这条路。但今天有这类想法的人已经很多了。
问: 你会把你从那个时候学到的东西传授给你新雇来的人吗？
答：我希望我们新雇的人具备企业家的素质。不过最近两、三年，我们对新雇员的要求更多地放在了他们的管理才能上。企业家精神的本质并不是善于组织。他们的特质是在混乱环境中也能茁壮成长。我认为，公司现在在组织上更完善了，对管理过程的要求也更高。我们现在不能允许再像以前那么冒险了。
今天，我们开始注重风险管理，我想，这是一个很大的转变。这当然会让我们的组织损失一些产生灵感的机会，但问题是我们要让企业家精神受到一般性管理的充分制约。
问: 你作出的最艰难的决定是什么？
答：如果回顾一下4年前的历史，那时Bharti Airtel面临的不是是否会倒闭、而是什么时候倒闭的问题。当时我们的股价只有20卢比(合0.43美元)，而现在的股价是380卢比。公司当时的总市值是7.5亿美元，现在是167亿美元。当时公司虽然有业务、有收入，也有品牌，但由于受到不公正的监管约束，实际上已岌岌可危。
那时我们必须决定，是要尽我们所能抵抗到底、坚持下去，还是躺倒不干、等待风暴过去。你要么打赢这场战斗或在战斗中死掉，要么是先退一步以便保存实力、等待第二天重新战斗。我们的选择是以退为进。后来我们果真重新有力地站了起来，回到了市场上。
问: 你是怎么知道风暴过去了呢？
答：那时候，我知道有一件事对公司非常重要，那就是：保持希望。我当时唯一的工作是到全国各地，卷起袖子和我的同仁们一起，跟他们讨论我们的战略、消费者以及公司全景等问题。晚上我们一起跳舞，真地是一起跳舞，一起开心。就这样一天又一天。我看到他们在那里就知道依靠他们我们最终还能东山再起。那时，我的工作就是不停地给我们的人带来希望。
Rasul Bailay
