Infocomm 'movers & Shakers'

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Disclaimer:

I thought it might be interesting to get some background information on some TMCs at RIC.

This is not an endorsment of any kind - just informational and its not confidential info (to my knowledge).

In the unlikely event it does turn out to be restricted, we can always remove it.

Since we seemed to get a positive response to our mkt project, we decided to post the material that we came across but never ended up using.

S P Shukla (SPS), President of Wireless Products & Services division, is a Chemical Engineer with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has nearly 23 years of experience with leading companies, past nine of which have been in the Telecom Sector. Prior to his foray into the Telecom Industry, he was the Managing Director of a leading Paint Company.

Before paints, he was with a leading tyre company where he was responsible for setting up and managing a chain of over hundred exclusive sales and service retail showrooms, the first of its kind in India.

He joined Reliance Industries Limited as Business Head of its Telecom Division and was responsible for setting up and leading the GSM business of Reliance Telecom Limited. He was also responsible for introducing the first prepaid in the GSM sector in India, which was also among the first two or three simultaneous launches in the world. He is a member of the core team that founded Reliance Infocomm in early 2000 and is currently driving its thrust into new product strategies and initiatives.

Favorite book:

When I was in class III or IV, my father gave me two books, one on the life of Thomas Alva Edison and the other on Wright Brothers. These two books made me want to be a scientist. Later on, when I did summer projects in my Engineering and MBA, I realized that management of technology is today more important than technology itself. During Engineering, my Head of Department presented me with two books by Dominique LaPierre, called 'Freedom at Midnight' and 'Is Paris Burning'. These had a very profound impact and got me interested in history. During my MBA, a book called 'MisMarketing' that featured the ten biggest marketing blunders in the world, caught my fancy.

Favorite food:

Chinese-Schezwan dishes. While posted in Calcutta, I took a liking to typical Bengali dishes - banana flower and lotus stems, besides robust north Indian vegetarian dishes.

Favorite film:

The last film I saw in a theatre was when I took my son to watch Harry Potter. I enjoyed and still remember a film called 'Lost in the Desert' released about twenty years ago, based on the real life experience of a brave child lost in the desert and how he manages to cross it. I also thoroughly enjoyed Lagaan and have seen it twice.

Favorite hobbies:

Reading and exploring the Internet

Message to employees of Reliance:

Through our innovative and customer-friendly product strategies, we have already won the trust of the Indian consumer. Now by offering superior customer service and showing concern for the consumer, we have to win the customer's mind. You must have heard the phrase that at the top, not only should a person be honest and impartial, he should be visibly so. So let your concern for the customer show in whatever you do. It must be visible to a customer and not just remain in our mind.

Message to families of Reliance:

All the families of Reliance employees have put up with a lot in the last two years, with spouses/parents putting in long hours and literally not being seen at a stretch, except on Sundays. All I can say is, it has all been for a good cause.

When you sit down and try to see the larger mission that your respective family members have been working on, you would be able to share the cause and perhaps have a better understanding of these longer durations of absence. And hopefully as things stabilize, you will get to see more of us in personal life.

Concept of Leadership:

Leadership is leading from the front, leading by example and actually participating in the work and thought process. A leader should be able to delegate, but never abdicate. A leader must be by the side of his team, support the team and should be willing.

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Prakash Bajpai (PB), President, Enterprise Business, Reliance Infocomm is an Electronics Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering. He started his career with IBM. After that he served Phillips for nine years, where he also managed the exciting Asian Games project, including the launch of color TV broadcast in India. In 1987, he joined Tata Telecom at the inception of their telecom business and set up their joint venture with AT&T. He was also responsible for setting up their business operations for transmission optical fiber equipment in Gujarat. Thereafter, he left for the US to join AT&T and returned from there in 1996 to head the India operation of Lucent Technologies. In 1999, he joined Hughes Telecom as President and CEO and built the company business from scratch, raising 900 crore from the first Telecom IPO in India. In April of 2002, he joined Reliance.

Favorite book:

All business books interest me. To keep updated on latest technology, I read a lot of serious stuff. In my earlier days, books on Indian mythology impacted me.

My father was a great scholar in Gita and Ramayana and I had the privilege of accompanying him on his discourses when I was small and they have impressions on my way of thinking.

Favorite food:

Home food. I am a vegetarian. I like all vegetarian food and most Indian sweets too.

Favorite movie:

'The Great Escape to Victory' was a nice movie.

Favorite pastime:

Spending time with my family and a vacation at some hill station.

Message for Reliance employees:

India is going through some very exciting times and we have a great sponsor in Reliance and in the Ambanis who have a great vision. There is a huge opportunity for all of us. And Reliance Infocomm members should get enchanted by this opportunity and work in an integrated fashion, in an environment where caring comes from an obsession of customer being first.

Once we align ourselves with the customer's objectives, we can integrate ourselves in a meaningful manner to create a superior and competitive customer value that eventually will make us winners in the market place. 'Timeteam-Customer'.

Message for families of employees:

Through these times, families play a very important role in providing support

because most of our strength in the office comes from our family and I am a firm believer in that. So if the atmosphere at home is peaceful and our family supports us, it serves as an important booster for our work. At the same time, employees also have to integrate what they are doing and carry that passion and distribute and share that passion with their family members so that they can experience what we are achieving because it has the capability to change the destiny of India. We are making large-scale pan-India investments and this can do wonders to India - like roads did to America in the 40s and 50s Infocomm will do the same as we move into the digital decade.

Concept of leadership:

You should recognize opportunity and get the team to prepare for that. The most important thing that leadership does is to create an enchanting and shared vision, which everyone can relate to. Good leadership tries to create a synergy and an environment of cross-functional teamwork where the strengths of people, who come from different skill sets and diverse background, can be welded into achieving the desired goal. Leadership is about taking personal ownership in a demonstrable way, learning and thinking strategically and working with passion to transform strategy into results.

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CIO for the Reliance Group, Jyotindra Thacker (JT) graduated from IIT Kharagpur in the year 1980. Before going to USA to do his MBA with specialization in Management Information Systems, he worked in India for three years.

After completing his post graduation and working in USA for a few years, he migrated back to India and then finally joined Reliance as a full time employee in 1990.

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Bhagwan D Khurana (BDK), Vice Chairman, Reliance Telecom Limited and Group President, Reliance Infocomm Limited spearheads Infocomm's mega initiative into communications and information technology sector. A graduate of IIT Delhi (1967), Khurana has wide and varied experience in manufacturing and services sectors in the field of electronics and telecommunications. He broke the monopoly of the central public sector by setting up and steering Punjab Wireless Systems, as CEO, at 32 and later as the Chairman and Managing Director of Optel Telecommunications, which was the first company in the country to manufacture integrated optical transmissions systems under one roof. In 1991, when the globalization process started in India, he set up a techno-economic research and consultancy company and helped many multinationals set up base in India.

Thereafter, he took over as Director of DSC communications A/S in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining Reliance, Khurana was President, Networks with Bharti Televentures. He is also a member of the Empowered Mission Management Board of Technology Development Mission on Photonic Devices and Technologies, set up by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and Member, Academic Senate, Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management (IIIT&M), Gwalior.

What is your message for Reliance Infocomm employees?

Short and sweet Guru Mantras are:

1. Speed wins. You snooze you lose.

2. Be your word. Deliver what you promise.

3. Have your lunch with your customer or be the lunch of your competitor.

4. Customer First. When you are looking to your boss, you might have turned your back to your customer.

Yours message for families of Reliance Infocomm employees?

All of us at Reliance Infocomm are a part of a telecom history in the making. Your spouse/parent is a trailblazer. A pioneer's life is a hard one. Your welcome smile on his return from work at odd hours is what keeps him or her going. Your contribution to the success story of Reliance Infocomm is as important as that of each employee. My compliments to each family member.

Which books have had an impact on you?

I am a compulsive reader and have to read at least an hour everyday before I can sleep. I read anything from HBR to Comics. Books that have influenced me most are the Bhagavad-Gita, Guru Granth Sahib and a sequel on metaphysics written by Tuesday Lombsang Rampa.

Do you enjoy watching movies?

Yes. But I do not go to a cinema hall. Hindi films Mother India and Guide had an impact on me. I watch movies with my family at home. Every Saturday, Bhavana lines up some movie for us to see. One of the recent ones I really enjoyed was MunnaBhai, MBBS.

What would you best like to do if you had free time?

I would like to take my camera and shoot. The other thing I like to do is write poetry. I have written some, when I am either pensive or overjoyed.

What kind of food are you fond of?

I am a vegetarian. I like all vegetarian food. My favorite is ‘aloo mutter’. I can cook both vegetarian and nonvegetarian food.

[Chirag 5]

4. Customer First. When you are looking to your boss, you might have turned your back to your customer.

Yeh, seems this hasn't penetrated well down to the employees as yet! Hope such things go down!

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A Chemical Engineer with specialization in high polymers from IIT Delhi, Sarup Chowdhary (SC) joined PIL / NOCIL as production trainee and moved to spearhead the marketing group within three years.

He later joined IPCL and, after a fifteen-year stint with them, became Director Marketing on the Board of the company in 1990. In 1994 he joined GE Plastics as CEO and was instrumental in setting up the company's operations in India.

Sarup Chowdhary joined Reliance in April 2000. For the last two years, he has been responsible for planning, execution and operations of 'Reliance WebWorld' retail model, as CEO, Reliance WebWorld.

Favourite book:

I read a lot of non-fiction and can re-call many good books of Stephen Covey, C H Prahlad or the recent one on 'Execution' by Larry Bosidy and Ram Charan. However, my favorite till now would be Tom Peters' In Search of Excellence.

Favourite Food:

I enjoy eating good parathas

Favourite Film:

I particularly recall 'Dil Se' for its overall excellence and soul stirring music of Rehman.

Favourite hobbies:

Reading and Active sports

Message to employees of Reliance:

Be keen to learn and be in a mindset of continuous improvement to get better.

It is said “Get Better or Get Beaten”.

Message for the family members of Reliance employees:

The Team Reliance is today executing a once in a lifetime 'Change India Project'. This requires special effort and huge time commitment. Your support and taking charge of home matters would make this task easier.

Concept of Leadership:

An effective leader in my opinion should possess three E's. He should have the

professional Edge in the true sense of the word, he must have the Energy and he must be able to Energize his team towards a shared goal.

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A Mechanical Engineer from the University of Bombay (VJTI), A G Dawda (AGD) heads Reliance Engineering Associates Limited (REAL). With nearly 40 years of wide-ranging experience, he has worked with projects of the Bhilai Steel Plant, the Neyveli lignite corporation, the Union Carbide Plant, Engineers India Limited, Gujarat Refineries, IPCL, Haldia Refinery Plants and three major fertilizer plants all over India. He left India in 1976 to go to the USA for two years for a project management assignment. In 1989, he joined a corporation in the Minstry of Industries in Saudi Arabia for one project and spent 10 years there before returning to Jamnagar to join Reliance. “My career seems to have come a full circle. I was born in Padena, a village at the boundary of Jamnagar Refinery and now I have come back to it,” says he.

On favorite books…

Leadership Challenge by James M Kouzes and Barry Posner.

Future Shock by Alvin Toffler.

Recently read 'An idealist view of Life' by Dr. S Radhakrishnan.

On films…

My interest in Hindi films is very limited. I saw and liked Lagaan.

It is a good film. In a lighter vein, I liked Hera Pheri. In earlier days, Angoor. I enjoy theatre better, especially Gujarati Theatre.

Other hobbies…

I enjoy classical music and classical dance such as Bharatnatyam and Odissi.

My daughter is a Bharatnatyam exponent. My favorite musicians include Kishori Amonkar, Prabha Atre and Shuba Mudgal.

On food…

Any kind of food. I enjoy good food. I have a sweet tooth Indian sweets particularly.

Message for Reliance employees….

Total commitment is the secret of your success and you should continue to do that. There is no way anyone can take his or her job casually or lightly. I am very proud of my team and their effort and integrity. Do not ever let the management down.

Message for family members…

The kind of sacrifice we are getting from the younger team, do they find time for their families? Whoever joins Reliance gets so much into his or her work that they want to really spend so much time here. They have a job to perform and their commitment is great and we understand that the family has to bear the brunt of it. The family has to be thanked for the support they provide to the member working for Reliance.

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An Electronics graduate from IIT Madras and a Management graduate from IIM, Calcutta, MGS has had wide ranging experience in diverse fields like Manufacturing, Business Development, Product Development and Quality.

After a 10 year stint with Hewlett-Packard, MGS was busy helping build a start-up called Tejas Network India Limited before joining Reliance Infocomm.

M G Subramaniam is Head of Integrated Customer Care at Reliance Infocomm.

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A Chemical Engineer from Mumbai University, Manoj Modi (MM) has been a leading light on the corporate firmament of the Reliance Group for more than two decades and has worked on all Reliance projects, including the Jamnagar Refinery.

Besides having a feel not just for the big numbers but the details behind them, it is his instinctive ability to grasp the nuances of a business that makes him one of the most successful figures of Corporate India.

A tough negotiator, a workaholic and a no-nonsense person, he is a staunch believer in God. He is also a fitness freak, practicing yoga for half an hour a day, come what may, in addition to half an hour of regular exercise. Low profile and

unassuming, Manoj Modi has been instrumental in preparing the blueprint for Reliance's entry into the information and communication space - the most prestigious and ambitious project of the group to date a project that he currently leads.

Favorite movie: Thanks to our Netway box, I have seen more movies in the last two months than I have seen all my life. Kal Ho Na Ho is one I really liked.

Favorite music: I possibly have the largest collections of Gujarati bhajans, every single thing in Gujarati.

Favorite book: The Bhagwad Gita. I also update myself by reading a number of technology and business related books. And though I may have read all the books on these subjects, I read those books because I need to learn things and not for self-improvement. My self-improvement book has everything to do with Gita and nothing else.

What would you best like to do if you had time from work?

Teach. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry - anything to do with Science.

Favorite food / drink: I like South Indian food, specially at Mysore café!

Message to employees of Reliance:

In the last one-year, we have achieved quite a lot through tremendous amount of hard work, grit and determination. We have overcome many challenges and set standards that are worldclass.

I would like to exhort all of you to continue in the same vein and continue to excel.

Message to family members of Reliance:

It is because of the encouragement and support that the family members have extended that each Reliance employee has been able to dedicate himself/herself towards driving the business to new heights.

We are thankful to the family members of each and every Reliance employee for this support.