R I C Interviews

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Use common sense:

The use of 'we' or 'us' in the questions implies that the interviewer was probably an employee as opposed to a neutral reporter.

BDK

As head of International operations, please tell us about your role in the business?

International operations are Infocomm's latest initiatives in the global markets. International business constitutes of different operations such as being carriers' carrier; international long distance carrier; access operations in foreign markets; remote management and support of networks and business processes; and providing consulting and solutions to telecom operators.

Reliance Infocomm has the mandate to be the flag bearer of the Reliance brand globally. In our preparation to becoming a global player, we are in the process of creating Information Capital with databases, information systems, networks and technology infrastructure. This is essential for analyzing potential product categories and geographic arenas we want to operate in.

Entry of a new player in any market disturbs the market equilibrium. The established incumbents react to the challenger's moves. We have to meticulously prepare for overcoming the complexities of competitive situations that are different in different countries. Underserved and unregulated markets have different challenges when compared with oversupply and highly regulated markets. We have to think several steps ahead and work backwards to achieve our end goal in each distinct market segment that could be a country, a region or a continent.

In the meanwhile, we have made some strategic moves in developing long lasting relationships with top international telecom carriers for voice and data products. We have taken 214 licenses in the United States and set up our facility based Points of Presence (PoPs) in Los Angeles and New York. Similar PoPs will be operational in the UK and Hong Kong/Singapore in the next two months. Reliance Infocomm has acquired Flag Telecom global submarine network for international connectivity and WorldTel for providing consulting services in the emerging markets. These initiatives have given us a head start in developing organizational capital for international operations.

My role in Reliance Infocomm international operations is to help our organization in developing the strategic business plan, executing it and managing the operations to achieve our objective of making Reliance Infocomm one of the top ten international carriers in the world.

Having set up the operations, what is the next focus?

Our immediate focus is to create Human Capital with knowledge, talent and skill sets required for international operations that will provide to customers value proposition and shareholder value enhancement on a sustainable basis. While we value experience, exposure and 'has been there', we are betting on young entrepreneurial talent to be the backbone of our international operations. Our preference is to use internal human resources, but we are not shy of picking

the best in the world market. Organizational effectiveness is the sum total of competencies of its people. Reliance firmly believes in investing in its people.

Simultaneously, we are consolidating and documenting our learning in project management, network rollouts, network management, customer operations, business and decision support systems and processes that we have developed or adapted and successfully deployed in our country. While converting them into cookie cutter tools, we are ensuring that flexibility is inbuilt to suit specific operational requirements that seamlessly interface in the environment of operation, zero defect operations require zero latency, one data entry and one data base. However, all fully automated and integrated operations provide for manual override to meet force majeure situations.

We are developing a portfolio of products and delivery strategy for different markets. We intend to take our innovative products and services to the global markets.

While affordability, low cost entry and full market coverage should succeed in expanding reach in low teledensity markets, developed markets will require new product features that deliver more for the same spend.

Speed, bandwidth, applications and content will create a niche market segment in these markets.

To achieve our aggressive goal of taking a leadership position in international operations, time to go to market is of utmost importance. We are evaluating all options of setting up green field operations as well as inorganic growth through acquisitions.

What are the advantages and pitfalls of doing international business?

A total of three per cent of Gross Domestic Product of the world comes from telecom. As a percentage of household spending, it is estimated between two and three percent, well below the spending on tobacco and alcohol. The size of the telecom market is more than a trillion US Dollars. Limiting Reliance Infocomm operations to domestic markets will restrict our business to a share of that percentage of India's GDP.

For us to have a share of the global market pie, we shall have to operate in international markets. India, with its well established democracy, large English speaking population and hundreds of millions of young talented people, gives Reliance Infocomm a unique opportunity to become a Transnational Corporation and contributeto India becoming a super economic power by 2020.

Diversification into markets geographically spread also reduces overall business risk due to market fluctuations caused by destructive new technologies, pricing adopted by challengers and political turmoil in a specific market.

The challenge before Reliance Infocomm is to quickly garner required resources to stabilize current operations, expand domestic Enterprise Broadband Access and Consumer Triple Play Netway networks, while adding international operations. Another challenge in international operations is the ability to develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of the culture and nuances of doing business in uncharted waters. Nothing can be taken for granted till you have your feet well entrenched on the ground.

How difficult is this, considering that Governments have their own policies throughout the world?

Each country is unique due to being at a different stage of economic development. They have their fiscal policies that determine opening up of markets to competition; limits of foreign direct investment, licensing policies, spectrum allocation and tariff interventions. Part of opportunity analysis includes country risk analysis.

Countries that have low tele-density and large population offer high potential. However, in the absence of an independent regulator, the Government can put the entire investment on risk by an arbitrary policy decision.

Broadly speaking, telecom markets are rapidly opening up to take advantage of multiplier impact investments in telecom sector have on the economic development of the country. Nations are being internationally rated on parameters such as tele-density, Internet access and now Digital Access Index. These indices have direct correlation with the quality of life of the citizens and economic growth of the nations.

What are the other initiatives?

Other initiatives in international operations underway include expanding our reach into additional global territories that are dominated by regional players. We are developing strategic partnerships for leveraging network investments made by these carriers in their countries for providing seamless service to our enterprise customers, including Multinational Companies operating in India and Indian Transnational Companies having operations abroad.

While there is an excess supply of submarine cable capacity on the Atlantic and Pacific routes, a large supply demand gap is being experienced for international bandwidth in India and the Gulf countries and connectivity with China, of these high growth markets.

We are implementing the FALCON project that will provide terabits of international bandwidth connectivity between Europe, India and China. This submarine cable will connect Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Iran in the Gulf region on the West with India and Thailand and Hong Kong on the East. FALCON will connect to FLAG's 52,000-route kilometer global network at Suez and Hong Kong for providing a resilient network.

WorldTel, which is currently providing consulting services to Gulf, CIS and Latin American countries, is also expanding its product portfolio and new markets to meet the NextGen 3G networks in the developed markets and regulatory services in the emerging markets.

How do you integrate the network when you go international?

We are developing a concept of e-Bonding of global networks. Our Operating Support Systems can get integrated with Network Management Systems and Element Managers of any network element. Even today, our Switches and Transport Equipment located at New York and Los Angeles are being operated and managed from our National Network Operation Center at Mumbai. We are leveraging competencies and processes developed by our Network planning, engineering and operations teams to operate and manage pan India mobile and transport network. It will give us OPEX cost advantages in Operations & Maintenance and time to market.

What does the future look like?

We have come a long way in a short period of three years on delivering our vision and mission in the domestic market. Reliance Infocomm has become No. 1 mobile operator in nine months and voted the 'Most Trusted Telecom Brand' in India.

I can recall with nostalgia, my first meeting with our Chairman when he asked me “Is it possible to connect 50,000 customers in a day?” My answer was, “Yes, if we can have the right technology, processes and people.”

On July 2, 2003, we added 1,18,000 customers in ten hours with on the air provisioning' process. We are moving forward and moving quickly whether it is mobile access, broadband access, international connectivity or international voice and data business. We are moving as per our business plan. This has emboldened us to expand into international markets.

What are the special international schemes we have in the pipeline?

For our domestic customers, we are launching World Card, a prepaid international calling card.

We are also extending our international products to the NRI community of interest in USA by offering prepaid and pay-after-use Dial Around 1-800 service for calling to India.

How many countries are you looking at?

Dial Around Service will be gradually launched in all countries that have persons of Indian origin and have loved ones they would like to call at affordable tariffs. We are also working on providing similar services to large and medium enterprises.

What is your concept of leadership?

The first and foremost responsibility of a leader is to align the organization's Vision and Mission with the individual aspirations of the entire workforce, be it a Manager, an Executive, a Technician in Media Convergence Node or Feet-on-Street.

A leader must create a chain of leaders required at all levels of operations. Beautiful gems don't happen. They need a seasoned craftsman to cut, polish edges and shape them to perfection. I was fortunate to work with such leaders who had the instinct and trusted me with responsibilities to lead at the early stages of my professional career.

At a young age of 32 years, I was given the responsibility of a CEO of a state public sector undertaking. I repaid the confidence reposed in me by making profits for the company in the first year of its commercial operations.

A leader attains a status of an icon when he succeeds more often than not and people look up to him for solutions for reasons of his competence and the empathy he has towards them.

What do you think made them see your leadership qualities?

The first five years have an everlasting impression in one's life. I learnt my humility from my mother, a very pious person who practiced the dictum of 'Oh Jane'. I learnt to be patient and yet resolute from my father who brought up our family of six with literally no money, leaving behind all the riches when we migrated from Pakistan during partition. The IIT honed my skills of synthesis and analysis of finding solutions to the problems.

[Greens 21]

Is your source of these articles from Reliance Infocomm's internal magazine for employees.

[Chirag 5]

Nice stuff... Quite some Inspiration!

[city02 63]

Nice stuff... Quite some Inspiration!

can't believe being CEO at 32 of a public sector!

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JT

You have been responsible for setting up the IT infrastructure for Reliance. Please tell us about the initiative right from the start.

Since the time I have joined Reliance in 1990, I have been involved in various IT infrastructure initiatives like LAN, CAN, MAN, Nationwide Voice, Data and Video Network connecting all the facilities of Reliance. At Reliance, we always wanted our communications and computing facilities to be best in class, scaleable and reliable. It was always done with the future growth in mind. For example, we started using CAT5 and CAT6 cablings much before it became the industry norm in India.

What is KITE? What is the role of KITE?

The name KITE was adopted a year and a half ago, when we wanted everybody in the team to imbibe the Reliance spirit, as well as create a unique identity for ourselves within Reliance.

We could have called ourselves the IT group or the IT/Telecom procurement group. We looked at the Infocomm logo, which looked like a kite. It went well with the new acronym 'Knowledge and Information Technology Enablers'. So, we started using the same colors without transforming the logo. And that is how KITE was born.

The role of KITE is to own end-to-end responsibility for managing the IT Infrastructure. We try to follow the ITIL/ITSM methodology, which is very similar to the BEPCO model of Reliance. Based on business needs, we do the engineering/architecture of the services, followed by procurement of necessary software, hardware and tools; and commissioning and testing of the services, before it is finally put into service. It operates on a 24 x 7 basis.

Every IT service has to have a service owner who takes the end-to-end responsibility. The owner is accountable for service delivery to the end user.

The other and more important role that KITE plays is to ensure that IT services are standardized across the enterprise. For example, Lotus Notes is the messaging platform across the whole group; Polycomm devices are used across all locations for audio and video conferencing; and Trend Micro Antivirus solution that protects the whole enterprise from viruses. KITE centrally manages core IT policies, guidelines and IT infrastructure, while the local team supports the operations at the local site.

How is IT/Telecom procurement an integral part of KITE?

As I mentioned, we take complete end-to-end responsibility. Thus IT procurement is an integral part of KITE. IT procurement is our core strength and provides competitive edge. It enables the organization to cost effectively acquire the best-in-class technology.

In addition to IT procurement, we also do procurement for a majority of the electronics that are being purchased for Reliance Infocomm.

The team comprises IT and Telecom professionals, most of them engineers with a wide range of technical expertise combined with a keen understanding of costs and how these can be optimized. The team closely works with other divisions of Reliance to achieve the end targets.

As to how we started into procurement, it was because of some experience that I obtained during my early days when I was involved with PMS Prasad for the procurement of ethylene and other chemicals. That is where I learned a lot about contracts and negotiations and I will always remain indebted to Reliance for giving me that opportunity.

How do you measure the impact of IT? What are the key measurement metrics or methods for tracking accountability?

Technology is a challenge by itself. After cost, though the challenges vary, ranging from struggling with a lack of standards to maintaining the infrastructure, hanging on to a talented team of professionals and finding the right technology to meet the needs of the organization.

There's absolutely no shortage of work and initiatives.

The pressure is on to deliver on time and within budget.

Since IT/Telecom procurement is an integral part of this challenge, it has similar challenges; key to successful procurement is to develop a competitive, multi-vendor sourcing model. It is critical that we have a balance of companies competing for the business, but also working together through standard processes.

How do you manage technology across the enterprise?

We govern processes, standards, development and procurement with an eye on implementation across enterprise. We have a matrix organization and processes based on ITIL/ITSM methodology. Teams at central site manage the core IT infrastructure, services and systems, while day-to-day operations and support to end-users are provided by the local site support teams.

Managing IT and IT/Telecom procurement seems like one of the toughest job on the planet.

What would make you want this job?

This is a very important part of the job and one of the keys to success. Most vendors feel that we negotiate very hard but at the end of the day they have a healthy respect for us, primarily because we have always been fair to the vendors and have been with them through trying times and vice versa. We have key account managers appointed for each vendor relationship. The key account manager is the single point of contact from the vendor's point of view. He then internally manages the various expectations and demands and conveys the same to the vendor.

Periodic reviews, formal and informal meetings, constant scan for the products, services and solutions in the marketplace, vendor analysis and MIS are some of the key responsibilities of the key account manager.

What is your concept of leadership?

True leaders have vision and the ability to make that vision a reality. They lead by example, both living and imparting the qualities they value and espouse. They seem to naturally inspire others to new levels of performance and achievement in whatever they do.

One must always remember that your most valuable resources drive away at the end of every business day and it is your job to make sure they are eager to return the next morning.

While talking to people working with you, we see a lot of passion in them, which is very rare and unique. How do you ignite such passion?

I think it is all about being fully engaged, intensely focused and contagiously passionate. I think, to create impact on others, one must be completely sincere.

Before you can inspire others with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe. People do not want to work with me because of my position or title; they work with me primarily because they want to be part of something special, something different, and something they can totally identify with. I am sincerely not interested in creating a soulless culture of corporate cubicles and cabins in which people show up daily at a fixed time, do the minimum, assume no responsibility, avoid all the landmines and collect a paycheck. It is a waste for the individual concerned, who is locked in an unfulfilling cycle of mediocrity, and it is a waste for the organization, which fails to capitalize on the gifts and talents of people who are capable of achieving far more than they are achieving.

What is your message for the employees?

I believe we work for one of the best companies in Corporate India and I am extremely proud of our progress and growth in a tough and competitive environment. Let us all continue to do a great job and stay focused on our strategies.

What is your message for employees families?

Reliance as a company is very much family oriented and you should be proud that your son/daughter, husband/spouse, brother/sister is working for such a great company.

Every one wants better lives for their family, brighter future for themselves and for their children. Reliance stands ready to help them in all of these areas.

We believe Reliance will be the Numero Uno for the next quarter of a century at least in this country Be supportive to the best extent you can as a part of the Reliance Parivar and we are sure you will grow.

We understand you are a passionate reader. Can you tell us about it and your favorite books?

Reading is my passion and hobby. There are many books, which are my favorite. I have read many best selling books on management, leadership, team building, communication and various inspirational and motivational topics.

Currently I am reading Kevin and Jackie Frieberg's ‘GUTS’, the same team that wrote the best seller ‘NUTS’. It's a book showing what outstanding leadership looks like. It provides some real business ideas and inspiration, straight from some of the world's gutsiest and gifted leaders in business today.

What kind of food do you like?

In fact, I am lucky to have a life partner who cooks very well. Any vegetarian food is fine for me. My friends and colleagues who have been with me know that I love palak (spinach) very much. I particularly like North Indian and Gujarati food.

Which is your favorite film?

I have enjoyed most movies with the Amitabh Bachchan flair, which were a-plenty when we were in college. That was the time when Amitabh Bachchan was a great star and I enjoyed his movies thoroughly and they impressed me. I especially liked Sholay.

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PB

What is the Enterprise Business all about?

It requires a good understanding of how Enterprises do their business and generate value for their customers and create services, which will help improve their business operations efficiency, in terms of reaching out to their customers, employees and partners. The Enterprise Business is about applying the understanding of what the customer needs and creating solutions for them. We do that across the entire extended Enterprise space and across the geography - domestic or international. Extended Enterprise really means how a company does business with its partners, suppliers, distributors, retail chain suppliers etc. A focused Account management approach is therefore necessary to translate the capabilities of Reliance Infocomm's next generation wireless and broadband pan-India network into products, services and solutions, which are superior, competitive and will make the customer achieve their business objectives. It is all about building enduring relationships and a partnership approach.

To this end, what has Reliance offered the Enterprise business?

Right now we have launched our mobile services. Each company has their own mobile sales force, their customer support teams on the field, or their distributors, dealers, suppliers, their retail chain, employees etc. Businesses are constantly trying to reach the customer faster and trying to minimize the inventory in the pipeline. They want to have the quickest contact with the sales force to get the latest information from the field to turn around their responses to their own markets and customers. We are looking at how within the mobile space, Enterprises can use voice applications and data applications to achieve

their desired business goals and how we can help them generate better value. Also, we are exploring how we can create convenient and cost effective intra-company networks for them, using the mobile telephone. There are products like CUG (Closed User Group), VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), and Data Connectivity. There are many companies that are using our R Connect and Fixed Wireless Phones (FWPs) and Fixed Wireless Terminals (FWTs). When they use a combination of these for fixed office or PBX lines and mobile phones across multiple geographies, it creates a unique value for the customers i.e. 'Fixed-Mobile Convergence'.

How well have Enterprises responded to our offer?

Corporate customers have given us a very good response. Mobile is a product that appeals to all. An individual can acquire it through his company or in his own capacity. There are lots of businesses, which have taken RIM and the FWTs and FWPs and are happy about it. Their requirements are demanding. When you work in an office environment and use the mobile phone for your business, you become less tolerant and you want top class service. When they buy in large quantities, they want and negotiate the best value for money, besides special care and attention.

What are the peculiar demands of Enterprises business?

There is always resistance to change. For instance, if a company has invested in publicizing their numbers, they would not want to frequently change their numbers, so the number change itself is a barrier. Before getting a unified license, we were offering facilities that could come close to seamless roaming and yet many top users were hesitant to use our services because of regulatory restrictions and not because our technology was less capable. Now that these restrictions are eliminated with Reliance investing into the Unified License, we can look forward to a substantial share of the market. National roaming together with mobile data VPN is a very attractive value for the business user, as it affords mobile office applications in his mutthi (palm).

How do we compare with competition?

Our packages compete pretty well. But in the corporate sector, competition works aggressively as well and so we try to create specially customized configurations, solutions and offers, by closely understanding their needs. We not only match up to competition, we try to excel by creating larger capabilities. There are many new and superior capabilities that we can offer on the back of 3G1x network e.g., higher speed data applications as compared to the GSM industry and this has been one feature that they have liked very much. A lot of our corporate customers are taking our products for voice and data applications because a business user when he is away from the office wants to stay in touch either through the Internet and / or through the mobile VPN. We are working on several new products like mobile data VPN or mobile office by which a corporate customer can access his or her office through intranet.

That will be a major and serious application value for business. Our application team is working on creating several new products, which will add to the convenience, viz. Mobile Directory download, Group / bulk SMS, Office mail access, Vehicle tracking system, Sales Force automation, Payment / business transaction applications etc.

What will be our unique selling proposition?

Starting with the mobile business, we are now in the final stages of launching our real broadband business, the backbone of which is next generation optical datacentric network architecture. The fiber will be connected to most of the business complexes and buildings, carrying the power of one gigabit per second capability and as we launch the full suite of multi-media and voice services on that, it will probably be one of the most modern networks not only in India but also across the world. That kind of capability - together with our Data Center hosting services, which are already world class - is going to be a unique and powerful mix. In fact, most of our business customers are eagerly awaiting the launch of our services and we think this will be a unique proposition in the market place. We will create all kinds of collaborative applications - video conferencing, audio conferencing, web conferencing, even video telephony, extremely high speed data connection, virtual private network for corporate houses to link up with the extended Enterprise chain, as they would want all their branches to be connected with transparent LAN services, VPN services, etc. These are some very new and exciting products that the market has been asking for and today no operator is able to provide. Our nationwide infrastructure and Reliance's way of making investments in cutting edge technology will really pave the way for IT enabling the Indian Enterprise and helping them compete globally. This will set the pace for real life 'Convergence', whether it is triple play of Voice, Data and Video or Fixed plus Mobile integrated solutions.

What are the major challenges from competition?

As far as Enterprise is concerned, from the broadband side, we think as of now, competition does not exist. It is all limited by our ability and the speed at which we are able to extend our broadband network. Unlike wireless network, setting up the broadband network, which is based on optical fiber connectivity, is very effort, time and capital intensive. It takes enormous investment and effort to dig, lay new cables, obtain Right of Way, building permission and a flawless integrated BSS-OSS system for integrated CIOU operations. This is what we need to do, and we will excel over the competition's legacy networks and back-end systems.

How many corporate houses are we presently catering to?

Right now we are only offering mobile phones.

We have sold about 6,50,000 mobiles to non-individual and business customers and as far as accounts are concerned we have about 1,40,000. Many of them are small Enterprises that may have taken only a few phones each, but then they are also considered as a part of Enterprise business. We have more than 45,000 Enterprise customers who have taken six plus mobiles and we believe this is just the beginning. As we penetrate the market place with broadband and once they see broadband coming from Reliance, they will see us as a total player - a unique, single, overall comprehensive Infocomm service provider is the place where we belong.

What share of the total business is Enterprise contributing to?

About ten per cent of the total is from Enterprise, but in terms of revenue I believe it would be higher than fifteen per cent or so.

How would the launch of broadband affect Enterprise business?

In the first phase we are launching in 52 cities, we should be able to address a market of at least over a million customers to whom we will be selling fixed line products i.e. voice products, data products, multi-media products, networking solutions etc.

What are the major customer care issues?

Customer care for Enterprise is a challenging area where we have learnt a lot in the last one year. This is an area where businesses are very demanding because their communication needs are for mission critical and business critical applications. An individual customer with a mobile phone is a lot more tolerant. Here the down time is important. Distances and time are getting killed and so if the customer is not going to pay you for time and distance what is he going to pay you for? So the new value denomination that is coming from Enterprises is, “How much is the up time? What is the SLA? Is it 99.9% or 99.99 %? What is the security? Turnaround time? Single window interface or account management?” These are some of the parameters, which were not heard of before, and they are willing to pay for these because these are mission critical and important for continuity of business processes. And we believe that the kind of network and systems we are building - which is resilient, which has the latest technology - puts us in a very advantageous position in providing what the customer is looking for. The same thing has to be supported by the customer care and customer support processes. When the customer contacts us, he would expect a preferred and quick response, which is again going to be on a contract agreement. Today, there are no specific agreements, only expectations. But here he will define what he wants - turnaround time, response time, resolution time of these many hours, 24 x 7 service, etc. - because these are important for his business. This can be achieved only if you have perfect integration between back office processes and systems and technology. It requires customer care integration - through Network, BSS and OSS system integration - where all information is kept ready to service the customer. Since customer orders are going to be for multi product, multi line, multi services, multi location, our vision is to create a zero defect back office environment.

In line with the CIOU model which is very important and which is what we are getting aligned to, we will be in the proximity of the customer's area. That brings a lot of ownership and accountability, which I think is a very crucial requirement in being responsive to the customer.

Which are the largest corporate orders as on today?

There are at least 30 customers who have taken over 1000 RIMs. One of our customers has given us a large order and already taken more than 12,000 phones.

What is the kind of saving that we offer to corporate houses?

Saving is just the face of it. What we are truly trying to sell is efficiency. Today, if they are spending x amount of money in communicating, we are ready to create for them and their different branches an intra communication facility which

will help them do more communicating within the same budget. They can communicate more within the budget of fixed spend, it brings them more efficiency and their savings start increasing. It is like a buffet price versus A la Carte. As you communicate more, there is a larger perceived saving and that perceived saving can be ploughed back to provide connectivity to more people in the lower tier who were so far denied the power of communication. When you fuse the power of communicating to computing, it creates a new regime of efficiency for the business and you are able to complete transactions, send meaningful information, and do sales and field force automation, faster. There are new lines of businesses that are waiting to start purely depending on this basis - like online lotteries, online ATMs etc. The government is going to be a major beneficiary of this kind of application, using mobile data in terms of e-Governance applications.

What is the future of Enterprise business?

The future is very exciting and challenging. We are preparing for the launch of our services and we believe that wherever we reach with our network we should be able to get over 50 per cent of market share of all Infocomm spend.

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SPS

How would you define a 'product' in the telecom industry and what is the difference between products and services?

In the service industry, products are different since you are not selling a physical product to the customer.

Whereas, in the manufacturing industry, when you say you are selling something, you are actually handing over a physical product to the customer. Even in the manufacturing industry, the definition of a product has gone beyond a physical commodity today. To take an example, you don't sell just soap. You sell the freshness attribute of the soap, and then you move to the hygiene or health attribute of the soap.

Coming to the Wireless Communication industry, the technology we are utilizing necessitates offering a package deal to the customer that comprises the handset and talk time. Earlier GSM players purely confined themselves to talk time sale and did not take any responsibility for the handset, which was mostly sold through independent channels. We are however selling a complete communication package and enable a customer to communicate, whether in his city or anywhere in India, without the need to get into bilateral agreements with other operators. We offer a package comprising handset, talk-time, all-India roaming services and a host of value added services. For example, when we provide a customer after-sales-service on his handset, insurance on the handset, change of SDCA or name and address etc, we are offering services that supplement the product. Services are used to give a definition of an augmented product. Over a period of time, augmentation makes for the difference between products offered by two companies while the basic product may be the same.

How do you conceive a product? What is at the core of your product development strategy?

Product development is not confined to a department or a function. Everybody in the Company has a responsibility towards the product and should own it.

Product ideas come from the Technical team as much as they come from the Marketing team or Customer service team, based on the response from the customers. It might also come from competition, but that stage is far behind us. When you are a new operator, you will want to provide all those things that the competitor provides, which means that you must first match whatever the other operator is providing i.e. hygiene.

Then come differentiators things, which you originate or devise, based on customer feedback. To give an example, competition provides roaming, so it had to be provided - that is the hygiene level - but what we did was to go one step further and provide value roaming. In value roaming, we said that the customer could carry his home tariff plan anywhere he traveled in India. That is a product innovation we brought in, and that is our differentiator.

What is the process that goes into the creation of a product?

The first stage is ideation, which often begins in a majority of the cases with a conversation between two individuals or through a one-line e-mail or a phone call about a development in another market. In a few cases, it happens through a well-defined structured process. To give an example, we may need to respond to what a competitor has done in a market that may affect our business. We will have A-B-C options available and based on the time line, take a decision. In a fast changing market, very often an idea comes from a mail or a phone call from a colleague in any function of the company or it can come from a vendor offering a product on SMS who suggests that it is being used in Latin America or Europe and can also be used in the application we offer. We take the idea and see if it can be applied in our market. So the ideation stage is continuously evolving, unstructured and more creative than systematic.

Once the product idea has been crystallized it is put down in the form of a concept note, which is a brief document that essentially defines the idea, the process to be followed in its development, the effort and time required and also weighs the pros and cons. In the next stage, the product idea is presented to the Product Council, that includes members from Sales, Marketing Communication, Network, BSS, Customer Care, Commercial, Accounts and the Regulatory function, which is all important in any telecom industry. If the Council clears the idea, it moves to the development stage, where it is developed. Then a Version 0 product document is prepared, in which inputs are taken from all departments. This Version 0 note is circulated to twelve functions, which are members of the product council.

Once the feedback on the document is given and incorporated, Version 0 becomes Version 1.0.

Then the idea moves to a stage, which might be short or long depending on the product, and is called operationalizing or productization. To give an example, when we were working on TCS (temporary connection service) productization, it took quite sometime because it was the first time someone was doing something like this in mobile service. However, if productization means coming out with a new voucher of a unique denomination in prepaid, which nobody else offers, it would require designing a new label which is printed by the vendor after incorporating the secret code and then making the same available in the market. This takes less time, since you already have a service in place, you only have to introduce a new denomination.

However productization becomes complex in case of International roaming. In certain regions of the world you will need to carry a GSM handset for roaming to happen as only GSM networks are operational there. To make sure that the calls and SMSs received on the customer's CDMA back home are forwarded to the GSM, a productization process that cuts across industry standards and different technologies has to be in place.

This will take time since it has to be tested with a foreign operator and also with an employee, who is traveling abroad. So productization may take time depending on the complexity and nature of the product.

The last stage is testing which involves participation of all functions. For example, our prepaid testing has been going on for the last two months. One has had to test the billing system on the Intelligent Network to ensure that calls are being correctly charged and the value in the customer's account is being correctly debited or credited. Then the MSC routing all across the country is tested. The bill service desk and the call center executives are also trained to support the testing.

External consumers as well as employees have been asked to share with us their actual user experience in terms of whether the entire process is all right. Integral to this is SAT testing, which ensures that all these processes are integrated and working. This part of the process cuts across each part of the organization.

Another example is as we launch a new handset it is tested for all applications such as R World, MMS and so on that will require coordination with various functions.

The last part of testing will be on the final product design and pricing. After testing is complete, we send everything into production environment to ensure that whatever works in the test environment also works in production. Sometimes, during the transition from test to production some minor hiccups may come up, which are resolved and this completes the product development phase.

The next stage is product launch phase, which is spread over one to two months depending on the nature of the product. The product is released to Sales and Marketing Communication, to start the process of selling. Product brief is given to the Marketing Communication team to develop a communication campaign and so on. Similarly a training module for the entire sales force, WebWorlds and dealer channel is prepared. Arrangements of merchandising are made with WebWorld and POSs.

After the product has been successfully launched it moves into the third phase of product lifecycle called product management. For example, if the product has been launched all over the country, and is doing very well everywhere except Kerala, an analysis of the underlying causes or diagnosis of a particular issue is made and action is taken, which might be area specific or countrywide. After a product is launched, based on the Circle feedback it is tailored for each region, giving birth to regional products. Most products would be national in character and some would be regional in character. Product management is a continuous exercise once the product is launched.

What are the current products where Reliance is one up on its competitors?

We are one up on every product. If you look at our handset offers, they are the best in the industry.

No operator offers a plan like 501 and the basic premise of the plan is based on our trust in people, which goes back to the inherent philosophy of Reliance. If you look at our tariff plans, both our rental and call rates are the best in the industry. Our value roaming has shaken the old GSM players and many of them have tried to emulate us but our offer still remains the best.

What is the future of products with prices falling so regularly? At what stage does it become predatory pricing?

The concept of predatory pricing remains nebulous and depends on the judgment of the people who are monitoring it. There are no set parameters. All over the world, whenever an efficient manufacturer or service provider has brought down the cost of the service or product, there has been a hue and cry about predatory pricing. Ultimately the regulator has to see that the interest of the consumer is paramount. If a company through sheer efficiency and economies of scale provides the service at a lower cost, it will help to expand the market for that service. Once the size of the pie increases, everybody is a beneficiary. This has become the guiding principle all over the world - which is to let competition prevail, let some operators expand the market by bringing down the prices. There is a growing feeling now to resist the impulse to intervene at every moment.

In pre-liberalization days, International long distance calling was expensive. With the entry of Reliance in this space, and with the acquisition of FLAG, will there be an impact on ILD prices?

We will make it possible for our subscribers to call overseas, as well as the NRIs concentrated in certain parts of the world, like North America, to call India at fabulous prices. Our Chairman's vision has been to make telephony affordable to all. It has already been achieved in the domestic sector and we will now set eyes to fulfill Chairman's vision in the International arena. It is going to happen without any doubt.

[city02 63]

SC

How are WebWorlds different from Cyber Cafés?

There is really no comparison. A Cyber Café essentially provides Public Internet Access and some of them, also Net Telephony.

The WebWorld business model is built around three key modules, which are RIM Customer Care Center (C3), JavaGreen - a gourmet café and BroadBand Center (BBC).

There are also many other huge differentiating factors.

First, lets consider the BBC area alone. Besides the Internet, it showcases a host of Real BroadBand applications like Video Chat; Video Conferencing; Multi-Player, Multi-Location, On-line Gaming; Digital Delivery of Material; Digital Music and Digital Movies - in fact the entire new world of Digital Distribution. Most of these applications are available for the first time in the country to the retail consumers.

Even the Internet at WebWorld terminals, each on 700 to 800 kbps bandwidth, opens up a whole new world of multi media and Internet sites, never seen before by the users at Cyber cafes.

Second, roll out of WebWorlds is not limited to bigger cities but will reach out to consumers in over 700 cities connected by our dedicated 60,000-kilometer optic fiber cable broadband network. This will make a huge PAN India impact and bridge the 'digital divide'.

Thirdly, the large open format of BroadBand Center is aesthetically designed, provides great ambience with best in class, selection of IT hardware and software. This all combines to provide the consumer a world-class facility, unmatched in India.

Can you describe some of the key broadband applications at WebWorld?

Let me talk of the three key applications already a big success with the consumers in the current test marketing phase of WebWorlds.

Video Chat and Video conferencing are applications, which drive “death of distance” at amazingly affordable rates. Video Chat is an “all senses”  communication for the masses. It offers voice, video and text chat to 50 concurrent and remote participants and with any 12 simultaneous images selected on the screen. One can thus communicate face to face on a desktop with business associates, friends and family. It holds promise even for matrimonial purposes whereby the boy can meet the girl for the first time in the virtual world before a personal meeting is organized. Unlike Video Chat, for Video Conferencing, we have provided a separate conference room where a group of up to five persons can concurrently video conference with similar groups in six other WebWorlds for review meetings, conferences, discussion forums or even for interviewing candidates.

As the WebWorlds geographic network expands the power of these video applications will multiply exponentially.

The second major application is Gaming. Gaming in India is in its infancy. A few gaming centers exist using locally hosted CDs on LAN. What differentiates us is that we host the games in our IDC at DAKC and no CDs are used physically in the WebWorlds. Further, we not only offer multi-player but also multi-location gaming on our wide area network. For example, a gamer in Churchgate, Mumbai WebWorld can play against someone in Borivali, Mumbai WebWorld or any other WebWorld.

Thus one can have a WebWorld city competition. The Mumbai champion can then compete against champions from other cities in a National tournament thus creating a PAN India gaming community. This is unmatched in India and provides gaming its new exciting dimension.

The third application is the Digital Suitcase. This provides users on-demand digital space in our IDC servers to upload, download and transfer data files, e.g., Images, artworks, pictures, video footage, CAED files, etc. with access to nominated users at WebWorlds in any other city. One of the interesting examples will be sending Video Footage or streaming video from one city to another using the en-coding and de-coding software at the two ends. One of our users even called it the 'Digital Courier'. The recent Webcast by our Chairman to all the Reliance employees across the country also used this technology.

Tell us something about the integrated roll out plan for WebWorlds.

All of our 228 WebWorlds in 111 towns are today in RIM sales and service mode. All the WebWorlds as they rolled-out, were so far dedicated to RIM, which is our core business. Now that the initial launch phase of RIM is over, it has been decided to go back to our original business model, of integrated WebWorld, with all three business modules i.e. RIM, JavaGreen and BroadBand Center. The first six WebWorlds (three in Chennai and three in Bangalore) are currently operating in the

integrated mode and the rollout has started to cover the twelve Circle hubs by December 28 and thereafter complete all the 270 WebWorlds as planned in 111 cities.

What are your marketing plans to communicate about WebWorld products to the consumer on the street?

The integrated WebWorld test-marketing phase at Bangalore and Chennai is all about this. We have decided not to take the mass media approach till we

reach critical mass in terms of numbers and geographical spread.

At the same time we needed to do some local store marketing. The challenge was to identify a host of below-the-line activities to reach out to our Target

Group without advertising. This included promotions on the high street of the store, at target group meeting places and at colleges. Doing local events and contests

like 'Best of BroadBand' and 'Ticket to WebWorld' were other activities.

Micro marketing and understanding more and more of the catchment area of each store will continue to be our emphasis. Mass media will be in the second phase.

What is your franchisee model and what kind of return on investment can be expected?

We have a unique franchisee model tailored to suit the profile of our franchise partners. The profile we decided was of a franchise partner who will hands-on manage the store, will be in the age group of 25 to 35, and who is locally networked, i.e. a person who can drive traffic to the store based on his contacts and knowledge of local area. This is an advantage for driving our micro

marketing activities.

The Franchise model is based on the premise that before any profit sharing by either party, all the operating costs of the store should be first met. After that the Franchise Partner should get adequate returns both in quantitative terms and as ROI. For example if we expect our young Franchise Partners to be first generation

entrepreneurs or professionals willing to leave their job, then their return should be similar or higher to the CTC they would get for a full time employment. Thus an

earning or about Rs 6-12 lakh a year, or an ROI of 25 to 30% is expected for the WebWorld franchise partner depending on the city, with no cap for high performers.

We have already short listed 170 franchisees. The first batch of fifteen has already gone through nine weeks of intensive training under the WebWorlds Retail

Leadership Programme (RLP). Two more batches are currently under training.

On the basis of what constants have we worked out these returns?

There are three kinds of generic franchisee models, CODO (Company owned, dealer operated), DODO (Dealer owned, dealer operated) and COCO (Company

owned, company operated). We have decided to follow the CODO model. Today all stores are running on COCO model, once we on-board the franchisees, we will shift

to CODO model.

In the CODO model, the store premises are owned or leased by Reliance, the furniture, IT hardware and software or all movable and immovable assets at the

store are owned by Reliance. A trained franchisee just walks into a ready store. This model and franchisee profile led us to making a franchisee model where we

take a one time sign-up fee, for providing our intellectual property (IP), which varies, from Rs 4 to 7 lakh depending on the size of the store. The second

element is refundable interest bearing deposit, which varies, from Rs 20 to 40 lakh depending on the site and store location. This arrangement helps a young

franchisee source such funds from family members as this is considered like a company deposit with Reliance and risk free.

What would be the number of customers that will make this possible?

This varies for each of the module in the WebWorld. The RIM C3 area is dimensioned for about 5000 steady state customer base, for service revenues with acquisition rate of average 10-20 subscriptions a day depending on the location. For the BroadBand Center, we need a loyal customer base of about 2000 that come to the store at least once a week for over an hour at a time.

When would you be in a position to break even?

A new store should reach cash breakeven in say, between three to six months time. i.e. the store revenue should equal its operating expenses of about Rs 4 lakh

per month. That should be a good start.

What is the strategy to increase footfalls?

Events, promotions, local store marketing or micro marketing in catchment area of each store will continue to be our key drivers for increasing footfalls.

In addition, National events like HALO gaming championship across seven cities and Video based ground events for R-World winners across eleven cities with 'Kal Ho Naa Ho' film crew and stars are other recent examples. We will also introduce loyalty programs.

The important thing here is not just to get footfalls, but also to get repeat footfalls by giving customers a delightful digital experience.

What are the essential differences between WebWorld and Web Express?

WebWorld is a full service store with all the three modules and will showcase all applications of our brand promise. WebWorld Express is a smaller version and

equivalent to the C3 module of WebWorld. Its essentially a RIM store.

Is this likely to infringe the C3 aspect of the WebWorld?

I see WebWorld Express as an extension of C3 area of WebWorld. We will dimension it sensibly, across the cities. I think that for every one WebWorld we could have up to five WebWorld Expresses depending on our retail network plan. The key to an effective spread of retail stores in any city depends on how well the zoning, network planning and premises selection has been done.

The final selection is of course based on walking the streets and not by zoning on the city maps.

If you do this exercise well, I think 80% of the retail battle is won. Our strength is getting the best retail locations at affordable rentals, thanks to the support we

get from Reliance Land Team. We will, I am sure, do a similar exercise for WebWorld Express to ensure customer convenient locations and choosing noncompeting sites with WebWorlds.

Will you be reconsidering good POS's for WebWorld Expresses also?

Yes, we would. Reliance will always value 'Performance'.

What is your strategy to improve service levels as per International benchmarks, since our experience has been that many of our WebWorlds need considerable

upgrade or revamp?

Today over 200 WebWorld's in the RIM sales and service mode handle about 3.5 lakh customer every week with daily footfalls of about 250 to 700 per store. As a result, we have been totally crowded out. The unparalleled success of RIM and lack of other equally good company owned retail outlets is the reason for these huge crowds at WebWorlds and obviously the first casualty has been the customer experience.

WebWorld Express in an expression that we need to have more such Company owned retail points. The immediate priority is to decongest the WebWorlds by

opening separate Bill and Payment Query Centers, which today constitutes about 50% of the walk-ins.

Thus opening of integrated WebWorlds and driving continuous improvement is our path forward to reach world-class service standards.

What is your vision for this chain for the next two years?

What kind of investments and expansion plans have you envisaged?

This is an important retail foray for Reliance. It would be professionally satisfying for the entire WebWorld Team and personally for me if this first major retail initiative is rolled out successfully.

The vision is to take retailing and franchisee management to a World class level, build a legendary brand and be in a mode of continuous improvement to stay at the cutting edge of digital distribution business.

The related objective is of course to gain absolute market leadership not amongst current players if any, but leadership to the extent that no one else would even consider this business model because of the degree of difficulty and differentiation we would have created.

[yameer 0]

Hey buddy we do not have names of these employees.... of which these interviews are...

[city02 63]

That's the problem with copy & paste I suppose...

Their names are already in the Bio (TMC) topic with photos,

I'll get around to updating the names in a week or so.

http://www.rimweb.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=820