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Mittal builds dream expact team to achieve global ambtion
In the past year, when Bharti Airtel and South Africa’s MTN were in touch to revive merger talks, Sunil Bharti Mittal had been quietly
building up a team of global talent with a proven track record to handle the telco’s international ambitions. He had mandated leading international executive search firms Egon Zehnder and Amrop to scout for the best global talent, and the gambit has come up trumps.
As talks with MTN gained momentum about three to four months ago, Bharti’s global team got a new member in German communications major T-Mobile’s former chief technology officer Joachim Horn, who modernised that company’s networks and set up its mobile broadband business in Europe.
Mr Mittal hired him to expand Bharti’s global footprint and interface with its strategic partners. His experience is expected to help Bharti tap global telecom markets that may be ahead of India on the technology curve.
Mr Mittal’s global ambitions are well known. He has said that Bharti Airtel, which crossed the 100-million user mark last week, will get its next 100 million subscribers from both India and overseas. “Within the 12-member Airtel management board, we now have many leaders, both expats and locals, driving growth. Bharti in India has reached global scale and we need the best people to manage scale. These people (the new global talent) will play a part as we go global,” Mr Mittal recently told ET.
A senior ex-employee says that Mr Mittal has been steadfastly focusing on using international talent to go global for the last three years. “When a great professional team is running the show in India, what is the point if I can’t take the company global?” he recalled Mr Mittal as saying.
As talks with MTN gained momentum about three to four months ago, Bharti’s global team got a new member in German communications major T-Mobile’s former chief technology officer Joachim Horn, who modernised that company’s networks and set up its mobile broadband business in Europe.
Mr Mittal hired him to expand Bharti’s global footprint and interface with its strategic partners. His experience is expected to help Bharti tap global telecom markets that may be ahead of India on the technology curve.
Mr Mittal’s global ambitions are well known. He has said that Bharti Airtel, which crossed the 100-million user mark last week, will get its next 100 million subscribers from both India and overseas. “Within the 12-member Airtel management board, we now have many leaders, both expats and locals, driving growth. Bharti in India has reached global scale and we need the best people to manage scale. These people (the new global talent) will play a part as we go global,” Mr Mittal recently told ET.
A senior ex-employee says that Mr Mittal has been steadfastly focusing on using international talent to go global for the last three years. “When a great professional team is running the show in India, what is the point if I can’t take the company global?” he recalled Mr Mittal as saying.
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