Sunil Mittal
Sunil Mittal
Sunil Bharti Mittalis an Indian entrepreneur, philanthropist and the Founder & Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, which has diversified interests in telecom, insurance, real estate, hospitality, agri and food besides other ventures. Bharti Airtel, the group's flagship company is the world's third largest and India's largest telecom company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa with a customer base of over 300 million. Bharti Airtel clocked revenues of over USD 14.75 billion in FY2016. He is listed as the...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth23 October 1957
CountryIndia
As a child, I was rather active for my age. Sensing something special about me, my father told me that I had the vision to accomplish great things in life. He always encouraged me to do what I wanted to do - and this has stood me in good stead.
Africa is not for the weak-hearted: infrastructure issues are there. The middle class is absent in most of the countries. We have to cater to the low end of the market to grow.
In 1983, the government imposed a ban on the import of gensets. I was out of business overnight. I was in trouble.
If you can teach a child, then her family and her future is taken care of.
Government must make spectrum free. There should be free network, but it is not happening.
All entrepreneurs make decisions. Some will go right, and some will not go that right.
If telecom are seen as a rightful infrastructure for the growth of many other sectors in the economy and the multiplier force, then I think it doesn't deserve to be taxed so high.
Even while in school - initially, Vineberg Allen in Mussourie, and later, a number of schools in Ludhiana - I aspired to achieve great things in life. Admittedly, I wasn't quite sure about what these great things would be.
Technology is something we buy to sell to the customers. Ericsson, Nokia and IBM do technology for a living, so let's give it to them because they know best. It has made the business model of Bharti very, very sustainable.
All competitors are fierce competitors; Vodafone is the world's second largest company. We fight it each day. Idea Cellular is big and successful, too. Competition is competition; we are used to it.
You can choose to be very profitable very quickly if you don't want to grow.
I wanted to prove that a son of a politician can be a successful businessman.
We lived by very complex import and export policies, a very complex industrial licensing regime. Very few people could get licences, which were required right from manufacturing a pin to manufacturing a car, and generally went to people who found favour with the government.
For me, relationship is very important. I can lose money, but I cannot lose a relationship. The test is, at the end of a conversation or a negotiation, both must smile.