Inspirational Success Story of Indian Sultan Of Telecom : Sunil Bharti Mittal

• Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group and the most ambitious telecom entrepreneur of India.
• Sunil Mittal’s father was a parliamentarian but Sunil was keen on business from his teenage days and didn’t want to follow his father’s footsteps.
• Sunil graduated from Punjab University in 1969.
• In 1970, Sunil formed a small bicycle business alongwith his friend.
• In 1979, he realized that his business was small and so he moved out of Ludhiana and spent a few years in Mumbai.
• In 1981, he started an import and distribution operation out of New Delhi and Mumbai.
• In 1982, he started a full-fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan and involved himself in marketing and advertising.
• But then the government banned the import of generators as 2 Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally.
• In 1982, Sunil was on a trip to Taiwan where he got interested in push button phones.
• Thus, Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones.
• By early 1990s, he started making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.
• In 1995, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel which became the first telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark.
• The company launched the first private national and international long-distance service under the brand name IndiaOne.
• In 2001, the company entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650-million submarine cable project.
• His company employs more than 5,000 people and has a market capitalization of approx $ 2 billion.
• Bharti Foundation has funded over 50 schools in Madhya Pradesh.
• It has also donated Rs. 200 million to IIT Delhi for formation of Bharti School of Technology and Management.

Awards and Recognitions:

1) One of the Top entrepreneur in the world for the year 2000 amongst ‘Stars of Asia’ by Business Week.

2) IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest

3) CEO Of the Year Award 2002 by World HRD Congress

4) Member of National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Chairman, Indo-US Joint Business Council, Member, Advisory Committee constituted by Ministry of IT

5) Ranked 125th in the Forbes list

6) Transforming India Leader, NDTV Business Leader Awards .

7) GSMA Chairman’s Award .

8) Padma Bhushan in 2007, from the President of India.

9) Asia Businessman of the Year, Fortune Magazine 2006.

10) Telecom Person of the Year, Voice & Data, 2006.

11) CEO of the year 2005, at the Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT awards 2006.

12) Best Asian Telecom CEO, Telecom Asia Awards 2005.

13) Best CEO, India, Institutional Investor, 2005.

14) Business Leader Of The Year, Economic Times, 2005.

15) INSEAD Business Leader Award 2011

Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Inspirational Quotes:

• Hard work certainly goes a long way. These days a lot of people work hard, so you have to make sure you work even harder and really dedicate yourself to what you are doing and setting out to achieve
•  At the end of the day you have to keep emotions away.
•  Practice is the real thing, rest is all theory. I didn’t go to a B-school, instead learnt lessons on the streets and at every opportunity, tried to assimilate, gather and absorb some of the practices that were required to create an enterprise.
•  Recognition is momentary. You have to move on to achieve more, take more risks and be mentally alert. Being featured in the Forbes, or receiving the IT Man of the Year Award did make me feel great. It was a momentary high. Right now I just have competition here in India, but I have to work hard to that I am the competition from India for the world.
•  Everything comes at a price, even a smile. A boy of 8 or 9 years selling roses at the signals can make anybody feel worthless. How could I sit back in my chair and just run my business when the next generation of this country still hasn’t made its foundation? You can dream of a beautiful India, but you have to wake up from your dream to make it beautiful.