This document provides an introduction to Sunil Bharti Mittal, an Indian businessman and founder of the Bharti Group. It outlines his educational background and describes his entrepreneurial ventures starting in 1976 with a bicycle parts business. A key turning point was winning a mobile phone license in 1992, leading to the formation of Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel) in 1995. The document also discusses his expansion into sectors like telecom, retail, insurance, and philanthropy through the Bharti Foundation.
2. Introduction
Sunil Bharti Mittal, born October 23, 1957 is an
Indian businessman.
Son of a politician, Sunil Mittal is from the town
of Ludhiana in Punjab.
A former student of Harvard Business School
graduated from Punjab University.
Son of a parliamentarian.
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of
Bharti Group
3. Entrepreneurial Ventures
A first generation entrepreneur.
Started his first business in 1976 at the age of 18
with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 (US$1500)
borrowed from his father.
First business was to make crankshafts for local
bicycle manufacturers.
Closed in 1979 and moved to Bombay importing a
variety of products -- steel, brass, zinc, zip fasteners
and plastics.
4. Entrepreneurial Ventures
Started a full-fledged business selling portable
generators imported from Japan in 1982.
First to bring portable generators to India.
Government banned the import of generators as
two Indian companies were awarded licenses to
manufacture generators locally and Sunil had to
close his business.
5. Entrepreneurial Ventures
1982 - First Step in Telecom
Introduced the push button phones to India,
replacing rotary phones.
Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated.
Entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG
of Germany.
1990s - Started making fax machines, cordless
phones and other telecom gear.
6. Entrepreneurial Ventures
1992 - Turning Point.
Awarding of licenses for mobile phone services for
the first time by Indian Govt.
Secured rights to serve New Delhi.
1995, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to
offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel.
Instrumental in bringing down the high STD/ISD,
cellular rates in the country by rolling the countries
first private national as well as international long-
distance service.
7. Entrepreneurial Ventures
2001- Entered into a joint venture with Singapore
Telecom International for a $650-million
submarine cable project.
Countries first ever undersea cable link
connecting Chennai in India and Singapore.
Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002.
Airtel - India’s largest integrated and the first
private telecom services provider with a
footprint in all the 23 telecom circles.
8. Entrepreneurial Ventures
Entry into Finance Sector.
July 2007 - Joint venture
between Bharti Enterprises
and AXA Group of France.
(world leader in financial
protection and wealth
management).
9. Entrepreneurial Ventures
Retailing - November 2006, Sunil Mittal struck a
joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail
giant, to start a number of retail stores across
India.
Launched neighborhood format stores called
"Easy Day". The stores are a one stop shop to cater
to every family’s day-to-day needs.
10. Entrepreneurial Ventures
Launched the Bharti Airtel's
Digital TV.
Partnered with
Narayanamurthy's Infosys
Technologies to DTH service.
Bharti Realty Private Limited -
the in-house Real Estate Arm for
Bharti Group - facilitates by
extending support to the Group
Companies for Identifying,
Developing and Maintaining
Quality Real Estate in line with
their Business Models.
11. Philanthropic activities
Joined hands with the All India Football
Federation and pumped in over a hundred crore
rupees to help the country attain global standards
in the sport.
First step, the telecom company will start a
world-class football academy, to be named
'Bharti-AIFF Academy.
Wants a "football revolution" in the country and
is ready to invest "any amount of money“.
12. Philanthropic activities
Bharti Foundation
Set up in the year 2000 with
the vision, “To help
underprivileged children
and young people of our
country realize their
potential“.
Initiated a School
Improvement Program (SIP),
where it works with
government schools.
In the process of setting up
pre-primary and primary level
schools under its Satya Bharti
Schools program.
13. Philanthropic activities
Joined hands with Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) Delhi to establish the Bharti School of
Telecommunication Technology and
Management (BSTTM).
Has committed Rs 20 crore towards BSTTM.
Students enrolling in the institute, are completely
funded by the the Bharti Foundations.
14. Key learnings
Ability to take decisions amidst uncertainties is at
the root of new leadership paradigm. Sunil Mittal
is first to enter many sectors of the business,
which involves the risk of uncertainties. Here it is
his vision of the entrepreneur that makes him
successful.
15. Key learnings
In this era of me-too products that flood the market place,
the key to survival and success of an innovation is speed to
market. Sunil Mittal’s company Bharti has followed it by
coming into the retail sector, insurance sector, and finance
sector and now in the entertainment sector.
16. Key learnings
Out-of-the-box thinking is one of the essentials
of new leadership.
Managing the current as well as future breed of
volatile customers, reading their mind and
predicting the future consumption trend.