airtel’s Post

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The live Aloka dilute mayhem. Ma'am Banda qu banu banu Mara Asma banga. Every profile what I went through, I thought you have crossed the limit that we I was thinking there's a glass ceiling. I won't learn more. It has taught so much. You don't live here. Hi everyone, welcome back to the Limitless Pod series season 2. From an area manager to a CEO today, this next leader has seen it all. He's the true definition of what it means to climb up the corporate ladder. He's not only seen the evolution of the telecom industry from a dial in to 5G today, but he is literally a walking, talking encyclopedia of everything telecom. I'm super happy to have with me Anupam Aurora, our CEO for homes business. Welcome. Hi buddy, Hello, Pam Thank you for joining me today for the. Yeah, it's a pleasure. How do you feel? I'm feeling excited. Great. I actually asked this question to all my leaders. How do you feel? Because I actually want to understand. Have you ever been on a podcast before this? No, not before this. So this is your first. It's my pleasure that I'm Dividi. Thank you very much. OK, I'm going to dive in into the conversation by asking you a very simple question. There is this number that we've been told about. I want to understand what the story is. What does 315 mean to you, Kathy? Number themes of Andra. That's my employee ID. You know the answer Pandora or 3.5 is also an Angel number. OK, OK. And that Angel number means right path. OK first second is air rifle to shoot Kartuska number with. So, uh, OK, coming 315 is a number. When I joined the organization, it was given to me and step by step I've walked with that number on my shirt. And when I write many a char people, many employees of might say Sergey Konza number. So today's numbers are five series, so 26 years with Airtel, right? Yeah. Take me through this journey because you are actually a true definition of what climbing up the corporate ladder means. So what is your journey being with it? I joined Atlanta management training to be precise. Ethel was growing up at that point of time and it's an institution to be very precise. Many new people join in my team. I say there is so much at Airtel. What you can really learn. And. You can learn, practice, and grow up. It's a limitless. I joined as B2B, uh, after spending a decade in B2B, I moved into the distribution side of the business, which is the mobile, which is the broadband and you see, and now today I'm taking care of homes business. So it's so much of learning that. There's so many products that you can sell. Yeah. And you go deep into it. Madata, her neighbor became customers are different and it is so, so energizing in terms of meeting so many people knew with different thoughts. Yeah, you said B2B, so I want to refer you back to a story about 15 suits. Yeah, I got honey, was it? I've seen 3 brand changes for Airtel. 1 was first was Airtel, the second was Touchtel and the third was again Airtel and under that there was an enterprise. So an enterprise and B2B was getting set up. We had a norm that if you are going to corporate enterprise, you need to go into suits. During a decade, I almost had 15 to 16 suits. They all are lying. Today. I'm a retail market handled more into suit. You can't pay retailers and meeting Efacs. That's the story. So every time I open up my wardrobe, apart from the marriage suit, I have 15 or 16 suits which are hanging so and I look at it. Javi Pedunga, Nip, nunca, nunca. That's what happens. So the very fact that it's been a long stint, it's been 26 years, you've covered varied fields within Airtel, right? So a very experience with Airtel. What makes you feel limitless? You know, I don't know. I got I got this number 315. OK, learning first, second is. Whatever assignment I took, I had always something in my mind that whatever I would do, I would do best second. Ma'am Banda Cubano. But in that Cubano miasma, that is something which was always at the and. Every profile, what I went through, the depth and the breadth. I thought you have crossed the limit that we. I was thinking there's a glass ceiling. I won't learn more. It has taught so much. And that is where I feel is that you can cross the limits. It's one life. Yeah, you limit it. Yeah, we all limited, but you can begin limitless and getting them more into their own life is into your head and your heart, correct. That is where I thought that, you know, learning more things with Airtel, learning more, getting more depth makes me feel limitless. And so 26 years ago. Kulata that Ethel was as limitless as it is today. I would say yes. It started more from my entrepreneurial thought process. We were very, very clear as sales or marketing perspective, from a marketing perspective that whatever we would do, we would make it very, very enterprising and imperial. Second, consumer obsession was always there. Third, in terms of working on product was also there. Airlines done a journey, so have I it's one. Organization which has been extremely agile, correct? They have changed and so is the employees thought process and that's what the market demands today. Changing with time I mean and rightly so, right? Because you can't change the DNA of a person, right? So Airtel's DNA must have been there since the beginning because today we may have put it in words that you know, because our EVP is being limitless and we've put it out in words. But I think the spirit of being limitless has been with Ethel always. It has always been. Great answer, I love that answer. OK have you seen that movie Nayak where Anil Kapoor was the CM of one day? I know what you are hitting at. OK, you know the story. No, I mean well I want all my audiences to hear the story and you have to tell me with a lot of masala. But we do know that you have been a Nayak within Airtel as well though Gayaki AKA Anil Kapoor story. Anil Kapoor story is I was at UPS, the chief operating officer. My next portfolio profile was of CEO Madhya Pradesh, OK. And there was some discussion in terms of at one or two more circles and I wanted something big. So I was the announcement came that you're moving as a CEO for MCG. I joined MCG. Yeah. You are moving to CEO Bihar and. My first question was what do I tell the team whom I met yesterday? And I had the. I had to handle that so much like algorithm picture even. So one day CEO at MCG but then of course you moved to Bihar. What are your stories of Bihar? Because I mean looks like you are a true Nayak of Bihar. How's your Bihar journey been? So Bihar journey, when I took over Bihar, it was a really challenging assignment. It has, yes, it was a challenging but exciting. Bihar is vast. OK, today I don't call it Bihar to be very precise and term viharas Bahula Bihar. Wow. Why I've said Bahula is first is we were able to link with the team extremely well. First. It's the team which makes the circle of friends. You know, when people come from very rural areas, they're very true, true from the heart. And when I used to go and do the market, people used to tell me what would make. Airtel win here. Hmm, I got the answers from the market. We corrected everything there and I think we got the leadership after a decade there, which is there. So what Bihar means to me is Mahmudullah Bihar, a world full of opportunities. Pollution is high, it's got a lot of resources which can be developed from an Indian perspective, so. Is very close to the heart because we traveled quite a bit of distance and it is the largest state. So Bihar is got many things. Bihar has taught many things. What a humble person can teach in Bihar, you may not get to know into the other places, right? You spoke about your teams, so I want to understand that. You know, there is a saying with great power comes great responsibility. So you've been a leader for a while, you've LED a lot of teams. How do you ensure your teams deliver the impossible? When we have a team, different work, different strokes. Yeah, everybody comes with a different way of thinking working. I think the large part is in terms of. What is the goal of the organization and how do I build it with the personal goal of the person? That is the first most important thing. What we really do. Second is that when you come united together, what you can do is you would not be able to do individually work on 2/3 principles. First is in terms to the how do people grow? First, what I have learned. If I can pass it to somebody. That's something which is I really like. Whenever new person joins in my team, I say 90 days. You learn. I would support you. I'm standing next to you. You take all decisions. OK, and after 90 days, you're all on your own, giving the space, right? Giving them the support, giving them a culture of growing up and you know, goal where they can grow and the organization can benefit out of it. That's where the team grows up. There are many who are very good friends to me, have grown together and I learned from them. They learn from me. I again stitch it back to the spirit of Airtel, right? We work so fantastically in collaboration with other teams and the team spirit that each of the business units. Within Intel have it's it's marvelous. I mean we see it every day of our lives and so you've seen it during your stint. So kudos to Airtel for the value of team spirit and collaboration that we absolutely right and the leadership that sort of takes us through that path great gives us so season 2 comes with a fun segment as well. I'm not that I'm not having fun with you. These have been interesting conversations, but like a quick rapid fire. We'll try and play with you. Are you ready Yeah brace yourself then. So first litti choga or cholera. Do that little yoga The most unusual customer complaint you've received. I would not say it's the customer complaint. I when I used to meet retailers, so there are a lot of retailers who would call up. There was one retailer who called me up in the morning at 8:30. My wife is hitting me. You need to help and settle me out at my home. I said I can't do that. I can only help you in the market. That's that's the kind of complaints which I will come. Why is Bihar so special? That is full of opportunities from a people perspective that the way development is happening and heart to heart. I think we covered a very long distance over the competition. It took time. I spent about 2 1/2 years there. But I'm emotionally I was connected in terms of jeet anaya, that is where spiritual Dada and that is where it is connected. So it's not like that. It was only Bihar before. That is why UP West. And I've turned each of these places. So like U people would say UIL, Uttar Pradesh, somebody would say Uttar Pradesh, but I would say U is up the game. Yeah, OK. Bihar, Bihar challenge. Yeah, that's the value. That's where the emotional connect comes and that's where you say are. This has to be mine. OK. What is your most used word in office? When I work with my peers, they don't understand. I say partner, I need help. Yeah, when my team, when they don't understand. Yeah, I said babuji. But what is that? What is the thing behind baby? Because I knew Babu. But I don't know why you use it that much. See, the most difficult thing to explain is to Dadi Amma. So grandmother or grandfather A plus. B is equal to C You explain like that with the agent when people don't understand. I said no, no piece of paper Babu jiya mere sathiya better here. Though So Babu is the word when team doesn't understand. Yeah OK. Can you say something in Bhojpuri for us? There is a place in Bihar OK language to name but I've always heard that's Ari is there's a place known as Aura and in area there's a woman famous saying. They have Aramaic, Gharba, Tuckahoe darba, OK. They say that my house is from aura, so I can go and really fight out anywhere. I am not scared of anything. Yeah. OK. Kishore Kumar or Mohammed Rafi. Kishore Kumar. Mukat darka sikandar. And finally, let's end the podcast with coming down to what does Airtel mean to you. We are at 25 years old organization and the way we are changing today and finding the competition, we're not a telecom company. We are a complete digital organization. We're moving into different sectors. That's where the agility, that's where the speed, that's where the change really means to me. So at least the word early is an institution where you can learn so much, correct? It's an institution, it's not an organization. It's an institution of really thinking through what the consumer wants, changing technologies and creating a big word. That's awesome. It was a super thank you, Thank you, thank you. Very thank you. Very thank you so much for joining us today. I really do hope Abisai or Humse or stories character. Absolutely, absolutely thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you all for tuning in. See you soon, very soon for the next episode.