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.
Sunil Mittal
I was born in 1957 as the second son of the late Sat Paul and Lalita Mittal. My father was a politician and, at one point of time, an MP. A gap of two years separates me from both my elder brother Rakesh and younger sibling Rajan.
I started with capital of about $1,500, a princely sum for a student coming out of college, an amount I borrowed from my father.
I started manufacturing bicycle parts. I come from a city called Ludhiana where almost everybody is self-employed, and either you make bicycle parts or bicycles, or hosiery parts or hosiery goods.
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.
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.
Government must make spectrum free. There should be free network, but it is not happening.
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.
I wanted to prove that a son of a politician can be a successful businessman.
In my wide travels across the world and my meetings with various heads of states, be that Africa or South Asia, Singapore or in high level meetings in the U.S., U.K. or Japan, one common mention is about Dr. Singh's extraordinary reputation as a Wise Man, an outstanding Economist and a fine Gentleman.
I sensed my chance and embraced the telecom business. I started marketing telephones, answering/fax machines under the brand name Beetel, and the company picked up really fast.
The only pool of young people lies in Saudi Arabia, some of the Middle-East countries, and few African countries. But they are not prepared as Indians are... we travel well; we are accepted globally very well, and that makes India truly a place to source world's workforce.
The vision that we and the Rothschilds have for India is to link Indian fields to the world and put the produce, as fresh as it can be, on Western tables in 4-5 days.
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.
I would say history is a clear witness to many of the problems that have erupted when two partners from the same industry or same country have come together.
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.
My first venture was to trade bicycle parts and hosiery yarn. The initial days proved to be difficult, and I earned very little from my business. But I kept at it. Each day, when I retired for the night, I told myself that money would come in the next day.
On the ground, our operations are in India. We believe we are in a country where the growth is still to be captured, so we will remain reasonably focused in this country.
1976, I was all of 18, and when I stepped into the world of business, the capital I had in my hand was 20,000 rupees.
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.
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.
All entrepreneurs make decisions. Some will go right, and some will not go that right.
I personally believe every country has the same amount of spectrum. It is not that India has less... It needs to be vacated from other places; that is what other countries have also done.
If you can teach a child, then her family and her future is taken care of.
You can choose to be very profitable very quickly if you don't want to grow.
In 1983, the government imposed a ban on the import of gensets. I was out of business overnight. I was in trouble.
We were in the market ahead of competition. We brought new products on the market ahead of competition. We rolled out our networks. We begged, borrowed, stole, put things out. And while they were never near perfect, they were first. And that gave us, to my mind, a lot of advantage.
I had the chance to witness the evolution of the Nuclear Deal into Dr. Singh's legacy as he assiduously, piece by piece, crafted the Indo-US nuclear deal against all odds, including risking his government.
If something goes wrong with my switch, there's no way anyone from Bharti can do anything about it. An Ericsson guy is going to have to come and fix it. I don't manufacture it; I can't maintain or upgrade it. So I'm thinking, 'This doesn't really belong to me. Let's just throw it out.'
