Anil Kumar comes with rich experience of close to two decades in the telecom domain. He is currently serving as circle business head of the Uttar Pradesh (West) circle, Telenor India. He joined the company in 2009 and has been instrumental in setting up its Indian operations. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for handling sales and distribution for the company, besides serving as circle business head for Assam. He earlier also handled sales and distribution for Maharashtra and Goa. In the past, he has worked with Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices Limited.

 

According to Kumar, Telenor’s journey in India has been very exciting but has had its share of challenges. “However, despite these challenges, we have always delivered on our promise of ‘Sabse Sasta’ to our customers,” he says. He counts the setting up of Telenor’s operations for the Maharashtra and Goa circle as one of his most memorable assignments. “We started our greenfield operations in the circle at a time when 13 players were operational. However, within less than five years, we were fifth in terms of revenue market share in that circle.”

Kumar also fondly remembers his stint at Idea, where he gained significant experience in rural distribution in the Madhya Pradesh circle.

Commenting on key telecom trends, Kumar says, “Customers will continue to be the centrepiece of operator strategies. India continues to be a voice-centric market with nearly 65 per cent of the handsets being feature phones. However, data consumption is on the rise and the growth rate of internet-based services is likely to be much higher. Data monetisation will become crucial with a focus on revenues from digital advertising. Network technology providers are expected to leverage their potential in using analytics, packet probing and pushing content-based offerings to protect their revenues from ongoing OTT disruption.”

To Kumar, leadership is not a position, it is an action. “I believe in leading the team from the front. I have a good ability to understand critical success factors in challenging times and demonstrate how to overcome problems.”

Kumar hails from a small village in Haryana, though he is now settled in Pune with his family, which includes his wife and their nine-year-old son, Kavin. “Everything other than my work is managed by my wife, Shubra,” he says. Most of his spare time is spent in reading business magazines and exploring new gadgets.