When Anil Tandan was considering switch from a prestigious 31year-long career in the army to the private sector, there was no shortage of telecom companies eager to take advantage of his experience in handling communications for the army and his managerial abilities.
Here was someone with impeccable professional and personal training, high standards of performance, and invaluable experience. Tandan chose a career in the army when he was 15 even though his family had no tradition of serving in the armed forces. His father was a civil servant in Delhi where Tandan was born and raised. Home was in Lodhi Colony where, in the absence of TV and computer games, he played outdoors a lot and excelled in table tennis ?? he played for Delhi state in his teens. School was Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, soon after it had started. “We were taught in tents.It was incredibly hot in summer and if we had heavy monsoon rains, the school had to close,” he recalls.
After school, he toyed with the idea of becoming an engineer but then got totally sidetracked by the fact that several of his friends had opted to sit for the entrance exam for the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, and some of his seniors had already joined.
He did the exam half-heartedly ?? not quite sure if this was what he wanted ?? and was surprised to find that his name featured among the top 20 successful applicants.When he decided to join the Academy, his parents were slightly hesitant, fearing for his safety, but agreed. Tandan was among the youngest in his class ?? had he been born just 20 days later, he would have had to wait another year to join.
He enjoyed his three-year course at NDA. “It was very tough but it really groomed you, personally, professionally, academically and socially. They taught you everything from science to etiquette and table manners in addition to making you physically strong. The teachers were superb. Whether it was the maths teacher or the English teacher, they had all worked abroad for some time and really knew their subject,” says Tandan.
His entire day was tightly structured from 5.30 onwards till late at night. His mind and body were developed and honed.Some sports such as swimming, gymnastics and horse-riding were new to him, but he kept up. Even the ragging by senior students, he says, had a latent purpose. “It was meant to toughen you, make you able to handle anything. The atmosphere was incredible ?? fair, enjoyable and stimulating. I made a lot of friends. Most of my closest friends even today are from my time at the Academy. There was a lot of bonding because we were all thrown together. And the place is so picturesque.It’s in a valley and it’s very beautiful.”
On finishing his training, he became a second lieutenant in the Signals and was sent off for training to Indore before his first posting in Sikkim. What followed was a career that took him all over India, although not so much to the south.During the early part of his career, he was chosen, along with a couple of other officers, to study for a B.Tech. and an M.Tech.at IIT, Kharagpur. Later he was selected for a long course at Budapest, Hungary.
“In those days, communications in defence were more advanced than in the civilian sector, although now that’s changed with the civilian side having the edge. Then communications were very advanced because military establishments obviously needed reliable, state-of-the-art facilities for mobile warfare, so most of the pioneering research was done by the defence services.
Tandan enjoyed all his postings. His time in Nagaland is particularly memorable because of the region’s natural beauty. However, there were challenges too.Insurgency in the region in those days was at the same level of intensity as the militant movement in Kashmir in recent years.
“Any soldier going into an operation in the jungle would need to be absolutely sure of his communications. It was dangerous,” he says, adding that in those days there was no miniaturisation. The communications equipment he dealt with was mainly sophisticated walkie-talkies and radios, and they were big and clunky, carried in backpacks through dense forests.
Army life lived up to Tandan’s expectations. The only occasional difficulty was when his wife Rajni and two daughters ended up living in remote or unsafe parts of the country. Tandan says Rajni coped superbly with army life, even the endless moving.
When their girls started going to the Army Public School in Dhaula Kuan, Rajni stayed behind in Delhi to be with them and give them some continuity. That meant a few separations over the years but it was necessary for the girls’ education.Rajni, says Tandan, is very much a woman who likes to create a nice home out of every house she lives in but very frequently she would have to dismantle all her handiwork. “We must have moved at least 20 times. We’re about to move again because our corporate headquarters is moving to Bombay. But at least these days we have packers to help us,” he says.
His last posting in the army was in Jammu & Kashmir around 1997 where he commanded an electronic warfare brigade. His task was to intercept militant groups’ communications to find out what they were planning and then disrupt those plans.
“It was a difficult place to be in because every day you would lose two or three of your colleagues. They are really fighting with their hands tied behind their backs. Whenever anyone approaches them, they have no idea what the person is carrying under his phiran or shawl.”
In 1998, as the cellular industry opened up in India, Tandan decided to hang up his uniform and be part of “this great dream”.He left the army to join Hutch Gujarat (known earlier as Fascel) in Ahmedabad as vice-president, operations, handling collections, operations, branch operations and call centres. “It was a good learning exercise. I learnt all the aspects of the business from marketing and finance to the technical aspects and HR. I still admire the company immensely and am proud that I was a part of the initial set-up,” he says.
After two and a half years, he joined Tata Cellular in Hyderabad as chief technology officer in 2001. The company later merged with Birla AT&T. At the end of 2001, the company won the licence for the Delhi circle. He was in charge of rolling out and launching the network across the capital and the NCR.
In 2003, Tandan moved to Pune as chief technology officer for Idea Cellular, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group.Idea Cellular operates in 11 circles and has a customer base of over 14 million. A leader in value-added services, innovation is central to Idea’s philosophy. It was the first cellular company to launch music messaging with “Cellular Jockey”, “Background Tones”, “Group Talk” and a complete suite of mobile e-mail services.
It has also been a frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans offering customer-friendly and competitive prepaid offerings such as Super Power, 2 Minutes Outgoing Free, and Lifelong offers and other segmented offerings such as the Women’s Card.
Tandan is currently busy expanding the network while simultaneously ensuring quality of service. “I have a very good team. At Idea, you tend to see staff leave and then, after a few months, come back because they miss the environment. We like to get results without creating tension. Our aim is to empower people and give them a fair amount of independence and then leave them to deliver. I think that brings out the best in workers. You have to be around to guide them of course, but most people work well like this,” he says.
The way the mobile has revolutionised life for millions of ordinary Indians excites and motivates Tandan. He still feels disbelief when he recalls that the tariff used to be Rs 16 per minute when he joined the industry nine years ago. “It’s amazing what’s happened and how the mobile has become an important part of our lives.Today there are more mobiles in India than bicycles. The mobile has hugely improved the productivity of electricians, plumbers and carpenters,” he says.
With the networks taking mobiles to rural areas, Tandan is thrilled at the impact he expects to see. It will give him great pleasure to see villagers perhaps seeing TV for the first time, not on a set but on a mobile.Likewise the internet ?? many people will see it for the first time on a mobile rather than on a computer. And the scope of this expansion into the countryside also excites him. “Our sales team is visiting villages that are not even on the map; they’re so remote,” he says.
