Head, Telcordia India Labs As a child, Anil Pandey wanted to become a scientist. “My father wanted me to join the army and my mother wanted me to become a doctor. When I look back, I am confident that if not an engineer I would have ended up becoming a doctor in the army,” he says.
However, he does not regret his career choices. He started his working life with BHEL, where he was mainly focused on the automation of steel and power plants for close to seven years. Thereafter, he worked with Philips Software Systems on embedded system software for consumer electronics. He then joined Huawei and was associated with the organisation for nine years before moving on to Telcordia.
Although, to him, all his projects have had their own challenges and rewards, he recalls the automatic gauge control project in 1992 as an enjoyable experience. “The project entailed not only developing the complex logic on an indigenous platform but also on-site electronic circuit changes on the data acquisition boards. When the first sheet rolled out, it was an emotional moment for us as well as the customer, and it was achieved within the stipulated 26-day shutdown.”
Today, he heads Telcordia’s research and development team. In this capacity, he is responsible for ensuring delivery to end-customers, which include operators such as Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Aircel and Idea Cellular. He is also responsible for interaction with other functional areas within Telcordia to provide end-to-end solutions to its customers.
Given his current portfolio of responsibilities, he has adopted a no-frills style of management. He says, “I believe in providing the right kind of environment for better performance. I am flexible and open to ideas from my team.Whether it is people or technology management, I approach it with a result-based rather than a task-based approach.”
He did his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Tripura and then moved to Delhi. He obtained a degree in computer science from NIT, Warangal.
Pandey feels that innovation will be key in the telecom sector in the future. He explains, “Currently, there is a disconnect between the customer’s need as perceived by service providers and the solution stacks available with vendors. In some cases, technology is ahead of the current requirement while in others, the solutions did not foresee the ever-changing needs of the customer. In the future, I see more cooperation between operators and vendors to meet customer needs.”
Outside of work, Pandey is an avid follower of cricket, table tennis, bridge and golf.
