With an excellent academic record ?? a master’s in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kanpur ?? Dr Anand Agarwal was spoilt for choice in terms of where to pursue further studies in the US.
He was offered scholarships by several universities. In the end, he opted to study for his Ph.D. in materials engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute because the programme was more application driven and goal oriented than elsewhere.
After finishing his Ph.D. in 1995, work offers poured in. One that he still remembers was the opportunity to work as a research associate with a leading optical fibre manufacturer. “But I chose to come back to India immediately after completing my Ph.D. because of a desire to make things happen here, even though I knew that the business climate in India was difficult,” he says.
In India, Agarwal joined Siemens, which planned to set up an optical fibre venture. The project had been at the planning stage for two years. He started off in the quality control department of the proposed optical fibre cable plant but found that the environment was uncongenial for him at that stage of his career.He opted for a start-up venture in optical fibre at Sterlite.
“I was strongly advised against this move. People told me not to leave a job with Siemens because it was a much better and more stable job as compared with an unknown start-up. But I found the Sterlite management to be fast decision-makers and the entire environment more conducive for entrepreneurial initiatives and growth,” he says.
Sterlite Optical Technologies is currently in the telecom business as well as in fibre conductors. When he was asked to take over as CEO in 2003, the company had made huge losses of Rs 860 million in the previous year with a revenue of Rs 1.33 billion. There was no immediate prospect of a turnaround.
In these circumstances, taking over as CEO was a bold career move, especially considering that there were plenty of alternative career opportunities that were much less risky and equally remunerative.
But Agarwal has always had an appetite for challenges. Throughout his studies and his career, he always preferred to question pre-established norms and take risks ?? and never had reason to regret such an approach. Another reason for taking up the CEO’s job was that he had a deep faith in the company’s strengths.
He has had no regrets. It has been an exciting time, if only because there is so much untapped potential and opportunity in this sector. “We need to develop more capability to deliver in-house products so that we can take advantage of these opportunities. We embarked on a simple three-point strategy: to be the lowest-cost producer of optical fibres globally, increase our market share and the size of the Indian market, and enter the high-volume Chinese market, which was continuing to grow in an otherwise shrinking global market.”
This approach paid off. Last year, the company registered revenues of about Rs 12 billion, and net profits after a few years of net losses.
“My own strengths are that I am analytical, I really believe in people and in delegating and taking ownership of the things that go on in the company. A weakness is that I need to develop better skills to leverage the strengths we have internally and grab the opportunities we have externally,” he says.
His style is to delegate to a large extent. Agarwal firmly believes that as long as people have a clear idea and vision of the company’s goals, they will complete their tasks successfully.
This involves trusting his team and giving responsibilities to someone who might, on the face of it, seem inappropriate for the job but nevertheless has the right attitude. He also believes in challenging the mental capabilities of his team and leveraging them for the company’s growth and, of course, their own personal development.
“I ensure that the foundation has been built and then I don’t interfere. If they need help, they come to me and I lend a helping hand. If I need help, I go to my bosses. This kind of attitude works for us and has helped us achieve our goals so far,” he says.
Agarwal himself has drawn on the examples of inspiring business leaders for his own growth. “I really admire Jack Welch (former GE head). He was an engineer who rose to great heights. I really look up to him and try to imbibe a bit of him in me,” he says.
For Sterlite, the biggest opportunity today lies in the propagation of broadband globally. Its projects are fibre intensive, which is required for higher bandwidth deployments, and it is busy, both in India and globally, in meeting this demand.
In India, it is the largest provider of all the products in its portfolio and the only integrated manufacturer of optical fibre in the country. “We are also the only manufacturers who make their own glass from the very basics in Asia, outside of Japan. So, from that perspective, we want to put India on the map as far as the global manufacturing of optic fibre cables is concerned. We currently hold 4 to 5 per cent of the global fibre market share. Within the next two to three years, we intend to push that to about 10 per cent,” he says.
The main challenge of the industry, he says, has been the decreasing demand from government enterprises for cable. It has either chosen to optimise the bandwidth capacity utilisation of their existing network or to experiment with wireless technologies to achieve their subscriber targets in the shortest time.
Today, broadband services such as BSNL’s DataOne and MTNL’s Tri-Band are available. These use both ADSL (copper based) and fibre-based technologies.Additional fibre-based infrastructure is being readied and the monthly subscriber charges are constantly being revised downwards. This, says Agarwal, is driving subscriber growth, which in turn is fuelling the demand for copper cables and fibre optic cables.
“The demand growth rate for copper telecom cables has stabilised at 7 per cent globally and we expect this trend to continue for India as well. Over the medium term, we expect the demand in India for fibre optic cables to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent. These higher offtakes of fibre optic cables will be dependent on the success of broadband services in the pilot cities which have begun over the past few months,” he says.
Agarwal’s family life is busy, with three daughters aged 1, 4 and 10. “I enjoy spending time with them; it makes me feel free and light, and you can really learn a lot from children,” he says. He loves music, playing basketball and watching “mob” movies such as Godfather and Good Fellas. For reading, he likes fiction (John Grisham) and management books.
Having lost touch with his childhood friends and fellow students owing to a life largely spent shuttling between India and the US, Agarwal has been delighted to use various networking sites to re-establish contact with old friends.
As someone who grew up in Kolkata, he still misses the traditional Bengali celebration of Durga Puja. “It used to be full of fun and colour,” he recalls. “We had a blast during those days.”
