If he had to pick two words to describe India, it would be “hot” and “much”. “Hot”, of course, is understandable for someone born and brought up in Sweden, as Mats Granryd, the newly appointed managing director of Ericsson India, has been. “Much” is his way of describing the abundance of everything he sees here ?? the people, the enthusiasm, the warmth, the festivals, the sun, the colours.
Approachable, dynamic and articulate, Granryd looks very much at home for someone who just flew in from San Diego, where he had been based, to take over from former MD Jan Campbell last July.Granryd is here to strengthen Ericsson’s position and to take it ahead on the growth chart. In the last year or so, Ericsson has seen aggressive competition from Nokia, Nortel and Chinese vendors. But Granryd is optimistic on maintaining Ericsson’s leadership position.
The company is the largest supplier in the GSM segment and is one of the key wireless vendors in the country with over 43 per cent market share in GSM and 33 per cent of the total wireless market. It is this status that Granryd is planning to boost because India is a strategic market for Ericsson.
Having been here since 1903, Ericsson has developed a strong relationship with its customers and understands the nuances and needs of the market.
The timing of Granryd’s arrival could not have been better. He steps in when an abundance of opportunities is there for the taking and the country’s telecom sector is, as he puts it, on the “runway for taking off”. Almost all key service providers are either expanding or enhancing their network, which translates into great business potential.
Given the way wireless is likely to dominate the industry for the next few years, addressing high volume, emerging markets like India and China for wireless and third-generation rollout makes sense for international telecom majors. Especially as more developed markets are facing near saturation.
For Granryd, the competitive environment is a challenge. Banking on Ericsson’s technology leadership and strong footing in the GSM and mobile segments, he is planning to leverage the company’s longterm commitment to developing telecom infrastructure across India.
The settling in period has been fairly smooth so far, so smooth that he’s beginning to worry when a crisis is going to hit him. It helps that his family has adjusted well with the children already liking their new school and also India. With that, he says, half the battle is won. For Granryd himself, India is not altogether a new experience. He has been here before on work, albeit for a brief time, when he dealt with CDMA operators such as Tata Teleservices, Reliance Infocomm and Shyam Telecom.
An engineer by qualification, Granryd has been associated with Ericsson for the past 10 years. Soon after getting his degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, he joined Anderson Consulting as a senior management consultant. Later, he worked at Arrigo Consultants as a partner.
In 1995, Granryd joined Ericsson as manager of production at the Nynashamn factory. He gradually worked his way up the ranks. In 1997, as key account manager for Telia Mobile, he was responsible for leading all sales and marketing efforts. Soon after, he was promoted to vice-president of Ericsson Mobile Business Solutions and then to head of the market unit North Africa/president, Ericsson Egypt, where he led a team of more than 350 people in 20 countries. During this time, the market unit had sales of more than SEK 4 billion.
The years Granryd spent in Africa were a tremendous learning experience. Not only was the operation large and spread over many diverse countries, but the culture, food habits and living conditions were also very different. “It was in Africa that I learnt to keep my ears open to what the market actually demanded and to learn to adjust to diverse situations. This exposure has stood me in good stead even today, both professionally and personally,” he says.
After Africa, he moved to the US as president of Ericsson Mobile Systems CDMA. Here, for the past two years, he has been involved with developing the CDMA business.
He is passionate about Ericsson, calling his time with the company “inspiring” and its culture and ethics “admirable”. He adds: “Our strengths are many, but the most obvious ones are an emphasis on quality, stability, customer support, and focus. We are also particular about delivering on time.”
Over the years, the company has made a strong brand name for itself based on stability and performance. These are the very qualities which are proving helpful in effecting a turnaround now. But a new quality is helping too, what Granryd calls the ability to be more “agile” in adapting to new situations.
The possible weakness, if it can be called that, is that there is no foreigner on the Ericsson board. Granryd says this is more by default than design but concedes that having more foreigners would have added some diversity to the management.
On his own strengths and weaknesses, Granryd feels that his networking skills, his exposure to varied cultures and his keen customer focus, are his inherent strengths. His weakness is a tendency to become a bit impatient when work remains pending or is not executed well.
A firm believer in entrusting responsibility, he leads by example and has faith in his team. But he can be exacting when it comes to keeping that trust. He ensures that all work gets done through regular monitoring and tries to remain open and approachable.
His present assignment makes him responsible for extending the customer base in India as well as in neighbouring Sri Lanka, which he finds another fascinating market.Granryd is also involved with overseeing the manufacturing radio base station plant, set up by Ericsson recently in Kukas, Rajasthan. This is the latest part of the company’s localisation move involving the transfer of technologies to India.
He finds his travels through India fascinating.Referring to a recent trip to Bhubaneshwar for work, he remarks: “It was like stepping into another India. Very unlike mega metros like Delhi or Mumbai and poles apart but very pleasant.”
For leisure, Granryd enjoys playing golf, spending time with his family and travelling to Spain where they have a holiday home.
