Milind Bengali, chief operating officer, business operations with telecom tower company GTL Infrastructure, believes that the telecom sector, after a rather rough time of late, is poised to expand again…
Milind Bengali happened to find himself in South Africa at a very interesting juncture. The Thapar Group (now called Avantha), with which he was working, was making its first foray into Africa ? one of the few Indian companies to explore this market as early as 1996, although, of course, many big names have followed suit since then. It was also the time when South Africa as a nation was struggling to emerge from the dark years of apartheid and forge a new society free from racial prejudice.
?As part of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, people were on television talking about their experiences. It was fascinating to see them dealing with the effect of apartheid so openly and in front of millions of viewers,? comments Bengali.
This stint in Johannesburg was his first on the African continent. Previously, he had spent a few years in Mauritius, just off the coast of Africa, in his job with Crompton Greaves, a group company. Where Mauritius was laid-back in its work culture, with many offices closing at 4 p.m. and weekends treated as sacrosanct with no office disturbances, the work ethos in Johannesburg was more demanding.
At the time, the Thapar Group was exploring the market for communications, paper, chemicals and electrical engineering products in South Africa and the continent generally. ?The only other Indian company there at the time was Tata, which was looking at the automotive sector,? he recalls.
Working in a ?rainbow? country full of different races and cultures ? Europeans, South Africans, ethnic Indians, ethnic Chinese, expats ? was a great experience. ?I got a feel for different cultures and communities and how they live together. Moreover, South Africa was both a developed and developing country. So it was an interesting mix,? he says. ?The country was making the transition from apartheid to a new society under Nelson Mandela, and how it did that was quite fascinating.?
During his two years in Johannesburg, he travelled extensively in the region, visiting Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and had more than his fill of wildlife safaris, including one in Masai, the most famous wildlife reserve in Kenya ? and probably the whole of Africa.
As someone who has also worked in Asia and North America, Bengali has enjoyed the diversity. ?I have enjoyed all my assignments as I have learnt something new from each one of them. Working in Asia, Africa and America, disparate as they are, or on the shop floor in the early years, the different roles, challenges and people…I have learnt from all of them,? he says.
Bengali was born and brought up in Mumbai. After finishing his engineering degree and a master?s in management studies, he joined Crompton Greaves in Mumbai in 1988 in its telecom division. He has over 20 years of experience in the telecom and IT-enabled services sector, across business operations and strategy, sales and marketing, and business and market development.
He moved back to Mumbai from South Africa in 1999 to rejoin Crompton Greaves. Later, he joined computer education institute Aptech, which imparts IT and multimedia training to students.
It was a new challenge for him. ?I had never been exposed to a franchise business before. I had done channel sales and traditional sales, and sales through tenders, but not franchise,? he says.
It was a very satisfying assignment to see students learning and acquiring the skills they would need for good careers. ?I was looking after the western region where there were a lot of franchise schools. I?d make trips to these schools to see how things were going. The respect you get from students and the satisfaction you get from seeing the direction you are giving to their lives was great,? he says.
After a three-year spell in Toronto as part of Aptech?s joint venture with the Academy of Learning, a local company, to explore the North American market, Bengali and his wife decided to move back to Mumbai because they had always wanted to settle and work in India.
At this point, he joined the Global Group and was in charge of mergers and acquisitions for six years. For the past 18 months, he has been chief operating officer of GTL Infrastructure, the tower arm of the group, where he is responsible for business and operations.
GTL Infrastructure has over 32,000 towers spread across India, with Aircel being its biggest customer. Given the unresolved regulatory issues in the telecom sector, few towers are coming up these days, despite the launch of 3G and 4G. Bengali joined the company at a time when not only the sector but the entire economy was not in great shape. The telecom industry has gone through some rough times recently, but Bengali believes that, having hit rock bottom, it can only improve. ?Currently, operators are not in expansion mode, given the uncertainty on the regulatory front and hence, the pace of growth is very slow. Once there is clarity, I expect to see expansion again. In the long term, we are bullish on the growth of the Indian telecom market,? he says.
?Even though the near term does not look encouraging, consolidation seems likely in the middle term at both the telco and towerco levels. The roll-out of long term evolution (LTE) networks, the growth in data traffic, and the increased sale of affordable smartphones will all benefit towercos through a sizeable growth in tenancies.?
Bengali says the immediate priority of the industry is to look at making the tower industry sustainable in the long term and that requires relooking at the assumptions made while building the tower model in view of the strategic role played by the tower industry in furthering the telecom revolution in India.
?The tower model needs to be re-examined in view of the changes that have taken place on the technology front. Most of the assumptions are not relevant now,? he says.
In the future, the growth drivers, according to Bengali, will be a focus on network quality by wireless telecom service providers; the growing demand for wireless data services; the launch of 4G and broadband wireless access networks; rural expansion; spectrum refarming; and auction of new spectrum.
Bengali?s current focus at the company is to increase revenues and margins, ensure cash flows by entering into fixed energy contracts with operators, offer the best network to operators that meet their uptime requirements, and reduce the cost of energy.
On energy, Bengali says that GTL Infrastructure is constantly evaluating green technologies for towers ? solar, wind, biofuel and free cooling. In fact, along with other companies, GTL Infrastructure, through the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, has floated a request for proposal for a pilot project on the renewable energy service company (resco) model through which a resco would deploy a green power solution for a tower or a group of towers within the proximity of a few metres and supply green energy on a per kWh basis. Multiple rescos would be identified based on their regional preferences.
Bengali describes his management style as ?participative?. ?I believe in the end result. I also believe in delegating and then monitoring to ensure the achievement of set goals. I think that providing growth opportunities to the team goes a long way in successful execution and team morale,? he says.
By way of hobbies, Bengali has discovered a newfound love for singing. Besides this, he likes meeting up with friends, following sports avidly and travelling, both within India and globally, because he enjoys experiencing different cultures and experimenting with different cuisines.
Ask him where he sees himself in 10 years? time and he replies: ?I hope I am still part of the telecom sector because, a decade from now, I?m sure India will be the biggest telecom market in the world.?
