Varun Pasricha
Chief Operating Officer, Excitel Broadband
Varun Pasricha, chief operating officer (COO) at Excitel Broadband, is driving transformation in India’s broadband sector. His primary target is to establish Excitel as the leading broadband player in the country by focusing on exceptional customer service tailored to meet users’ entertainment and connectivity demand and expanding the company’s reach. He envisions growing Excitel into a national entity, extending its footprint from the current 40 cities to 100 cities over the next four years, thereby increasing the user base to over 5 million.
In terms of trends, Pasricha highlights a shift in home entertainment from traditional broadcast to internet-based services, projecting wireline internet connections to increase from 40 million to over 100 million in the next three to four years. “This trend is set to drive a wireline revolution in India and take broadband penetration from 10 per cent to 30 per cent in the mid-term and to 60-70 per cent in the long term,” he says.
Pasricha began his career in 2005 as a management consultant with McKinsey. Thereafter, he held key leadership roles in Zomato and G4S South Asia, before joining Excitel in 2018. Since 2018, he has headed operations and strategy at Excitel Broadband. Under his guidance, Excitel has emerged as a top FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) provider in the country, serving over a million subscribers.
Reflecting on his career, Pasricha recalls, “Taking Excitel national, expanding the company’s footprint from just two cities in 2018 to more than 40 in a short span of three years (2019 to 2022) has by far been the most memorable, challenging and rewarding assignment of my career so far.”
Pasricha identifies his strengths as his strong communication skills and his ability to create an inspirational vision and innovative business models, translating these into actionable strategies. However, he acknowledges that his impatience and pursuit of perfection can sometimes hinder progress.
He describes his management style as consultative, encouraging his team to adopt a growth mindset and develop innovative solutions to business challenges.
Pasricha holds a degree in finance from the College of Business Studies, University of Delhi, and an MBA in finance and strategy from IMT Ghaziabad.
Outside of work, Pasricha enjoys travelling and reading. He is married and has an eight-year-old daughter. His wife works as a director in the financial transformation practice at KPMG.
