Q&A: Sanjay Kapoor

CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti airtel

He is best described as the ‘principal architect’ for Bharti’s western India operations. During his 14-year stint with the company, Sanjay Kapoor took up different responsibilities and finally, reached the helm of affairs in March 2010.

After playing a vital role in new operations, he took up the responsibility of group director corporate strategy and planning in 2002, and joined Bharti airtel’s mobile services as president in 2006.

During his tenure Sanjay created a strategic blueprint for the telecom group and managed its early deployment. He managed to add more than 70 mn customers to reach over 93 mn customers in March 2009, gaining an incremental market share of nearly 4%.

In March 2009, he was elevated from president mobile services to a newly created position of deputy CEO, and in 2010 he became the CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti airtel.

As the CEO, Sanjay launched airtel’s new brand identity, integrated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh operations with rest of South Asia, and implemented shared services model, among others.

Recently VOICE&DATA felicitated Kapoor as the Telecom Person of the Year. In an interview with the magazine, he spoke about his achievements, mobile money plans, reverse mentoring program, LTE strategy, and regulatory challenges. Excerpts—