Second Mittal Coming -- Sunil Bharti Mittal

Laxmi Niwas Mittal, the steel tycoon, has become a household name and by now everyone interested in business know this name. But very few people may know the second Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Group, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal.

I see this man as the Iron Man of India who has astonished the world and made people to rewrite not only the Indian business history but the entire global one. He is currently heading the Indian Industrial body and I am sure he is going to bring many changes.

I remember Bharti Airtel's outsourcing of IT Management to IBM when no one in India ever thought of outsourcing. It was somewhere around 2002-03 and the deal size was about $ 700 mn over a period of 5 years. This step marked the first ever move by an Indian company to make India a potential market for high class technology platform in sharp contrast to the general view of being an low-cost outsourcing destination. It was a huge step taken. Mr. Second Mittal went forward with networking outsourcing deals with different vendors for different cycles and the vendor included Ericsson, Juniper and others. This brought Indian consumers to the same level of their American and European counterparts in terms of technology use.

On these moves one of the Market Analyst said, Airtel is going to crust in few years and Sunil Mital will be responsible for it. He went forward saying Mr. Mittal as a crazy and mad businessman who does not know what his limits are. The result were just the opposite and now Airtel has become one of the largest Telecom service provider of the World (in terms of number of subscribers).

I give huge credit to Mr. Sunil Mittal for raising the confidence of the Indian Businessman to do global business and also for placing India as a power player.

Sunil Mittal has done lot of hard-work to bring the world's largest Telecom service provider, Vodafone, to India. And he brought it as his competitor. It was a move taken with many motives.

1. To stop Reliance from becoming number one service provider in India (Reliance plus Hutch would have been bigger than Airtel)
2. To use Vodafone-Airtel partnerships in other markets, like the one recently done in Jersey Island.
3. To use Vodafone-Airtel deal of bandwidth sharing in its benefit (from now on Airtel customers will be using Vodafone network for international roaming but Vodafone customer wont use Airtel's, as using Airtel's network will enhance its brand image downgrading Vodafone-Hutch's.). This has lead to bandwidth sharing understanding bewteen Airtel and Hutch, which makes it difficult for Vodafone to do any aggressive marketing or restructuring campaign.
4. Use Vodafone's investment in Airtel in other Bharti's venture as a trust development move in return to the Airtel's allowance to buy Hutch.

These are just the seen motives, which has come to the market. There may be many more. It is also believed that Airtel camp believes Vodafone as a weak competitor to Reliance and others from India as Vodafone does not have established victorious play in any developing country. What ever may be the reasons Mr. Mittal has shown his brave heart by welcoming Vodafone in India.

The interesting last game is approaching. That may be the last major step by Sunil Mittal and that may be as big as LN Mittal's bid for Arcelor. Bharti-Walmart is going to start its operation in Indian Retail sector soon. Walmart, the US Retail Giant, which has won almost all the game it has played anywhere in the planet, is now with the Indian Tiger. It will be interesting to see how the venture moves forward. They are together as Sunil Mittal could find no one else in the world as aggressive as he wanted for his Retail Venture. And Walmart, world's most aggressive business house has agreed to do business with Bharti.

Looking at the hunger of the two partners, both may try to turn to its benefit and one may have to exit. They are simply too aggressive to keep the other partner. It is sure that whoever wins the Bharti-Walmart venture, he is sure to win the world second most potential Retail Market after the US. AND I wont be surprised to see Bharti winning.

First Mittal, LN Mittal did two things. One, he made Indians optimistic of global business and second he gave the feel of Indian talent to the outsiders. The Seond Mittal has done one thing, he gave Indians the access to the world's latest and best technology. May be the his second gift is coming, that might be the world's largest business house head-quartered in India. Then the name Bharti Group will be really Bharti (Indian). And if all it happens, it will mark the beginning of the Indian Century.

Cheers! Cheers!! Cheers!!! I have three cheers to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal. All the best dude.