Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Jul 21, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Jul 21, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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People Rajeev Chandrasekhar moves on to live his next dream Boby Kurian
Bangalore , July 20 HE was 29 when he started chasing the telecom dream. Now at 41, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, following today's sale of his cellular business with enterprise valuation topping $1 billion, is staring at new opportunities. It could be either tourism, or software, or media and entertainment, or it could even be sectors that are opening up with exploding opportunities, like aviation, for instance. "I am never intimidated by the fear of venturing into the unknown. Quite frankly, I don't think there is anything that I cannot learn or grasp. And I am not being immodest here," Mr Chandrasekhar said candidly, while promising to throw up his ideas for future in the coming weeks. The son of a retired Air Force officer, Mr Chandrasekhar, is planning a "long three-day vacation" before hitting the office next week to chart his plans over the next two months. This former Intel techie could float a fund, along with his friends from the Silicon Valley, which will dabble in investing into exciting ventures in many sectors, or he could identify an opportunity in one of his interested sectors and then stay on course to build the next big business. But what is certain is that he would be approaching his future plans with a wealth of experience he gained while surviving in India's tumultuous telecom space. "I was about 29 when I decided to enter telecom, and was close to 32 when I got my licence. I entered the business with a dream and a white paper. From being naïve, I soon learnt that there was a big gap between right and wrong. We did certain things wrong as a company, and I did certain things wrong as an individual. I realised there is a grey area called government as I had a brush with Sukh Ram and WLL on my way. But I have no regrets, and nobody can deny the fact that I am leaving behind an extremely strong franchise in the telecom industry," Mr Chandrasekhar said. The man who met challenges head-on, which he attributes to his father's Armed Forces backdrop, believes one of his biggest strengths is the ability to build and lead a team. "Almost 40 per cent of my team in BPL Mobile has spent over six years in the company," he said. BPL Mobile completed 10 years of operations in 2005 and continues to be number one or two in all its markets despite a number of new entrants. Mr Chandrasekhar acknowledged that his decision to stay back and look for opportunities in India came after a meeting with the late Rajesh Pilot, then a Communications Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government at the Centre. "Why are you youngsters not coming back to see a new India that is awakening? Pilot asked me. I won't say that I knew him well. But, sometimes, fate is made in a blink of the eye," Mr Chandrasekhar, with a penchant for fast cars and flying, said.
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