The Corporate Connect - Mr. Ajjay Tavaadia

On 15^th Feb 2014, Corporate Relations Committee organized Corporate Connect with Mr. Ajjay Tavaadia at SIMSREE. Mr. Ajjay Tavaadia is Regional Manager for Wireless Business Development SME at Tata Teleservices Ltd. With more than sixteen years of rich and unique experience across Sales, Marketing, Distribution and Operations, he has worked in three sectors namely Telecom, Retail (FMCG) and Banking. He has held positions of AVP – Current Account at HDFC Bank and Chief Manager – Operations at Reliance Retail.

The session began with Mr. Tavaadia sharing his career transition from a non technical field of commerce to managing technical businesses like telecom, banking and Retail-FMCG. At HDFC Bank, Mr. Tavaadia was instrumental in setting up CANI project (Current Account New Initiative).

Mr. Tavaadia delivered a talk on the “Telecom Puzzle” which encapsulated how the telecom structure in India is on a path of constant change and evolution. The sector was opened for private player operations in August 1995. The mobile phone subscriber base has moved from 5mn in 2001 to 940mn in 2013 with 80% market of GSM. With the launch of the New Telecom Policy in 1999, private players entered the business to offer landline connections. It marked the introduction of the Internet and its convergence with Telecom, moving slowly to mobile internet (2G, 3G), ISPs, DTH, FTTH (Fibre To The Home) and an extension to 4G LTE (Long term Evolution). He gave more insights on the current scenario of all telecom companies and how some players entered the business and have exited over these years. The real puzzle, as per Mr. Tavaadia, could be solved most probably by the end of this calendar year with a lot of changes expected that involve JVs, mergers and acquisitions happening.

Mr. Tavaadia laid out a fair and competitive structure for telecom business in India, the factors for which are as follows:

1.      Focus on Quality Customer Acquisition

·         Stringent process for acquisition, attractive schemes and customized tariff for bulk customers

·         Service through defined TAT and processes that are audited

·         The current cost of acquiring a customer is less than retaining, so back-end processes need to be improved

2.      Focus on Retention

·         Understanding the customer and his pain points

·         Offer / solutions (call top 100 revenue generating customers and present them plans to get their feedback)

·         Focused and tenure based tariffs for existing customers

3.      Focus on Productivity Enhancement

·         Stringent productivity norms for employees and channel partners (dealers / distributors)

·         Loyalty Rewards/Bonus for high productivity

·         Customized Payout model – “Battle for Survival Strategy”

In the final phase of the session, Mr. Tavaadia answered all the queries put forth by students. Some of which involved technology up-gradation in telecom (2G to 3G to 4G), its impact on the business. He informed the students that firms have invested heavily in each of their technologies including 3G, so companies will be cautious first to cross break even and start earning profits before moving to new technologies like 4G. Even the license fee for starting the telecom firm is exorbitant in India compared to that of the US, Europe.

SIMSREE is thankful to Mr. Ajjay Tavaadia for sharing his insights and delivering a very informative session on Telecom industry in India and challenges faced by it. Many more such opportunities of interaction with him in the future will definitely be looked forward to.