Why Sunil Bharti Mittal loves his new CEO

People given to hyperbole would say that Gopal Vittal's rise at Bharti Airtel has been "meteoric". But in his case, superlatives could perhaps be forgiven.

For how do you describe a man who joins a company when its revenues are floundering and then, a year later, oversees a 115 per cent jump in net income in the October-December 2013 quarter?

No wonder, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, has given Vittal full responsibility over India and South Asia operations.

For the former Hindustan Unilever hand, who rejoined the country's largest telecom service provider by subscriber base in 2012, this is a third, swift promotion.

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In early 2012, he had replaced the CEO of the company, Sanjay Kapoor, to take charge of Bharti Airtel's India business as group director (special projects).

A couple of months later he became joint managing director and CEO of India operations. And now, he holds complete sway over the business in a region that accounts for 75 per cent of the company's revenue.

Vittal, many will say, deserved his promotions. Others would see genius in how he reformatted his experience at Hindustan Unilever to fit the needs of a completely different consumer profile.

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As he told reporters on Wednesday, "It's not about megabytes or gigabytes. Better, we sell telecom as audio, video and picture."

And so, he redefined the sachet model of FMCG companies by making Bharti Airtel offer, among other products, video content packages for Rs 1. This was an instant success that brought in not only revenues but also new subscribers.

Vittal's penchant for insights into the nuances of the market is what endears him to the Bharti Airtel management.

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A marketing man, he had earlier worked with the SingTel Group which helped him better understand trends in the data and Internet space.

These experiences helped him battle costs at Bharti Airtel. When Vittal joined the company, Mittal had described him as coming with "a wealth of experience in assimilating the consumer mindset".

The results of the December-ended quarter before him, Mittal would probably re-endorse those beliefs.