Harish Palaniappan's

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chariman and Managing Director of Bharti Group was on DD in an interview. This was my first of Sunil Mittal's interview.. and perspective of things.

Like all entrepreneurs, he was too inspiring.. with each answer. The interview host wasn't great.. and DD's was a lousy interview set.. and so the only thing bright and interesting on the interview was sunil.

I knew only today that Sunil has a political background.. his father being a workaholic politician, first with punjab government, then at the national politics, and later at the UN level. His mother a caring, motivating punjabi house-wife.

Things he said (not in any particular order):

Like all children, inevitably, sunil had his parents influence at the age of schooling or college.. his father had a minimum 16-hr work cycle.. and he shared less with his father because he was busy, but admirable for his workaholic nature. His mom was very motivating and would always ensure things that were neccessary to bring up her children well and to make them successful in their careers later.

Sunil wears a ruby, and he does believe that everything is controlled by the laws of the universe, and there are cosmic forces and things like the ruby in his finger could influence the cosmic force. In his younger days he had a small humble one due to his wallet that time, and now only that the size has become bigger.

When it comes to business, he admires Sam walson, founder of walmart, a lot.. for it was a lot of hard-work for a lot many years of sam walson that walmart is what it is today.. and also for the reason that sam walson's ideals and view of business are very much like what sunil himself believed.

When asked about whether he is happy with the governments in india.. and their attitude towards growth and problems and whether they should do more.... he said he is little both ways.. good is done.. but whether all six cylinders are firing.. then the answer is no. A lot more has to be done.. and importantly if india had to shine, it also has to lift lower-strata of people who are not in sync with the growth today.. Sunil believes that india cannot shine with just 15% of people growing.. but we should fire all six cylinders and all strata of people have to grow.

He said, he was fortunate, and current generation of people are all fortunate, to witness the kind of development and transformation that has happened in India in last 10 years alone.. in that india has moved from socialistic economy to enabling economy (he doesn't use capitalistic economy).. and that an enabling economy has encouraged industries and sectors, enabled people to earn more, consume more.. and hence this kind of growth.

He said he was happy to have been successful with bharti group.. and that from humble beginnings, today they are household names in india with airtel and b-Tel services... and they are looking forward to being successful in new ventures like horticulture.

Bharti is into horticulture.. for opening an avenue in exporting lot of fresh produce from the country abroad.. and said its happening and should take quite sometime, because we still dont have cold-storage chains (for protecting food/produce), neither we have airports in all those villages, or nearby, which are rich in agriculture.

For the question, whether he was trying to mint money from agriculture as much as with his tele-communication enterprise, he said.. money making is there.. but for now it is simply for the sake of opening avenues in that industry and making a transformation there.. now we cant make money because like in all businesses, you have to burn a lot of money even to get to the region where you might have the thought of success..let alone success happening.

For his thought on the reason for getting into horticulture.. he says..
We were discussing about new ventures into other areas .. after having tasted success with our tele-communications business and having made it considerably stable and sustainable over the years..
and the immediate thought that came to us was agricultural produce.. india is blessed with a lot of irrigation, sunshine.. (he said something about india being the worlds 2nd best in sunshine and stuff like that.. but i forgot now i think).. and we have more than 60 million people involved in the agriculture of land.. and there is a huge potential here.. very promising.

For his thought on sharing any philosophy with viewers, he said..
the difference between doing what you like, and liking what you do is as simple as being superbly successful or having an average performance. and india is a country where many parents force their children into a career and the children start getting to like what they do, rather than doing what they like.
he said.. if you have the luxury of doing what you like, as against liking what you do.. "Go for it"

He also shared that in western countries.. children get out and live alone and learn life after they are 18.. no matter how much ever rich their parents are, they live separate after 18.. and thats in a way what makes them all driven and have better attitude. In india, the case is different, and we have to grow our own way, and find and grow attitude within people, and the transformation that has happened in the last decade is very promising.

There was more. that he said.. or shared.. which was inspiring.. but i think i have listed what was the core of the interview. After typing this.. i wish i had shared something about all those interviews, speeches that had inspired me also here in blogs.. may be i will later start a TV channel and only telecast interviews.. hah.. what an (i)dea.