We meet in the “Bombay Room”, having moved from the “Shimla Room” because it was too warm. Instead of numbers, conference rooms in the company are named after cities, rivers or famous personalities. It’s a nice touch. More human and easier to remember than “Room 12”.

In fact, company employees always praise the near-legendary work culture of Nokia Siemens Networks. When asked about the quality of people available in India and the difficulty, if any, of retaining them when a growing economy is offering so many choices, Girotra refers to the work culture of Nokia Siemens Networks (formerly Nokia Networks). “We have a strong set of core values on which we never compromise. That is a big magnet for keeping people. Our attrition rates vary. At the junior level, they are higher. Higher up, they are lower. And the people who return after leaving is very high indeed. It’s the culture that binds everyone together. We are driven by performance but we come together on our values – focusing on the customer, innovation, teamwork and open communication,” he says.

Having been with the company for 16 years, Girotra says the work culture has never disappointed him. The values have been consistently applied across the board. He points out that in a survey by Business Today magazine this year, in the telecom domain, the company was rated among the top 10 employers in the country. “We give our staff a sense of responsibility, authority and accountability. As a company we are very large, so we can afford to take a few risks sometimes when it comes to giving people a chance as it is part of the learning curve,” he says.

Girotra is responsible for sales and operations across the India region and is part of the Customer Operations East Leadership Team. Earlier, he led the new India subregion, consisting of Aircel, Idea, Tata, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Uninor and Videocon customers. With over 20 years of experience in the IT, test equipment and telecom services industries, he has risen to his current post through a track record of growing and winning businesses ever since he joined in 1996.

Over the years, he has contributed to the organisation’s growth in the capacity of accounts director, head of strategy and business development and head of business solutions, in particular, winning a significant number of new customers.

He attributes much of his success to teamwork. One high point was the massive transformation the company underwent, growing astonishingly from about 200 people in 2005 to 15,000 now and going from being a marginal player to a substantial player – currently joint market leader with Ericsson.

Now, another transformation is being wrought in the company – of becoming an independent company with its own profits and cash flows – is very exciting and energising for him and everyone else.

“What we are doing is cutting edge in many ways. In the next 18 months, we are planning to take our company down the path of independence. The challenge of this cutting-edge transformation is ensuring we handle it the right way, with no disruption to the customer or anyone else,” he says.

One of the most painful parts of this transformation is the planned reduction of 17,000 people across the world that this transformation has entailed. Another challenge is the imperative to become even more highly focused on efficiency and costs. “We also have to make sure our customers understand what we are doing and make the change seamless,” he says.

It is, as he says, a huge transformation and it’s just as well that Girotra has no misgivings about it. On the contrary, he says that when the industry later looks back on the company’s decision to adopt a new strategy of innovation and quality, it will instantly realise that Nokia Siemens Networks started a new trend, with foresight, ahead of the industry.

“When they look back, they will remember what we did and say, ‘Oh, that’s when it began’. We will see other companies following us. We will change the landscape of our industry in many ways. The days of an equipment supplier being everything to everyone have gone. It’s no longer a profitable model. We need to differentiate ourselves through innovation and by focusing on certain domains such as mobile broadband, customer experience management and attached services, which we intend to dominate,” he says.

Prior to joining Nokia Siemens Networks, Girotra held various positions in organisations such as RPG Telecom, Shyam Telecom, Hewlett-Packard India and Tektronix India. Educated in Delhi, he graduated in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He switched from Hewlett-Packard to Nokia and the telecom industry because he sensed, presciently, that this would be a high-growth sector.

His timing was perfect. The telecom industry was poised on the threshold of its first phase of spectacular growth. “I didn’t expect the kind of growth we eventually saw, but I did know that the sector would grow rapidly and I wanted to be part of an industry that makes a fundamental difference to the nation. The networks we put in now, will continue to serve people for the next 40-50 years. You are leaving behind something for people to use. It’s very meaningful and that appeals to me,” he says.

For the next phase of growth though, he knows, like everyone else, that the current regulatory and economic environment is difficult, competition is cut-throat, technologies are being introduced at a rapid pace, and the need to introduce 4G is powerful. Mobile broadband, which has huge untapped potential, will be a key growth area. “There are just 14-15 million mobile broadband connections. It’s nothing. We may not see the same scale of growth as we saw in mobile telephony but we will see the same curve, maybe in the next two years, once the regulatory environment clears up and companies start investing. When we can start offering 3G or 4G at an affordable tariff, the scale will come in and this will push down prices,” he says.

Girotra is particularly proud of the R&D centre in Bengaluru, which has applied for 80 patents this year. He says that innovation is crucial not just for customers and the industry but for any company’s social responsibility.

“Our industry consumes a lot of diesel. How can we reduce that consumption to protect resources and the environment? How much more efficient can we make our product? How, in the available spectrum, can we pack in more capacity for voice and data?” observes Girotra. “Our Bengaluru centre is bringing out massive innovations and we are far ahead in this field. No expense is being spared for R&D.”

He is not daunted by the dazzling pace of change in the industry – “I can’t keep abreast of everything, but I have people who do that.” Despite 16 years with the company, he looks forward to walking into the office and confronting a new business challenge and trying to find a solution by the end of the day.

It’s partly because he thrives on the learning that stems from these experiences and partly because he comes away stimulated from having met new people. “The quality of the people you interact with in this industry is mind-bogglingly high, whether it is competitors, customers or the peer group. They keep you constantly agile and alert,” he says.

He is not a gadget freak. Too many gadgets mean too many things have to be synchronised. “As long as my email, phone contacts and calendar are all synchronised, I’m fine,” he says.

He likes to go to the gym for four to five hours a week. Seeing the expression on my face – that doesn’t seem like a lot – he smiles and explains: “That means no fiddling around when you get into the gym, no chatting with people, no taking phone calls, I just get on with it.”

He has recently taken up playing chess with his nine-year-old son and is being roundly thrashed. For travel, he likes to take his family – they also have a 19-year-old daughter – to remote places. One such trip was to the Sangla valley, beyond Shimla, and deep into the hills. Last year, they were in Jasper, a “two-lane town with six shops” in Canada. “The idea is to really get away to somewhere where there aren’t too many people,” he says.

His abiding admiration for his alma mater has prompted him to explore the idea of engaging with some of its current students. The college has a group of young entrepeneurs who generate lots of ideas. They need mentoring. Girotra is going to try giving them a helping hand at weekends.

“The students call and tell me their ideas and I will help them write a business proposal. I haven’t started yet. I don’t know if I’m going to enjoy it or whether I am going to be any good at it, but I’d like to give it a try,” he says.