As business head, telecom towers with Moser Baer Clean Energy Limited, Rajiv Garg is primarily responsible for leading the company’s solarisation initiative in the telecom tower space. While talking green has become fashionable today, for the telecom tower industry, green energy is almost an imperative. It makes not only ecological sense but economical sense too. With the price of solar panels declining, solar energy is emerging as a viable alternative source of energy that can be utilised by telecom tower companies.

“What is lacking, however, is a proper business model,” he says. “Merely outsourcing is not going to address the energy needs of the telecom sector. Both tower and energy companies are experts in their own domains but to expect them to manage their needs independently is far-fetched and a sure recipe for disaster. For a successful partnership, both these stakeholders have to come together and share the gains and losses equally.” The biggest challenge, according to him, is to create a wining proposition for both the energy company and the tower company while dealing with opex and capex constraints.

Garg is a graduate in electronics engineering from University of Poona and has studied management development at XLRI Jamshedpur. He has more than two decades of industry experience in the telecom and energy sectors, and has been associated with organisations such as Microtek, Emerson and ACME. He has worked as regional/business head and had exposure to various facets of business operations, covering the government and industrial verticals.

Recalling his most memorable and challenging assignment, Garg says, “Setting up the Chandigarh branch operations of Emerson Network Power at the age of 26 was my most challenging assignment. It was a big learning experience as well. At Emerson, I learnt the importance of processes and solution sales. The Emerson experience helped me in setting up ACME’s northern operations from scratch, which again, proved to be very demanding yet satisfying.”

Garg describes his management style as consultative. He believes in mentoring people and delegating authority, as this encourages them to become more responsible and self-driven. He believes that only a manager with a hands-on approach can add value to his team.

For Garg, there is no major dividing line between personal life and professional life. “I believe that there aren’t two lives – professional and personal. You are one individual.” Garg likes spending time with his family, his wife and son. He also wants to improve his golf and his meditation skills.