Even though R. Anantharaman, Aircel’s business head for Chennai, began his career with Apollo Tyres in 1991, he can plausibly be called a telecom person, having spent close to two decades in the sector.

He describes his career as “long and enriching (particularly in the field of mobility)”. He has worked in various geographies including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai, and with various service providers such as BPL Mobile, Essar Cellphone and Bharti Airtel.

His longest stint has been at Airtel where he held various positions including zonal business manager for north Karnataka, city operation head for Bengaluru, customer service head for Karnataka circle, chief operating officer for West Bengal and Tamil Nadu circles, and business head for the company’s emerging business between 2003 and 2013.

Currently, he serves as business head of the Chennai circle at Aircel. His responsibilities include delivering profitability and leading functions like marketing, sales and distribution, customer service, network operations, finance and supply chain for the circle. He sees the growing smartphone proliferation and data adoption as a phenomenal opportunity for the telecom sector and for Aircel in particular.

Although his association with Aircel is very recent, having joined the company only in June 2014, he has his future targets chalked out clearly. He defines these as: driving revenue growth, delivering excellence in customer experience and leading a team of passionate high performers.

He describes his management style as value-added leadership, one where leaders do not limit themselves to setting direction but also lead by an example.

With a proven track record of about 22 years in creating and implementing strategic initiatives and achieving business results, he likes to call himself as a passionate business and people’s leader. “My biggest strength is to manage a fine balance between building strategic objectives and delivering on-the-go results,” he says.

Anantharaman has a postgraduate degree in physics and an advanced diploma in business management. He is fond of music and yoga, and likes spending time amidst nature.  About his family, he says, “My son, an eighth grader, is typical of modern youth – involved in everything, from traditional music to the latest applications. Meanwhile, my wife Ambika takes care of everything in our life.”