Alcatel-Lucent India’s Puneet Sharma describes his understanding of the Indian optics market, related business development activities including customer behaviour, and competition as his core strength. “It has helped me to develop practical and effective strategies to achieve business goals,” he says.

Sharma, who heads the regional business centre team for the company’s Indian optics network business, has been involved in Alcatel-Lucent’s key transmission deals with Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices Limited, etc. His current responsibilities include expanding Alcatel-Lucent’s optics business in India through pre-sales, engineering and strategy formation activities, and managing the post-sales technical team.

He sees significant opportunity for Alcatel-Lucent’s optic business in the Indian market. According to him, “The country’s technological landscape is changing rapidly. Service providers are moving quickly to accelerate their network speeds — making the jump from transport speeds of 10G and 40G to barrier-breaking 100G. To this end, they need to upgrade as well as redesign their backbone and metro networks. Over the next few years, we foresee transmission networks being transformed into more scalable, versatile and efficient solutions.” He thus describes positioning Alcatel-Lucent as the most preferred optics partner among operators in India as his key target for the next few years.

When asked about the high point of his career, he says, “For me, all my assignments have been very exciting and interesting, offering great learnings in business and self-development. However, to single out one instance, it was a proud moment for me, as optics business lead, when Alcatel-Lucent was recognised as the leading India optics vendor three times in a row.”

Sharma describes his management style as the one that empowers his team and ensures flexibility and support to bring out the best in people. “I also like to anticipate and identify issues so as to be prepared for contingencies,” he says.

Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2006, Sharma was associated with HFCL and SAB Infotech, in planning and operations and management roles. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering and a postgraduate diploma in industrial marketing from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He regularly contributes technology-related articles and analyses trends in the technology space. When not working, he likes watching movies and spending time with his wife and parents.