Jatinder Ahuja brings to the table more than 20 years of industry experience, having worked with companies such as eServe Global India, Ericsson and Nortel. As head, India and South West Asia business, Amdocs, he is responsible for driving profitable growth for the company across the region and identifying new growth areas.

Outlining the challenges before him, Ahuja says, “My challenges are aligned with our customers’ challenges. Our service provider customers face issues related to constantly changing customer expectations, and ever-increasing competition from over-the-top (OTT) players. So, my targets are to help our customers discover and tap new revenue streams such as mobile financial services, improve network and operational efficiencies, and help them deliver a compelling customer experience to offset the competition from OTT players.”

According to Ahuja, the telecom sector is evolving fast and the new world of customer experience requires operators to deliver innovative services, personalise and contextualise every customer interaction, and shape the quality of experience with agile software-powered networks. He identifies mobile financial services, internet of things, and voice over long term evolution as the key growth drivers of the sector. Going forward, radio access network solutions such as self-optimising networks, network virtualisation and big data analytics will help the industry deliver a compelling customer experience.

Ahuja’s most challenging assignment was working on a project to bring down the capital and operating expenditure of a telecom service provider, while helping it enhance customer experience. “The operator had a very complex network and operating environment, which hampered its ability to quickly launch new services, ensure efficiency and deliver the expected level of customer experience. We turned it around, helping the customer simplify its network and IT systems, and enabling it to quickly offer new services,” says Ahuja.

Ahuja’s team members are at the core of his management ethos. He believes in driving innovation through ideas and feedback received from them. As a leader, he gives clear directions to his team and then remains hands-off, while making himself available to offer guidance and help as needed.