Despite his family serving with the government for years, Sandeep Marwaha was keen to make a career for himself in the private sector. “Various family members from both my maternal and paternal sides were either serving in the army or in the government. However, I was determined to make a mark in the private sector, where I felt I would be able to control my destiny.”

Marwaha likes to take the path less travelled. So, while most of his classmates opted to pursue higher studies in the US, he was content to stay behind and work in India. “I not only got the opportunity to work in different parts of the country but also across several industries, including FMCG, retail and telecom,” says Marwaha.

He started his career with Lakmé in 1991 and worked with the company for over seven years. Thereafter, he shifted to the FMCG industry and worked with Hindustan Lever, Luxor and Perfetti. In the retail segment, he worked with the Future Group as head of operations in East India.

Thereafter, he moved to the telecom sector. In 2002, he joined the erstwhile Reliance Infocom as business head of its Delhi circle, overseeing all public access-related activities. Later, he joined Vodafone Essar as head of sales and marketing in the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh circles.

Currently, he is chief operating officer of the Maharashtra circle with Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL). He is responsible for the company’s overall business operations in both states. Despite sharp competition, he is confident of establishing SSTL’s leadership position in these states, especially in the data segment.

“The voice market is very cluttered, with 13 operators already in the fray,” Marwaha says. “Our objective is to claw market share from the incumbents and build revenues as fast as we can. In the data market, we had a headstart vis-à-vis the incumbents and have a major share of the pie.”

The operator’s strategy is to expand its data portfolio and its data selling channels while generating curiosity amongst consumers with regard to the various applications available and the different uses of data.

Work keeps Marwaha extremely busy, but he manages to take some time out to pursue his interests. He is a keen traveller; he also enjoys watching movies and reading books on management and self-improvement. One skill he hopes to pick up in the future is playing the keyboard.