Siddharth Vishwanath, executive director, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), finds it useful to adopt a vision-based style of management to tackle everyday tasks. “A client-centric approach focused on delivering results through empowerment of the team and continuous learning is vital,” he says.

In his current position, he is responsible for driving the telecom regulatory, policy and risk consulting functions at PwC. “Managing the team and building the practice forms the crux of my responsibilities,” he explains.

Vishwanath has a B.Sc. in physics and an MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. He is a chartered accountant by qualification. He brings to the table several years of work experience, mostly in the field of consulting. He started his career with PwC in the infocomm advisory wing in 1997 and worked there until 2003. Thereafter, he took a break to attend ISB, later getting back to work with the Tata Strategic Management Group, where he focused on the telecom vertical. He rejoined PwC in 2008.

Among the many tasks he has handled, he recounts working on a project with BPL Cellular as his most memorable. “In 2002, I was involved in a sales and marketing effectiveness programme at BPL Cellular. It was one of my most challenging engagements, as I was working with some of the brightest minds from the client’s side to chalk out customer analytics-based selling and retention strategies,” he says.

Interestingly, consulting was never Vishwanath’s first choice of career. In his younger days, he aspired to enter the teaching profession. In fact, he still hopes to fulfil that dream at a later stage.

In the meantime though, he has a clear idea of the challenges, prospects and targets before him. “The ability to deliver more in a limited time is critical for a good professional. Collaboration helps to leverage one’s time and that of the ecosystem to deliver results,” he says.

According to him, 3G, wireless broadband and value-added services (VAS) will be important factors in future industry growth. “Operators’ focus will shift towards profitability, as opposed to increasing their share of net subscriber additions,” he says. “Also, 3G will prove to be an important revenue stream, as will wireless broadband and VAS. Operators will pull out all the stops to make the best use of these mediums. Besides, significant changes will be seen in the VAS and data services value chain,” he predicts.

All in all, Vishwanath seems quite satisfied with the way his career has shaped up. He does, however, wish there were more than 24 hours in a day so that he could complete more tasks every day.