S.K. Jha has been passionate about communications since his college days. Today, as managing director and chief executive officer of AGC Networks, he is steering the company’s growth in the areas of unified communications, network infrastructure, information security and business applications...

S.K. Jha graduated in computer science engineering from Aurangabad University in 1988, at a time when computerisation was just beginning to find its feet in India. His main area of engagement since then has been computers though he also developed a fair amount of interest in communication technology, particularly satellite communication, over the years.

This interest has stayed with him throughout his career, in tandem with the strides that India was taking in the communications field. “We were going through a revolution. We grew up with the knowledge that if we wanted to call somebody in a remote area or a distant country, we had to go to a trunk call booth,” he says. “I remember, we used to list all the points we needed to put across when making a call because you got one unique opportunity in a week to talk to that person.”

Jha says that satellite communication failed to proliferate in India because satellite bandwidth and frequency were being used for TV and other meteorological activities. On the other hand, GSM frequency was available, which resulted in the mobile revolution in the country.

After graduating, Jha was under pressure from his parents to take up a government job as it offered “security”. He cleared the exams for a job with a steel plant coming up in Vizag and joined the company, getting involved in its computerisation programme. But within six months he realised that the job was not for him. A 9 to 5 job with a two-hour lunch break was just not challenging enough for him. To the mortification of his parents, he left.

“I believed I was made for something more aggressive. I joined Perti Computers for some time and then worked in a few more places before joining Global Telesystems Limited as part of its enterprise business. There, I rose in rank from product specialist to customer support specialist to manager before I started heading the enterprise business group in Global Telesystems Limited,” he says.

He left the company in 2002, at a time when the telecom boom was just beginning. He created 3D Networks, funded by a private equity investor from Malaysia, which was then acquired by Wipro in 2006.

He left Wipro in 2009 to create Aegis Tech within the Essar Group. “While the Essar Group was already a formidable name in the steel, iron ore, coal and other sectors, it did not enter the services space until 2005. The company’s foray into this space was marked by its entry into the document process outsourcing and customer life cycle management business. I, along with my executive team, came on board in 2009 to set up the technology part of the business,” he says.

Gradually, Jha and his team understood the industry dynamics and realised they were operating in a space that faced several challenges such as cut-throat competition from well-established global players. Jha categorised the completion in three quadrants. At the top of the pecking order were IBM and HP; these were followed by Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks in the middle; and further down there were TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Avaya and Juniper.

Jha and his colleagues looked to create a system solution integrator that would have the ability to provide unique engagement methodologies with customers and become engaged with them on a “transformational basis”. It was intended to operate in multiple geographies and targeted 1 billion in revenue.

“We got the backing of a company like Essar and we developed a go-to-market strategy, which we called ‘take, make and stake’,” he says. He explains that Essar is a very large organisation with its own internal IT requirements. So whatever IT requirements it had, they could “take” to add value. By “make” he means going out in the field and engaging with the customer. And by “stake” he means looking for prospective targets to acquire stake.

Eventually, Jha and his team zeroed in on AGC Networks (formerly Avaya GlobalConnect Limited), a 25-year-old listed company started by Ratan Tata in 1986 and called Tata Telecom initially, which was set up to cater to the emerging EPABX market in India.

Later, it became a joint venture (JV) with Lucent Technologies when the company came to India. The JV was known as Tata Lucent. At this time, both parties held 25.5 per cent equity in the entity. Later, Lucent divided its business into the service provider and enterprise segments. The first was known as Lucent, which later combined with Alcatel and is now called Alcatel Lucent. And the second, the enterprise side, came to be known as Avaya. Subsequently, Lucent acquired Tata’s stake as well to create Avaya GlobalConnect in India.

Today, AGC Networks operates in the areas of unified communications, network infrastructure, information security, business applications and consulting. It primarily caters to the BFSI, IT, service provider, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare, and government enterprise verticals.

“By unified communications, I am referring to the convergence of contact centre solutions, telephony, video and audio on one platform,” he says. “Information security, too, is vital. This involves protecting information from external threats and ensuring streamlined flow of information as and when required.”

As managing director and chief executive officer of AGC Networks, his primary task is to steer the company’s overall business to achieve set targets. “In Essar, we believe that we are in the business of rendering experience, especially on the services side. The life cycle part of the business is called ‘managing experience’ and the building block above managing experience is what we call ‘enabling experience’, which is the technology part of our business,” he elaborates.

AGC’s business strategy, he says, revolves around the “triangle of equity”, that is, value creation for customers, employees and stakeholders. “This is enabled by our unwavering commitment to integrity, fairness, accountability, empowerment, collaboration, innovation, continuous improvement and the will to win,” he says.

According to Jha, the next phase of growth for the Indian telecom industry will come from the rural areas. “We are really excited about this market because as a company, we have solutions and go-to-market strategies that will enable us to reach out to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. We can also create specific solutions that are relevant for such growth markets,” he says.

The challenge for him lies in the creation of skill sets. According to Jha, the small and medium business (SMB) market is very different from the MNC market. “So we have to be different in our ability to innovate because we generally use the same yardstick to cater to different markets. We have to have a cost structure meaningful to those markets,” he says.

“Our organisation is working strategically towards creating delivery channels and engagement channels to come up with solutions for the SMB and rural markets. Personally, I would like to provide engagement channels to serve the rural customer in a cost-effective manner.”

Aside from work, Jha likes to travel. “I try to take leave twice a year to travel with my family,” he says. “We normally prefer travelling to foreign destinations but are now looking at exploring various nooks and corners of our country.”

His last trip was to Leh, Ladakh, which he describes as “an unforgettable experience”. “While Leh, Ladakh are popular tourist destinations, one can really experience the place if one takes the road less travelled and ventures beyond the tourist places,” he says. “I stayed there for some time as part of a community to better understand the challenges before the people. It was truly amazing.”