CAMPUS

CONNECT
JULY 2015

#CHIEF SPEAK
Dear Friends,
Airtel as an organization is
living through its most exciting
phase in recent times. The
Airtel vision of hunger to win
customers for life has
unleashed so much excitement
and passion amongst our
20,000+ employees in India,
South Asia and Africa. Central
to this vision is our pillar of
winning with people, and we
are looking at more and more
ways to build a culture and
capabilities that support high
performance.
The telecom industry is
intensely dynamic and fiercely
competitive, and as it
continually evolves and
becomes more complex, it is
imperative for our people to get
both depth and breadth of
experience. What gives our
people energy is the fact that
they get to do jobs that have
never been done before. Our
Young Leaders, who join us
right out of business schools

like yours, are given surprisingly

large amounts of responsibility.
And to realize all the space and
opportunity that we promise,
were careful in planning their
first 12 months to ensure
exposure within and beyond
their primary function,
guidance, plenty of interactions
with business heads, and lots of
opportunities to assimilate
culture, people, the
organization and folklore!
Weve just seen a batch of
bright B-school interns join us
over the summer, some of
whom will return to Airtel once
they graduate. This edition of
Campus Connect will give you a
glimpse of their experiences.
As we scale up to newer
challenges, we will look to build
a workforce for tomorrow. Many
of you, we hope, will be part of
that future.
Best wishes,
Srikanth Balachandran
Director, Human Resources

#BEING PART OF A FIRST

#airtel4G has been a
phenomenal experience for
us. As an industry game
changer and the future of
mobile data, the 4G project
has been one of tremendous
significance. We launched 4G
in 34 cities across India, first
to existing Airtel customers
and after the overwhelming
positive feedback, to
customers who wanted to
switch to Airtel from other
operators. And each time we
launched 4G in a new city, it
meant months of dedicated
effort from teams across all
of Airtels functions.
There were two key things we
ensured: First and most
important, every stage of the
4G journey was built in
collaboration with customers.
Customers were sharing
feedback on their
experiences via the Airtel
asks app, which helped us
optimize the network.
Second, we offered 4G at the
price of 3G, and this worked
brilliantly well, because it
meant better speed and a
better experience for
customers at no extra cost.

Its typical in Airtel to face

diverse and complex
challenges. In a particular
instance, we set ourselves

the objective of sending a 4G

SIM with every 4G handset
sold from the largest ecommerce player, and the
idea seemed quite natural.
However, with the prevalent
SIMs in India being HLR
(home location register)and
circle specific, this meant
there were hundreds of SIM
SKUs how does one choose
which one to bundle? To add
to it, SIMs remain a property
of the Service Provider and
hence one cant just sell it
online. This required complex
problem solving and we had
to quickly bring together
teams in IT, Networks, Legal
and Regulatory, Taxation,
Packaging and Warehousing

operations, and when we

collaborated, we did see very
gratifying results.
Along with the challenges,
weve also seen immense
amounts of freedom and
responsibility to manage
them. The sheer variety of
exposure and amount of
learning has equipped us
with skills to undertake any
complex assignment with
confidence.

Arpit Vishwakarma
Young Leader (Batch of
2009)

Akarshan Gupta
Young Leader (Batch of
2011)

* The Young Leader (YL) program is Airtels flagship program for Business school students. YLs undergo a comprehensive cross functional 12 month
training program before being assigned challenging roles in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Customer Service, Supply Chain Management & Human Resources

#INTERN STORIES

My project on Wynk transition

has given me an opportunity
to try my hand at project
management. I got to interact
with people across domains
and gain insights into their
functions
Ankur Deka
IIM Ahmedabad
Summer intern - Finance

My mentor gave me the

responsibility to handle the
call center all by myself. We
started a new automation
process for tele-calls and
distribution network. My
suggestion around
introducing an app has been
implemented and will be
rolled out soon.
T Hebbar Ruthambharaa
IMT Ghaziabad,
Summer Intern Sales &
Distribution

I found the summer internship

program very structured and
well planned. The feedback I
received during the midreview helped me design
feasible recommendations.
The most important part of
my experience was crossteam interaction.
Priyanka Prajapati
IIM Kozhikode
Summer Intern - Customer
Service

#INTERN STORIES

Working on the 4G launch in

Delhi helped me understand
how large organizations like
Airtel operate at the ground
level

The internship was a very

enriching experience in terms
of gaining business insights.
Working from the Rajasthan
circle office, I was amazed at
the kind of professional
support offered to me by the
team there. The training
program I designed goes live
soon.

The liberty at work and

accessibility to valuable
guidance at any point of time
were noteworthy. My stint at
Airtel didn't only nurture me
for a professional life ahead
but also gave me the
opportunity to win some
awesome friends for life.
Heartfelt thanks to Airtel!

Himanshu Marmba
IIM Lucknow,
Summer Intern - Marketing

Bodhipuspa Panda
IIM Indore,
Summer Intern - Marketing

Abhishek Badiyala
XLRI Jamshedpur
Summer Intern - HR

Happiness is seeing your work

being implemented. Loved the
culture at Airtel. People were
always ready to help out.
Made a lot of new friends and
had a lot of fun.
Paul Kingsley
IIM Calcutta,
Summer Intern - Supply Chain

#INTERN STORIES

BEEN THERE DONE WHAT?

Lots of valuable work that directly impacts Airtel and our business. Interns take on projects in Marketing,
Sales, Customer Service, Finance, HR, Supply Chain and more.
Some examples are:
Developing a cost
model for SIM
cards
Automation
solution for Sales
teams

Driving go-to-market
efficiencies for WYNK
music app
End to end
Postpaid MNP
process design

Developing Learning &

Development Automation
strategy for Airtel
Developing a clean
sheet cost model
for SIM cards

#MAKE YOUR SUMMERS COUNT

Youve got a good hand

Now make the right move!
Airtel will be visiting campuses for
Summer Internship 2016.

THE SELECTION PROCESS

Submit your CV
post Pre-placement
talk on your campus

Group Discussion
based on
short cases

Interview round
with our
Campus Chiefs

WHATS IN IT FOR YOU?

Intense focus on the core job and lots of fun!

Supportive mentoring. You will also be surrounded by some of the smartest

people in the industry

PPO/PPI opportunity to join Airtel as a Young Leader

YOUR CHEAT SHEET

Focus on the basics: a strong and crisp resume, be
prepared for technical and behavioral questions

Keep yourself abreast of developments in the

telecom space

Think about which function youd like to work in. Once we know
your interests, we try to look at a best fit internship for you

Speak to seniors from your campus who have interned with Airtel.
Like they say, nothing can substitute experience

#STEAL THE SHOW

TAKE AIRTEL
WHERE
NO ONE ELSE
HAS BEEN!
Pictures say so much.
Tell us your story in a photograph.

Show us
How Airtel
You Are.
Upload your entry on
/AIRTELatCampus with #iamAirtel
& win a smartphone if your entry
gets the maximum number of likes.

WIN A

We will also feature winning entries in

our next edition!

Entries open till

31st July, 2015

WINNER
Winner of last issue's Quiz contest : Ankur Sodhani, FMS.
To collect your voucher of INR 5000, DM us on our facebook page with your address and contact number.

The
most
exciting
quizzing
event
of the
year

25.07.2015
25.07.2015

More details will be on our Facebook page. Stay in the know!

www.facebook.com/airtelatcampus