Heramb Ranade
PGPMAX Founding Class



 

Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I come from a middle class family. My father, Dhundiraj Ranade and late mother, Anuradha Ranade worked in a bank. I have two younger sisters, settled in India. My wife Mugdha Ranade is a free lance HR consultant and daughter Tanaya studies in standard IX at Bombay Scottish School, in Powai, Mumbai. Having a deep understanding of the psyche of a middle class home, gives me a great advantage in marketing in India given that the largest and the fastest growing market segment for a variety of consumer products is the middle class. The sound value system of a middle class home also helps me to positively deal with situations that test your integrity in a competitive business environment. I would also attribute the collaborative qualities that I developed in my professional career, to the socially active setting of my middle class roots.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Professional Achievements:
I have worked for over 25 years in the infrastructure and service provider segments of the telecommunications industry. I am a member of the founding team at Tikona Digital Networks where I currently work. Tikona, is an emerging data services telco in India, that provides wireless Broadband services in the top 25 Indian cities using the unlicensed wifi band. I have the responsibility of managing the product, marketing and sales functions to drive revenue and market share growth. My team’s contribution of acquiring 15,000 sites in 25 cities, helped Tikona to become the largest outdoor wifi network worldwide. In the pre-operative phase, I was leading the negotiations activity for procuring network infrastructure. Our efforts contributed towards achieving a Capex per subscriber that was one sixth that of other prevalent Broadband technology options. Brand Tikona was launched in 2009 and by 2011 it was among the top 3 private ISP brands, and continues to remain in the top 3 till date. Prior to joining Tikona, I led the product innovation and lifecycle management at Reliance Communications where we built the industry’s leading edge enterprise product portfolio some of which remains unmatched, while being relevant even today. I was recognised as one of ‘India’s top 50 CMO’s’ by the World Brand Congress and CMO forum in Oct’2013.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Although not much has changed with respect to my role and responsibility at Tikona post attending ISB, I can certainly confirm that my contribution to the business is now much wider and the inputs that I bring to the table in the strategic decision making process have significantly enhanced. I attribute these to the learning gained during my course at ISB. I could say that prior to attending ISB, I was largely a functional leader and that I have transitioned to becoming a more rounded business leader in the period post ISB.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
ISB has certainly inculcated a habit to observe, study, analyse, factor diverse inputs and ask for expert inputs or validation, which I think was far less pronounced in my way of working earlier. This new approach when blended with the general sense and feel developed through experience makes a potent combination for managers and leader to both do the right things and doing them rightly.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
I get a chance to work with a large field force, almost 2000 feet on street, which collectively forms the backbone of the business we run. These guys are from the lowest strata of the society, not privileged to have got the required level of education to earn a decent living. Yet they are committed and motivated. To see how these motivated teams overcome big challenges is both humbling and inspiring.

We are a start-up brand with limited access to capital, in the context of the industry we are in, and have to deal with giant brands having deep pockets and who have been in business for decades. The only way we can deal with this formidable force is through innovation in every aspect of our products, services, operations and business policies. Being on our toes all the time and innovating to create superior products and services for our customers is the most enjoyable part of my role at Tikona.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
The day starts with a conference call lasting about 45 mins with each of the 5 regional teams in the country. While at the outset my agenda is to push for target delivery, the calls end up in discussing the challenges that lie before the team, partly driven by competitive activities and partly due to the lack of or delay in providing the required support or resources to the team. What I have experienced is that it always helps in acknowledging the short comings of the organization in supporting the team and in empathizing with their challenges. This has invariably resulted in teams putting forward their best efforts and striving to deliver the targeted results against all odds. What is heartening is that, in the process, every member in the chain ends up taking complete ownership of the task at hand. There is a tendency to focus on the input efforts that the team believes can bring in the results instead of getting anxious about the results.

While the foregoing largely deals with transactions for the day, the next bunch of activities involve analysis (and sometime paralysis) of data that is then used to plan for the next month’s deliverables. Then we have the management team discussions and brainstorming to take stock of the progress of the long term programs underway, as well as to discuss the roadmap of initiatives that we should explore to achieve sustained growth, profitability and brand credibility.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
The telecom industry has seen a revolution in the last decade in which it saw the mobile phone becoming available to 900 Mn Indians, outperforming any other utility service, be it electricity, drinking water, healthcare, roads etc. The next decade is likely to see the 1 Bn + Indians getting enabled and empowered with an affordable broadband service driven by 3G and 4G networks. This is likely to have a life transforming impact on the citizens of India and a significant impact on the socio-economic and political landscape of India. Some of the trends already visible and changes that this revolution is expected to bring include:

- Increased power of social media will transfer the power from the brands to the consumers. Brands will find it extremely difficult and expensive to promote themselves using traditional advertising. Genuinely good products and services will, however, find the positive ‘word of mouth’ on social media, helping them the most to acquire brand dominance and credibility. This could most likely apply to even people in public life.
- Entertainment time is expected to move from conventional media such as print, radio and TV to various smart devices connected to internet.
- Content will keep becoming richer with HD/3D video and infographics.
- Content viewing is likely to change from generally popular local content available on TV to long tail global content that is available on internet to suit diverse personal tastes and preferences. What I want and when I want it could replace what you show me.
- Demand for mobile connection speeds is likely to double every 18 months while expecting the cost to marginally increase, in line with inflation at best.
- Search, Maps and Online services could most likely bring immense ease in day to day life for the masses.
- Quality and reach of education can significantly improve, particularly in remote areas without adequate infrastructure and or faculty.
- The overall information and knowledge index of the country is likely to be significantly enhanced.

We at Tikona are fortunate to have won the 4G LTE spectrum in 5 states (telecom circles) of India that hold 23% of India’s population. It presents an exciting opportunity to us to positively influence the lives of several hundred million Indians.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
The parties that we used to have in almost every term.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
If you have a plan to give back or do good for society- don’t leave it to retirement years, do it whenever you can even if it is in small bits. Let there be a sound purpose underlying the smart strategies in your business or whatever activity you get associated with in your personal or professional life

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
By achieving something worthwhile, leveraging the power of the ISB network which positively impacts or transforms the lives of people or the environment and, in the process, strengthening the emotional connect of the society with ISB and its alumni.