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(1)Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators and has more than 110,000 professionals, and customers in 180 countries, the company combines global scale with technology and services leadership. What is your role and how are the service delivery centres helping with that?As head of the four Global Service Centres, in India, China, Mexico and, Romania - my role is to deliver competitive advantage to the organization and to our customers by leveraging our global competencies, scale, common ways of working with local capabilities. We do it through having the right skills, available at the right time and at the right place for our customers. Going forward these centres are going to play a critical role in delivering new skills and competencies around digital services, managed services using artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics to our customers.
(2) What are the challenges pertaining in the telecom sector, how is Ericsson addressing them to stay ahead of the competition?
Ericsson sees mobility, broadband and cloud as its main strategy pillars, helping operators of all types, characterizing them as "network developers", "service enablers" or "service creators", retain and extend their customer base against rivals. Ericsson's Digital Services Business Area’s strategy is to transform networks to become programmable, automate operations and enable customer engagement on the journey towards 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).
5G will bring new level of performance and characteristics to the telecom networks enabling new services, new ecosystems, and new revenue streams. To leverage the power of 5G technologies, telecom operators need to rethink their role and what value to deliver, and what business models to use. Our Network Design and Optimization (NDO) services is a key ingredient, in our Managed Services portfolio,to ensure that our customers’ networks can handle the high level of data traffic brought on by this user behaviour while maintaining service quality and user experience.
We have global capabilities managed services capabilities to deliver value-added NDO services with our highly skilled professionals and a complete portfolio of services and tools. These full range of services address everything from technology deployment, network transformation, and network optimization to assure an optimal end user experience and operator profitability. We use our unique tools to analyse the network situation more accurately and rapidly than any other solution provider giving you the ability to focus on your business and user satisfaction. We are now applying Artificial Intelligence to predict network issues and taking proactive measures to solve those. Eventually this will lead to self-optimising networks (SON)
3) What is future roadmap ahead of Ericsson? How is Ericsson gearing up for the same?
Our strategic goal is to “create the most intelligent and efficient networks, deliver the most competitive solutions and innovate to make our customers successful”. In a fully connected world, Digital disruption is a reality today, in every aspect of our daily lives. Our focus is on enabling the full value of connectivity for the service providers. Our customers and the overall industry is going through a huge transformation. In this disruption lies lots of business opportunities and we can see the disruptions and opportunities in new technologies around Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big data & Analytics,
Automation and Programmable Networks. Our strategic portfolio areas are Networks, Digital Services, Managed Services and Emerging businesses. These will be guided by our core strength of Technology Leadership, Product-led solution offerings and Global skill and scale.
Our sustainability and corporate responsibility strategy is a core part of our business strategy and embedded across the company - focused on responsible business, environment and Technology for Good. We report progress annually through our "Sustainability and corporate responsibility" report and highlight key performance metrics. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the framework we increasingly use to define and measure our impact, through sustainability research as well as through our Technology for Good programs and initiatives.
5) What are the core values/culture does your company propagate within the organisation which drives work excellence?
I strongly believe that values and culture shapes a company. In Ericsson we live by our core values Professionalism, Perseverance and Respect. These values define our culture and guide us every day, as we work towards realizing the vision of enabling a Networked society, where every person and every industry is empowered to reach their full potential.
These values have stood the test of time over 141 years and is a testimony of the culture that we have built in Ericsson. We are indeed extremely proud of this. Even “The Great Place to Work” surveys have acknowledged that over past few years.
6) As a leader what mantra do you follow to grow? How do you wish to describe your leadership style?
I believe that a true leader’s job is to create other leaders and not followers. Empathy is the core of my leadership mantra. I believe that I am here to solve people’s problems, help them achieve their dreams, align their aspirations with our corporate mission.
7) In your view, what are the qualities you think a true business leader possess? How can this be spread into future leaders as well?
Ans: In my belief a “True leader is one, who creates more leaders”.
Every one of us,has that leader within us. It could well be,leading a big company, or just a small team of people, could be the local cricket team or may be the circle of close friends and families, or simply just our own selves! The size of our circle of influence may be small and relevant only for today, but if we work to improve as leaders, that circle of influence will increase. It’s infectious and people will be drawn towards your style. Certain qualities are however, always intrinsic and some we learn. Some lessons we learn the hard way, through trials and errors. The biggest take out for me has always been “humility” in all my learnings.
Communication is the key though, to attain and influence the results that one wishes to see. Communication can make or break a leader and we have ample examples around. Above all, integrity drives everything and that should be the core of influence!
In today’s world which is completely technology driven, it is essential to remain updated and try and read the future at every possible moment. The world at large has become highly dynamic and to be relevant a true leader must match the pace if not remain ahead!
4) As a responsible corporate what are your company’s goals? What are your CSR focus and approach?
Ericsson's strategic goal is to create the most intelligent and efficient networks that delivers Competitive solutions and innovate to make its customers successful
Our sustainability and corporate responsibility strategy is a core part of our business strategy and embedded across the company - focused on responsible business, environment and Technology for Good. We report progress annually through our "Sustainability and corporate responsibility" report and highlight key performance metrics. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the framework we increasingly use to define and measure our impact, through sustainability research as well as through our Technology for Good programs and initiatives.
5) What are the core values/culture does your company propagate within the organisation which drives work excellence?
I strongly believe that values and culture shapes a company. In Ericsson we live by our core values Professionalism, Perseverance and Respect. These values define our culture and guide us every day, as we work towards realizing the vision of enabling a Networked society, where every person and every industry is empowered to reach their full potential.
These values have stood the test of time over 141 years and is a testimony of the culture that we have built in Ericsson. We are indeed extremely proud of this. Even “The Great Place to Work” surveys have acknowledged that over past few years.
6) As a leader what mantra do you follow to grow? How do you wish to describe your leadership style?
I believe that a true leader’s job is to create other leaders and not followers. Empathy is the core of my leadership mantra. I believe that I am here to solve people’s problems, help them achieve their dreams, align their aspirations with our corporate mission.
7) In your view, what are the qualities you think a true business leader possess? How can this be spread into future leaders as well?
Ans: In my belief a “True leader is one, who creates more leaders”.
Every one of us,has that leader within us. It could well be,leading a big company, or just a small team of people, could be the local cricket team or may be the circle of close friends and families, or simply just our own selves! The size of our circle of influence may be small and relevant only for today, but if we work to improve as leaders, that circle of influence will increase. It’s infectious and people will be drawn towards your style. Certain qualities are however, always intrinsic and some we learn. Some lessons we learn the hard way, through trials and errors. The biggest take out for me has always been “humility” in all my learnings.
Communication is the key though, to attain and influence the results that one wishes to see. Communication can make or break a leader and we have ample examples around. Above all, integrity drives everything and that should be the core of influence!
In today’s world which is completely technology driven, it is essential to remain updated and try and read the future at every possible moment. The world at large has become highly dynamic and to be relevant a true leader must match the pace if not remain ahead!