Chief Operating Officer - North India Cluster - Broadband Services

SEARCH CONTEXT : 

The COO for North India is being appointed as part of a succession agenda and to upgrade leadership capabilities for this highly strategic and complex market. The role is also part of the Executive Committee at the company, part of the core group leading the strategic development, growth trajectory and scale up of the organization. There is a current incumbent who is transitioning out of the organization.

BUSINES CONTEXT : 

The company is a PE Backed, high growth entrepreneurial organization which has emerged as a leading player in broadband (FTTH technology), Digital TV, HDTV and wider in-home interactive services. The organization has scaled up extremely well over the last decade with North India contributing a fairly small share of overall revenue. This presents an opportunity for significant expansion into this market. Rapid growth & scaling up in this highly competitive and dispersed landscape is the key responsibility as well the challenge for this role. There are 3 primary customer segments: Retail, Communities and SME. Teams are also being set up for large enterprises.

ROLE EXPECTATIONS : 

1. Dispersed in multiple cities, north India cities are mostly in the start-up phase. Competitive intensity is already amplified & complex. Business requires leadership mindset. Setting up right foundations in terms of operating models, driving growth & scaling the businesses through operational efficiency and innovation.

2. Countering the competition is one of the key challenges in these markets. There are already other big & established organizations leading the market. Acquiring new customers through promise and retaining them with superlative service & experience is at the fundamental level. The leader will need to leverage existing best practices within the company, automation & business process re-engineering in order to scale up.

a. This requires strong leadership ability to drive the vision, lead change management while inspiring and energizing the organization down the line.

b. Deep collaboration with the wider organization to co-create opportunities.

3. Driving a high performance growth oriented culture: North India markets present a much bigger revenue opportunity given the scale of the market. Orientation has to be towards rapidly scaling up the subscriber base, higher profitability and maximizing market shares.

a. Ability to see the big picture, set sharp priorities at the top and operational rigour to drive seamless execution would be key for success.

b. Maturity and bandwidth to drive cohesion in the team and change mindsets in a sensible and well thought through manner.

4. Next-gen customer experience : Strong focus on customer experience.

a. Ability to think with customer at the core, experience and process design leveraging technology to raise the bar. Drive a customer centric culture, ownership and visible energy

b. Keeping the overall company culture intact and building a highly value-driven team in these cities is key.

OTHER DESIRED COMPETENCIES : 

1. Entrepreneurial Leader with a growth mindset. Proven track record in both growth and transformation contexts in fast-paced business environments where they are no pre-set templates.

2. Strong commercial acumen with deep understanding of P&L levers. Ability to understand capex cycles and drive revenue and profitability performance aggressively.

3. Strategic mindset - to see the big picture, put together business models of future and lead with clear priorities.

4. Operationally sound to lead execution in a hands-on manner. This role would require an individual with high details orientation, multiply his/her bandwidth across multiple vectors and willing to roll up the sleeves and do things.

5. Firm leader but with no ego. Someone who inspires confidence in ability to put the organization goals beyond individual goals. Highly accessible leader who leads with a genuine connect down the organization making him/her visible. Natural orientation to engage with people and align vs being directive. Proactive communicator.

6. Track record, strategic heft and personality has to be such that the individual brings immediate credibility to the role - someone who adds real value to the teams and has an inspiration quotient.

7. Collaborative leader to work alongside the wider Ex-Com and leadership team to drive the organizational agenda beyond just the north city markets.