Sameer Sinha, chief sales and marketing officer, Indus Towers, is excited about the growth prospects of the telecom sector. He expects to see revenue growth amid accelerated data network roll-outs by telecom companies, following the strengthening of their 3G and 4G spectrum holdings.
He is particularly upbeat about the data and internet service segments and says that the sector is set to witness another revolutionary phase. The way cellular telephony – voice with mobility – has positively impacted lifestyles in the past 15-20 years, in a similar way, data will transform lives over the next 5-10 years. The mobile phone will become a ubiquitous personal device that people will use for much more than voice calls and internet access.
Sinha knows a trend when he sees one, having spent 22 years in the telecom industry. He has mostly worked in the areas of business development, sales and account management. Building successful businesses, he says, has been a key ingredient in his success and career growth.
“Discipline and excellence – attributes that I imbibed during my early years – have been the cornerstones of my academic, and now professional, life,” he says. After school, he studied electronics and telecommunications engineering at the Malaviya Regional Engineering College, Jaipur. Later, he went on to do an MBA from the Podar Institute of Management, University of Rajasthan.
Sinha started his career as a management trainee in sales with the HCL Group. He joined Ericsson in 1997 and worked with the company for 12 years. In 2009, Sinha joined Indus Towers as chief sales and marketing officer. The company’s appeal for him was that it had a very wide footprint with 120,000 towers.
“As a leader, I see myself as a person who should guide the team and remove any obstacle that it faces. My style of management is dependent on the situation at hand, as well as on what my team members require from me. My style is collaborative and my endeavour is to motivate team members to express themselves and contribute in any manner,” he says.
A typical workday includes a review of key performance indicators, an assessment of business growth prospects, lunch with the leadership team, and customer meetings. He tries not to work very late on a regular basis, and makes it a point to be home for dinner with the family and not travel on weekends. In his spare time, Sinha likes to travel, play golf, listen to music and spend time with family.