¶ … values and provide an overview of my character. These three situations also illustrate how I respond to challenges, problems, and crises by using creativity, critical thinking, and communication. The first situation arose while I was working with Airtel. Airtel's launch of its broadband service was based on high density ATM DSLAMs. The DSLAMs had 16 Mbps of upstream capacity, which seemed like huge amount at the time. What the planning team did not foresee was that the 16 Mbps upstream capacity was quickly choked as consumers demanded increased bandwidth. The finance team would not authorize any upgrades, and at the same time, the DSLAM vendor demanded further purchases as per our contract. I came up with a solution. First, I put together a task force with members from all affected stakeholders. We worked with the vendor, who ultimately agreed to buy back existing equipment, while supplying a new range of IP DSLAMs at 10% lower cost per port. As a result of the upgrades, sales increased and made up for any initial losses we incurred. Thus, I helped the company upgrade, add value for customers, and avert crisis with a supplier.
The second situation involves my helping Spectranet launch a new prepaid broadband service plan. Spectranet was in debt, saddled with maintaining a large amount of optical fibre cable assets, dealing with broadband rollout, O&M, and collections. Basically, the company was losing money. I was determined to help. I noticed that all customers were post-paid, even though many were delinquent. Therefore, I devised the concept of a prepaid plan based on usage. With a team, I developed a financial model that worked. We set about the building the billing and networking infrastructure, a sales team, and a team of franchising partners. We started outsourcing operations and customer support, too. As a result, I probably helped save Spectranet from becoming a dotcom casualty.
The last accomplishment I would like to relate is more personal, as I helped my alcoholic father-in-law get sober. I attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with him at the beginning of his recovery so that he knew I was fully in support of him, and he has since been sober for 15 years. The experience promoted Baba and me to found the Noida AA chapter from my basement. Ten years later, we have become three separate AA chapters and have helped about 800 individuals overcome their illness.
