Rakesh Mittal: No more easy days

BACKSTAGE

For years, anyone who has witnessed the rise and rise of the Mittal family "" from denizens of Ludhiana to becoming movers and shakers in the national capital "" the most noticeable face of the three brothers has been Sunil, the second of three sons of the late Sat Pal Mittal, a politician who was a Congress MP from Haryana in the 80s.

While the eldest Rakesh Mittal, 52, an electronics engineer, concentrated on the nuts-n-bolts of manufacturing landline telephones (a business that he has built into one of the largest in the world), it was Sunil, 50, who is the face of the Bharti corporate empire.

As the mobile business grew, far faster and profitably over peers, so did the Mittal brothers' ambition to diversify. Under Sunil, at heart a serial entrepreneur, Bharti has gone beyond telecom in a series of new forays including an ill-fated plan to develop airports, a failed farm produce JV, an insurance venture and the highly ambitious organised retail play.

It is with the retail foray that the youngest of the three Mittal brothers "" Rajan, 48, is finally coming into focus. Seen as a bit of an enigma by journalists, the Arts graduate from Punjab University went on to attend a programme for business owners at the Harvard Business School.

Last March, Rajan relinquished his position as joint managing director of the group's telecom flagship Bharti Airtel Ltd and was appointed managing director of holding firm Bharti Enterprises, as well as the group lead director for retail, wholesale and new projects.

In some ways, the retail foray is Rajan's coming of age. For years he has been part and parcel of every Bharti move, rarely saying much and preferring to learn the ropes from the more articulate and highly savvy Sunil. Now, the burden of expectations on him is great. After all, the retail foray has been in the making for some time now. Bharti Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, is the front-end of a pan-India retail foray that plans an investment of $2-2.5 billion by 2015 for setting up nearly 10 million square feet of retail space and employing 60,000 people. Separately, Bharti Enterprises will jointly roll-out a wholesale cash-and-carry business in partnership with global retail giant Wal-Mart.

Earlier this week, Bharti Retail launched its neighbourhood store format. Predictably, the Mittals' hometown of Ludhiana was the chosen location for the "Easy Day" chain of stores. Rajan says the brand reflects the desire to make things easy for consumers, especially women. Convinced that organised retail has the potential to transform the way Indian consumers are treated, he adds that most of his time is spent in formulating strategy, motivating the team and maintaining relations with partners.

Insiders say the long years that Rajan has spent in overseeing the activities of the group at the corporate level and his experience in marketing and brand management are serving him well in his new role. That said, it will be several years before Bharti's retail ambitions bear fruit. Unlike telecom, the group doesn't have the first-mover advantage either.

Whether Rajan can repeat the group's telecom success will determine how he is perceived "" as a worthy successor to his brother, or as just someone his brother chose for the job.