How many corporate chiefs get their employment and partnership contract blessed by their school principal? But Kapoor is only being true to type and to his roots
Did I drag you to Thai food?," my guest asks apologetically. Not in the least, I reply since I too love the cuisine and that puts him at ease. A fortnight ago I had proposed we meet for lunch, and it was Sanjay Kapoor, chairman of phonemaker Micromax, who had recommended Radisson Blu's Thai restaurant Neung Roi. "We chanced on this place while attending a wedding at the hotel," he tells me. He's a regular here, knows the chef by name, and I happily let him do the ordering.
So how did he end up with Micromax, I ask the chairman of three months. He's candid and admits that after a long and chequered corporate career, his last appointment before this one as chief executive at the country biggest telco Airtel, he was clear he didn't want yet another corporate job but an entrepreneurial innings.
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After quitting Airtel in early March last year, Kapoor had been busy trying to kick-start a venture around wi-fi data access. "The promoters of Micromax approached me through some private equity people, and heard my story. Finally, the offer was the best of both worlds - to play the role of both an owner and an executive chairman." So how much stake does he have in the country's largest mobile marketer? He declines to reveal that, suggesting it is a non-issue, "That's not important. What's important is that when I build value for the company, I'll build value for myself too."
Kapoor has ordered Tom Yum Goong soup, in which sizeably large prawns are dunked, and wok fried fish with crispy ginger (Pla Phad Khing) for starters and we start the meal with gusto.
But how come the 30- to 40-somethings promoters of a runaway start-up success agreed to let an outsider take the top mantle, I wonder. Kapoor is all praise for Micromax's Rahul Sharma, Vikas Jain, Rajesh Agarwal and Sumeet Kumar; "To realise your limitations and the fact the enterprise is larger than any of them at such an early age takes a lot." And he also lets me in on a little secret here. One of the promoters, Jain, and he are alumni of Springdales School in Delhi, though separated by over a decade. And to bless their professional-cum-entrepreneurial partnership, it was the school's founder-principal, Rajni Kumar, that they turned to in May. "We're very close to her, and she gracefully agreed to bless the signing at the Oberoi."
Since Micromax has none of the costs of manufacturing or research & development, isn't it just another foreign-made Indian brand, a bare-bone price warrior at that? Kapoor is quick to counter the perception, and he launches into a diatribe; "The greatest strength we have is to convert consumer insights into products and services quickly and offer it at emerging market value." He recounts the phonemaker's many firsts - a dual SIM phone, 30-day battery, blink phones for women, the first affordable phone with a QWERTY keyboard and the first Windows-based one outside Nokia.
A transformation of Micromax is underway, from a devices-only firm to one driven by devices and services, Kapoor adds. "We are adding service layers like entertainment, health, security, and so on. And many of these will be web-based solutions with fulfilment directly or indirectly through partnerships," is all he's willing to share at the moment. Kapoor believes there is much vim left in devices itself as the era of "wearables" dawns on us. "As long as you add value to a consumer's life, the device itself is irrelevant. Machine-to-machine, machine-to-human applications are all on the way. And we're strengthening our software and hardware capabilities."
A self-declared data enthusiast, Kapoor is of the view that India has to go through a data revolution to stay competitive. "It doesn't matter what business you're in. Every boardroom is obsessed with how you can be a better sniper than a shotgun shooter," he says of the need to glean consumer insights from the humongous data that every enterprise is churning out.
How did the prime minister's "Make in India" economic vision, with its aim to erase the trade deficit in electronics by 2020, sit with Micromax's largely import-driven business strategy? He corrects me: the company makes all its tablets at its Rudrapur plant in Uttarakhand. "I am supportive of the PM's strategy of making India a manufacturing hub. With India and China being big markets (for electronics), pushing manufacturing in India is also a derisking strategy. With China's labour costs rising, India can be a great alternative given the right incentives and development of the ecosystem." And as and when that happens, for Micromax, make-versus-buy from a partner in India will remain a cornerstone of its business strategy of "do only what you're good at". "We'd like to go deep into designing. Right now, a lot of design capabilities are sitting outside, in the Silicon Valley, in China, and as manufacturing moves into India, so will design."
The selection of the main course is just perfect - stir-fried chicken with cashew nut and straw mushroom (Gai Phad Med) and flat rice noodle with chicken (Phad Thai Gai). I wonder how a chance discovery of one Thai restaurant on Delhi's outskirts has given Kapoor such insight into the cuisine. As it turns out, Kapoor's younger sister is based in Thailand, and being a family man, he's there often and has imbibed the sense of their rich culinary tradition.
Micromax may have very well become the largest selling mobile brand, but its share of the smartphone market is well below Samsung, and Intex and Spice are already nibbling at the lower end with smartphones starting at Rs 1,999. Kapoor believes that the feature-phone war was fought on price primarily because voice, the dominant feature, was a very low-order application. "But the smartphone war with data as the main usage will be fought on consumer experience and user interface, not price." A small screen, a slow processor, with low capability to handle data will undermine the consumers' internet experience at the peril of a price-warrior brand, believes Kapoor.
I polish off my meal and notice Kapoor, who has been doing most of the talking, is not even halfway through his. To give him a chance to catch up, I opt for some machine-to-human engagement and he happily plays me one of his stage-singing videos on his Micromax Canvas Knight smartphone. It's a charity event and Kapoor is singing Mohammed Rafi's Ek Haseen Shaam Ko - still every bit the melodious singer as I had discovered on a drive with him through the picturesque Lake District in England many years ago on a reporting assignment.
Plates are cleared and we're served jasmine tea. I am pretty full, but I realise we are not through yet as he calls out for his favourite Thai dessert - sticky rice with fresh mango and coconut cream, a novelty for me and a heavenly one at that. By now, the restaurant is full and noisy , and we walk out exchanging notes on the rumour about a large Indian firm's promoter who is apparently about to throw in the towel as the going gets tougher.