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Achieving Profitability Through Focus on Leadership Development

Aircel is a pioneering and innovative telecommunications firm that serves 65 million customers across India. Aircel has been credited with a number of industry firsts in its market: making 3G connections affordable to a mass market, Facebook voice updates, and interstate connectivity. Amid these firsts, late in 2012 Aircel began looking for another one: achieving profitability. With a single-minded focus on increasing revenues and reducing costs, senior leadership put a number of new initiatives into place. Talent development was one important initiative.

Talent Development: An Integral Part of the Journey to ProfitabilityAircel recognized that, in order to achieve its business targets, talent readiness was critical, especially in the climate of ambiguity and uncertainty prevailing in the telecom environment. To help build the cadre of leaders it needed, Aircel decided to implement its Future Leaders Program, which is based on Harvard Business Publishing’s Leadership

Direct, a cohort-based virtual learning approach aimed at helping organizations achieve lasting results.

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“ The Future Leaders Program gave a visible push to achieving our targets. The change in leadership behavior drove the organization forward successfully and continues to do so.”Dr. Sandeep Gandhi, Chief Human Resource Officer, Aircel

BUSINESS CHALLENGEAccelerate leader development across the organization to grow the business, achieve profitability, and sustain performance

AUDIENCE57 assistant general managers, deputy general managers, and general managers

OFFERING AND SERVICES USEDLeadership Direct

IMPACT> 3.25 rupees generated or saved for

each rupee invested

> Written assessments showed knowledge gain of 33%

> Business impact of first cohort’s action-learning projects estimated at $5.7 million

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AIRCEL

UNITED STATES | EUROPE | INDIA | SINGAPORE

> For more information, visit: www.harvardbusiness.org

MEASURING PROGRAM BENEFITS

Aircel measured program benefits by applying a framework that looked at participant reaction, learning, behavior chain, business results, and return on investment. By all measures, the program was a success. Participant feedback rated the Future Leaders Program at 3.62 on a 4-point scale. Written assessments measured a 33% knowledge gain, and self and supervisor assessments indicated positive behavioral change. For the action-learning projects, the business impacts reported were validated by function heads, with the projects contributing $5.7 million to Aircel’s bottom line.

When Aircel made their overall ROI tally, they found for every rupee invested, a rupee was returned and another 3.25 in rupees were generated or saved.

UNITED STATES | EUROPE | INDIA | SINGAPORE

> For more information, visit: www.harvardbusiness.org

After the company’s annual appraisal cycle, a group of high performers was tapped to participate in Aircel’s Future Leaders Program. The 57 participants included key decision makers in high impact strategic roles, and with varying functional and tactical responsibilities, from both the corporate office and from units across India.

Defining the Skills Its Leaders Would NeedAircel identified the attributes that its leaders would need to reach their core business goal. These included flexibility, innovation, emerging market understanding, a focus on the value chain, engaging employees, and a commercial mind-set characterized by intelligent risk analysis, efficient use of resources and exceptional financial performance.Aircel partnered with Harvard Business Publishing to craft a program tailored to its needs. The result was the Future Leaders Program, based on Leadership Direct, a proven approach rooted in a strong conceptual framework and in pragmatic, immediately applicable business and management best practices.

Traditional Learning, Online Learning, Action LearningAircel’s Future Leaders Program contained three modules: Strategic Management and Financial Acumen; Project Management; and Leadership and Emotional Intelligence. The program’s blended approach combined traditional face-to-face classroom learning with live virtual faculty lectures, self-paced online learning, facilitated case discussions, simulations, and action-learning projects. The action-learning projects had to focus on achieving profitability through a demonstrable impact on either revenue or cost. Projects ranged from new business and product development to market expansion, and from revitalizing existing platforms to consolidating resources. These projects yielded a bottom line benefit of $5.7 million, helping the company achieve its goal of profitability in 2013.

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© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

“ The effect of this flagship program on revenue and cost shows true business impact.” Charandeep David, Head, Learning & Development, Aircel

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