Technological advancements are disruptive and creative at the same time. Today, the world is experiencing a variety of skills that are becoming redundant and unlocking various job opportunities. Business models are drastically transforming the supply chain. Such disruptions will continue to happen for the betterment of the society. The only difference today is the velocity of change. Also, incredible opportunities are being unleashed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In such an opportunistic world, the telephone equipment manufacturer Ericsson is shining in India for more than a century. It started operations in the year 1903, by supplying manual switchboards to the then British Government in Kolkata. Since then, it has powered virtually every facet of telecommunications in India, across Mobile Broadband, Managed Services and Digital Services. It has successfully partnered with the growth of the country’s cellular revolution since 1994 when the cellular services were first launched in India.
Strengthening Capabilities
Ericsson Global Services was established in India in 2010 to manage operator networks across geographies. The Global Services operations leveraged Ericsson’s traditional strength in telecom with India’s talent in IT capabilities to create ICT (Information & Communication Technology) services. This strengthens the existing worldwide capabilities in Consulting & Systems Integration Services, Managed Services, IP & Broadband R&D and Revenue Management R&D supporting local, regional and global customers.
A Passionate Entrepreneur
Late Lars Magnus Ericsson (5 May 1846 – 17 December 1926) was a Swedish inventor and the Founder of telephone equipment manufacturer Ericsson. With his vision and incredible potential he invented telegraph equipment that for the framework of Ericsson. It has all started from repairing electrical equipment and eventually moved to manufacture Bell type telephones. Ericsson, today, is one of the leading providers of ICT services to telecom companies. The company’s comprehensive portfolio ranges across Networks, Digital Services, Managed Services, and Emerging Business; powered by 5G and IoT platforms. With more than 45,000 patents, Ericsson leads the telecom industry with its robust R&D.
Meet the Strategic MD
Amitabh Ray is the MD at Ericsson Global Services India and Head of Global Services Centers across 4 countries. Currently, he is managing operations in the areas of R&D, product development, pre-sales & sales support, services delivery and a number of global shared support functions. Global Services India operation represents an ICT operation working towards Ericsson customers in more than 130 countries.
Before joining Ericsson, Amitabh Ray has worked as the Vice President in IBM where his key responsibilities were managing the growth of the delivery centers across the world. As a Partner at PwC during his tenure (1988-2002), he headed the three largest strategic business units (SBUs); Enterprise Resource Planning, Information Technology/Systems Integration and the Global Solutions Delivery Center.
Leaders’ Contribution – not only to the ‘Organization’ but also to the ‘Society’
“My passion is to create more leaders in the organization, – the leaders who can contribute not only to the ‘organization’ but also to the ‘society’.” says Amitabh Ray. “Leadership, in my opinion, does not come with an organizational title, but with the natural ability to empathize with people and to inspire them to find their own leadership strengths.” he added further. Inspiring his team and empowering them with the spirit of curiosity, innovation, learning, to never stop dreaming and to give them a purpose in whatever they are doing, is what the biggest responsibilities truly defines his success voyage. He always believed in the fact that if he creates enough leaders, then the organization will stay at the top of the league table regardless of the technological, economic and business disruption around.
Ericsson’s Take on the Current Scenario
New tech-enabled technologies like Data Science will help enterprises to unlock value from the huge volume of data stored in the cloud. Mind-blowing advances in computing speed will help to analyze the data to forecast economic, business, consumer and environmental changes. With the help of analytics, the company is becoming proactive in many industries from healthcare to finance, retail, manufacturing, media, and entertainment thereby increasing efficiency and productivity leading to optimal use of scarce resources.
Large swathes of industries will see automation and use of robotic processes. The transitory phase will be painful for those whose skills will be redundant. “The answer lies in continuous learning, in training, up-skilling and rebooting the skills. It is not easy, but it is inevitable so both organizations and individuals will have to be prepared for it.” – said Amitabh Ray, the MD.
Challenges Strengthened the Success
The company has achieved many milestones which were normal for any new business. However, as the company is focused on telecom where it had its native competency backed by the strength of the Ericsson brand it was not difficult to make the initial breakthroughs with the clients. Thereafter, it was about delivery excellence. That was about getting the right talent into the organization that had the IT services experience and at the same time hire new talent. As the leadership had rich experience in both telecom and IT services especially in delivering to the global clients, the company did not take a very long time to build a great team. In around five years there were almost 20,000 employees.
Touching New Heights
Ericsson is a trusted partner to all its stakeholders!
Ericsson has recently touched new heights by successfully demonstrating the first live 5G end-to-end demonstration in India. The demo is a part of the company’s ongoing efforts to build a robust 5G ecosystem in the country.
Company’s values of Respect, Professionalism, and Perseverance differentiate Ericsson from its competitors. The cutting-edge research and development strength is the core of the competitive advantage. However, the depth of valuable relationship with the customers who has been with them for decades facing challenges is now celebrating successes together.
Awards and Accolades
Ericsson, a global leader in ICT space, has been recognized as one of the ‘Top companies to work for’ by the Great Place To Work (GPTW) Institute in India for the fourth year in a row. The company has always focused on bringing in the latest technological advancements into India. In July 2018 Ericsson opened the Center of Excellence and Innovation Lab for 5G in Delhi. It is taking significant steps in India’s 5G development together with some of the country’s biggest service providers.
Some other significant awards it has received in India over the past few years include NASSCOM Customer Excellence Awards in 2017 for the Process Improvement & Efficiencies, Aegis Graham Bell Awards in 2017 for Innovative Managed Services, ASSOCHAM Services Excellence Award both in 2017 and 2018 for Telecom Services.
As an organization, Ericsson is not just focused on the commercial aspect of its operations. It uses technology to deliver ‘social good’. It is supporting the World Food Program (WFP) Trust for India to further their work on developing customized ICT solutions to bring efficiencies across the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in India. TPDS scheme involves the procurement, allocation, and transportation of food-grains as well as distribution amongst the eligible beneficiaries. Operated jointly by Central and the State governments, it also includes issuance of ration cards and monitoring of fair price shops. The main aim of this partnership is to improve efficiencies in food-based safety nets for food insecure people in the country who are the beneficiaries of this project.
For continues focus on CSR related activities, it got awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Award 2015 for Corporate Social Responsibility in India.
Stroke of Excellence
“Disruption is now business-as-usual. Your current success is no guarantee for future survival. The recipe to stay relevant is through a constant process of challenging yourself, of a process of creative disruption.” – stated Amitabh Ray.
Futuristic Vision
Ericsson is advancing its vision to empower an intelligent, sustainable and connected world, by relentlessly innovating technologies that are easy to adopt, use and scale. From the first analog systems to 2G, 3G, 4G, and now on to 5G; company’s R&D focus and collaborates with the global industry have played a crucial role in developing a standard that meets the needs of industries, and society. The focus is only to deliver 5G, which will play a pivotal role in the Networked Society; it will influence the Internet of Things (IoT). A cloud technology is another big area of company’s strategy which will bring agility and efficiency to IT environments. The company believes that digital industrialization strategies are the key to turning Networks and IT operations from a cost into an asset.
“I believe every situation is an opportunity. Throughout my career, I have seen several ups and downs. The ups don’t make me overconfident; the downs don’t put me down as well. I never let success go to my head, nor do failures get to my heart!” – says MD, Amitabh Ray.
Source :-The 10 Most Innovative Tech Companies to watch in 2019
