Bharti Airtel rejigs India operations, splits business into 8 segments

The company, which had last week announced appointment of Manoj Kohli as its new Managing Director, Thursday said its operations will be divided into eight hubs from the current three regional hubs.

The hubs will report to Ajai Puri, who has been elevated to the newly created position of Director (Market Operations). Puri will report to Joint MD and CEO Designate for India Gopal Vittal.

The changes will be effective from March 1, 2013.

"The new organisation design is aimed at furthering the company's initiatives to build a more connected organisation, which is closer to the market place and is able to deliver a world-class experience to customers," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Various telecom circles will be clubbed to form hubs.

"Circle CEOs will continue to report to a Hub CEO and operate with the same level of independence (as they do now), while the Hub CEO will provide overall guidance and oversight to the telecom circles under it," it added.

Among other changes, Raghunath Mandava, currently Operations Director (West & Distribution) has been elevated as Director (Customer Experience). He will also report to Vittal.

Airtel Business CMO Najib Khan will now take over as CEO (Homes and Office), where he will be responsible for telemedia business, SMB vertical, LTE and Wi-fi services. K Srinivas will take over as Director (Special Projects) and will be responsible for evaluating potential investment opportunities and developing business case across various lines of business. He will report to Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.

Last week, Bharti Airtel had appointed Kohli as Managing Director and said its founder Sunil Mittal will assume the role of Executive Chairman.

Vittal, who will take over as the new CEO in March, was named Additional Director and Joint Managing Director of Bharti Airtel. He was named chief executive after the firm's India CEO Sanjay Kapoor stepped down last month.

The management rejig comes at a time when the company is looking at improving profitability while increasing both 3G and 4G subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel is also grappling with uncertain regulatory environment and bleeding business in Africa.