Bharti Airtel

Indian mobile giant Bharti Airtel is to undertake a broad restructuring, splitting its business into two separate verticals targeting consumer and business customers, respectively. According to a Times of India report, the restructuring covers both its Indian and Southeast Asia operations and will come into force on 1 August. The mobile, telemedia, digital TV and other new businesses facing the consumer will form the business-2-consumers (B2C) unit, while the business-2-business (B2B) vertical will continue to focus on serving large corporates and carriers. In an emailed statement to the newspaper, the operator suggested that some job losses could occur as a result: “We expect the natural attrition to take care of job redundancies that emerge as a result of this; we will try and manage the others through our ecosystem of group companies and partners,” said the operator.

The report notes that the restructuring comes at a time as Bharti looks to reverse five straight quarters of declining profit, weighed down by costs relating to its recent expansion into Africa. “If they implement these changes it will be great, but this matrix structure has not worked very well for many companies,” said an (unnamed) analyst at a Mumbai-based brokerage firm. “The thought is really to bring down costs and make the company consumer facing.” The newly-formed B2C unit will be headed by K Srinivas, while Drew Kelton will lead the B2B unit. Both will report to Sanjay Kapoor, Bharti’s CEO of India & South Asia.