The COVID-19 pandemic has raised a massive challenge for the Telecom industry. Telecom is the backbone of day to day activities and comes under Essential services. It is the lifeline of the Economy. The current pandemic put a great responsibility and challenge on the Telecom service providers to maintain communications, data connectivity for business variety and Entertainment via OTT platforms and social networking.
Dr. Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi (Group Chief Executive Officer of Ascend Telecom) a telecom professional with 35+ years of global experience proactively leading strategies in place and equipped with the experience of handling Cyclones, Floods etc., ensured that the telecom services were maintained uninterrupted 24×7. With the harsh lockdown it was Telecom services which ensured continuity. Sushil is pushing the envelope and setting new benchmarks in this industry.
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State of the Art tower portfolio, future ready next generation services makes Ascend a superior quality asset.
Sushil’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Dr. Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi (V.S.S.M) is Group CEO, leading Ascend Telecom since 2012. He is an accomplished Telecom professional having led National and International Telecom organizations. Dr. Sushil has been awarded with the President’s Medal (V.S.S.M) for distinguished Telecom services. Also, he awarded Gold medal on completing Bachelors in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering with Honours from NIT Kurukshetra, India, in 1982.
Sushil joined Department of Telecom, Government of India as an ITS officer and handled top management positions managing all the aspects of Telecom , Pan India, Technology, Operations, Planning & deployment and served as Telecom Advisor with International telecom Union. In 2006, after gaining Industry experience in senior Management positions, he decided to validate and sharpen skills and earned MBA degree from prestigious New York Institute of Technology, USA. Also, he awarded with PHD from Ecole Superior Robert de Sorbon, France in 2017.
Sushil began his professional journey as the Chief Executive Officer of ORG Informatics Ltd, managing Telecom/System Integration Business of India, diversified into Satellite services in Belgium and South-east Asia. As Vice President of GDSS Inc. USA, Dr. Chaturvedi pioneered and deployed triple play services across geographies in Africa and SE Asia. An ITS, as Director of BSNL, introduced cellular services and Optical fibre connectivity. As Telecom Advisor of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), was responsible for Telecom development of SADC (South African Development Countries).As Design Engineer, he was a Key member of Joint Indo Soviet Space program, Avionics Design Bureau, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
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We believe in creating a High Performance Culture wherein everyone wins.
Sushil has acquired the skill sets and proven expertise during the professional career, had the opportunity to lead in management positions owning the responsibility end to end. “Leading from front” and “walk the talk”approach had always yielded the right results. Accepting the challenge in the leadership role has always been inspiring.
Today, as the Group CEO of Ascending New Horizons, he leads the company’s vision and setting strategies to look ahead for meeting global standards for telecom infrastructure solutions that delights customers by adopting state of the art technology, Furthermore, he is responsible for innovation and involvement of committed team towards bridging digital connectivity towards rural & urban India.
Empowering Rural India through Telecom Infrastructure
Ascend Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, incorporated in 2002, is a leading independent owner and provider of world class passive telecom infrastructure and allied services PAN India. New Silk Route (NSR) partners, a US based PE Asia focus infrastructure fund and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a US based PE are promoters of Ascend. Ascend provides state of art telecom infra future ready solutions. Ascend holds IP-1 license issued by Government of India, Under Infrastructure provider Category-1. Ascend is a Towerco managed by professionals with combined experience of 300+ years having operations PAN India, covering all telecom circles with offices at all State HQ. Ascend is a key player in Telecom infrastructure development in the country.
Ascend’s initiative and innovative deployments have been appreciated by the state Governments. They have shown keen interest to support company’s vision and promised to extend State’s cooperation to develop telecom infra in their part of Rural India. Bridging the rural-urban divide will require the industry to address issues affecting the economic viability of rural operations and high maintenance cost. These issues can be addressed by futuristic approach and value added services.
Ascend has built a robust support system to focus as an enabler for rural India transformation. Ascend is present in both prospering and not so prospering states, rural and unreachable terrains providing the most needed infra such as 100% green Power back up , Network for mobility and data transfer. Ascend also specializes in developing telecom infrastructure ecosystem in Rural India by not just providing infrastructure for BTS installation to increase mobility but participating in the nation building.
Ascend provides world class passive telecom infrastructure on a shared/multi-tenancy basis for mobile and wireless industries in India. It is an end-to-end telecom infrastructure provider for small to large and complex projects. Be it the site location, design, execution or maintenance of telecom infrastructure or network operators, Ascend has its solutions extended to take over all telecom infrastructure related issues while completely focus on product/service innovation and business expansion.
Sushil is proudly working on company’s mission endorsing to global standards for telecom infrastructure solutions that delights customers by adopting state of the art technology, innovation and involvement of committed team. Sushil said, “We ensure sustainable business through clear business objectives, adopting innovative work practices and continuous improvement”.
An accomplished Telecom Professional and visionary leader, Sushil is looking at new opportunities which are at the doorstep and need to proactively innovate and move ahead. Conscious efforts and SOP’s need to be in place for ensuring the well- being of all stake holders, keeping them motivated and focused on improving productivity. “Healthy, productive and motivated employees along with visionary leadership are the right recipe for success against all odds”, Sushil added.
An Inventive and Inspiring work Culture
Ascend team is a well-motivated, highly professional and has vast experience of handling all Telecommunication facets, Defence/Civil/Maritime across domestic and Foreign geographies. The combined experience of management team is 350+ years.
Sushil has developed business culture that is committed to values aimed at enhancing an organization’s wealth generating capacity. This is ensured by taking ethical business decisions and conducting business with a firm commitment to values, while meeting stakeholders’ expectations. At Ascend, company affairs are managed in a fair and transparent manner. This is vital to gain and retain the trust of stakeholders.
As an organization, Ascend’s corporate governance encourages employees to enjoy freedom of expression and participation. We actively encourage and expect our employees to initiate and follow through on new ideas, improvement and to act with respect and professionalism when expressing opinions, ideas and criticism.
Sushil at Ascend has taken initiatives like career progression for every individual, Team building activities, Participation in decision making, Peoples engagement programs, Capability mapping, Reward and Recognition program are ensuring that employees remain highly productive considering Ascend as best place to work. During the COVID pandemic, proactively, various initiatives were undertaken to ensure the morale and productivity are not compromised. Innovative programs were implemented to help the all team members.
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We believe in effective delivery through collaboration and team work and value the trust that our customers and partners repose on us.
A Promising Bright Future of Ascend Telecom
Understanding COVID and Industry challenges, Sushil and his skilled team is working on consistent growth with planned mitigation strategy to achieve their targets beating the guidance, as in the past. He will continue to grow the business and help clients succeed in a post-pandemic environment by offerings technology to meet the exact needs of their clients at the optimum cost. Technology tools are used to monitor progress and ensure the quality.
The zealous leader Sushil would like to continue the run in 2020 with the introduction of new technology and monitoring strategies, which will also allow them to serve their customers as a holistic approach. Further, Sushil continues, “We focused on business success by revenue assurance, growth complimented by Inorganic acquisitions in addition to Organic portfolio expansion, demonstrated Cost control measures and Sustained Energy margins through Greentech innovations”.
He will continue to pursue both organic and inorganic growth by way of accretive acquisitions as done in the past. The goal is to enable Ascend to become a one-stop solution for all the infrastructure needs of telcos. Build and sustain a future proof organization in Telecom Infrastructure management, bringing best value prepositions & trust to Customers & Investors and growth to employees. Strategically and sustainably grow to reach revenue of USD 3 Billion by 2025, leveraging and innovating on technology to lead the competition.
Addressing COVID-19 Challenges
As a passionate leader, Sushil was well prepared for the new normal. He said, “Never Give Up”- You can’t predict the next crisis, but you can be prepared for it”. Ascend team continued working closely with their customers to exchange constructive thoughts and keep them going. Sushil has developed business continuity plan and followed up for business target achievement.
Furthermore, he focused on Employee Engagement during Lockdown, assisting in learning and skilling to employee’s children, as a family initiative. Pre-screening was completed for all employees as early as the early break of the pandemic. Protective equipments were made available to employees as per tower safety norms and CORONA safety needs, monitoring 24×7 pandemic management dashboard and Helpline.
Ascend Telecom as a service provider have already started identifying and incorporating future ready , cost effective newer designs that meet the customer expectations and creating a win-win rendering business viability as a continuous requirement.
CEO’s Standpoint on Pandemic
1. Land lord connect – Distribution of COVID self-care kits, sanitization of sites, Counselling, ensuring site uptimes along with well- being of their family
2. Customer Connect – Increased interface at all levels, proactive reporting and business offerings helped in getting customer accolades
3. Employee connect – Health and sanitation, family counselling, special COVID hardship allowance, COVID insurance, productive engagement thru webinars, Up skilling programs helped in improving the productivity and keeping them motivated.
Sushil believes, COVID has been a catalyst to fast forward the world into Digital Revolution 2.0. New business portfolios are being explored with offerings to our customers for Tele Medicine, IOT, Tele Education, E-Learning, Gigabit fibre, Customer Access, Customer delivery and many other opportunities which have got a boost post COVID. These certainly would add new streams of revenue to their portfolio. In this situation Sushil worked together with his field team and evolved SOPs and communicated and monitored the implementation of the same, leading by example.
