Abstract

Faced with intensifying competition and the global economic slowdown, Bharti Airtel Limited. (BAL) focused on cost optimization. In 2008, it merged operations across its telecom circles and in the later part it also discontinued certain sops to customers such as “free minutes”. In the subsequent months, the company was able to increase its employee productivity. However, the company was facing a decrease in the average revenue per user (ARPU), minutes per use (MoU) per subscriber, and revenue from SMS and non-voice services. While experts appreciated its ability to increase productivity, they felt that its decision to discontinue offers such as “free minutes” could prove to be costly.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Cost optimization
• Productivity
• and Employee efficiency.

Keywords

Cost optimization, productivity, employee productivity, employee efficiency, customers per employee, gross revenue per employee per month, business model, capital expenditure, operating expenditure, payment models, average revenue per user, ARPU, minutes per use per subscriber, MoU, Indian telecom industry, Bharti Airtel Limited, economic slowdown