Amur Lakshminarayanan: The communicator

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Also read | Prashanth Prakash: Master Mentor For Lakshminarayanan, used to moving frequently and living in different countries, this unexpected start to his new role driven by the pandemic was just another problem that needed to be worked out. “You are just able to move on quickly," he says about the impact that constant travelling and moving have had on him.

Flexibility is a desirable trait in any leader, and essential for his role at Tata Communications, a digital enterprise solutions provider with a portfolio that includes cloud, cybersecurity, mobility and IoT (internet of things), besides media and entertainment. It operates a subsea fibre (internet) network that carries around 30% of the world’s internet routes while its IoT network in India claims to be the world’s largest network of its kind.

The company, which started life as the public sector Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) in 1986 before being acquired by the Tata Group in 2002, connects businesses worldwide to 80% of the world’s cloud giants and four out of five mobile subscribers worldwide. “We can run a complete ring around the world," says Lakshminarayanan, “and our network carries a third of all the world’s internet."   In 2022-23, the company delivered over 20,000 live events with remote production services, channelling multiple camera feeds.

This includes about 120,000 hours of live broadcast across 3,000 television channels reaching over two billion sports fans, for disciplines such as Formula 1 racing, Formula E, and World Rally Championships among others.  “We are trying to shift, which is why internally the mantra is that anybody who says we are a telco (tele-communications company) gets a slap on the wrist. We are not a telco anymore, we are trying