Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thought Leaders
Vanu Bose talks about global economy, local recovery
By Mass High Tech staff
Google's Summer of Code
MHT's Galen Moore: Charities score with online fundraising
MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: Preparing the smart grid for more power
Vanu Bose, president and CEO, Vanu Inc.
Mass High Tech All-Star: 2003
What’s new with the company?
We’ve been focused a lot on developing markets, India being one, although I don’t think you can call it “developing” in the cellular sense. The market there is really exploding. Last year at the end of the year it was running 10 or 11 million new subscribers each month. In January it set a record with about 15 million new subscribers. With that, it is only at about 32 percent total density.
How can the telecoms contribute to an economic recovery?
Broadband penetration is a key piece of it. In many ways, broadband access today is what having electricity, telephone and highways was in previous decades. It’s your means to an economic future. Building out broadband to areas that don’t have it will help the economy. Broadband brings you access to information, access to business that really will help those areas be more economically competitive.
I also think in our case in terms of economic recovery, in terms of international business, we as an American company see a lot of businesses in other countries that will increase business and exports, and create more jobs and wealth back here. I think it is important that we build and maintain a telecom business here in this country. We don’t want to lose it the way we lost televisions and everything else.
What do you see in the New England economy in terms of the challenges that you face, the work force issues? What do we have to attack first?
The cost of living. It is certainly higher here in Massachusetts, and that makes it tough. Also, I don’t know what you can do about this one, but the transportation infrastructure makes commuting much more difficult here than in other areas.
Whom do you look to as a leader today?
There are two people I admire a lot, one being my dad (Bose Corp. founder Amar Bose), the other actually being one of my dad’s close friends, Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group in India. I admire him because he has built in India one of the most ethical companies on the planet. Everyone lives and breathes ethics in the company, and everyone — the partners and their competitors alike — know it’s a completely ethical company, which is not the norm in that part of the world.
What do you admire about your dad?
I’m sort of in awe of what he has built and how he has built it. He has built an organization that builds first-class products and reinvests so much money in R&D on a regular basis. One of the things you are seeing now when the economy goes down, the first thing (other companies) cut is R&D. That hurts your future. My dad has always been very consistent in maintaining an investment in R&D.
Editors Note: Thought Leaders is a monthly series of executive profiles, looking at previous MHT award winners such as All-Stars and their thoughts on current issues.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
