Kavita Nair quits as Vi’s chief digital information officer, Avneesh Khosla appointed as new CMO

Vodafone Idea’s chief digital transformation and brand officer, Kavita Nair, has resigned. This comes at a time when the telco has also elevated its director (marketing) Avneesh Khosla to the position of chief marketing officer (CMO), filling a position that was vacant for over two years.

Nair led the recent rebranding exercise at the telco that is grappling with the shrinking customer base and mounting debt. Nair took charge as the telco’s brand officer in August 2018. Prior to this, she was associate director—commercial operations for Vodafone India Ltd, which was merged with Idea Cellular Ltd in the same month.

Advertisement

The loss-making telco, which is desperately trying to arrange funding to ramp up its 4G network and clear its huge backlog of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, has seen a string of top-level executive exits in recent times. In October, the company’s chief technology officer Vishant Vora left after a decade-long stint. He was replaced by Jagbir Singh, a seasoned telecom executive who worked with both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

On the same day, Vodafone Idea named Manish Sansi as the new chief legal officer who replaced Kumar Das. Amit Pradhan, Vodafone Idea’s chief technology security officer (CTSO) and chief privacy officer also has left the company after a stint of over five years.

In September, the two brands under Vodafone Idea—Vodafone and Idea—were integrated to Vi, which so far operated independently and had separate advertising campaigns. Idea has been a mass rural-focused brand, whereas Vodafone has a premium urban appeal.

Earlier this year, Vodafone Idea announced a shift of its premium postpaid customer base to brand Vodafone from Idea as the management accepted that the latter did not have the brand value to charge a premium.

The rebranding decision was announced amid the company’s plans to raise ₹25,000 crore in a combination of debt and equity, even as it continues to lose millions of subscribers every month. In September, Vi lost customers for the eleventh straight month.

According to Fitch Ratings, Vodafone Idea could lose 50-70 million subscribers in the next one year, after shedding 155 million customers in the past nine quarters.
The telco owes more than ₹50,000 crore to the government in back fees. Analysts believe the proposed fundraising will allow Vodafone Idea to sustain for a maximum of two years.