Leadership Success Story of Shirish Kashinath Borkar's Telecom Construction Automation Initiative

In the high-pressure landscape of telecommunications infrastructure deployment, the transformative success of Ericsson's Networks Build and Operate automation initiative in North America stands as a powerful testament to visionary product leadership and strategic innovation. Led by Shirish Kashinath Borkar, this ambitious digital transformation effort revolutionized telecom site construction processes for industry giants including T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, establishing new benchmarks for operational efficiency and cross-functional collaboration.

The telecommunications industry had long struggled with fragmented workflows, manual handoffs, and visibility gaps between planning, construction, and implementation teams. These challenges created significant operational inefficiencies, delayed project timelines, and limited the strategic insights available to leadership. Recognizing the critical need for integration and automation, Ericsson embarked on a bold initiative to reimagine its entire approach to telecom site builds across North America.

At the very heart of this transformation was Shirish Borkar's philosophy toward product development and stakeholder alignment. As the Product Manager reporting directly to executive leadership, he assumed full responsibility for guiding the end-to-end product lifecycle while serving as the strategic bridge between business operations and information technology teams. His principles of leadership centered on persona-based design, direct field observation through GEMBA walks, and structured user engagement to ensure solutions addressed real-world operational challenges.

This approach represented a fundamental shift in how telecom construction automation was conceptualized and implemented. Working closely with development teams, DevOps specialists, and Scrum Managers, Shirish orchestrated the delivery of intuitive solutions on the Salesforce SiteTracker platform that seamlessly integrated the previously siloed domains of planning, construction, and implementation. Most impressively, these enhancements were continuously delivered using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), ensuring rapid adaptation to evolving business requirements without disrupting ongoing operations.

The results were both profound and far-reaching. Through automated workflows and system-driven handoffs between the Planning (PMCOE), Construction, and Implementation teams, the initiative dramatically increased execution speed and accuracy across Ericsson's entire North American operations. Perhaps most significantly, the transformation generated an impressive $5 million in cost savings and opportunity creation by systematically eliminating inefficiencies and optimizing resource allocation across the organization.

Shirish's leadership extended beyond mere technical implementation to address the critical human and organizational dimensions of change. By fostering cross-organizational collaboration and providing real-time reporting dashboards to executives, the initiative created unprecedented transparency and enabled data-driven decision-making at all levels of the organization. This comprehensive approach ensured sustained adoption and continuous improvement, establishing a foundation for long-term value delivery.

The impact resonated throughout Ericsson's business operations, even extending to pre-sales activities where teams leveraged actionable site execution data to accurately estimate build timelines and develop new service offerings. This strategic alignment between operational improvements and business development demonstrated Shirish's exceptional ability to connect technological innovation directly to revenue-generating opportunities.

For Shirish Kashinath Borkar, the Ericsson Networks Build and Operate project represented more than just a successful product implementation; it became a defining achievement in his professional journey. Through this initiative, he significantly deepened his expertise in Agile Project Management, Product Management, and SaaS implementation while reinforcing his capacity to lead cross-functional teams, manage complex initiatives at scale, and drive digital transformation in alignment with strategic business objectives.

Beyond the immediate success metrics, this transformation serves as a compelling model for digital innovation in industries with complex field operations. Shirish Borkar's methodical approach to stakeholder engagement, commitment to user-centered design, and strategic integration of business processes with technological capabilities demonstrates how visionary product leadership can overcome entrenched operational challenges.

The Ericsson Networks Build and Operate automation initiative stands as a beacon of excellence in telecommunications infrastructure management. It validates the philosophy championed by Shirish Kashinath Borkar—that strategic product management, guided by deep user understanding and implemented through disciplined agile methodologies, can transform operational paradigms and deliver exceptional business value. As telecommunications networks continue to evolve and expand, this initiative serves as powerful evidence of how focused leadership and cross-functional collaboration can establish new standards for efficiency and excellence in critical infrastructure deployment.