EM-502 Principles of Management Assignment: Environment Analysis of
GrameenPhone Bangladesh
Company Profile Grameenphone (GP) is the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 54.5 million subscribers and 46.3% subscriber market share (as of August 2016), Grameenphone is the largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh. It is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation, a non-profit sister concern of the microfinance organisation and community development bank Grameen Bank. Telenor, the largest telecommunications company in Norway, owns 55.8% shares of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34.2% and the remaining 10% is publicly held. Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) technology in Bangladesh, and build the first cellular network to cover 99% of the country. The External Environment
Figure 1: External Environment of GrameenPhone Bangladesh Page 1|6
The external environment of GrameenPhone consists of two main parts: They are: Task Environment and General Environment (Shown in Figure 1)
Task Enviroment Competitors
There are other telecomunnication companies doi ng business in Bangladesh and are competitors to GrameenPhone. They are: Banglalink, Robi, Airtel, Citycell, Teletalk etc. Customers
Grameenphone operates their service for all level and class of peoples. They provide special packages for retailers like ‘POLLI phone’. GP also provided the ‘djuice’ package for young generation. Suppliers
GPs transmitter cables comes from Finland. Their SIM, server system and other technologies are from China. Strategic partners
The strategic partners of Grameenphone are: Society for Economic and Basic Advancement (SEBA) Kalikapur Daridro Kallan Sangsta (KDKS), Socio-Economic Development Association (SEDA), SSTD Communication Regulators
GPs regulator is Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), formed in January 2002.
General Enviroment Technological
GP was the first company to introduce GSM tech nology in Bangladesh when it was launched, started their services in March 1997. Edge internet system was 1st opened by GP and they are the market leader of mobile connection modem. Economical
Grameenphone has a great contribution on the economy. It pays over tk.6 billion in tax. They contribute their existing income for rural education. GP also creates a large number of job opportunities, which reduce unemployment problem. (Currently employing over Page 2|6
3283 people as of Year 2017) GP is also engaged in social and many work to develop the economic system of Bangladesh. Social culture
Keeping their vision in mind GP aims to extend their contribution to the development of rural and healthcare system. GP also plans to develop an educated and skilled workforce. Political-Legal
Grameenphone is not involved in any political activities. The regulatory relationship between business and the government (legal system) and its agencies define what the organization can and can’t do. International
GP has substantial international operations in Mobile Telephony, Satellite Operations and Pay Television Services. In addition to Norway and Bangladesh, Telenor owns GSM companies in Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Thailand, Malaysia and Pakistan.
SWOT Analysis SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and is a structured planning method that evaluates those four elements of an organization. The strengths and weaknesses are the factors internal to the organization while the opportunities and threats are factors presented by the environment external to the organization. (Shown in Figure 2)
Figure 2: SWOT Analysis of Grameenphone Bangladesh Page 3|6
STRENGTHS (S) Owner Structure GrameenPhone is the fast growing mobile telecommunication and has the best
owner structure. Telenor is one of the largest company, operating in different countries around the world. Among NGO,Grameen Bank is one of the largest in Bangladesh which has better communication all over the country. Market Leader ‐ GrameenPhone has a huge advantage of being the first organization in
Bangladesh which have reached the general people as they were satisfied with the initial price of GP connections and handsets. Though City Cell had started their operation beforehand, in the the market but they were not successful to reach the general people. So people preferred Grameen Phone over City Cell. Largest geographical coverage
Compared to other telecommunication industries,
GrameenPhone has the widest network coverage and also a large number of BTS station all over Bangladesh and hence they have the best network availability in most areas of the country even the rural ones. Skilled employees- Grameen Phone engage skilled knowledgeable and effective employees who
are aware of their job responsibility. GP’s Human Resource and people management procedure is very powerful than the other telecom companies as GP follows ethical strategies to recruit employees. This is a great strength for GP as employees get motivated to work hard and have a variety of skills to acheive their goals. Established Brand- Brand name creates a great impact on the product. In Bangladesh, Grameen
Bank is very popular all over the country for its appreciable activities in the financial sector for poor people. And hence by adding the name, Grameen with the telecom company the organization they are successful to build a superior image as it has already a good brand image in the market. Moreover because of its strategies and planning GP tends to earn huge revenue. WEAKNESSES (W) High price- Comparative to other telecom industries GP charges high price for its services. They
have a lot of products and their billing policies are different and inflexible which creates Page 4|6
difficulty for the customers to understand. This high pricing leads the customers to switch to other substitutes. Growing customer dissatisfaction- Significant dissatisfaction were observed in the factors like
network is not always available especially for the p repaid services, service of helpline, services of information centre, high billing rate and so on . Sometimes the subscribers need to pay extra money to get the services. Most importantly a significant portion of GP subscribers were found not fully loyal to the company. No clear messages through advertisements- Most of the time advertisements of Grameen
Phone do not convey clear messages to the people. Most people get confused what what message are they trying to give and they get confused and misinterpret the meaning. Culture gap- Grameen Phone employs workers from different country as a result it becomes
difficult for the employees to communicate due to culture gap. Grameen Phone encourages its employees to apply new strategies for the betterment of the business and hence culture gap can be a weakness as employees might face difficulty to corporate. OPPORTUNITIES (O) Possibility of further network connection- The market of telecommunication is expanding. In
coming days Grameen Phone is going to have agreement with T&T to have better connection from land phone. So this can creat agreat opportunity for Grameen Phone to achieve a major portion of the expanding market. Possibility of innovative products and services- GP may allow stock receiving facility on
credit. This is appreciated by retailers as they can have the stock on credit and pay later. Better utilization of IT resources would give GP the opp ortunity for faster growth. GP can also introduce rental phones. International activities- In Bangladesh international activities is increasing day by da y. People
need connectivity all over the world so it creates opportunity for GP to expand its market outside the country for eg by providing internate packages. BTTB has also established a new gateway to connect internationally which makes it easier for mobile ph one companies to provide ISD services and international roaming. Page 5|6
High market share- Nowadays communicating through mobile phones is very popular due to its
low cost and portability compared to land phones. Therefore people are getting more dependent on mobile phones, so there is a great opportunity to attract more subscribers and achieve high market share. THREATS (T) Competition- There are a lot of competitors in the market to satisfy customers according to their
needs eg, Banglalink, Airtel, RObi.. Everyda y customers are demanding lower tarrifs and better quality. Therefore it might turn out to be a threat for GP to increase and maintain its current market share. Among the new entrants BTTB can be a threat in future if it starts operating at full potential. Upgraded technology used by competitors- Competitors like Banglalink is establishing their
channel through latest technology. Whereas GP is lacking behind as they are using old stations and they also lack in providing service of helpline. As a result they shud upgrade their technology to compete in the maket and maintain their sustainability. Economic influences- Sudden changes in the economy might result in lower profits for the
organization. For instance,devaluation of taka will decrease profits as investments occur in foreign currency. Political instability can also be a threat as ch ange in government will also lead to change in policies. So it will be difficult for any multinational organization to cope with new policies.
Page 6|6
