1 Organization Part

1. The Organization
GrameenPhone Ltd. is the leading organization of mobile telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. This is the first organization that brought GSM technology in mobile telecommunication for the general people of Bangladesh. The organization is not only leading the telecommunication industry, but also it has significance activities in social and cultural sector. The head office of the organization is located at - Celebration Point, Plot No. 3 & 5, Road No. 113/A, Gulshan-2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. At present the organization has 5 Customer Care centers, 13 GrameenPhone Centers, 25 GrameenPhone Distribution Centers and 651 GrameenPhone Service Desks all over the countries, which are working as branch offices.

In 1996, Bangladesh was preparing to auction off private cell phone licenses to four companies. So at the behest of Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank’s founder) but completely independent of Grameen Bank, a not-for-profit private company called Grameen Telecom was created. Grameen Telecom, in turn, created a for-profit company called GrameenPhone, found a foreign partner, and put in a bid; GrameenPhone received one of the four licenses on November 28, 1996 which was offered by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Bangladesh. GrameenPhone’s total capitalization was US$120,000,000, including around US$50 million from IFC/CDC, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It also received US$60 million in equity from the four GrameenPhone private partners. These were the Norwegian Telenor with a 51% share, Marubeni of Japan with a 9.5% share, and the American Gonophone at 4.5%. GrameenPhone’s fourth partner is Grameen Telecom (with 35%), and Grameen Telecom borrowed US$10.6 million from the Open Society Institute to set up Village Phone. The organization launched its service on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh and after 9 years of its successful operation the organization could achieve the trust of more than 9.5 million subscribers.

1.1 Perception about GrameenPhone prevailing in the industry
Market Leader: GrameenPhone is the leading telecommunication service provider in the country as measured by number of subscribers, network coverage, long-term relationship and profitability.
Affordable: With a low startup cost GrameenPhone has tried to achieve the main purpose of its existence which is bringing telecommunication within the reach of the mass people of Bangladesh
Innovative: To be the trendsetter; GrameenPhone is open and receptive to new ideas. They continuously find new and better ways to serve customers through technology and service and have even introduced products that did not exist in the telecommunication industry previously.
Financially sound: GrameenPhone has sound financial health due to foreign investment and massive expansion.

1.2 The Culture
GrameenPhone has a conducive and safe working environment. Besides focusing on customers and communities, they are committed to treating their employees with integrity, dignity and respect. The organization’s intent is to establish good working relationship through a mutual understanding of expectations.

GrameenPhone believes in working in a team and demonstrate the team spirit to maximize and excel in standard quality service to their valued subscribers in the area of telecommunication. Beside this, employees work in an environment where they feel valued, responsible and supported by the authority as well as by their colleagues.

2. Names and characteristics of founders
GrameenPhone is a private limited company incorporated in 1996. The following sections contain the brief description of GrameenPhone shareholders:

The shareholders of Grameenphone contribute their unique, in-depth experience in both telecommunications and development.
It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (55.8%), the largest telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12 other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (34.2% ), a non-profit sister concern of the internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank. The other 10% shares belong to general retail and institutional investors.

The technological know-how and managerial expertise of Telenor has been instrumental in setting up such an international standard mobile phone operation in Bangladesh. Being one of the pioneers in developing the GSM service in Europe, Telenor has also helped to transfer this knowledge to the local employees over the years
The international shareholder brings technological and business management expertise while the local shareholder provides a presence throughout Bangladesh and a deep understanding of its economy. Both are dedicated to Bangladesh and its struggle for economic progress and have a deep commitment to Grameenphone and its mission to provide affordable telephony to the entire population of Bangladesh.

Good to Know * Grameenphone has so far invested more than BDT 16,000 crore to build the network infrastructure * Grameenphone is one of the largest taxpayers in the country, having contributed more than BDT 18,500 crore in direct and indirect taxes to the Government Exchequer over the years. * There are now more than 1600 GP Service Desks across the country covering nearly all upazilas of all districts and 82 Grameenphone Centers in all the divisional cities * Grameenphone has more than 5000 full and temporary employees. * 300,000 people are directly dependent on Grameenphone for their livelihood, working for the Grameenphone dealers, retailers, scratch card outlets, suppliers, vendors, contractors and others.

Telenor – The state-owned telephone operating company of Norway, a country with one of the highest mobile phone densities in the world. Telenor has played a pioneering role in the development of cellular communications, and it owns 51% of GrameenPhone Ltd. In addition to Norway, Telenor offers GSM coverage to Russia, Hungary, Montenegro, Ireland, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, and Austria and is using its extensive experience to invest in Bangladesh’s emerging market.
Telenor is emerging as one of the fastest growing providers of mobile communications services worldwide with ownership interests in 12 mobile operators across Europe and Asia. Telenor is organised into three business areas; Mobile operations covering 12 countries, and Fixed-line and Broadcast services covering the Nordic region.
Telenor holds 55.8 per cent of Grameenphone, with Grameen Telecom Corporation owning the remaining 34.2 per cent. The rest of the shares belong to general retail and institutional investors. Telenor has played a pioneering role in development of cellular communications in Bangladesh.

Facts About The Telenor Group

* More than 150 million mobile subscribers worldwide * Strong subscription growth, particularly in our Asian operations * Listed as No.1 on Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2008 * Ranked as the world's seventh largest mobile operator * Revenues 2007: NOK 105 billion * Workforce 2007: 35 800 man-years * Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with headquarters in Norway

Grameen Telecom - Grameen Telecom Corporation, which owns 34.2% of the shares of GrameenPhone, is a not-for-profit company and works in close collaboration with Grameen Bank.The internationally reputed bank for the poor, has the most extensive rural banking network and expertise in microfinance. It understands the economic needs of the rural population, in particular the women from the poorest households.
Grameen Telecom, with the help of Grameen Bank, administers the Village Phone Program, through which GrameenPhone provides its services to the fast growing rural customers. Grameen Telecom trains the operators, supplies them with handsets and handles all service-related issues.
Grameen Bank currently covers more than 67,000 villages which are serviced by 2121 bank branches all over the countryside. As of may 2006, the bank had 6.33 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom were women.
Grameen Telecom's objectives are to provide easy access to GSM cellular services in rural Bangladesh, creating new opportunities for income generation through self- employment by providing villagers with access to modern information and communication based technologies.

3. Mission, Vision, Objectives and Strategies
Mission – GrameenPhone Ltd. aims to provide reliable, widespread, conveniently-mobile and cost effective telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such services will also help Bangladesh keep space with other countries including those in South Asia region and reduce her existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural areas.
Vision – We are here to help.
Objectives – The main objective of GrameenPhone is to cover both urban and rural areas, whole of Bangladesh. For this to happen the company has a dual strategy of good business and at the same time good development of the country. With this objective in mind GrameenPhone plans to achieve economies of scale as well as healthy profit and at the same time serve the people of the country with good connectivity and other economic development.
Strategies – Grameen Phone’s basic strategy is to coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the “island” strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting isolated islands of urban coverage through transmission links, GrameenPhone builds continuous coverage, ‘cell after cell’. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout Grameen Phone’s network.

* Functional Level Strategy – GrameenPhone’s focus is on efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness. This enables the organization to earn competitive advantage over the competitors. * Business Level Strategy – GrameenPhone mainly applies cost leadership strategy. In addition, they also apply differentiation strategy as their business level strategy. * Corporate Level Strategy – GrameenPhone follows related diversification as their corporate level strategy. It enables them to keep the cost low and earn better expertise.

4. Corporate Governance
In the fast-paced world of telecommunications, vibrant and dynamic Corporate Governance practices are an essential ingredient to success. Grameenphone believes in the continued improvement of corporate governance. This in turn has led the Company to commit considerable resources and implement internationally accepted Corporate Standards in its day-to-day operations.
Being a public limited company, the Board of Directors of Grameenphone have a pivotal role to play in meeting all stakeholders’ interests. The Board of Directors and the Management Team of Grameenphone are committed to maintaining effective Corporate Governance through a culture of accountability, transparency, well-understood policies and procedures. The Board of Directors and the Management Team also persevere to maintain compliance of all laws of Bangladesh and all internally documented regulations, policies and procedures.
Grameenphone is a truly transparent company that operates at the highest levels of integrity and accountability on a global standard.

4.1 GrameenPhone Organogram & Management

5. Division and Departments
Recently management has brought a change in the organizational structure in view of need of time. As of the recent change, line function of the company comprises of the 7 major tasks. These are: * Technology * Commercial * Communication * Finance * Customer Management * People and Organization * Corporate Affairs

5.1 Customer Service
Customer Service Division is a subdivision of commercial department. The duty of customer service includes resolving subscriber query, request and complain, capturing insights to enrich customer database, escalate and maintain proper follow up for critical complaints to IT division for further assistance.