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SWOT Analysis of Grameenphone Ltd.

Abstract:
Grameenphone widely known as GP, is the leading telecommunications service provider inBangladesh. With more than 32 million subscribers (as of June 2011), Grameenphone is the largestcellular operator in the country. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor and Grameen TelecomCorporation, a non-profit sister concern of the internationally acclaimed microfinance organization andcommunity development bank Grameen Bank. Grameenphone was the first company to introduceGSM technology in Bangladesh. It also established the first 24-hour Call Center to support itssubscribers. With the slogan Stay Close, stated goal of Grameenphone is to provide affordabletelephony to the entire population of Bangladesh. From the SWOT analysis we are trying to know thecompany’s strategic position as well as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
1.

STRENGTHSGood Ownership Structure:
Grameenphone has the best ownership structure in thetelecommunication industry in Bangladesh. Telenor is one of the largest companies,which is operating in different countries around the world. Again, in Bangladesh,Grameen Bank is one of the largest NGO, which has the sound communication allover the country. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (55.8%), the largesttelecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (34.2% ), a non-profit sisterconcern of the internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank. Theother 10% shares belong to general retail and institutional investors.
Figure-1:
Ownership Structure
Source:
Internet
Market Leader:
Grameenphone is the first organization in Bangladesh, which hasreached to the general people. Though Citycell had started their operation beforehand,but they were unable to reach the general people. So, the people are being used towith Grameenphone. This is a huge advantage of Grameenphone.
Network Availability:
Grameenphone has the widest network coverage and a largenumber of BTS station (Tower) all over Bangladesh. That’s why the company canprovide better connectivity in most of the area of the country.

Brand Name of Grameen Image:
Grameen Bank is well known all over the countrybecause of its appreciable activities in financial sector for poor people in Bangladesh.So, when the name Grameen has been added with this telephone company, theorganization gets a huge exposure due to this Grameen image.
Financial Soundness:
Because of effective strategic planning, Grameenphone is ableto earn a healthy amount of revenue, which gives them financial soundness.

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Skilled Human Resources:
All the stuff, which are related to Grameenphone areskilled and effective in their own job responsibility. The reason behind this is theHuman Resource Department of Grameenphone follows ethical strategy to recruitnew employees.
Effective Support Organization:
Grameenphone has shared the idea from theemployees of Bangladesh Railway and Grameen Bank, who are experienced and ableto provide precious guidelines for the operation of Grameenphone. Easy Access to the Widest Rural Network: Through the help of Grameen Bank, thiswas easier to Grameenphone to reach the rural area of Bangladesh.
High Ethical Standard: To ensure quality of service, Grameenphone is strict tofollow its ethical standard.

2. WEAKNESSES:
Cultural Gap:
In Grameenphone management, employees from different countriesare existed. Suppose, CEO is a Noregian, Chief Technical Officer is Indian and manymore employees come from different countries. That’s why sometimes there may belack of understanding due to cultural gap.
Many Men Many Minds:
Sometimes different ideas may create problem. InGrameenphone, this is highly encouraged to apply new strategy for betterperformance. Sometimes, it may create problem because employees are used to withprevious strategy.
Complicated Pricing Structure: Grameenphone has lots of products. The pricing of these products and their billing policies are different which also difficult for a user tounderstand.

Incomplete Message through Promotional Activities: Most of the time theadvertisements of Grameenphone have no clear appropriate messages. Not only that,most of them are also so confusing to understand. As a result, subscribers get thewrong meaning of what has been said to them.

Problem Contained Offers:
Recently almost all of the new offers of Grameenphoneare having some technical problems. Either they are not working at all or part of theservices of those offers is disabled. Moreover, Grameenphone is also delaying tosolve these problems which are only raising the dissatisfaction level of its subscribers.
Lack of Harmony among SBUs:
Intercommunication among various departments islittle bit weak. The reason behind this, there is no exchange program for employees towork among various Strategic Business Units (SBUs).
3.

OPPORTUNITIESEconomic Growth of Bangladesh:
The economic growth of the country willincrease the expansion of telecommunication industry. From 1995 to 2006, there is ahuge change in telecommunication sector.
New and Better Interconnect Agreement:
Grameenphone is going to haveagreement with T&T to have better communication from land phone. The 3organization has agreements with other operators like Robi, Citycell, Banglalink tohave better internal connectivity.
Increasing Demand for Telecom Services:
The market of telecommunication isexpanding. So, this is easy for Grameenphone to achieve the major portion of expanded market because of its leading position.
Increased Cross Boarder Communication:
As international activities increased inthe country, people need the connectivity not only within the country, but also outsideof the country. So, the market for outside of the country is also expanding.
Declining Prices for Handsets:
Few years ago the people from low income groupcould not afford mobile phone services due to the high price of handsets. Now theprice of handsets has decreased and the low income people want to get connectedthrough mobile phone.
New International Gateway:
As BTTB has established new gateway to connectinternationally, this is easy for mobile phone operators to provide services of ISD calland international roaming.
Flexibility of Mobile Phone:
Communication through mobile phone is popular;because, land phone connection between intercity is relatively costly. Mobile phone isalso easier to carry and because of its lower cost and easy portability, people aregetting more dependent on mobile phone than land phone. So, there is a chance toachieve more subscribers and more market share.
4.

THREATSMore Rigid Government Regulations:
Government is becoming restricted fortaking away currency from the country. So, foreign companies are threatened becausethey may have risk to back their investment to the country. The government also putrestriction for work permit of foreign employees.
Upgraded Technology Used by Competitors:
New mobile phone operators likeBanglalink, Airtel are establishing their channels with latest technology, whereasGrameen Phone is using the stations which are five years old. So, this is one of thedisadvantages for Grameenphone.
Political Instability:
Political instability is another threat. With the change of Government, policies are also changed. So, this is difficult for any multinationalorganization to cope with new policies.
Devaluation of Taka:
As the investment occurs in foreign currency, that’s why thedevaluation of Taka decreases profit from financial point of view.
Risky Position of Valuable Resources:
The organization has a large number of BTSstations which are spread all over the country. Anyone can make damage to theseBTSs and this is also difficult to arrange proper security for these stations.
No Cooperation from Government Agency:
BTTB does not want to provide betterservices to other operators, because, it wishes to remain competitive.

CHAPTER-9Conclusion
Conclusion
Recruitment is an important issue for any organization. Recruitment and selection allows anorganization to asses the vacancy and choose the best personnel who will lead the organization infuture.
So the organization should give more emphasize on selecting a person. A person who cancarry forwarded the organization in terms of development, values and ethics. Mainly the preciousresource for any organization is their knowledge based efficient workers. The organizations shouldmore cautious on this issue to ensure the quality and ethics.From the above discussion we can easily understand that Robi Axiata Ltd. (Robi) is one of the topmobile Company of Bangladesh. It covers the whole Bangladesh by its network. There are manyproduct and services of Robi is available in Market. At this moment the company is in growingposition. But the strategies of the company will make the company ³number one´ mobile company of Bangladesh.
S
o we can easily find out the Human resource practice, recruitment and selection process, employeesatisfaction and relations at Robi is a very developed and effective one. As a multinational companyfor making the process more effective Robi should analyze the recruitment and selection process of other multinational company of home and abroad. That can make Robi perfect in recruiting peopleand the company will get efficient professionals, that will increased the productivity as well asrevenue.
The most important key source factor of Robi Axiata Ltd is its efficient human resource. It is using thestate-of-the-art GSM technology and continuously monitoring its network traffic to ensure networkquality. Moreover, its decisions are based on facts from market research and coverage survey. Thecompany also monitors it's competitor's activities and is proactive in marketing decisions.