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Vodafone
Contents
Contents.....................................................................3 Vodafone History:........................................................4 Vodafone Board:..........................................................5 Vodafone Products and Services Portfolio:....................7 Vodafone Vision and Values: ....................................9 Areas of Operations:..................................................10 Mobile Telecommunication Industry:...........................12 Telecom Industry global mobile Subscribers:..............12 PEST Analysis:...........................................................14 3G Spectrum:.............................................................17 SWOT Analysis of Vodafone:.......................................19 Porters five forces analysis on Vodafone plc .............22 Balance Sheet and Income Statement Analysis :..........25 Influence of Technology on Vodafone:.........................30 Future Directions for Vodafone:..................................30 References:...............................................................32
Vodafone History:
Vodafone Group is a public limited company incorporated in England. Vodafone is one of worlds leading mobile telecommunicationscompany operating in Europe, Africa, AsiaPacific, the Middle East, and in United States through the companys investments, subsidiaries and joint ventures. All of the mobile subsidiaries in Vodafone group operate under the brand name Vodafone. Being one of the leading mobile telecommunications company operating across nations, Vodafone sustains its growth with unique blend of products and services that it offers to its customers. The name Vodafone was chosen by the company from Voice Data FONEto reflect the provision of services offered by the company. In 1982, Racal granted UKs first mobile license and the first ever call mobile was on 1st of January, since then its been Vodafone achieving various milestones in the field of mobile telecommunication. In 1990, Vodafone Subscriber base reached 500,000. In 1991, Vodafone and telecom Finland linked up to make the worlds first international roaming call. In 1993, Vodafone extended its market with license and partnerships to Australia, Germany, South Africa, Greece and Fiji. UKs first Vodafone plc emerged as the Vodafones commercial GSM-digital service launched.In 1996, Vodafone launched UKs first-ever contract free service(Vodafone prepay) 2000 the beginning of 21st century, Vodafone established multimedia in to mobile communication in response to the technical advancements and innovation includingGPRS,3G and Wireless internet. Vodafone currently operates in 25 countries and further operates in 42 countries with partner networks. According to the 2011 year end registered mobile subscribers data, the Vodafone group company had nearly 350 million customer . The Vodafone group company had
a total market capitalisation of approximately 93billion according to the companys shares listed on London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ stock market on March 2011.
Vodafone Board:
The Board is responsible for the overall conduct of the Groups business and has the powers, authorities and duties vested in it as per prelevant laws and Articles of Association of the company. The Board: Has final responsibility for the management, direction and performance of businesses; Is required to exercise objective judgment on all corporate matters independent from executive management; Is accountable to shareholders for the proper conduct of the business; Is responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of and reporting on the system of corporate governance. The organizational structure is as follows:
The Board has a formal schedule of matters reserved to it for its decision and these include: Group strategy; Major capital projects, acquisitions or divestments; Annual budget and operating plan; Group financial structure, including tax and treasury; Annual and half-year financial results and shareholder communications; System of internal control and risk management; Senior management structure, responsibilities and succession plans.
The Companys Board consists of 14 directors. In addition to the Chairman, Sir John Bond, there were two executive directors and eight non-executive directors. The Deputy Chairman, John Buchanan, is the nominated senior independent director and his role includes being available for approach or representation by directors or significant shareholders who may feel inhibited by raising issues with the Chairman. He is also responsible for conducting an annual review of the performance of the Chairman and, in the event it should be necessary, convening a meeting of the non-executive directors. The Company considers all of its present non-executive directors to be fully independent. The Board is aware of the other commitments of its directors and is satisfied that these do not conflict with their duties as directors of the Company. The non-executive directors are responsible for: Bringing a wide range of skills and experience to the Group, including independent judgment on issues of strategy, performance, financial controls and systems of risk management; Constructively challenging the strategy proposed by the Chief Executive and executive directors; Scrutinizing and challenging performance across the Groups business; Assessing risk and the integrity of the financial information and controls of the Group; Ensuring appropriate remuneration and succession planning arrangements are in place in relation to executive directors and other senior executive roles. The Board has established an Audit Committee, a Nominations and Governance Committee and a Remuneration Committee, each of which has formal terms of reference approved by the Board.
to growth. Vodafone offers its products and services not only to normal customer, but also to those who have disabilities and impairment. Vodafone committed to provide its customers with user friendly products and services unmatched by its competitors. Vodafone achieves competitive advantage over its products and services by adopting itself to new technologies at first. Vodafone offers its customers a variety of products and services. Products portfolio Pay as you go Pay monthly Mobile broadband Fixed line broadband Wired Cordless Top-ups 3G data cards Smart phones BlackBerry business phones Services portfolio 3G service GPRS
Entertainment
Wallpapers Chat
News & Updates Downloads Easy payments Voice activated dialling system for people with restricted sight problems Text to speech software Trained staff crew on customised stores Vodafone live!
simple
for
its
customers,
Vodafone Vision
Vodafone understands the fact that it is never easy to predict the future through identifying the footprints of the company in the past therefore Vodafone perceives the companys future in understanding data services and products offered to the customers according to their needs. The extensive journey of Vodafone has already begun
with 3rd generation mobile internet, mobile broadband, and fixed broad band services by embracing new technologies. To be a leader in the world of mobile communications enriching customers lives by providing communication solutions to business and communities in the modern world Vodafone focuses on making mobile the primary source of personal communication for individuals across the world Vodafone has clear priorities to capture potential and emerging markets through mobile telecommunication medium and thus bringing socio-economic values in the prospect of operational market To work on the key areas including Global warming and climate change To develop sustainable products and services to attain greater level of customer satisfaction.
Areas of Operations:
Vodafone Group Plc is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments. Its areas of operations include the following countries:
Australia India Qatar Czech Republic Ireland Romania Egypt Italy South Africa Germany Malta Spain Ghana Netherlands Turkey Greece New Zealand United Kingdom
In addition to the above countries, Vodafone Group has entered into arrangements with network operators in countries where the Group does not hold an equity stake. Under the terms of these Partner Market Agreements, Vodafone and its partner operators co-operate in the marketing of global products and services with varying levels of brand association.
Consumers are increasingly choosing to make voice calls over mobile rather than fixed phones . As a result the number of mobile users now far exceeds the number of fixed telephones. Over the last three years mobile customer growth has been strongest in emerging markets such as India and China. In contrast growth has been more muted in developed regions such as Europe which are relatively mature..
Mobile penetration
Global mobile penetration is around 70% and is generally higher in more mature markets such as Europe and the United States but is growing most quickly in emerging markets such as India, China and Africa.
Looking forward the number of worldwide mobile phone users is expected to continue to grow strongly. Most of this growth is expected in emerging markets such as India, China and Africa where mobile penetration is around 50% compared to about 130% in mature markets such as Europe. Developing countries are generally expected to deliver faster GDP growth which combined with relatively little alternative fixed line infrastructure is positive for mobile penetration growth prospects.
PEST Analysis:
The strategic position of a company can be analysed based on the important factors that affects the internal and external factors of the company. The PEST analysis focuses on the external environment of the company and gives a complete analysis of the business, and strategic position of the company (Vodafone plc).
Political Factors
Political factors influences the company as the business decisions can be changed based on the rules set by the political forces. Business can be affected by the legislation in terms of competition, collusion, acquisitions and mergers, national laws etc. Rules and Regulations: regulations to limited access to spectrum and tight control over licences for mobile phones,
provides complications to the mobile industry. Apart from this political pressure arises due to increase in the issue of radiations that comes from mobile phones and limited usage for children as well as other health issues concerned while using mobile phones.
Infrastructure: To promote more facilities within the business and for increased distribution of network availability, the infrastructure of the company needs to be developed which usually requires constructing more buildings that requires authorization from government and statutory bodies to use their property.
Health issues and concerns: The research towards the effects of mobile phone usage is still in process, and there is no definite public opinion on the issues concerned with usage of mobile phone. Besides these, the technologies in mobile phones are still developing.
Economical Factors
The economical factors can have critical impact on the business and its performance; the economic impact can have a direct impact on business due its effect on supply and demand power. Economic influences include costing, unemployment, increased competitors, growth of economies and scale, etc. Licence cost: Vodafone and other mobile service providers face economic issues in the cases when there is increased cost for acquiring licences for mobile phones. Third generation cost: Telecommunication businesses faces severe consequences in paying extreme price for acquiring 3G licences, competition arises in bidding the price for licences and this results in paying very high cost for obtaining the license for 3G. Added, to provide good network coverage, the company need to build more network stations which thereby require a lot of revenue.
Calling cost: Due to increased competition, costs of calls have been bought down as customer tends to focus more on low-priced products where the demand will be more. Hence to meet the increased demand the Vodafone was pulled out in situation to reduce the cost of calls.
Socio-cultural Factors:
Socio-cultural factors include cultural differences and the influence of consumerism. The innovation of 3G technology brings to society a better blend of new series of contents and services. This new technology of 3G will increase the sales revenue of the company especially a company like Vodafone will now be able to offer wide range of mobile phones with latest technologies adopted in 3G which will result in increased sales volume. In addition to this, Vodafone adopts few responsibilities to protect the younger generation of today against the inappropriate content usage and access violation through gambling and unauthorized games.
Technological Factors
The Increased technological usage in mobile phones created increased usage of mobile phones among consumers, in the beginning mobiles were used only for speaking, after the discovery SMS and other advanced technologies in mobile phones people have got attractedfor mobile phones not just for conversing but also for other value added services and features offered by network service providers. The latest technology like 3G, Bluetooth, Wireless and WAP, has made human life very simple to get connect with people across the world.
3G Spectrum:
3G offers more services like high speed internet browsing, downloads, video streaming, video calls etc on your mobile apart from the regular voice calls. The services may initially be a hole in your pocket but as time goes all these might come at an affordable price. The 3G spectrum allocation in India began in April 2010 and 9 telecome operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata, Idea, Aircel, Videocon, STel, Etilasat had participated in the bidding. The government has earned a amount of Rs.67719 Crores from the bidding of 3G spectrum. Bharti Airtel being the highest bidder, it has spent around Rs.12000 crores and bagged around 13 circles including Delhi, Karnataka, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. Vodafone has bagged around 9 circles, Tatas 9 circles, Reliance 13 circles, Aircel 13 circles, Idea cellular 11 circles and STel 3 circles, while videocon and Etilasat failed to win the bid in even one circle.
Finally the bidding for the 3G spectrum in India has ended after a long round of bidding for around 50+ days. Indian government has earned a big Rs.67719 crore rupees from this 3G bidding. The details of this 3G bidding are as follows,
Bharti Airtel Won the bids in Delhi, Karnataka, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu circles. Totally it has won the bid in 13 circles and has paid the govenment a price of Rs.12295 crore. Reliance Won bids in Delhi, Mumbai and other 12 circles. It has paid the government a price of Rs. 8585 crores. Vodafone Won bids in Delhi, Mumbai & Tamilnadu, apart from these circles it has won the bids in other 7 circles and paid a amount of Rs. 11617 crores to the government. Aircel It has won in Karnataka, Tamil nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other 10 circles. It has paid around Rs. 6499 crores to the government. Tata Won the bids in Karnataka & other 8 circles. It has to pay the government a amount of Rs. 5964 crores. Idea Cellular Apart from Andhra Pradesh it has won the bids in other 10 circles and has paid Rs.5768 crores. S-Tel - It has won the bids in 3 circle which are worth Rs.337 crores.
Vodafone launched 3G services in Kerala. Actually Vodafone has not won 3G spectrum in Kerala. Instead Vodafone has made an Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) arrangement with Idea Cellular Kerala to bring 3G services to its subscribers in Kerala.As per this ICR arrangement with Idea,Vodafone can also provide 3G service to its customers in Kerala using the 3G spectrum of Idea.Initially Vodafone 3G services will be available in following cities in Kerala Ernakulam, Aluva ,Calicut, Quilandy, Alleppey, Cherthala, Malappuram and Manjeri. It will be soon extended to other cities. Vodafone has got license to launch 3G in nine circles in India namely- Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Kolkata,West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh (East) and Tamil Nadu. Using Vodafone 3G customers can enjoy High Speed Internet, Faster Downloads, Video Blogging, Mobile Newspaper,HD Gaming, Live Streaming, Vodafone TV, Video Calling etc.
Strengths:Weakness: Omni presence Legal issues Diversified Geographical existence Lack of R&D
Opportunities:Threats: Third Generation 3GWrong Strategies- effects Trend of Mobile phones Environmental hazards-effects Fourth Generation 4GMobile phone usage rights
Strengths
The primary strength of Vodafone is its omnipresence and Diversified geographical existence. Vodafone widespread its brand by acquiring emerging markets and retaining the Vodafone brand name to the existing brand while controlling the existing network and retaining the internet value in each of the acquired markets Choosing and Sponsoring the Famous events and sports games for e.g. Ferrari Formula 1 team enables the company to portray itself uniqueness and brand. Due to the companys global presence, Vodafone self analyses existing network and incorporates future technologies to enhances the companys ability to introduce products considering both the pace of the market and stability of the group networks Well trained customer relations crew members and time bound queries handling specialists adds value to the Vodafones group. The companys strategy in developing a globally specified group standard in customer relations management ensured awareness of its customer base and serve according to their preferences and thus enabling the company to develop user friendly products and services. Vodafone plc has recorded a high operations margin in the last five years of at least 30% has been recorded. Vodafone offers data services in which a customer can access the internet using3Ga 3rd generation network that was rolled out in many markets in the beginning of the year 2000.
Weaknesses
Vodafone on expanding its brand and geographical existence has invested some quite a huge amount on fixed tangible assets in the past five years on an average has exceeded the depreciation charge by 58% and represented a 50% of operating profits therefore there is a greater chance of the company meeting meet a cash shortage.
Exploring new technology will require huge R&D and infrastructural costs. If the company could not meet the profits on resourced project, the company will held under tremendous pressure in recovering the costs spent. On some occasion spent may never be recovered. In addition the companys present technologies will not be flexible to adopt new technologies. Vodafone as a telecommunications organisation is still considered to be immature and receptive to legal issues when things change rapidly.
Opportunities
Third Generation3G Mobile Phones are considered to be a key player in the product and services portfolio mobile telecommunications industry as it will allow the users to access the internet much faster, with greater efficiency and hi-speed data transmissions this effectiveness will also facilitate videoconferencing through mobile Internet at broadband speeds, and restructure future multimedia messaging. The trend of people change from time but in the case mobile phones from the time of mobile phones launched till this moment, mobile phones remains to be a special devise among individuals. This is due to effective service offered by the mobile operators attracting new technologies. There people across the world hold at least one mobile phone for them, we can even say mobile phones are considered to be a must have device by people of developed countries. This enables greater opportunity for Vodafone to keep searching for potential markets and increase the count of customers with its extensive products and services. Failure to build an effective model or technology would put the company under immense pressure and will lead to lose greater amount of money in shot. Wrongly defined strategy would impose a false image on the companys brand name Mobile telecomm industry is encompassed with no of rules and remains as a highly regulated industry. Mobile telecommunications operating companies have to abide by the rules made for political and socio-economic without considering impacts of those rules in its organisationvalues. Examples of these rules would be licensing on certain or
Threats
further mobile phones and operating infrastructure, Imposing pricing strategy on call rates and network rates. If the use of mobile phones was restricted due to medical and environmental hazards reason, the entire mobile and telecommunication industry would suffer. Users wishing to change their network services provider may expect better service from Vodafone, failing to fulfil such customer will lose customer trust on Vodafone.
Competitive rivalry
Competition between mobile operators is very high as a number of companies operate in a specified location, O2, Orange, Virgin, 3 and T-Mobile. Rivalry is high as when customers from other networks switches to Vodafoneand finds there is no brand loyalty i.e. difference in services offered other than price.
Buying power
Vodafones accounts on the number of customers disconnect the service during one complete year enables Vodafone to know about its customer and their expectations. Customers are provided with a number of choices to choose from new packages, new phones and new tariffs through newspaper, advertisements and mass communication medium the internet.
Power of suppliers
Suppliers play a vital role in any industry and notably suppliers in the mobile telephone industry are too strong. Vodafone, Vodafone due to its omnipresence and geographical existence reducesthe cost and operates with greater margins than their competitors. This ultimatelyallow Vodafone to attract increased price from its suppliers and remain competitive than its competitors.
Being the largest mobile operator in the mobile telephone industry, Vodafone has a greater advantage of holding suppliers costsdown, the companyssustains returnsat higher average.
Threat of substitutes
Vodafone faces a low threat of product substitutes. The focused cost leadership strategy that Vodafone operates under makes it difficult for a similar substitute to be produced at a lower rate by their use of economies of scale, their buying power and their use of temporary price increases that come from suppliers that do not need to be passed on to the consumer.
Threat of entry
Even though the threat of new entrants is less for the Vodafone operations, the company must reduce costs below their competitors. This can be achieved by maintaining high levels of efficiency, Vodafone being the major supplier of mobile products and services can reverse the trend set and make it harder for the competitors to make a potential entry.
Total liabilities of the company is $102,042,000 and it has huge stock holder equity $140,346,00 lying with it. India and China are the two emerging markets and there is lot of scope to increase their market share by going for acquisition of the small telecom companies which is allowed as per the new Telecom policy of 2011.The company has implemented differentiation strategy but it
definitely requires sustainable advantages in order to continuously provide unique values to its subscribers. A company can gain competitive advantages by creating more values than its competitors in the value chain.
Income Statement:
Analysis for the year 2011: Group revenue increased 3.2% to 45.9 billion with a strong
result from emerging markets like India and China and signs of renewed growth in some parts of Europe.
by a good performance
There is lot of uncertainity in the telecom industry world wide as the economic growth is not stable around the globe. Many of its competitors are going for consolidation for better competitive advantage and its to with stand the financial turmoil. Still vodafone has performed well and It has give decent dividents to its share holders.
Subsidiaries:
Vodafone has lot of subsidiaries across the globe including in India and China which are the emerging markets.List of the companies is listed below:
Vodafone Essar Limited is the network operator in India with 59.9% share holdings.
The trend of people change from time but in the case mobile phones from the time of mobile phones launched till this moment, mobile phones remains to be a special devise among individuals. This is due to effective service offered by the mobile operators attracting new technologies. There people across the world hold at least one mobile phone for them, we can even say mobile phones are considered to be a must have device by people of developed countries. This enables greater opportunity for Vodafone to keep
searching for potential markets and increase the count of customers with its extensive products and services.
Overall at present Vodafone holds strategically a good position in mobile telecommunication industry in financial aspect and commercial aspect, the only thing that bothers the Vodafone plc is the European market. Since the future direction in the European Union is still at stake due to the increased competition and decision postponement on bidding for 4G technology.
Conclusion:
Vodafone achievessuccess through its strategic investments, constant innovation, and its focus on customer services. Vodafone plc has taken various strategies like, branding, which has accomplished using value added services to cope up to the changing environment and customer needs. However, there are still a number of problems lies behind Vodafone E.g.,Extreme competition in the European market, the product life cycle point and view for Vodafone is in a matured stage, and the fact that the Japanese and Germany market restricts Vodafones goal of being a global leader. As we all aware of Vodafone invested in 4G and high speed broad band market, with less concentration and far behind the trailing companies, since 4G is considered to be latest innovation in technology and Vodafone was expected to be a frontrunner. Wherein the trailing companies such asO2, Skype and T-mobilesare far beyond and have started targeting broad band users with frontend 4G technology. Vodafone holds a large proportion of market share in developed countries;However Vodafone must also need to concentrate on developing countries also if they wish to remain global leader in the mobile telecom industry. Bringing value to developing and developed countries has been the main motto of Vodafone. It is a clear picture that the recent years of economy is experiencing a greater amount of growth with the growing impact of mobile technology in developed markets.Customers are provided with added up value through innovative functions and features. The impact of technology and
Vodafone together helps people to review the employment opportunities and take advantage of them even when they are away in their home towns and villages.
References:
http://www.vodafone.com http://www.expertscolumn.com http://www.here4mobile.in http://www.in.finance.yahoo.com