Executive Summary

Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile operator of the country within one
year of operation, with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved with
innovative and attractive products and services targeting the different market
segments; aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated customer
care; and effective communication that emotionally connected customers with
Banglalink. The strength of Banglalink was the confidence of the subscribers in
the government institution.

On  the  other  hand  it’s   being  the  part   of   government,  is   probably  the 
biggest weakness  from operational perspective of  Banglalink, which will be 
understandable as we go through this article. Banglalink follows participative
leadership style. There is a supportive work in environment. The employees of
this organization can provide their opinions that are evaluated by the top
managers with importance. The organization provides an optimal level of job
freedom towards the employees corresponding to their work, so the employees
can make decisions of their respective works. This leadership style is the key
component of their success within a short time period and in a very competitive
telecom market in Bangladesh.

Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work

enthusiastically toward achieving objectives. It is the critical factor that helps
individuals or a group identify its goals and then motivates and assists in
achieving the stated goals. The organization can arrange suggestion programs,
quality emphasis programs, can build quality circles and total quality
management within it, self- managing teams can be built in the engineering
department and network coverage department as the employees are
sophisticated in IT sectors and most valuable employees in the organization. The
top managers should arrange training for both employees and managers in
Participation. To make further improvement and efficiency in the leadership style
of Banglalink which will increase the productivity and foster the employees’
satisfaction level the managers can also apply the recommended steps stated
above.

Introduction:

The telecom industry of Bangladesh is, at the moment, experiencing accelerated

growth. According to one telecom analyst, Abu Saeed Khan, the growth curve
may resemble a “hockey stick” by the end of 2006. All credit this fact to
Orascom’s acquisition of Sheba Pvt. Telecom in September 2004. Considering
its track record, people knew that the newly formed Banglalink TM would shake the
market somehow. Since its entry into the market, the company has managed to
make the others stand up and take notice. Its subscriber base is growing at a
very high rate per month. Plotting the position of the company in a BCG matrix
reveals that the business is a question mark, and with more investment injected
into the company it can come closer to, if not become, the star. This will be the
likely scenario, as the CEO of the company announced during a press
conference recently that it was planning to invest a further $180 million for
expansion purposes. With the amount of promotion AKTEL is doing, it is also
likely that it may overtake to GP’s industry leader soon and occupy the star
position (200% growth rate compared 109%) If one studies the comparative
analysis of the market, it can be seen that GP has already built brand equity
among its subscribers. Thus far, it has been able to hold on its leadership without
doing very much. However, this is likely to change soon with the other telecoms
taking steps to increase their market share by keeping the consumers in mind.
Already people are using a Banglalink SIM as it has lucrative tariff rate value
added services. The company has the expertise and background to pull off that
kind of a game.

Origin of the Report:

This term paper “Leadership Style: A study on Banglalink” was assigned by

course instructor, Dr. Md. Morshed Hasan Khan as a partial requirement for the
course Organizational Behavior. Students, representing groups of five, were
asked to pick a topic and that is how each group had their own topic.

Objectives:

The root objectives are given below:

 To have an idea of Leadership Style of Banglalink.

 To identify problems regarding of Leadership Style Banglalink.
 To develop some recommendations regarding the problems found

Methodology:

The study was conducted based on secondary data. The sources of those data
are stated below:

The secondary data were collected from the following sources:

 Internal newsletter of the company

 Various research journals of different research organizations
  Web pages
 Annual reports of the company
 Various books and other internal publications of the company

Organizational Profile:

Background:

When Banglalink entered the Bangladesh telecom industry in February 2005, the
scenario changed overnight with mobile telephony becoming an extremely useful
and affordable communication tool for people across all segments.

Within one year of operation, Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile
operator of the country with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved
with innovative and attractive products and services targeting the different market
segments; aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated customer
care; and effective communication that emotionally connected customers with
Banglalink.

In Bangladesh, Banglalink aims to understand peoples’ needs best and develop

appropriate communication services to improve peoples’ life and make it simple.
All our work is aimed towards meeting our vision. All members of the Banglalink
family are highly passionate individuals, fully committed to achieving the vision
that we have set ourselves. Our customers’ needs matter most to us- making
their life simple and improving it is all we want. To ensure our vision is achieved,
we have set ourselves a few values, we want to be –

 Straight Forward
 Reliable
 Innovative
 Passionate

All the Banglalink family members have one thing in common- a passion to
serve. We want to go that extra mile, so that you can have the best possible
service investing in the future of Bangladesh. The biggest barrier today for
people is the cost of handsets. We will strive to lower the total cost of owning a
mobile. We are here to help make a difference in people’s lives by providing
affordable and reliable connectivity solutions. We will strive to connect people
and link their lives by listening to them and by understanding their needs. We are
here to help you speak your language.

Incorporation of Banglalink:
Orascom Telecom Holding purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom
(Pvt.) Limited (“Sheba”) in March 2005. OTH operates a GSM network in
Bangladesh and provides a range of prepaid and postpaid voice, data and
multimedia telecommunications services. As of March 1, 2005, Banglalink served
approximately one core subscribers. Banglalink estimates that it had 8.3%
market share of total mobile subscribers in Bangladesh.

 Operating License:

Banglalink’s license is a nationwide 15-year GSM license that expires in

November 2011. It was acquired for US$ 60 million and re-branded and launched
its services under “Banglalink” in March 2005.

Basic Objectives for Which the Company Was Formed:

 To provide mobile telephone service to the people from the public sector;
 To ensure fair competition between public and private sectors and thereby to
safeguard public interest;
 To meet a portion of unmitigated high demand of mobile telephone;
 To create a new source of revenue for the government.

Launch of Banglalink:

The long awaited launching of a mobile telecom network by a state-run

enterprise had finally materialized on 1 March 2005. It also fulfilled a cherished
dream of people who continuously demanded to the government for such an
enterprise. The government started the “Mobile Telephone Project” and
Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) was entrusted with the
responsibility for implementing the same. The Project work started in June 2004
and the network was soft launched on 1 march, 2005. I am happy that BTTB had
been able to keep its promise and deliver in time.

Banglalink was formed to operate the network installed by Ericsson and it has
been successful in operating a standard network and give proper service to the
people of Bangladesh. Banglalink has introduced many attractive packages and
all of them have been welcomed by the market. From the very beginning of its
launching, Banglalink got huge popularity as it triggered the true competition in
the market. I am happy to know that within one year, Banglalink has covered 64
districts, 120 upazillas and most part of the three major highways of the country.
However, there is still a long way to pass for improving its network.

People have high expectation from Banglalink. They expect continuous network
coverage all over the country, prompt customer service, and more value added
services, data services of high band-width etc. from Banglalink. Banglalink must
honor its customers by improving its services day-by-day so that people can
realize that even in a competitive scenario, the public sector organization can
achieve remarkable development if they get opportunity.

Present Status of Banglalink:

Definitely there is no justification brooding on the past unless we utilize that

experience in the further course of time. Let’s try to find out the present standing
of Banglalink.

 Subscriber Base: At present there around 1, 00, 00,000 subscriber of

Banglalink. Among them there are 850,000 prepaid and 2450 postpaid and
20,287 PCO subscribers.
 Customer Care: There are eleven customer cares of Banglalink situated on
Dhaka, Mymenshing, Barisal, Khulna, Bogra, Chittagong, Uttara, Faridpur,
Sylhet, Rajshahi and Comilla, etc.

Market Competitiveness:

 Competition among the mobile phone operators has reduced subscription rates
and call rates. This triggered a lot of changes in the market.
 There are now options in the hand of the customers at an affordable price. This
contributed to the high growth rate in this sector.
 Increase in number of players in the channel has reduced revenue for everyone.

Migration of Businesses:

 High profitability has attracted many people to the distribution channel. A lot of
people got involved in subscription selling business as a supplementary to their
original line of business. Some others came into this business as a replacement
for their original business.
 Because of drastic reduction in call rates, profitability of PCOs has dropped, and
as a result, some PCOs are migrating to subscription distribution business.
 Because of rise in number of mobile phone connections, revenue from
recharging business has increased.
 In some  areas, growth  in  subscription business  has  declined, as  many of  
the  potential customers   have   turned  into  current  subscribers.   This loss of
revenue   from subscription business was compensated in cases by profit from
selling handsets.

 Supporting Businesses:
  A lot of supporting businesses have strung up to cope with the high demand
created by extremely high growth rate in the market.
 Many   people   are   now   involved in businesses   of   scratch cards, electronic  
recharging, handsets, accessories, PCOs, handset repair, value added services
(ring-tones, music, games, downloads), etc.

Industry Growth: Important Factors:

 Growth in mobile phone subscription business is affected by various factors:

 Entrance of new companies. Whenever new companies have entered the
market, there had been a surge in subscription selling business.  This   has
happened in case of entrance of Banglalink and that of Banglalink.
 New package offers by existing operators. New offers from existing operators
have always created   interest   among   the   customers.   A   segment   of   the  
customer   segment   is   always interested in buying new offers. Reduction in
tariff and subscription fee has encouraged these kinds of buyers. These low price
offers have also brought some periphery customers under mobile subscription
Penetration of mobile phone subscription. There are some areas where there has
been a drop in subscription selling, because of increase in current subscribers
and reduction in potential subscribers.

Consumer Profile:

 At the point of purchase, sellers do get the opportunity to draw a picture of the
consumer.
 Age of  visitors: Most of the visitors at the mobile phone shops are young,
between the age of approximately 15 and 30
 First time buyers: Of all the visitors at the shops, most are found to be current
owners of mobile phones. The ratio between new users and current users vary
from place to place. In most of the places, around 10-30% visitors at mobile
shops currently do not possess a mobile phone. The rest (70-90%) are current
owners of mobile phone. Of the current owners most are young and always
looking for new offers. Some even buy more than one connections at a time. The
current non-users of mobile phone who visit shops are mostly from the lower
SEC and possess little knowledge about mobile phones.

Departments of the Banglalink:

As  the  service  marketing  concept  must  demand  the  process,  persons,  
physical evidence along with products, place, price, promotion, any service
company must have its department compatible with  this  concept. Banglalink
does not deny   the concept, having the following department to achieve its
objectives:
• Human Resource

• Marketing

• Customer Service

• Billing and It

• Operations: Network Planning

• System Engineering: Procurement

• Finance

Banglalink and Its Business Analysis:

Banglalink is   a newly emerged   government mobile service operator in  

country’s cell phone service market with nationwide coverage. Within a very short
period of time, it has covered 61 districts HQ, 158 thana and the main national
highways and developed 11 full-fledged customer care centers. Over   200  
outlets   are   being   working   to   distribute   Sims   and   Scratch   cards   in  
the   country. Banglalink   has   gone  into   interconnection   agreement   with  
all   four   private   cell   phone  service providers  named  City  cell  (PBTL),  
AKTEL  (TMIB),  Grameen Phone  (GP)  and  Banglalink  for providing more
superior services to Banglalink’s consumers. Recognizing its tremendous
success (introducing  web  based  lottery,  self  employed  virtual dealership, 
fastest  coverage progress  and price-cut),   BANGLALINK   has   been  
emerged   a   trend   setter   in   mobile   phone   sector   of Bangladesh. It got
unique position for its special features that other players are not offering right
now, such as, born out of commitment. To make profit but not at the cost of
customer, nationwide transmission   backbone   support,   professional 
excellence,   transparent   financial   transaction,   all transaction through Bank,
fewer Packages, no tricks: customer Confidence,  no incoming Charge, all  
Package   has   BTTB   incoming   and   outgoing,   100%   ISD   and   EISD  
facility.   The   most remarkable success of Banglalink is the slump in Tariff
Structure. As soon as Banglalink announced its tariff the long-lasting oligopoly
between other private mobile operators were shattered. Healthy competition
came into the mobile market causing almost 50%, if not more, reduction in price
both in terms of SIM price and usage rate. The slump in price made mobile
phone affordable even for the low- income group of people. Using a mobile
phone soon became a necessity; it’s no more a luxury.
The   strength   of   Banglalink   was   the   confidence   of   the   subscribers   in  
the   government institution.  On  the  other  hand  it’s   being  the  part   of  
government,  is   probably  the  biggest weakness  from operational perspective
of  Banglalink, which will be  understandable as we go through this article. At a
time when people were desperately searching the way out to get rid of the
oligopoly of a few operators, j Banglalink started its operation with big bang of
response. People became frenzy to get a Banglalink SIM. Another good reason
for that craze was its flexibility in connectivity with the other operators. It’s the
only SIM, which has such a, versatility of connections having ISD, Economy ISO
service along with both incoming and outgoing connectivity with any of the land
phones. The biggest weakness was a premature entrance in a mature market.
As soon as anyone could catch hold of a Banglalink mobile, he started
comparing it with the services of Grameen Phone, Banglalink or Aktel.

Having the  slightest  of  ideas   of  what  problems  can   impound   and 
compound   starting  a commercial operation with such a small cover age
containing pockets  all over  the places, Banglalink had its  first setback. Many of
us used to say “Where is the harm in throwing a system on use with such a small
number of BTSs if operator like Grameen Phone could start its commercial  
operation   with couple   of   BTSs around.”   But “think-tanks”   of Banglalink
miserably failed to identify the difference of stepping into a developed market and
that into a developing market.  Moreover, the progress of   development of
network was   far below the expectation of subscribers. Above  all the 
interfacing  with  other  opera tor s   was   so   poor, especially   with  GR AM
EEN,   mostly   because   of   non- cooperation,   it   became   a nightmare  for 
the  Banglalink  subscribers  to use  a  Banglalink mobile.  Peoples’ hope was
immediately dashed out and all the opportunities Banglalink had started with
immediately began shrinking and squeezing.

Network Coverage:

Network Coverage, now-a-days, has become most strategic strength for any
operator and Banglalink has given the highest priority regarding the coverage. At
present, TBL has 668 BTS around the Bangladesh and the distribution is like in
Dhaka City (177), Dhaka Division (134),  Chittagong   City   (71),  Chittagong  
Division  (77),  Khulna   Division   (50),  Rajshahi Division (86), Barisal Division
(35), Sylhet Division (38). In fact it has network coverage in 61 districts but the
truth is that the weakest part of the TBL is its low network coverage.

Literature Review:
Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work
enthusiastically toward achieving objectives. It is the critical factor that helps
individuals or a group identify its goals and then motivates and assists in
achieving the stated goals. The three important elements in the definition are
influence / support, voluntary effort, and goal achievement. Leadership then is
the catalyst that transforms potentials into reality. The primary role of a leader is
to influence others to voluntarily seek defined objectives (preferably with
enthusiasm). Leadership styles represent a consistent combination of
philosophy, skills, traits and attitudes that are exhibited in a person behavior.

Positive leaders emphasize rewards. Negative leaders emphasize on threats,

fear, harshness and penalties.

The way in which a leader uses power also establishes a type of style. Each style
autocratic, consultative and participative- has it benefits and limitation.

Autocratic leaders centralize power and decision making in them. They structure
the complete work situation for their employees, who are expected to do what
they are told and not think for themselves. The leaders take full authority and
assume full responsibility. Autocratic; leadership typically is negative, based on
threats and punishments but it can appear to be positive as demonstrated by the
benevolent autocrat who chooses to give some rewards to employees.

Consultative leaders approach one or more employees and ask them for inputs
prior to making a decision. These leaders may then choose to use or ignore the
information and advice received, however. If the inputs are seen as used,
employee are likely to fill as though they had a positive impact, if the inputs are
consistently rejected employees are likely to feel that their time has been wasted.

 Participative leaders clearly decentralize authority. Participative decisions are

not unilateral, as with the autocrat, because they use inputs from followers and
participation by them. The leaders and groups are acting as social unit.
Employees are informed about conditions affecting their jobs and encouraged to
express their ideas, make suggestions and take actions.

Leadership Style:

According to path- goal theory, the leader’s roles are to help employees
understand what needs to be done (the goal) and how to do it (the path). Further
leaders need to help employees see how achieving the goals will be beneficial to
them and the organization. Leaders, however, have to decide which style to use
with each employee; there are four style of leadership:
  Directive Leadership:

The leader focuses on clear task assignments, standard of successful

performance and work schedules.

 Supportive Leadership:

The leader demonstrates concern for employees’ well being and needs, while
trying to create a pleasant work environment.

 Achievement-oriented Leadership:

The leader sets high expectations for employees, communicates confidence in

their ability to achieve challenge goals, and enthusiastically models the desired
behavior.

 Participative Leadership:

The leader invites employees to provide input to decisions, and seriously seeks
to use their suggestion as final decisions are made.

Findings:

Banglalink follows participative leadership style. There is a supportive work in

environment. The employees of this organization can provide their opinions that
are evaluated by the top managers with importance. The organization provides
an optimal level of job freedom towards the employees corresponding to their
work, so the employees can make decisions of their respective works. This
leadership style is the key component of their success within a short time period
and in a very competitive telecom market in Bangladesh.

Participation is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group

situations that encourages them to contribute to group goals and share
responsibility for them. This definition entails three important ideas:

 Involvement
 Contribution
 Responsibility

Participative managers consult with their employees, bringing them in on

problems and decisions so that they work together as a team. The managers are
not autocrats, but neither are the managers who abandon their management
responsibilities. Participative managers still retain ultimate responsibility for the
operation of their units, but they have learned to share operating responsibility
with those who perform the work. The result is that employees feel a sense of
involvement in group goals.

The Participative Process:

A simple model of the participative process is shown in figure. It indicates that in

many situations participative programs result in mental and emotional
involvement that produces generally favorable outcomes for both the
organizations and employees. Participating employees are generally more
satisfied with their work and their supervisor and their self-efficiency rises as a
result of their new found empowerment.
Prerequisites for Participation:

The success of participation is directly related to how well certain prerequisite

conditions are met. Some of these conditions occur in the participants, some
exist in their environment. They show that participation works better in some
situations than in others and certain situations it works not at all.

1) Employees must have time to participate before action is required.

2) The potential benefits of participation should be greater the costs.

3) The subject of participation must be relevant and interesting to the employees.

4) The participants should have the ability to participate.

5) Participants must be mutually able to communicate.

6) Neither party should feel that its position is threatened by participation

7) Providing job freedom

Conclusion:

Banglalink is the 2nd largest cellular service provider

in Bangladesh after Grameen Phone.
As of November, 2009, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 12.99 million. It is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom. Banglalink had 1.03 million
connections until December, 2005. The number of Banglalink users increased by
257 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest
growing operator in the world of that year. In August, 2006, Banglalink became
the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and
prepaid connections. On August 20, 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of 10
million subscriber base. Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting
others to work enthusiastically toward achieving objectives. It is the critical factor
that helps individuals or a group identify its goals and then motivates and assists
in achieving the stated goals. The three important elements in the definition are
influence / support, voluntary effort, and goal achievement. Leadership then is
the catalyst that transforms potentials into reality. The primary role of a leader is
to influence others to voluntarily seek defined objectives (preferably with
enthusiasm). Leadership styles represent a consistent combination of
philosophy, skills, traits and attitudes that are exhibited in a person behavior.
Banglalink follows the supportive and participative leadership style taking the
most positive areas of these two leadership styles even though there can be
some points to be noted that we think that we should recommend to make further
improvement and efficiency in the leadership style of Banglalink that will increase
the productivity and foster the employees’ satisfaction level.

Recommendations:

Banglalink follows the supportive and participative leadership style taking the
most positive areas of these two leadership styles even though there can be
some points to be noted that we think that we should recommend to make further
improvement and efficiency in the leadership style of Banglalink that will increase
the productivity and foster the employees’ satisfaction level. The points are given
below:

 Programs for Participation:

The organization can arrange suggestion programs, quality emphasis programs,

can build quality circles and total quality management within it, self- managing
teams can be built in the engineering department and network coverage
department as the employees are sophisticated in IT sectors and most valuable
employees in the organization. Banglalink can develop Employee-Ownership
Plans as there is a great competition in the market in which it operates business.
The plan can be effective as the main idea of the plan is to make employees
think as an owner by providing them stock shares.
  Improving Managerial Concerns about Participation:

The thoughts and concerns of the top managers should change a bit. The top
managers and area managers should remove Theory X beliefs. They should
support the employees more. The managers must not feel fear of losing power,
status and control. It will make them more participative with employees. The top
managers should arrange training for both employees and managers in
Participation. The managers should start thinking their employees as their
partners but they still need to communicate a direction for their unit, help set
challenging goals, mentoring and monitor resources.

 Extensive Feedback Systems:

There should be some scope to express the satisfaction level of the employees
towards the organization and should take steps to improve it. Employees can
fine-tune their performance better if they know how they are doing in the eyes of
the organization.