Assignment on

Critically analyze the mission, vision and strategic approach of a company.

In particular-
 Critically analyze the mission and vision of the company. Using the publicly available
data, their directors’ profile or statements, annual reports and website. Define the
vision of the company and the mission statement.
 Identify among the four/five strategic approaches which is strategic approach the
company is following. Analyze with supporting documents and evidences.
 Identify the industry of the company, its market segment, customers and competitors
of the company.
Answer:
The vision, mission, and qualities articulations guide the practices of individuals in the
association. Yet, when the assertions are not upheld, individuals have no direction. In the
report the mission, vision and strategic approach of Grameenphone Ltd. is going to be
analyzed.
1. Mission and Vision of the Company:
Grameenphone broadly curtailed as GP, is the main broadcast communications specialist co-
op in Bangladesh, with 83.18 million endorsers (as of August 2021). It is a joint endeavor
among Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation. Telenor, a telecom organization from
Norway, claims a 55.8% portion of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom possesses 34.2% and
the rest 10.00% shareholding includes General Public (2.13%), Foreign (3.38%) and other
institutions (4.49%), as of 31 December 2020. In March 1997, Grameenphone embarked on
its journey with the vision to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban Bangladesh.
Twenty-three years hence, empowering society and Grameenphone are inextricably linked
for more than 83 million Bangladeshis across the nation. The years of advancement have all
been part of the foundation for the nation to achieve a unified goal – becoming a developed
country by 2041. Over the years, Grameenphone has been providing numerous services that
have transcended beyond just voice and data services – the Company has consistently lead
from the front, pioneering innovative digital solutions that connect the people to what matters
most to them.
A vision statement is a statement of an organization’s overarching aspirations of what it
hopes to achieve or to become. The vision articulation doesn't give explicit targets. All things
being equal, the vision is a wide portrayal of the worth an association gives. It is a visual
picture of what the association is attempting to create or turn into. It ought to rouse
individuals and persuade them to need to be essential for and add to the association. Good
business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and
relentlessly drive it to completion. Grameenphone promises to bring the best of
communication technologies so that you can Go Beyond.
Vision of Grameenphone: Empower Societies
“We exist to help our customers get the full benefit of communications services in their daily
lives. We’re here to help.”
Grameenphone's Vision defines a common approach and are internal guidelines for all
employees. They are Grameenphone's fundamental tools towards becoming truly customer
focused. The vision statement describes where the organization wants to be in the future; the
mission statement describes what the organization needs to do now to achieve the vision. The
vision and mission statements must support each other, but the mission statement is more
specific. It defines how the organization will be different from other organizations in its
industry.
Mission of Grameenphone: Connecting you to what matters most
“Connecting customers to what matters most has been the core of our business. Today
internet connectivity impacts nearly every part of our lives, and we believe in making it
personalized and relevant for our customers. It’s about more than good business; it’s
empowering societies. We exist to help our customers get the full benefit of being connected.
Our success is measured by how passionately they promote us.”
It is clear that mission indicates where the organization will compete and how it will. The
mission statement conveys to stakeholders why the organization exists. It explains how it
creates value for the market or the larger community. Because it is more specific, the mission
statement is more actionable than the vision statement. The mission statement leads to
strategic goals. Strategic goals are the broad goals the organization will try to achieve. By
describing why the organization exists, and where and how it will compete, the mission
statement allows leaders to define a coherent set of goals that fit together to support the
mission. In order to achieve the vision and mission, Grameenphone has four behaviors that
guide their way to work:
 Always Explore
 Create Together
 Keep Promises
 Be Respectful
Grameenphone believes growth comes from learning every day. They are curious and dare to
challenge, test, fail fast and pivot. GP believes that diverse teams find better solutions. They
seek different perspectives, share, involve and help each other succeed. According to GP trust
is key in all of their relationships. They take ownership and pride in delivering with precision
and integrity. GP also believes in the unique human ability to understand what matters for
people. They meet everyone at eye level, listen and show that they care.

2. Strategic Approach the Company:

The competitive strategy consists of the business approaches and initiatives undertaken by a
company to attract customers and to deliver superior value to them through fulfilling their
expectations as well as to strengthen its market position. This definition of Thompson and
Strickland emphasizes on ‘approaches and initiatives’ of managers in defining strategy. This
means that competitive strategy is concerned with actions that managers undertake to
improve the market position of the company through satisfying the customers. The objective
of competitive strategy is to win the customers’ hearts through satisfying their needs and
finally to attain competitive advantage as well as out-compete the competitors. Michael
Porter has identified four types of competitive strategies that can be applied in any business
organization irrespective of the size and nature of products. 4 competitive strategy are as
follows:
 Cost Leadership Strategy or Low-cost strategy
The company that follows this strategy intends to become the overall low-cost provider in
the industry in which the company operates its business. Walmart, Air Asia, McDonald’s
Timex, and Calvin Care are some examples of organizations competing based on costs
lower than competitors.
 Differentiation strategy
Differentiation strategy is concerned with product differentiation. It refers to making a
company’s product different from the similar products of the competitors. The goal of a
differentiation strategy is to achieve a. competitive advantage by offering a unique
product to customers. When a product becomes unique due to differentiation, it becomes
attractive to customers. Example: BMW, Apple, Omega etc.
 Best-cost strategy
Best-Cost means high quality and low price of a product. This term is used to indicate a
situation where the company tries to achieve the best (lowest) cost relative to the
competitors who offer similar products and simultaneously tries to improve quality. The
best-cost strategy is the strategy of increasing the quality of products while reducing
costs. This strategy is applied to give customers “more value for the money.” Toyota
Company of Japan followed the best-cost strategy for its Lexus cars to beat Mercedes-
Benz and BMW cars. Another example is Microsoft Corporation.
 Market-niche or focus strategy
Focus strategy concerns itself with the identification of a niche- market and launching a
unique product or service in that market. A niche-market is a narrow segment of a total
market. It is directed towards serving the needs of a limited customer group. Coca-Cola
Company has introduced ‘diet cola’ to serve the niche market consisting of diabetic
patients.

Strategy of Grameenphone:
Grameenphone has been a partner of Bangladesh’s development journey for the last two
decades and more, and they continue to see that role being strengthened going ahead in the
new Digital Bangladesh. Grameenphone's Strategic Ambition for 2021-23 is defined as
follows: “Continue to be the leading technology service provider to unleash the potential of
Bangladesh and continue growing shareholder value.” Grameenphone’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 Grameenphone’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. They have an extensive variety of products and services
directed towards different segments of the market.
Cost Leadership Strategy of Grameenphone Ltd.: GP is the leading telecommunications
operator in Bangladesh with full network coverage in 64 districts. As a market leader & gain
the competitive advantage the major motto of this company is to provide both coverage &
quality network at all the place of Bangladesh which is known as a “toilet coverage”. To
provide the quality network all over the country the company need to invest lot of money.
But as on part of cost leadership strategy the company take some unique initiative & process
innovation in it system by which it achieved its cost leadership strategy & gain more
competitive advantage.
The overarching ambitions in their strategy is bolstered on the following four key Value
Drivers:

Differentiate Data Network Experience: GP focuses more to ensure the right data network
experience to their customers by network investments, implementing a customer-centric
operating model and setting up for sustainable future success.
Grow Revenue: GP focuses on maintaining leadership in the market, and at the same time
scaling up growth segments. For customers with high-usage, they focus on the best
experience and service bundling. For the new entrants into Data, their focus is on 4G handset,
USIM conversion, and segmented offers. For everybody, they focus on coverage and
personalized offerings to suit their needs.
Drive Modernization: To support the growth ambition, Grameenphone would be developing
an efficient operating model with optimum level of skilled headcount equipped with
modernized capabilities in the form of training human resources, scaling up digital channels,
retail transformation and service modernization.
Responsible Business: Grameenphone’s responsible business strategy is built around four
building blocks- continue being partner to country development as the foundation, ensuring
fully compliant business growth, support Modernization and resolving pending issues.
Building the capabilities around Customer Focused Data Driven Decisioning enable GP to
achieve its strategic ambition. The major initiative & innovation are discussed below.
 GP Own Field Force: GP make a Regional Operation team by own employee who are
working dedicatedly 24X7 to live the network from 32 sub center of whole the
country. This field force actually create the difference among telecom operators for
the network availability & quality & make GP no. one network operator in
Bangladesh. Their dedication, innovation, efficient operation give uninterrupted
network service to the customers.
 Categorized Site/BTS: To reduce the network expansion cost, Grameenphone make
categorized mobile tower (Macro BTS, Micro BTS, Pico BTS, Femto BTS, IBS BTS,
Repeater BTS, Atom BTS) based on customer availability & their requirement.
 Optical Fiber: To provide the sufficient bandwidth all over the country GP go with
partnership to Bangladesh Railway to take support from its existing optical fiber &
lies to deploy new optical fiber. Besides this GP placed 1500KM highway fiber for
1+1 protection purpose.
 BTS Swap: BTS swap is one of the major cost driving project of Grameenphone
which brings the magical change in GP’s yearly operational cost which was happen in
2011. In this project GP contract with Huawei technologies Co. Ltd. to take their
BTS. Under this project the existing Ericsson BTS were swapped by Huawei BTS.
The major advantage of this equipment was the low energy cost. The energy
consumption of Huawei BTS was half of the Ericson BTS though the product quality
was same.
 DC Ventilation: Another cost driving project was DC ventilation system (DVS)
implementation at site in 2012. Under this project the air condition of BTS site
replace by DVS for cooling purpose. The energy consumption of DVS system was
one fourth of Air Condition. This project implementation was possible as the Huawei
BTS is sustain at higher temperature (0 to 60 degree Celsius).
 Alternate Energy Source: GP installed 6 KW solar power system in no grid & poor
grid site to provide uninterrupted network coverage during grid fail condition as well
as to reduce the carbon emission & generate green energy. GP also achieved green
energy award as telecom operator for introducing large scale green energy in their
network.
 Efficient Process in DG Running: GP also introduce voltage dependent timer & bring
some efficient process in DG sites to save the fuel cost. This is also a major cost drive
which help GP to reduce the operational cost.
 Outsourcing: To reduce the operational cost GP has taken initiative to outsource in
supportive function. In technology division they outsource their passive maintenance
part. Besides this some other supporting function like P&O, Information technology,
call center etc. Through outsourcing GP reduced its employee quantity about half in
last four years. In this way GP reduce its operational cost.
Through this above project GP magically reduce its half of the energy cost which help it to be
a cost leader in telecom market in Bangladesh.

3. Industry, Market segment, Customers and Competitors of the Company:

Grameenphone introduced pre-paid mobile phone service in Bangladesh in September 1999
via an EDGE/GPRS/3G/4G enabled network. According to Grameenphone, it has invested
more than BDT 347.4 billion (US$4.12 billion) to build the network infrastructure since
2018. Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with over 15,900
base stations, geographically covering 99% of Bangladesh's population. The Grameenphone
network is also GPRS/EDGE/3G-enabled, with a growing 4G network, allowing internet
access within its coverage area. Grameenphone was the primary versatile administrator in
Bangladesh to offer web by means of EDGE and 3G 4G administrations to its subscribers.
Grameenphone has fostered a few administrations, like GP Music, a music web-based feature
dispatched in 2015, and Bioscope, a video real time feature dispatched in 2016 to stream
films, dramatizations and live TV. The organization additionally possesses an online business
application, Shoparu, offering house to house conveyance administration to all spaces of
Bangladesh, including rustic regions. Element telephone clients might visit any of the host of
Grameenphone Express Centers to arrange their products on the web and get home
conveyance. In 2017, Grameenphone presented its MyGP application that permitted
supporters, through an inserted stage called Flexiload, to customize their own PDA bundles
and limits dependent on their own requirement for voice minutes, information volumes,
message informing. The MyGP application permitted clients to screen their use continuously.
MyGP currently includes GP applications like Bioscope and Shoparu, just as outsider ride
sharing applications like Uber and Shohoz. Some of its other services are mentioned below:
 Ekhanei.com was web based business administration (otherwise called CellBaazar) to
empower clients sell or purchase items through portable or web. It was free to use for
all Grameenphone customers, but was closed in 2017.
 GP Music is a music streaming dispatched in 2015.
 Bioscope (Live TV) is a video web based stage for unique show, dramatization, film
and live television dispatched in 2016.
 GPay is a service to enable users to pay their utility bills through mobile launched in
2016.
 Various other services like stock information, Instant Messaging, SMS Based
Alerts/Services, Voice-based Services, Downloads, music, Cricket Updates, Web
SMS, Mobile Backup etc.
 Grameenphone also owns startup accelerator GP Accelerator and startup mentorship
platform White-Board. The accelerator program launched its 6th batch of startups for
a 4.5-month-long program on 6 November 2019, at GP House. Grameenphone
Corporate Headquarter (popularly known as "GP House") located at Bashundhara
R/A, Dhaka, was formally inaugurated on 23 November 2010.
 Grameenphone center (GPC) serves as a "one stop solution" for customers, with all
telecommunications products and services, under a single roof. A Grameenphone
center also sells phones from vendors like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and more.
EDGE/GPRS modems and accessories such chargers and headphones are also sold at
 GPCs. There are 2 GP Lounges for customer experience of GP Digital Services.
There are also 376,285 unique recharge outlets and 6,836 GP Express Stores all
across Bangladesh.
 One of the biggest strengths of Grameenphone has been its innovative and emotional
advertisement campaign. Heavy promotional activities in all short of media have
created a superior presence of the company in customers mind.
Market segment means basically the group of consumers within a market that can be
differentiated of each other on the basis of their distinct attributes, needs and specific
demands. Market segment is mainly customer based and it is about to find who are your
customers. Grameenphone Ltd. keeps modifying & updating their network & talk time
package with several offers on daily basis so that they can target majority of the population
who are using cellphone. Till date, the acceptance of GP among all the people is greater than
other competitors because of their good network coverage & quality. The reason for GP to be
the market leader in our country is the company has a much larger poll of loyal customers
than its competitors. In spite of heavy promotional and reduced price offer by competitors,
the positive image of the brand (Grameenphone) has helped the company to retain its
customers.
There are four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh, operating under the names of
Banglalink, Grameenphone, Robi and TeleTalk. The total number of Mobile Phone
subscriptions in Bangladesh has reached 178.61 million at the end of August 2021.
Rank Operator Technology Subscribers Ownerships
in Millions
1 Grameenphone GSM-900/1800 MHz (GPRS, 83.18 Telenor
EDGE) 2100 MHz UMTS, (55.8%)
HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+ Grameen
900/1800 MHz FDD-LTE, Telecom
VoLTE, ViLTE (34.2%)
General Public
& other
Institutions
(10%)
2 Robi GSM-900/1800 MHz (GPRS, 52.26 Axiata Group
EDGE) 900/2100 MHz UMTS, Berhad
HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+ (61.82%)
900/1800 MHz FDD-LTE, LTE- Bharti Airtel
A, VoLTE, ViLTE (28.18%)
General public
(10%)
3 Banglalink GSM-900/1800 MHz (GPRS, 36.90 VEON
EDGE) 2100 MHz UMTS,
HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+
900/1800 MHz FDD-LTE, LTE-
A
4 GSM-900/1800 MHz (GPRS, 6.27 State-owned
EDGE) 2100 MHz UMTS,
HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+
 900/1800 MHz FDD-LTE

As of August 2021, total four mobile operators are truly operational. Airtel Bangladesh
merged with Robi and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (ownership: SingTel (44.54%),
Pacific Motors (37.95%) and Far East Telecom (17.51%)), which used 'Citycell' and 'Zoom
Ultra' brands, is no longer operating commercially. On 19 February 2018 Government has
given FDD-LTE license to telecom operators. Besides, there are another three LTE licensed
operators: Banglalion, Qubee and OLLO; which do not have permission for voice services.
AMTOB is a national trade organization representing all mobile telecom operators in
Bangladesh.
GP is currently the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. Financial
summary of previous six years of GP is listed below:

Although GP is currently the number one telecommunication operator in Bangladesh,

because of its high pricing voice & internet package day by day it is losing his acceptability
among youth generation. Although GP is trying their best to get engaged with the customers
through various social media platforms and their service motto is – “CUSTOMER FIRST”, it
has been observed that the growing subscription number has lesser youth in it. Although cost-
effective pricing strategy is the best tool, if GP can deliver superior value by exceeding the
customer expectations on product attributes and continues such customer engagement in the
upcoming days, it sure will be able to hold its’ number one position in the telecom industry.