Despite the overall sluggishness of the Serbian economy, Telenor Serbia is one of the rare companies that have achievedconstant growth in every area: from revenues to number of customers.Telenor is the country’s largest mobile operator, with a 43 percent market share, 3.25 million mobile subscribers, 1,118 employees and total revenues of NOK 2,911 million (2011). Since September, Telenor Serbia has a new CEO, Ove Fredheim, who has held numerous management positions in the Telenor Group. Despite the slow economy, Telenor Serbia has recorded mgrowth. How did you achieve that?
– There are, of course, many reasons. If I were to point out one key driver in this field, it would be the fact that we have continued to invest, and we are building our network and extending our coverage, reaching thereby a bigger part of the Serbian population and business community with our services. This is probably the main reason. Then, there are the supporting factors. We have captured a little more growth, so we are taking a little bigger piece of the pie.
You have been CEO of Telenor Serbia since September 1, 2012. What would you say differentiates the Serbian market from other countries in which you worked?
– There are really positive things, I must say. On that front, I am not surprised, but glad to know that there’s real a dedication that I find among people doing business. It’s this positive, forward-looking attitude to fix challenging situations. There is a tough economic climate around us, but here I see a lot of positive things. On the other hand, it is by far the country with the highest level of bureaucracy that I’ve ever seen. The red-tape component here is not good. We are working with Serbian government officials to address this as it is a worry for us doing business here. This is slowing us down and hampering the potential positive development for the economy in Serbia. It needs to be fixed, and I think the government is aware of it and starting to work on improving the situation.
How much of your international experience is applicable to this market considering all the obstacles you mentioned?
– All markets have their differences, but the core of our business activity here is to be a developer of mobile network operations. The basic business model is the same to a large extent. There are different types of experiences that you have when you are working with the same business model all over the world, so there are lots of them that you can reuse and improve. We are learning things here in Serbia too, and we share them with our sister business units in other countries within the Telenor family. It works both ways.
In terms of innovation, does the Serbian market have the same status as any other market in which Telenor operates?
– Absolutely. Anything that we use here in Serbia we will also use somewhere else, and vice versa. For example, in Telenor Serbia, we have been very successful in developing new principles on how we serve our business. We tend to think that our industry is only about technical innovations, but how we engage and are linked with our customers is also key and here in Telenor Serbia that is in the forefront.
How is implementation of the HSPA+ 42Mbps technology in the existing Smart Network coming along?How close are you to the plan of covering 70 percent of Serbia with this technology?
– That’s done already.We are already at more than 70 percent of the population of Serbia, and expanding. So that’s another sign of our dedication to continue investing in Serbia.
At the recent Job Fair, Telenor again was among the most preferred employers. What do you think are the main reasons for that?
– Again, there are many reasons. We probably have to say that there is some fascination surrounding the service we are selling: mobile communications. Mobile communications are also included in the data connectivity category. But, I think also it is about how we run our organization from the software side. In the HR category, it is really about leadership based on values. I think that our employees see that, then they tell it to their friends, and their friends to their friends. That’s how people get to know that Telenor Serbia is a good place to work. It is so for many reasons. We have career opportunities. We provide the Telenor family with a lot of skills, and they are well received all over the world. We have experts working on the projects; we have Telenor Serbia employees working at the Telenor headquarters in Norway. So, there is a possibility to move around in a big company, which is of course a value in its own right.
Telenor has been investing a lot in the further training of its employees. Big companies that operate here usually point out the fact that the Serbian educational system is not well adjusted to their needs. Do Serbian schools provide you with welltrained young experts?
– Having been here only for three months, I don’t know this by heart and from personal experience. But I think that some early observations can be that the basic school system has a lot of positive qualities. There is a higher level of competition among top talents. Here in Telenor, we are proud of the fact that we are an attractive employer, so I would assume that other companies are probably struggling a little more than we are. In Serbia, you are educating very good university-level engineers. Where we potentially see some shortcomings is more in the area of business management. I think this is natural, but from what I have heard it is moving in the right direction. Also, it’s good for Serbian students to have the ambition to pursue their education abroad and then to return here to share their experiences.
For the past ten years, Telenor Group has been among the top performers on Dow Jones Sustainability Index. How much does corporate social responsibility improve the company’s reputation and the trust people have in it?
– I think it’s very important to be recognized in that area. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is something we really use on the Group level. It is also important when we talk to global institutional investors because, for them, you either perform well on that index or you don’t. If you don’t, you are not on their prospect list. It really is a black and white picture. I think this is also something which is appreciated by local governments and authorities; they like to see that Telenor has a clear strategy in this field. But this index is not so relevant for individual customers. Dow Jones gives the higher level view, one that sets some standards about how we work in other important areas of the CSR agenda.
What are the main principles that Telenor implements in CSR?
– It is a very long story, but I think we are the leading brand in all the countries where we operate. Typically, in the 95 to 98 percent awareness level about who we are, we come across as a service which is very important in everyday life for a lot of people. You always carry your mobile phone with you. Being a successful company means it is only fair to give something back to the society. We can do that through, for example, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index type of work but also through general CSR work. And we split that into two parts. It is a highly non-commercial agenda there, in what we do,for example, through the Telenor Foundation in Serbia. But let us not pretend that this is not about business. So, we want the Telenor brand to communicate that we are a responsible company and that we set standards. This
we do for ourselves, for all our stakeholders around us: governments, customers, and businesses.
Telenor has been twice the recipient of the Virtus Award presented by the Balkan Community Initiatives Fund. Last year, you received the award in the category of ‘Long-term partnership between profit and non-profit sector’. Why is collaboration between businesses and the Serbian NGO sector important?And what direction will the Telenor Foundation take in 2013?
– I think the Telenor Foundation will continue in its current mandate and role. We are funding it financially at the same level as we have thus far. And I think that we just make sure that we have a board for that foundation that will consider all the proposals in an objective way. Because we are getting a lot of proposals, we have to deal with that in a professional way. Also, we will continue to pursue that for sure. The reason we do it is that we think it is the responsibility of a company to really give something back to the community without purely financial motives. This is why we have the Telenor Foundation.
Telenor also takes care about working conditions and improves them constantly. It started with the case in Bangladesh and inhumane working conditions discovered over there in 2008. What are the main principles of the company in that field?
– It started with the fact that it happened in Bangladesh. That was not within Telenor, it was a sub-contractor. But our first observation was that we are responsible for the entire supply chain. That’s also an extremely important principle we adhere to: we need to engage our partners, our vendors, and our sub-contractors around this agenda. We do it in order to improve society and working conditions for everybody that works with us, but also to set standards for thesociety as a whole. I think experience here is telling us this is key. Our customers do care, and you can read on the social networks these days that customers care how brands treat their sub-contractors, about how products are made. They don’t accept that people are ill-treated, in China for instance, because then they walk away from those products and don’t buy them. It is good that society is setting tough standards on how companies should behave.
Based on your international experience, do you think that Serbia should provide additional incentives for socially responsible companies?
– Incentives can mean a lot of different things.Sometimes they can be the carrot, but sometimes they can also be the stick. We have a combination here. I don’t think there should be direct subsidies from the state budget of Serbia for companies moving in this direction. But there can be other positive rewards, or writeoffs, for example, where you can cover an investment faster, and so on. That doesn’t cost the state budget anything. We have more to do in this field, setting the path is important for the government to find a way they can stimulate it. On the other side, I think thegovernment should set clear requirements and regulations for everybody.
As a member of the FIC Board of Directors, what impressions do you get of the business environment in Serbia and, especially, the impact of The White Book?
– We are in a challenging situation when it comes to the monetary policy here, and the overall economic climate in Serbia. From any investor’s perspective, it is very important to have a predictable future ahead of you. Especially for a foreigner, because you are bringing in your investment, your funds, resources and know-how. That’s what we are trying to communicate through the White Book this year: that predictability and transparency are what we need. We have so far received positive signals from the new government. They have been very attentive and promised to operate by many of the principles opened in the White Book. Of course, it’s too early to say; the government is here only for a little over a hundred days and it remains to be seen what actions will be taken. But there is a dialogue, in general, and it’s positive. We will have a review of the situation next year to see what progress was made, and then we can discuss more.
Source Cord magazine
