Strategic and operațional performance assesment at Vodafone

1. INTRODUCTION

In a world where speed, technology and continuous development govern corporations and individuals, as well, we conducted a research on one of today’s largest companies and, in the same time, one of the pioneers in the mobile telecommunication field. This area has encountered a fast enlargement, especially during the last two decades, leading to an increase in the number of competitors on global and local markets and, thus, adding value to these services through superior quality and innovation.

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.

In its 12 years of activity, Vodafone Romania has significantly contributed to the development of the business environment, through major investments at a national level, mainly oriented to launching new products and communication services, expanding 2G and 3G networks, enlarging the number of stores within the country and, also, sustaining social programs to help the community.

Vodafone is Romania’s second largest mobile phone network operator and it was launched in April 1997 as the first GSM network in the country. Until October 2005, it was known as Connex, after which it was rebranded Connex-Vodafone and in April 2006, the Connex name was dropped, the operator being simply known as Vodafone Romania, aligning itself with the global Vodafone brand.

Throughout this project, we will emphasize the company’s internal assessments, at the organizational and strategic levels, as well as how the process management is approached and, in addition to this, we will present the management’s vision towards the future of the business, followed by an analysis of the business and its performance on the Romanian market and some brief conclusion over Vodafone’s activity in Romania and globally.

2. PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Vodafone is a British multinational mobile network operator headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is known as the world's largest mobile telecommunication network company, based on revenue, and has a market value of about £71.2 billion (November 2009), currently operating in 31 countries and developing partnerships in a further 40 countries.

The name Vodafone comes from “voice data fone”, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones". As of 2009, Vodafone has an estimated 303 million customers in 31 markets across 5 continents, being the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile. Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the second largest wireless telecommunication network in the United States, based on number of subscribers.

Vodafone’s key technologies and resources include the telecommunication licenses it holds and the related network infrastructure, which enable the Group to operate telecommunication networks in 28 controlled and jointly controlled markets around the world.

Its network infrastructure provides the means of delivering the mobile and fixed voice, messaging and data services to its customers. The Group’s customers are linked via the access part of the network, which connects to the core network that manages the set-up and routing of calls, transfer of messages and data connections, providing a wide variety of other services such as: 2G, 3G and High Speed Packet Access (3G wireless technology enhancements enables significant increases in data transmission speeds).

Because there is a constant growth in the data traffic, Vodafone is also keeping pace and is always trying to evolve its infrastructure on three different levels: Access Network, Transmission Network and Core Network. With all these improvements having to take place it is very important for the company to have a tight control over its cost base and for this reason Vodafone has some initiatives that enable managing network investments:

- Infrastructure sharing (reducing the costs of deploying mobile network infrastructure);

- Power and energy savings (introducing sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar power);

- Quality of services for data applications;

- Femtocells (powered booster box connected to a small antenna in order to enhance reception over a range up to 9 meters).

As a global organization, Vodafone embraces the differences that every employee brings to the Group, recognizing that a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers it serves is better able to understand their expectations and more likely to have the skills and knowledge needed to deliver the innovative products and services that they want.

Vodafone endeavors to ensure that customers’ needs are at the core of all products and services. Understanding these needs and continuing to serve them is the key to Vodafone’s customer strategy. The Group seeks to use its understanding of customers to deliver relevance and value and communicate on an individual, household, community or business level. In delivering solutions that meet customers’ changing needs in a manner that is easy to access and is available when required, Vodafone aims to build a longer and deeper customer relationship.

It has continued to build brand value by delivering a superior, consistent and differentiated customer experience. Communication activities are focused on delivering the promise of “helping customers make the most of their time”. Vodafone offers voice, messaging, data and fixed broadband services through multiple solutions and supporting technologies to deliver on its total communications strategy, the Group’s vision being “to become the communications leader in an increasingly connected world”.