Business Organization Structure of the Vodafone Group - Research Paper Example

Id: Lecturer Assignment Executive Summary Vodafone Group was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Hambros Technology Trust, Millicom andthe subsidiary of Racal Electronics PLC’s strategic Radio Ltd. Of present, the Group has its main office in London, with a registered office in Newburry Berkshire (Hitt and Hoskisson 46). The company has had many changes in its business organization structure since its formation. Currently, the operating companies for the group are under two operating regions reflecting the different geographies or different nature of assets, as well as to reflect the differences in development of the sector considering various economies. These included Europe, comprising all existing controlled business located in Europe, in addition to Turkey, Hungary, and Czech Republic. The company heavily relies on IT and it has incorporated IT in its Market structure as a tool for successful implementation of it programs. This paper discusses and describes the Vodafone Group business organization structure with a focus on the role of IT in its business organization structure. Historical Background of Vodafone Group Vodafone Company started as a joint venture between Hambros Technology Trust Millicom and the subsidiary of Racal Electronics PLC’s strategic Radio Ltd in 1982 with its name being derived from a company’s goal of establishing data services and voice services over mobile telephone networks. Hence, its network was called Racal Vodafone (Saylor 56). The company was renamed Racal Telecom in 1988. In 1991, Racal Telecom became demerged from the Racal Electronics there is when the mobile telephony giant came into existence. In 1996, the company bought people phone and acquired 80% of the Astec Communication, a move that so it increase its shares of the UK mobile customers (Read 46). In 2000, the Group reverted its former name Vodafone Group PLC selling most of the manufacturing related operations. It made the first 3G Voice Call in 2001 on the Uk’s Vodafone 3G network. The company signed a partner agreement with the Mobikom Australia, and became introduced in the Icelandic market. In 2004, it went into an agreement with Luxembourg’s LuxGSM. The Group increased its participation in the Connex of Romania and purchased Czech mobile operator. The period between 2004 to date has seen the company expand through entering into partnership with various communication companies worldwide (Read 57). On the overall from 1980 to 1991, the company bore the name Racal Telecom Brand. Its name was change to Vodafone Group retaining this name from 1991 to 2000. Since 2000 till now, the company has retained the name Vodafone Group PLC (Thomson 43). Business Organization Structure of the Vodafone Group Since it was founded under the auspice of Vodafone Group plc, the Vodafone Company has realized drastic transformations. It has changed its brand from the Racal Telecom Brand to the Vodafone Group and finally the Vodafone Group PLC, alongside its organization structure. As of 9th December 2010, the company has retained a business organization that is all inclusive and diverse. This section describes the Group’s Organization structure as of 9th December 2010 to date. In regard to its operating companies, the Group has two operating regions reflecting the different geographies or different nature of assets, as well as to reflect the differences in development of the sector considering various economies. These included Europe, comprising all existing controlled business located in Europe, in addition to Turkey, Hungary, and Czech Republic. The CEO (Michel Combel) is in charge of Europe region. For other regions, including businesses located in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Fiji, Australia plus New Zealand, Nick Read is at the top as the Regional CEO. The Vodafone Group has other senior officials including the Group CFO, CEO and Strategy and Business Development Director. These officials are charged with the responsibility of effecting strategies for maximization of the shareholder value from the investments of Vodafone including Bharti Holding, Verizon Wireless, and SFR, which are no longer held within regional structures. The Group Marketing, Partner Markets, Vodafone Global Enterprise, and Vodafone Business Services alongside other commercial units that constitute the Vodafone Company, are used in boosting the commercial activities of the company. These units are under Morten Lundal, the Group Commercial Officer, who reports to the CEO of the Group. The Group technology is responsible for all Technology Functions and it is under the Vodafone operating company’s technology Group. Steve Pusey, who is the Group CTO, reports directly to the Group CEO. In regard to the main financial priorities, as well as the commercial priorities, the company focuses on leadership in data, brand advocacy, customer and commercial strength, shareholder returns, the cost efficiency, and the organization of the Group, through reduction of layers, and simplifying its managerial governance (Thomson 20). Fig 02 shows the organization structure of the Vodafone Group. Fig 02. Vodafone organization structure. The Information Technology System Used By the Vodafone Group In the current competitive business world, impressive IT in the business structure of any organization is, no doubt, a major boost for that organization. Certainly, effective network management has increasingly become significant and complex (Saylor 28). Despite there being the power, as well as the sophistication of the most current generation management environments, it is surprising how, in certain situations, there remains an opportunity for relatively simple, but focused monitoring tools. Management of the Vodafone Group data centre operation is such a good example. Being the leading mobile telecommunication company in the world, it is not surprising to learn that the data management operation for Vodafone Company is not just large but also quite complex. The servicing Vodafone Group global data storage and system needs is impressive, the operation is an enormous one. It involves dataflow consisting of millions of bytes and servers (Saylor 34). By any standards, it is a sophisticated system. Certainly, it requires a somewhat sophisticated management solution. It is operated and managed by the Vodafone Information Services responsible for supplying IT services to the Vodafone Group. Generally, the Company offers a variety of effective and powerful management tools which are designed for large-scale networks. Noting that Information Technology is a cornerstone of all successful operation, the Vodafone Group relies heavily on IT. With an aim to build a competitive advantage, the Top Line Vodafone Group has taken an advantage of understanding the strategic values of Information Technology in helping maintain, as well as gain the competitive accrued advantages basing on the viewpoint of both bottom line and top line improvements. In order to realize improvement top line, the general telecommunication operators in company consider using IT as a key source of differentiated and innovative services and products they come up with launching them globally in a somewhat timely manner. Unlike other competitors, the Vodafone Group has not considered using cheaper prices in order to attract its new customer, as well as maintain its existing customer in making sure it remains the second largest mobile operator in the market but, rather, the company has focused on launching and creating value-added services that attract new customers. According to Arun Sarin, who was a Vodafone Group former CEO, Vodafone rededicated its efforts towards delighting its customers following their belief that it is the foundation upon which their continued success is based (Hitt and Hoskisson 340). According to him, the company recognizes that each customer interaction does provide an extra opportunity warranty winning a loyalty that makes the Group always raise its standards concerning the quality of the customer case in its call centers alongside its stores and the high quality of its networks. Moreover, the Group delights its customer through delivering superior data and voice services basing on the demands of its customers. The group is also keen at choosing the right Information Technology to suite the market. Making the right choice concerning the IT they use helps the Group in driving the current, as well as the future returns alongside the intellectual capital which articulates and structures the stakeholders. With its three main strategic IT initiatives, the Group has managed have a competitive advantage that has seen it improve to top line. The Group’s agility to adapt advanced technologies has greatly impacted its innovation, as well as its differentiated services and products, which include converged services of the network data, customer data, service data, available in helping improve on the customer experience in respect to the ever changing market environment and customer demands. In future, most certainly, converging communication industry, and the competitive advantages would be based upon an organization’s ability of the providers of communication services to make use of specific network data mix, customer data, as well as service data available to every player in the market. Likewise, the ability of Vodafone Group to adapt new IT has continuously ensured its customers stay connected to the information, as well as people are assured to play central roles in their lives as per information usage. These include services such as text, e-mail, news, voice, instant messaging, communities, music and applications both work related and social (Read 12). With increased bandwidth needs alongside a data dominated traffic mix, the Group’s ability to optimize the network capacity in line with the differentiated services and products has caused the improvement of the quality of services it provides to its customer. Works Cited Cane, Aftre. “Companies and Finance: UK: Vodafone acquires Talkland in Pounds 60m deal". Financial Times: 199, p. 22. Print. Hitt, Mason and Ricky Hoskisson. Strategic management: Competitiveness and Globalization. Florence, KY: Cengage. 2008. Print. Read, To Jr. The IT value Network: From Investment to Stakeholder Value. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. 2009. Print. Saxtoft, Colorado. Convergence: user Expectations, Communications Enablers and Business Opportunity. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. 2008. Print. Saylor, Marth. The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything. Perseus Books/Vanguard Press. 2012. Print. Thomson, Agrey. “Verizon Wireless Said to Start Offering IPhone in January". Bloomberg L.P. 2010. Web. http://www: verizona wirelse.iphone.com Read More