Knowledge Management Plan in Zain Telecommunications Groups - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management Plan Executive Summary The role of telecommunication in Saudi Arabia is very significant. The study of the company reflects that it has been able to establish itself in the Saudi Arabian market and the report that has been developed will reflect the managerial plan of the company. The internal and the external study of the company reflect the following points: The competition in the telecommunication market in the country is high, and the market is becoming more competitive with time. The traditional factor that has been utilized by the company in the market is today becoming more active and can be developed further in the future. The company has a wide network due to the fact that it is well established in the Middle East and the African countries, and it can draw upon its wide resource base to ensure that it could improve its functioning in the long run. The main competition that it faces in the country is from the public telecommunication network of the nation state, that is, the Saudi Telecom Company. The company may be facing changes in the future, and as Etisalat has tried in the recent times to buy shares in the company, the market reaction has been in favor of the changes. The Knowledgeable Plan that has been developed in the paper reflects the functioning of the organization. Contents Executive Summary 1 Contents 1 Introduction 2 Company Details and Analysis 4 Functioning and Financial Management 5 Marketing management: 7 SWOT Analysis 8  Challenges 9 Recommendations 10 Reference 12 Introduction The survey of the market over the past century or so reveals the fact that there have been experienced a number of changes in the setting up of the market and the various market forces have evolved and changed in accordance to the various needs, demands and requirements of the individual. Over the years there have emerged a number of concepts in the business and management world, which are the response of the organizational sector to the changes and alternations that have taken place in the global economic market. One such concept that has developed over time and emerged as critically important to the organization and efficient working of companies is management. Management has an important role to play while these strategic changes in the functioning of an organization takes place to ensure that the transition is carried out in a smooth manner without any problems. Management is an important functioning for all companies in the world today. The managerial as well as the functional team of any organization is rested on the services of the telecommunication sector to ensure that they can function as a well coordinated system. There has been observed that the role of the telecommunication sector has evolved a lot since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and in the last 125 years the telecommunication industry has evolved at a faster rate than it had in the 18th century. The development of the Knowledge Plan allows the management team to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the functioning of the organization both at the individual level as well as at the more macro level of the entire company. The significance of the knowledge plans allows the management team to make analysis of the entire data base of the organization where the collective expertise of the entire management team is summarized, and the facts as well as the database of the organization is analyzed and thus, there is established a clear understanding of the working of the company so as to ensure that there is establishment of value in the company as a whole. The knowledge management plan looks at the technological as well as the resource management plan of the company. When one is developing a knowledge management plan that there has to be focus on all the managerial aspects of the company including the human resources, the data, the market functioning of the company as well the external factors such as the legal aspects, the competition in the market and other such variables. It has to be ensured that a clear understanding of all the factors are developed so that the review is established in an organized manner and the management plan in the future can be developed with regards to this plan It has been observed that the Knowledge Plan has seemed to have failed in the past due to the fact that there is an emphasis on the data base and the facts whereas the human factor is not focused upon. Thus, there has to be ensured that the human resource is also taken into account when developing the Knowledge Management Plan (Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry, 1990). The area of Knowledge Management has been observed to have received a high amount of attention from the managers of the company in the past as it is seen to have a direct impact on the working of the company in the long run. The Knowledge management Plan helps the company improve itself in various sections of performance. These have been enlisted in the section below. Knowledge management attracts high attention in the management agenda. Improved competitive responsiveness, Accelerated rate of innovation, Reduced integral costs and Better knowledge-based decision-making. Company Details and Analysis The company that has been analyzed in the Knowledge Management Plan is the Zain telecommunications groups. Zain is a mobile telecommunication group that has been established in the country of Kuwait in the year of 1983 and since then it has developed and expanded across a number of countries. In the year of 2007 it was renamed Zain, and has become firmly established in eight countries across the Middle East as well as Africa. In the month of June in the year of 2010 it had a customer base of 34.2 million customers across these nation states. The company is one of the most important mobile telecommunication company (MTC) in the region. The role of the company and its functioning has developed with time (Zain, Online). The company was established on the year of 2008 in the month of August. The company today provides a number of services in the region and is trying to focus in developing its customer base in the various countries including Saudi Arabia, where in the year of 2009, only after a year of being established the company was able to establish itself in the market and was catering to a customer base of 3.7 million people in the country of Saudi Arabia. Functioning and Financial Management The company is one of the most well established companies in the region, where it is functional in over 22 countries and is a major player in 8 countries in the Middle East and the African region. The services that are provided by the Zain are in keeping with the changes that have taken place in the technological system (Grant, R.M, 1996). The Zain mobile telecommunications provides services such as voice services such as calls, international roaming, voicemail, conference call, voice SMS, and SMS and MMS services for the subscribers of the company as well as SIM applications such as subscription channels, downloading pictures, ringtones, games applications and others are also supported by the network. It helps ensure that the overall functioning and servicing that is enjoyed by the customers are well developed and maintained. The company also provides the customers with the option of 3G and 3.5G services where they can download information and make video calls and send across video mail (Bhasin R, 1997). The company was established in the country in the year of 2007when the license to function was awarded to the telecommunication Group Zain by the government, and then in the year of 2008 in March the company got listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. The company has since then been able to grow and establish itself in the market and has over 2, 200 employees in the country. Today the towers of the company cover almost 93% of the nation state, which runs across 43 cities and 67 highways. The company is running successfully in the country today, and has been able to establish itself in the Saudi Arabian market. The company in the recent times has also collaborated with Blackberry in the region to ensure that it is able to invest further in the market and will allow the customer base to develop further. In the recent year of 2010 the company has collaborated with the company of Blackberry and has launched a new program, which has helped the organization diversify its customer base. It has today been able to offer its customer more diverse service packages as it realizes that the needs of various organizations are different and by collaborating with Blackberry it has been able to establish itself not only in the national market but also in the international market in the long run. There has been observed that the role of the internet in the 21st century has become highly significant, and most of the companies today have come to rely on it to ensure that they can gain an advantage over its competitors in the market. The companies today utilize the telecommunications systems to thus communicate internally as well as externally. The role of the telecommunication system, mainly the internet in the functioning of the corporations can be understood in relation to the external and internal communication.   The finances of the company are another important area that has to be established. It formulates the backbone of the organization and no company can function without capital and funding. The company will be based on the finances that it will receive as investment from potential investors. The company has its own financial department which will look into the accounting and auditing of the finances of the company, and also ensure the allocation of funds to the various departments (Cummins J G, Hubbard R G, 1994). This will include the financing of the structures, the payment of the staff, the allocation of resources towards the marketing of the organization, the financing of the market study and other such finances.                           The finances of the organization are one of the most important operations undertaken. The corporation can also draw upon the governmental policies to ensure that its tax burden is reduced to minimal and it is able to maximize its profits. The company employs a number of minorities and the local population of the countries that it functions in; in fact they amount to almost 60 % of the company’s employees, which allows the company to draw upon governmental policies of tax rebate and subsidies. Thus, the financial strategic management of the corporation is highly evolved and developed. The company has made a huge investment in the region to ensure that it is able to develop its communication system in an effective manner. Marketing management:                         The marketing scheme of the organization is one of the most important strategic operations that are carried out by the corporation. The marketing scheme of the organization is a comprehensive one which looks into the external audit and the internal audit of the organization (Karger, D. W., & Malik, Z. A. 1975, pp 60-64). The fact that has to be realized is that the organization is the leading organization in the telecommunication sector, where it functions in over 8 countries in the region of the Middle East and Africa. This allows it to draw from a number of cultures and economies and it has a deep understanding of various cultures (Berry, Leonard L.; A. Parasuraman, 1991). This is utilized by the organization to develop the best methods of functioning, and it can incorporate different methods of functioning. This allows it to have an edge over the other organizations which lack such insight (Dall, Michael; Bailine, Adam, 2004). The external threat that it runs due to being a global organization is reduced as it receives concessions from the various governments and this allows it to manage its financial risk also in the face of economic instability. Thus, the marketing team of the organization can draw upon these factors to capture the market in the long run.                  The marketing team also has to look into the SPACE matrix and the Grand Strategy matrix of the organization (Berman S, 2000, pp 57-69). The organization is the one of the most important functioning in the sector, where it has an edge over the others as it is the financial leader in the sector. Also its area of influence is larger than others who are its competitors, and this also helps provide an edge to the organization over its rivals (Griffin, R., and M. Putsay, 1998, pp 37-62). The overall strategic position of the organization is a strong one, as it provides greater services to the customers in comparison to the other organizations in the sector. SWOT Analysis                         When the strategic management of the company is analyzed in face of the SWOT analysis there has to be realized that the role of the strategic management of the organization is very high (Baskin, Otis & Arnoff, Craig, 1992, pp 1250130). The strengths of the organization are that it has a number of areas of functioning, and it provides for a varied number of services to the customers. The organization is also strong in the financial sector, where it is the largest gross earner in the telecommunication and mobile service sector. This provides it an edge over the others (Reed D 1997, pp 51-53). The weaknesses of the organization is that the strategy of the organization is that it has to become more active in the international arena, as it is still more active in the American market and it has failed to grow in the developing economies. Opportunities in the industry are many, as there are break through that come about every other day, including the development of new methods of security, provision of services in accordance to the needs of the corporation. The company employs over 150, 000 people in over 60 countries and this allows for greater cultural interaction, and thus the strategy of the company is an amalgation of the various cultures (Joby J 2003, pp 139-144). This allows it to have an edge over the other organizations as it is able to incorporate various strategic theories to develop a unique system of strategy for itself. It faces a threat from the other competitors such as the Hilton, which is also a large multinational corporation in itself. Also it is open to the economic vulnerabilities of the globalised economy. These threats have to be accommodated into the strategic management of the organization.  Challenges In the recent times the company has faced a certain amount of challenges in the market. The most significant challenge that the company faces is from the national telecom company as it is well established in the region and has already developed a well structured consumer base. The company is also more active in all the section of the country so that is another fact that gives it an edge over Zain. In the recent times there has also been observed that the company Etisalat has also bought the shares of the company and is looking for a takeover of the company in the Saudi Arabian market. The change in the share holding has seen to have had a positive effect on the market of the company. It has been observed that the shares of the company rode up after the move and the overall popularity of the company in the market is high. It still is not the top company in the market but the collaboration and the change in the shares has given the company a better chance of being able to combat the Saudi Telecom Company and be able to establish itself better. The competition is high, and the fact that the company is looking for expanding further, as it is new poses a challenge as it will have to develop its resources while maintaining its customer base and also expanding its services at the same time to ensure that it can establish itself better in the Arabian market. Recommendations         There are certain changes that can be bought about in the system to ensure that the overall functioning of the organization becomes more developed and efficient. This has been discussed and established in the section below. The company today needs to enhance the number of services that it makes available to its consumers and has to ensure that it is able to adapt to the challenges of the market (Markus, M.L, 2001). This can be carried out through the establishment of plans that can be adopted by the consumers which are in keeping with their need and are economical in nature. The company can also ensure that the security measures in the company are maintained. One of the ways that the security can be enhanced is through firewalls and security gateways that help protect the information transfer from hackers. A firewall or a secure gateway provides for a secure passage of information between a private and a public forum. This allows the employer to ensure safety against hackers. The gateway can be used also to divide between the high risks users from the low risk users, also it could provide for email setups which send certain section of the database, which might be required by the telecommuters, to them via emails. This allows access without the threat of technological theft. But some telecommuters need direct access to the data pool, in which case the database could be divided and protected separately, so that no one can access the whole database, which increases its security. They can thus use set ups like the LAN (local area network), TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol.), etc.                       Another method which ensures security is Robust Authentication, which helps increase security. In such a setup one may be given tokens, with personalized identification number, PINs which help ensure greater security. This allows the telecommuters the security of a token and PINs which provides better protection than just the pass words. Also the tokens can have the system of one-time-passwords which allows the telecommuter to change his or her password every time he or she accesses their accounts which ensures security against shoulder surfers, hackers, etc. Another threat is that of eavesdropping in on conversations, this is especially true in the case of conferences, where there is access to a wire or a cable. This would allow the eavesdropper to not only hear the conversation; he can even duplicate any information which he might find useful.(Johnson, Tolly 1995) Software and hardware encryption provides security against this but this is an expensive mode of security. These safety measures will help allow the company to be able to cater to the need of privacy of the customers in a more enhanced manner. The company has over the years entered into a number of contracts and mergers so that it could evolve. As has been mentioned in the section above, that the biggest challenge that is posed to the company is by Saudi Telecom, and therefore collaboration and merging with other companies will allow the company to function in a more effective and economic manner. The company can also look into the training of the human resource base of the company in the long run to ensure that the overall development of the company occurs in a well structured manner. Another important area that has to be developed by the organization is that the company also has to look into the social responsibility that it’s has towards society. This is done by the organizations through a number of strategies (Jashapara, A, 2004) such as employing the minorities and the women so that they can be developed and bettered in society. (Verlag R H, 2009, pp 5-14). This will also have a positive impact on the finances of the organization as the government provides rebate and subsidies to organizations which invest in such ventures. Thus, the overall result of such investment on the part of the organization will be reflected in the finances and the functioning of the enterprise in the long run. Reference Jashapara, A (2004) Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, Peason Education Limited, England, p. 12.  Grant, R.M. 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