The FINANCIAL — The Georgian mobile operator Geocell, with its new Chief Executive Officer Pasi Koistinen, is going to build up a “new Geocell”, where customers will get the best products and services to meet their needs.
As TeliaSonera annual reporting shows, Geocell wrapped up the year with good results. “Out of the many campaigns offered to match the different needs of our customers, the most popular offer is still the ‘tariff 1-10’, used by over half a million subscribers monthly.”
“In order to find a goal, you first need to know where you are, like always, it is good to have a wish list for Christmas, but in business, we need to select the priorities that will bring the most benefit to the company,” Pasi Koistinen said. “So 2013 will be the year of a new, positive ‘Geo-start’. We, as a team, will build up a new Geocell where the key word will be ‘Change’ ensuring a strong and customer-centric approach where our customers will always get the best products and services to meet their needs.
“Concentrating myself on studying the Geocell business as I started my CEO mission in the Georgian operations of TeliaSonera, the Swedish-Finnish operator, I can say the following: we need all the strength and increasing light of spring in the air to face the change of Geocell in many areas of its operations. And why do we need change? Georgia has come to a very typical market status of mobile operations. From a two player duopoly to three player open competition in fifteen years is normal all over the world, together with saturated penetration, where more or less everyone has a mobile phone or two. The outcome: crazy price competition and a battle for market share. In order to have healthy, long-term business and maintain jobs, we need to change the way we operate. During the duopoly days, it is pretty easy to run a business: penetration grows, revenue grows, market share grows. I had this experience in Nepal: from 1.5 million subscribers to 9 million, with penetration up to 55% in four years. I had the opposite type of experience in Finland, where Sonera’s market share came down from 60% to the 30% it is nowadays. Both are very normal. In a market trend like what we are facing in Georgia, we, as Geocell, need to focus on world class customer experience, cost effectiveness and differentiation in order to have a new start, with sustainable business.
“Change is refreshing. Remember the Geocell red colour from a couple of years ago? Everyone loved that red and in spite of little resistance to change, now the colour is purple!
“As for how from my standpoint I see things to be changed, it is about becoming a ‘Game Changer’, going with a new approach with several development projects to make this happen.
“I joined TeliaSonera in 1998 and came to Georgia as President and CEO on 1 November, 2012. At TeliaSonera I had several management positions, the latest one as CEO in Ncell, Nepal. Before joining TeliaSonera, I served at the top managerial level in diverse fields such as the hospitality industry, advertising agencies and FMCG. Over the 30 years of my career I have lived and worked or studied in Finland, the UK, Singapore, China, the USA, South Korea, Cambodia and Nepal.
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Some might wonder why I came to Georgia. The motive was very easy: I wanted to come to Georgia by my own wish.
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“Some might wonder why I came to Georgia. The motive was very easy: I wanted to come to Georgia by my own wish. This is the country with the most European style of our Eurasian operations: friendly people, good climate, interesting competitive situation, closer to my home in Finland and last but not least – I love good food and wine. I bought tens of bottles of Saperavi in Finland during the last 20 years without knowing much else about the country itself. Actually, my first college degree was in Hotel and Restaurant Management, so I am a big fan of business service in many ways. And here I am having been welcomed by Georgia and Geocell. In my very first days here I already started to feel like an adopted brother from far away: lost in translation, seeking my way through Tbilisi and trying to find all the everyday necessities in the supermarkets. I am also trying to pick up some “Kartuli”, even though some of the Georgian words are impossible for me to pronounce correctly.
“Now, as almost seven months have passed since I arrived in Georgia, I can say that I am an inseparable part of Geocell and I am so thankful to all the friendly Geocell team for the warm Georgian welcome to their country. Together we are a team. So far during this period of my Georgian operations we have done outstanding work to make our common future an exciting experience, which will bring all our stakeholders to a world of better opportunities.”
Q. What is your overall plan on how to attract or win over more subscribers?
A. We intend to continue a long-term, sustainable business based on healthy competition and reasonable prices, where we, as Geocell, and our dear subscribers will be enjoying mutually beneficial relationships. One of the key issues here is to strengthen our commercial offerings to ensure that we’ll always meet our customers’ demands and make our products and services the most attractive and competitive.
Q. What do you think, will free SMS and call apps damage Geocell’s and other companies’ revenues?
A. Diversity of communication solutions is part of our reality and again, as I already mentioned, we have to face the changes in business, new platform, new solutions… Nowadays as voice is becoming less of a priority with increasing demand for data, our focus is to offer great mobile data with attractive prices to meet the demands of different segments and compete with the other technology solutions with diversity of services based on the latest technologies, which we are going to fit comfortably in to one offer. So I think that as we are going on our new, refreshed path, we do not intend to concentrate on the damage that new solutions and platforms of technology might bring to us, but instead concentrate on our new solutions to compete with the above-mentioned, as well as all the other increasing competitive solutions on the world telecommunications market.
Q. What about the price policy of Geocell? How affordable are the prices that the company offers its subscribers?
A. As we have raised the bar of our quality of operations even higher and as both in our B2B and B2C models we are focused on introducing the most attractive commercial offerings, here we stress the long-term beneficial relations between the company and the customers, where prices are affordable, but not unreasonably low and in most cases equal to “zero”. This low-price damping policy will lead any business to destructive results, while a quality and customer-oriented business such as Geocell will go on running its sustainable operations in the country with continuous investments and affordable prices.
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Actually, the prices are already so low that rock bottom has been achieved. We need to secure our investments for future technologies and help Georgia to fill the gap of the digital divide in internet services.
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Q. How do you rate the competition between Geocell and other mobile operators on the Georgian market? What is the market share of Geocell at present in Georgia?
A. During the past couple of years, Geocell has been faced by a lot of external pressure by regulations and fierce competition. In addition, crazy price competition and a battle for market share are quite a challenge for a sustainable company which intends to continue investing in the country and run a healthy, long-term business. We are concerned that the latest practice of suggesting a mobile operator consolidated tender under the existing terms and services is pushing private companies into price competition, where the tariff requirements are set by the buyer and at the same time unreasonably low. This in turn leads to a negative impact on the competition between the mobile operators and creates an unfavourable environment on the market in terms of the state of the competition, which is neither healthy nor meaningful. Our priority is to make a sustainable business, where both the company and its customers benefit from the relationship, which will be effective and quality-oriented. Consequently, we intend to make our business and continue investing in Georgia while introducing and developing the latest technologies. Promoting the introduction of unreasonably low tariffs destroys the company’s view on its overall strategy to perform a successful business in Georgia. Geocell will continue to be the leading operator as an innovator focused on suggesting attractive commercial offers. According to consumer surveys, Geocell is the leading brand among operators: we are humble and proud, and always thankful to our customers for their support.
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“First of all, I have perceived Golden Brand to be one of the most honoured awards in Georgian business. Therefore it was my pleasure to become a holder of this prize. As I mentioned before, I have gone through a very distinguished six months of outstanding work together with my Geocell team and this award shows that our company is performing in the best way in order to be recognized as one of the Golden Brands in Georgian business and to be the only brand to be called ‘Platinum’.”
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Q. How much does Golden Brand contribute to raising Geocell’s image among its customers?
A. I feel that Golden Brand is more like an award from the business community for the long-term work that we have done. Naturally, it is a reflection of the consumer mindset and the award definitely has a sustainable impact both ways.
We try to use the Golden Brand Award as much as possible. It is also a motivator internally to remind us of the importance of world class marketing: the better we do our job, the more we are rewarded by the public as well as the business community.
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