Omran offers strategic insight of telecoms sector

Mohammad Hassan Omran, Etisalat’s chairman,
will address the Strategic Telecoms Summit at 9.15am.

Etisalat’s chairman, Mohammad Hassan Omran is a keynote speaker on the first morning of the Strategic Telecoms Summit, which is being held alongside MECOM 2008.

Omran, who will be speaking at 9.15 this morning, will offer a strategic outlook on the telecoms sector from Etisalat’s viewpoint. He acknowledges there are three regional telecommunications companies vying with the traditional global giants, of which Etisalat is one.

Through different strategies and approaches to international expansion, all three of these organisations have achieved significant successes and Omran stands at the head of the largest telecommunications company in the Middle East.

It is also one of the 20 largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalisation. “To capitalise on all of the opportunities available to us, we must look for synergies between our investment subsidiaries and today, each entity within the Etisalat family or group of companies is working to address this challenge,” stated Omran.

“Adding a new area of thinking, not only how they can compete locally, but how they can help achieve growth across the region and to open new revenue opportunities.”

Omran says Etisalat has identified seven synergies that the company is looking to activate – value, culture, expertise, innovation, success, network and diversity. Etisalat is looking to achieve these synergy objectives this year by increasing the impetus placed on its non-core businesses and on the synergies that the group’s scale, scope, and operational footprint brings to the fore. Extensive managerial resources and attention have been dedicated to leveraging the unique attributes of Etisalat’s top three markets (UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) and the company will launch a special service proposition to its mobile customers across those key markets that will greatly enhance the appeal of Etisalat’s mobile services to its roaming customers.

In terms of priorities, Omran stated that Etisalat’s first synergy, is the synergy of value. “Etisalat, by virtue of its size, value and strong financial position is in a great position to capitalise on these opportunities. And our organisation is enhanced by the success of each of our subsidiaries, in terms of their impact on our bottom line and also in terms of higher value they add to our share price.”

Omran says Etisalat is fortunate to operate in a region that has such free-movement of talent, meaning each of its countries has a rich and diverse culture and community. By expanding into international markets, Etisalat gains invaluable knowledge and experience in
understanding its customers through the synergy of culture.

“Another source of synergy that the group enjoys today, a synergy of expertise, is the advanced technology and status of the UAE. This is a corner stone of our strategy, not only providing the source of much of our finance for our investment, but also the technical expertise, marketing know-how and general operational excellence replicated in Egypt, with similar success.

The Etisalat family of companies is known for their ability to compete, flexibility, innovation and leadership prowess. This culture of success and the drive to achieve higher benchmarks is inherent throughout the organisation. “Last year I launched Etisalat carrier and wholesale services. This was effectively an internal function until this point, servicing our subsidiaries and providing transit services for voice and data. Today, with our extensive investments in submarine cable networks, points of presence in the US, Europe and Asia, and a worldclass quality team, Etisalat, with its synergy of network stands amongst the world’s most important companies in capacity provisioning,” Omran revealed.

“This unit is very important to the ongoing success of Etisalat, providing reliable and high capacity connectivity to our African subsidiaries, as well as providing robust services for our Middle East carriers.”