telecom sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

telecom sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (HALF A PAGE)

The telecom sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered the fastest growing and most developed in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. It is believed to have the highest level of penetration in the region, and Du Telecom joined the market, it became a duopoly as it competed with Etisalat, a telecom that dominated the entire sector. Over the years, the five more companies have joined the sector, and this has significantly increased the competition. Du Telecom is continuously under pressure from the Over-the-top (OTT) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies, and the increased competition from the other players has presented a significant problem on the company margins and revenues (Du Telecom, 2018). The squeezed margins have mainly affected the company’s traditional area, which is the provision of connectivity, which is primarily due to the technological changes that being experienced in the country and globally. One example is the shift from the Fourth Generation Network (4G) network to Five Generation Network (5G), which Du Telecom has launched and is expanding into different areas within the UAE. However, other companies are also seeking to shift to 5G, and this could only be a partial solution to the marginal squeeze. Therefore, even with the implementation of the 5G network, other alternatives can be used to address the marginal squeeze. The imputation test can be used to determine the profit margins of the firms through looking into market efficiency factors against the upstream and downstream price that should be paid to the supplier, downstream costs that can be avoided and the competition’s return rated which cannot be expected from the existing market conditions (Shouvik & Shriyani, 2014). This will help the company in adjusting its rates to ensure by offering the fastest network, at the lowest prices, profits are maximized, and the number of active customers increases. It will also be effective in determining what technological innovations are worth investing in and the kind of impacts they will have on the customers, the company revenues, and the general brand reputation.

INTRODUCTION

History of Du Telecom

Du is a telecommunications company based in Dubai under the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC). Founded in 2006, the company began its operations by offering both fixed mobile and telephone services, television, broadband, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services to businesses, individuals, and homes in the UAE. The company further expanded its services to include the provision of carrier services, satellite for broadcasting services, exchange facilities for internet users, and a data hub. The company is currently under a joined ownership between the UAE government under the Emirates Investment Authority with 39.5% ownership. The Government of Abu Dhabi owns 19.75% through Mubadala Investments Company, Dubai Holdings has 19.5% through owning Emirates International Telecommunications Company LLC, and the remaining shares are owned by public shareholders, who are both UAE and non-UAE nationals and organizations (Mubadala, 2020).

Du’s rapid growth in business has resulted in the company employing over 2,000 staff who work to develop their various services. The company has embraced cultural diversity as most of the employees are from over 60 countries enabling the company to serve customers in different languages (Du Telecom, 2020). The senior management, including the recruitment team, is made up of over 50% UAE nationals, and the company remains committed to the provision of fulfilling job opportunities for high-quality talent working in a cosmopolitan environment.

Du Telecom Mission and Goal

The company is guided by the mission to want to delight its consumers by creating optimal value for shareholders, being an employer of choice for high quality, and the best talent through innovation, excellence, and contributing to the transformation of the community in general. The company works to deliver this by using the available skills, expertise, and energies to offer inspiration, solid connections, and rewarding everything the company gets involved with every day. The company is founded on three important sustainability pillars; making communities and people happy, delivering the benefits of ICT to everyone, and operating responsibly and ethically (Du Telecom, 2020). To contribute to making a further contribution to sustainability, the company is guided by four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include; SDG 8, which is aimed at providing decent labor and economic growth, SDG 9 on innovation, industrial and infrastructural development, SDG 10, which aims to reduce the number of inequalities and SDG 11 aimed at developing sustainable communities and cities (EITC, 2019). These four goals have continuously supported the company’s mission and goal, especially in strategic planning.

Du Telecom Scope of Business

Major Markets

The current market model that Du operates under is focused on areas that are high in their population density, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. These areas are also considered to have a high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rate as they target both business and individual clients through their wide variety of services and products (Huang, 2017). The company has also worked on a simplified model for the tariffs offered through special international calling rates and allowing customers to customize their services based on their needs. In addition to this, the company has ventured into on-demand entertainment where customers can customize this package using their pay per view model. As of 2018, from the available annual statements, the company has almost 50% market share with 6.5 million mobile subscribers, while fixed-line and home service subscribers are at 555,000 and 180,000, respectively (Du, 2018). Currently, there are over 70,000 businesses that are using services offered by Du.

Overall Performance

The financial year 2017/2018 resulted in an all-time high revenue of AED13.41 billion, which, when compared to the year 2017, was a 3.2% increase. Net profits after royalties in 2018 also increased to AED 1.75 billion, which equated the company’s earnings per share to AED 0.37 and recorded an increase of 2.4% when compared to 2017 (Du Telecom, 2018). Following recommendations by the Board of Directors, the cash dividend was offered at AED 0.22 per share, which cumulatively was AED 0.35 per share in 2018. In 2018, the company invested an estimated AED 1 billion through capital expenditure (Du Telecom, 2018). The performance of the company shows a healthy balance sheet supported by a strong position in the capital, which means that the company can make the right investments required to grow the business.

Founded on two performance pillars, Du has been able to develop structures that have supported growth within the company continuously. The first pillar within the company is working through efficiency, which has been fundamental in reorganizing and reassessing the company’s work culture, cost structures, and dynamics related to the company’s core business (Du Telecom, 2018). As a process that was initiated in 2017, it has continued to have a positive impact on the company’s financial results. The second pillar stretches beyond the company’s core business, which is connectivity and seeks to diversify services and streams of revenue through implementing growth opportunities to adjacent domains related to the core business. By extracting revenue from new streams, the company will be able to add value to shareholders while improving the company’s reputation by being the leading telecom company in the UAE (Du Telecom, 2018).

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

Partnerships with globally established companies.

Advanced Innovation.

Customer-Focused Approach.

Efficiency Philosophy.

Weaknesses

Declined revenue and margins.

Frequent violation reports.

Recurrent network interruptions.

Opportunities

5G network to attract more customers.

An already established brand name.

Expansion into global markets.

Threats

Operational Risks.

Strategic Risks

Financial Risks.

Regulatory Risks.

Strengths

Partnership with Globally Established Companies

Du ventured into an exclusive partnership with Amazon Prime and Netflix to provide customers with customized entertainment options. Connections across boundaries were also established through unlimited video and voice calls with the integration of the Internet Calling Pack. A dual strategy aimed at bringing two brands together enabled the entry of Virgin Mobile into the UAE market and also offered the company a new face as compared to the previous recognition of the Du brand (Du Telecom, 2017). These partnerships have increased revenues for the company and also increased the number of subscribers for the different services.

Advanced Innovation

The company established a unique division aimed at enterprise solutions that combined bother ICT solutions and enterprise related connectivity. This has transformed the company into a Smart ICT Partner offering one-stop-shop services within the region (Antonova, 2018). In addition to this, Di has partnered with key government entities that have provided various solutions through the use of the Dubai Pulse platform, which offers services related to infrastructure, platform, and data science.

Customer-Focused Approach

At the core of the company’s premise is the customer’s first program, which is the pillar of all the training and strategic initiatives in the company. By having the customer in mind, the company can plan, implement, and deliver at every department from the stores to the contact center (Hamme, 2015). Customer demands continue to grow, and therefore the company is always focused on improving the customer experience daily. By understanding their customer’s preferences, the company offers online payment options with the two most preferred methods in the country. Visa, which has a 60% market share in the UAE population, followed by Master Card with a 34.4% share of the UAE market (Cross-border Ecommerce Community, 2015).

An Efficiency Philosophy

The company has been able to develop an efficiency philosophy aimed at making tight controls on costs, optimizing the spending capex, and improving efficiency across the company’s businesses. A resultant effect has been the improvement of the company’s core business and a reflection on the on-going success of the efficiency program (Du Telecom, 2018).

Weaknesses

Declined revenue and margins

Due to the increasing competition in the market, the company has suffered a decline in revenue and margins. After the company joined the telecom sector, other entrants such as Advacomm, Site Technology, Koohiji Group, Krishna International, Telephone Systems International, and the main competition Etisalat have ventured into the market hence stiffening the competition for revenue and profit margins (Rafay & Khan, 2018). This could see the company resulting in strict measures to reduce the decline, and the most common measures tend to affect the employees through layoff or pay-cuts, an increase in customer rates, or disposal of company assets.

Frequent violation reports

In the year 2018, the company reported sixty-three violations from the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA). Out of these, fifty-five were related to regulatory policy on registration requirements, one was on regulations related to consumer protection, six were on the registration of mobile Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card at the point of sale, and the last violation was related to services focused on the portability of mobile number framework(Du Telecom, 2018). These violations could portray a negative image on the company, and it could discourage users from opting for the services the network is offering.

Recurrent network interruptions.

After its inception in the telecommunication sector, Du experienced numerous issues related to network stability and service coverage. This affected the company’s competitive edge against the dominant Etisalat, as many customers preferred using Etisalat over Du. In addition to this, the network on the outgoing and incoming calls was also compromised, and the problem affected many customers. Although the issues were resolved, the company is constantly dealing with network interruptions. In one incident, the company announced over its social media network that some technical issues affected the company’s home service due to a worldwide cable cut (Gulf News, 2020). Although the company offered to update clients in three hours, these frequent interruptions can result in major financial losses to businesses using the company’s services.

Opportunities

5G network to attract more customers.

The launch of the 5G network was aimed at introducing higher capacities with a promise of a faster future in mobile phones. Known for its fast internet download and browsing speeds, Du promises consumers that they will access ten Gigabits per second (Gbps) even when in a crowded space or in areas that have less ideal network coverage. In addition to faster speeds, 5G will also provide a faster response time which, when compared to 4G, is down a few milliseconds, hence eliminating delays in communication (Du Telecom. 2020b). The company has also focused on advertising the sale of 5G supported devices to its customers to ensure that they can receive the full 5G experience. As of April 2020, ten locations in the Northern Emirates and Dubai have 5G coverage, while twenty locations in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi have 5G currently rolled out (Du Telecom, 2020c). The introduction of 5G by Du creates a significant opportunity for the company to offer this new technology network to customers as the only competition that the company has is with Etisalat, hence the market share is not so competitive.

An already established brand name

Du was the second telecom company to venture into the industry after the dominating giant Etisalat. With an estimated 7.2 million customers spread across different services that include mobile users, home, and fixed-line customers, this is a significant market share, which implies that the Du brand is well established within the UAE (Du, 2018). The company also has more than 70,000 businesses using their services as well-meaning that their services are also trusted across businesses. Such a strong and established brand is an opportunity for the company to remain competitive and to grow revenues.

Expansion into global markets

Partnerships and a proven track record through industry and government recognition both on a national and international level present an opportunity for the company to expand into global markets. For example, with the use of its 5G network, the company can venture into international markets that have a high demand for the 5G network. Further, according to Du Telecom (2018) corporate partnerships with major brands such as Amazon, Netflix, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, and Etihad Airways proves that the company can be trusted to successfully venture into global markets either for service provision or important partnerships.

Threats

Operational Risks

Transformation in Information Technology (IT) within the company might not be well structure to deliver the expected significant output or benefits to the customers. This significantly affects the company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is a management tool used to measure and gauge customer loyalty to the company (Du Telecom, 2018). The outcome with a failed system is often negative as customers tend to prefer other service providers. The company is also at risk of cyber-attacks, which could result in a damaged reputation, network outages, and financial implications. Another operational risk relates to the company’s key vendors and suppliers who are heavily relied on by the company. Failure to provide services or deteriorated services among the suppliers could affect the company’s ability to offer stable and uninterrupted services to their clients. The issue of service interruptions is another risk that the company is exposed to, especially physical disruptions, power outages, and malicious activities. These result in financial losses, reputational risks, and an increase in agitated customers.

Strategic Risks

The ability to embrace innovation is considered a risk as the rapid evolution and disruptive technologies have been found to challenge the company’s ability to offer customer-centered services and products and the ability to maintain profits and sustainability. With the firm’s limited ability to keep up with the fast-industrial pace on effective innovations, this means that the company could take time to implement emerging and new technologies (Du Telecom, 2018). Coupled with the uncertainties such as customer reception to these new technologies, the decision to invest or not is considered a crucial strategic risk.

Financial Risks

Du’s financial risks are primarily caused by external factors that affect the market on a global or national level. Some of these risks could include an economic go-slow and increased competitors providing similar products or services. Implications could lead to interruptions in the company’s revenue, the debt profile, and liquidity access, causing financial stress on the company.

Regulatory Risks

Given the regulatory violations imposed on the company over the years, an increase in these regulatory-related complexities could lead to unexpected challenges in the manner in which the company conducts its business.

CORPORATE-LEVEL STRATEGIES

Diversification

Corporate diversification has received contradictory responses with those against it, arguing that an organization’s executives should not make decisions on behalf of the company’s stakeholders and shareholders. Diversification refers to a strategic option that most managers use to improve the performance of the company. Du’s governance model provides corporate governance that is aligned with the best global practices, maintains a prominent regulatory compliance position, and involves both shareholders and stakeholders in the company (Medudula et al., 2016). In addition to upholding the balance between achieving the company’s short-term vision and prioritizing accomplishing long term goals, effective governance is handled through sharing roles and responsibilities among the company’s shareholders, Board of Directors, Committee members, and the management.

A commitment to creating a fair recruitment policy and transformative opportunities, the company prides itself as an equal employer. Du Telecom does not discriminate based on gender, age, race, or region, and decisions on recruitment are based on merit and employee performance. The company supports gender-balanced employment by offering equal opportunities at all company levels. As a result, the company has a vibrant team of employees with experience diversity, perspectives, and individual strengths that have contributed to engagement and innovation development across the company (Du Telecom, 2018). Efforts to strengthen the company’s commitment to women empowerment led to the launch of the first UAE Women’s Council within the telecommunication sector. The launch of this council has placed the company in a better position to empower female employees, who are 29% of the workforce at Du. This is further supported by the 2018 recruitment records, which indicated that 40% of the new employees were female.

Means of Diversification

The corporate strategy on delivering diversification is based on creating value to stakeholders and sustainable growth through delighting and diligently serving customers and employee development. Transformations through diversification were delivered through strengthening the company’s competitive levers based on three corporate strategies. The first is focused on delivering efficiency, value, and effectiveness in the company’s core business in line with the effective transformation (Wheeler, 2017). Diversification of the company’s revenues was the second pillar through developing new and innovative services and products. The third and final diversification strategy is focused on digitalization and improving customer experience. For sustainable diversification, the company aims at optimizing and protecting the core objectives as they seek growth in the adjacent core objectives.

A recognition of vulnerable yet productive abilities among individuals is another approach that the company is focused on in regards to its employment policy. By supporting determined individuals for long term opportunities, the company has hired employees with special needs (Du Telecom, 2018). Further, considerations of their needs have been included to offer individual accommodations such as reducing their working hours, providing them with the necessary support such as visual aids, and frequently reviewing their work environment to make it conducive for their needs. For employees with families, the company offers a generous package on maternity leave that includes ninety calendar days that cover the period before and after delivery. In addition to this, if any health complications are experienced after delivery or during pregnancy, employees are offered unpaid leave for a period of one hundred calendar days, which can be taken consecutively or in an intermitted manner.

Company Restructuring

In 2017, the company focused on restructuring efforts through the creation of the EITC Telco Service department aimed at driving efficiency and increased customer engagement. This division as created to deliver the company’s innovations to the marketplace while expanding the company’s profitability and overall revenues (Halaweh & Al, 2016). Du has been in business for fourteen years, and Virgin Mobile was successfully launched in 2017, and they have been significantly involved in this process with significant positive results. Although these two brands do not compete, Du is considered the brand with a massive market position while Virgin Mobile caters to the tech-savvy market, which seems to be growing.

Another restructuring effort by the company was through designing the RESET program. This program was aimed at transforming the company’s operating measures through a process-based method on cost reduction and the latest digitalization. Working together with the RESET program has been an ongoing mission aimed at improving customer experience at every department within the company (Du Telecom, 2018). The program collaboration has resulted in saving costs and benefits from customer re-engagement. For a telecom company, time and resource economization are very crucial, and the savings from this program are difficult to underestimate. The company is committed to closely monitoring transactions made by customers to improve interactions. It has been a vital step towards innovative goals as these assessments on the quality of the customer service and products are made in real-time.

The creation of Webchat has also been another contribution to the restructuring plan of the company. Its primary purpose is to ease the traffic created in the call centers through rerouting calls to a digital channel (Du Telecom, 2018). In addition to this, easing call center traffic has also been transferred to the du website, which offers support for bother individuals and businesses. As a result, the company’s Transactional Net Promoter Score (TNPS), which measures customer satisfaction after an engagement or event, continues to record a significant growth on the franchise level and retail level (Du Telecom, 2018). For continuous and sustainable growth, the company has focused on educating employees, consistent training, and offering incentives.

Our Business Is Trust was created as a brand enterprise for the company to show corporate accountability and leverage into successful relationships in business. Upon its implementation, the Our Business Is Trust campaign continues to receive positive engagements within the entire business community (Du Telecom, 2018). The campaign also continues to reassure clients that Du continues to offer high-quality services and products with a keen focus on customer engagement. A focus on restructuring the local market remains the company’s main objective, even while restructuring, to improve services through innovation, improved customer service, efficiency, and maintaining market dominance.

BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIES

Competitive Strategy

Developing a Futuristic Telco

Squeezed margins continue to challenge Du’s traditional model aimed at providing connectivity, and just like any other telecommunications company in the world, the company is motivated to pursue new growth avenue and extra revenue streams. Similarly, other traditional telecommunication companies are focused on selling connectivity and have used consumer and business channels, which include the Government. For the last ten years, Du Telecom has focused on efficiency in its operations and delivering excellent services in voice, mobile, and data clients and businesses. However, these transformations developed by increased business dependency on the internet have been swift, making Du’s delivery expectations have expanded beyond the company’s recognition (Du Telecom, 2018). Therefore, to maintain a competitive edge, the company is focused on the delivery of connectivity adjacent services from the cloud and managed services to hosting and data security.

Diverse partnerships between Du’s EITC and Smart Dubai continues to support development through integrating systems based on global technology standards aimed at delivering services to the community. The company has been working on numerous projects that incorporate efficiency, safety, citizen sustainability, UAE residents, and businesses. In addition to this, Development IT has also transformed the company’s cultural agenda. This has been through making significant changes in line with the rapid developments in the industry to support the role of product creation. IT in the company has stretched beyond Operation Support Systems (OSS) AND Business Support Systems (BSS) to support services that are not related to telecom, such as smart cities and homes and provision of digital services (Muammar & Nicho, 2019). The functional evolution has created a competitive edge for the company, with its products being used in digital lifestyle and business innovations.

Customer Focus

At the heart of Du Telecom’s day-to-day activities, customer experience is a crucial contributor to the company’s competitive strategy. Since the telecom continues to grow, Du has primarily focused to out-do its competition through expanding based on their customer’s demands. Under the central premise Customer First Program which is a key competitive strategy, through developing a multiple support channel, this has offered different forms of support. As a result, the company has recorded an increase in subscriptions and new customers with positive feedback on customer engagement processes and platforms (Du Telecom, 2018).

Establishment of a Disruptive Brand

Through partnerships with global brands such as Virgin Mobile, this was a rebranding opportunity that was aimed at transforming the telecommunication sector in the UAE. By combining a company offering traditional connectivity services and a modern brand that represents new technologies, this partnership has created shockwaves among the telecom competitors in the UAE (Krishnan, 2015). This has been achieved by making a digital shift by offering flexible mobile tariffs and packages that are based on digital platforms only and experience. The partnership has resulted in capturing a decent market share by Virgin Mobile by gaining the trust of the astute modern customer and high-profile collaborations with Netflix and Apple. Even as a separate unit with a different team and culture, Virgin Mobile is rapidly transforming into a prominent market player in the UAE telecommunication sector.

Next Level Connectivity

The adoption of new technology by keeping up with emerging trends and innovations is being adopted significantly in the industry. The evolution in infrastructure is preparing the industry for the upcoming digital services. Du Telecom has also focused on pushing its network to the technological limit through the implementation of the 5G network (Alfa et al., 2018). In addition to this, the company has also developed IT structures that will be able to support this ultrafast technological development. The company has also partnered with companies such as Samsung to provide devices that support the 5G network. The Internet of Things (IoT), referred to as the use of tools that have intelligently connected and systems to promote and support data collection through embedded actuators and sensors in devices and other physical things, and 5G are key competitive strategies that have presented significant disruptive changes in the industry (Sharma & Tandekar, 2017).

Smart Company Policy

The company has focused on adding fresh talent at the executive level. A technology-savvy team was added to the workforce to support the smart company policy through the rapid implementation of digitalization. This has resulted in significant transformations on the pressing matters in the company, such as customer experience and the digitalization plan. Augmented in 2019, the company experienced a transformative acceleration in most of the company’s departments (Muammar & Nicho, 2019). In addition to this, training towards full digitalization has enabled the company to identify itself as a fully fledge technology firm. Through the development of the smart company policy, the company has also focused on reducing the time a product takes to get to the market. To achieve this, the company launched business-focused projects, standard IT policies, and procedures that included the revamping of company applications or transforming infrastructure and projects related to nee technological capabilities that have enabled the management to provide new market offers (Alfa et al., 2018).

Value Chain Integration

Vendors at Du Telecom are an integral part of the company’s value chain and help the company in the delivery of high-quality services and products to customers. Supplier evaluation is not only based on quality and costs but the health and safety values, social values, and environmental values. The company’s sourcing policy ensures that all engagements with vendors are competitive, fair, and unbiased. The policy on sourcing is further complemented by the company’s policy on Sustainable Environmental Procurement, which expects all prospective and current suppliers to fulfill the Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) requirements (Du Telecom, 2018). As of April 2020, all the vendors in the company have successfully conformed to the screening criteria on registration.

Procurements within the company have been utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). The use of AI has been used to optimize and automate repetitive processes that have achieved the efficiency goal within the company (IEEE GLOBECOM et al., 2018). Further optimizations have been conducted in the sales processes and the disposal of obsolete infrastructure and technical substances such as premise equipment, hazardous material, and written off-network infrastructure. AI efforts in the company have also encouraged the supplying SMEs to develop their structures through automation and the application of modern technology.

INTERNATIONAL-LEVEL STRATEGIES

Entry Strategies

The management at Du made it clear that they are not planning on venturing into international markets like their main competitor Etisalat. However, the company is focused on developing a strategy that will support international partnerships or mergers. International partnerships have proven to be a successful venture as the company continues to dominate the UAE market. To achieve these international standards that developed into international partnerships, some strategies were necessary to facilitate the company’s entry into the global business community.

The first entry strategy was focused on the global recognition of the company’s network infrastructure. By positioning itself as a leading global service provider specializing in broadcast services, in 2017, the World Teleport Association (WTA) ranked Du Telecom as the top ten teleport operators (*). These rankings were instrumental in the improvement of the company’s position in the Independent Top Twenty, where the company ranked ninth and in the Fast Twenty with Du at the ninth place. Through a sophisticated and well-developed teleport, the company has been able to serve both international and regional broadcast clients. Dubai also serves as a strategic location in the prime region for satellite visibility that covers five continents, hence enabling global coverage.

International telecom giants are known for keeping up with the industry trends, and lately, the use of 5G has been dominating in most of these telecoms. As such, these companies, when seeking partnerships, they prioritize companies that have similar network advancements. Du Telecom deployed its 5G network in 2019 with coverage specific areas in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The implementation of 5G will enable the use of broadband for industrial use such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and effective communication in smart cities (*). To further support the company’s plan for 5G, the company made an expansion to its growing infrastructure through the launch of a new teleport site that can accommodate at least fifty antenna systems to meet local and international demand.

Cooperative Strategies

International markets require strong partners to deliver top-notch services and products. Du Telecom focused on strengthening Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) payment solutions after it partnered with N-Genius, which is a platform designed for speedy, seamless, and scalable online transactions. Digitalization continues to spread within the UAE business environment, and therefore Du needed to provide them with adequate transformative technology for the future. The company’s Point of Sale offers payment solutions that are aimed at revolutionizing business transactions that offer merchants with a scalable and flexible solution. This innovation, just like any other international payment solution, is aimed at providing convenience through creating opportunities for international partnerships (Buckley, 2016).

Transparency within the corporate setting has also established the company’s international position. This has been through collaborations members of the fourth estate through conference calls with the local, national and international media. Such meetings are conducted to provide shareholders with updates on important developments (Santos, 2019). The company’s Chief Executive Officer makes direct and frequent contact with analysts and journalists to provide context and input on the financial position of the company. Quarterly media calls are a part of the company’s culture to communicate annual and quarterly results after they have been shared with the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). In these meetings, the CEO offers a clear financial overview based on the performance of presentations and an interactive question and answer session. These presentations are also uploaded to the company’s website for access to members of the public.

Global Integration

Customer expectations continue to evolve in regards to internet speeds with more introductions of the latest digital services and experiences from global players. People are always connected everywhere in the world; hence the demand for digital services is expanding rapidly. Global digital and technological customer experiences are setting the bar for service providers to transform into providing digital services (Hill & Hult, 2017). Du Telecom has expanded into these services by offering beyond the initial connectivity services to wider digital survives. Through redesigning the company’s infrastructure for fast adaptation and efficiency, Du Telecom is prepared for any future market shifts with its current services.

Global ecosystem play is becoming an imperative occurrence in digital competition for both new and existing companies. Through this rapid introduction of new services, Du has been able to create an ecosystem that has fostered collaborative partnerships. Crucial to these partnerships is the individual, business, and Government customers. Their participation has supported global integration through seamless customer service, innovative solutions and services, agile operations, and continuous innovations. The transformations that have resulted from this aspect of global integration have been effective across various parts of the company.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Governance Mechanisms

Governance at Du is an important priority to the Board of Directors as its practices have an extensive effect on the company’s business operations, brand, and the trust of the stakeholders and investors. Together with the strategic partners, the company has been recognized as a considerate employer with the governance strategies aligning with the UAE government’s 2021 vision (Du Telecom, 2018). The commitment of the company’s Board of Directors has ensured that the company has an active and strong corporate governance with the establishment of a special committee at the management level aimed at monitoring and averting any risks the company may face in the future. Working in harmony, the company’s governance committees have ensured that the company remains on course with the right focus, prioritization, and accountability of remedial strategies for key risks and the company’s compliance requirements.

Ethical Programs

Concerning the application of good governance and significant internal controls in business, Du has emphasized the important role of transparency and business ethics. These have been vital in the management of risk exposure by ensuring that the company adheres to the zero-tolerance policy on unethical practices and fraud. All employees are expected to read and accept the company’s Code of Conduct and Ethical Practices. The code is further complemented by the dedicated efforts of the Human Resource team that guides the staff on ethical behavior. Recently, the company formalized its response to fraud by issuing a clear statement on zero tolerance for fraud. In addition to this, the company has established a whistleblowing mechanism, on the company’s website, that is anonymous and applies to both the suppliers and staff (Du Telecom, 2018). It is a mechanism that lets both the vendors and staff share company concerns and operations with confidentiality.

CONCLUSION

Du has established itself both in the regional and international markets by taking the risk in 2006 to venture into a monopolistic sector. However, with the right strategic plan, market research, and a dedicated team, Du has earned its rightful place in the telecommunications sector. Coupled with significant ups and downs, the company has been able to establish responsive measures that have shielded it from extreme consequences. From the SWOT analysis, numerous opportunities for growth are available, as well as measures for corrective strategies to improve on the weaknesses. The management team has established itself through effective corporate strategies that are also influential in supporting businesses and international strategy. A supportive Board of Directors indicates that the corporate governance efforts in place are effective for ethical business. However, Du Telecom needs to learn from its mistakes and its competitors. The numerous policy violations could lead to severe consequences if they are not addressed immediately. Further, the company needs to create an infrastructural background to minimize frequent network interruptions. This paper makes the following recommendations; creation of a policy review committee, a consideration to venture into international markets since the company seems to have strong international relations, conducting an imputation test before making any investments or financial decisions to prevent revenue losses and the recurrent marginal squeeze and strengthen the risk assessment team through risk simulations and risk management training.