With over 60 million subscribers on the network, MTN Nigeria sees beyond being a network operator but a business that offers solutions to all human needs through technology. From this perspective, the company’s inroads to innovations can be understood, yet, in this interview with SAMSON AKINTARO and ROSEMARY ANWAN, the soft-spoken MTN Nigeria’s Chief Marketing Officer, OLUBAYO ADEKANMBI expatiates on the philosophy of the company’s commitment to its customers. Excerpts:
Question: MTN as it is today can be described as a successful company in Nigeria, despite the challenges and the peculiar operating environment, what can you attribute to the success of MTN in Nigeria?
Answer: I can tell you our success is the success of knowing the customer, understanding the needs of the customer, developing the right propositions, products and services that optimally served the customers and going the extra mile to exceed their expectation and more importantly being the first to innovate, to raise the bar, to define the category with a lot of big hits that we’ve done in the markets.
So for us, our success is a success of being at the centre of the need of the customer and translating those needs into solutions. For us as MTN, we don’t sell products we sell solutions such that when an average customer sees what we have, it comes across like this is the best feat for me and that’s why we pride ourselves as a company that is focused strongly on relationship. Relationship means that we understand the customer and we use our innovation to make a difference so for us, our success can be linked with that being a customer centric company.
That’s interesting! Between 2013 and 2014, the number of subscribers on the MTN network jumped from 56 million to about 60 million. What is your projection for the year 2015?
Our projection is still to maintain our market leadership, which means that we are going to maintain the same growth rate which will guarantee us half of the market. You can see that even though multi- SIMming has grown, we still maintain our leadership which also means there are so many reasons to prefer MTN. You’ll see that our customers have come to trust us consistently as a brand that adds value to their lives, as a brand that makes them better and as a brand that enriches their lives and for the fact that we are also the first to bring what I will call converged solution where within your SIM, you get access to mobile insurance, mobile banking services. So there are more reasons to pick MTN SIM beyond just the fact that you want to make phone calls, especially with the kind of innovations we just brought into the market.
Talking about the number of subscribers, the capacity and service quality, as a network with the largest number of subscribers, there is this belief that you tend to have more challenge in terms of keeping to service quality, even though poor quality service affects everyone. What is MTN doing about this?
You may be aware, if you look at our investments, you will see that we continue to lead on investment in technology, bringing to bear the technology that you’ll see everywhere in the world to serve our customers. So when we look at the issue of quality of service, we as a business we’re concerned because every second a customer is unable to make a call, in as much as the customer is unhappy, we have also lost money. And so it’s not in our best interest to build a network where our customers will have a drop call and will not be able to call.
We also understand our local issues which we are facing in Nigeria and which are issues that our Government is doing everything possible to address; the issue of fibre cuts as a result of construction, which happens almost every day; thefts of our infrastructure, vandalism happening in some parts of the country. So, all these affect our ability to service customers optimally. But I can tell you if there’s anything driving us as a business, it’s our commitment to exceeding customers’ expectations and that’s why year on year, our CAPEX investment is always a significant percentage of our earning because we believe that we have to continue to optimise customers experience on a consistent basis.
MTN recently presented its Score card for the 2014 to some selected media experts here in Lagos. Can you tell us about the MTN’s performance in 2014 and the contributions of MTN Nigeria to the MTN Group?
Well, like you know MTN Nigeria is a very critical business in MTN Group. As you know, our contribution has always been like 2/5 to the Group and that has been very consistent. If you look at the report, it’s a very good report even though there’s been a lot of challenges with the business. I think what’s important to us now is that 2014 is gone, and more importantly is how we can continue to raise the game, how we can develop innovative solutions that customers will willingly pay for and see as value enhancing will continue to be loyal to MTN. So for us we are challenged to continue to maintain that performance by exceeding customers’ expectations; by doing what customers wants because in doing that we will meet and exceed the shareholders expectations on a consistent basis.
Every year you come out with one innovative product or the other. For this year what are your targets and the product you want to come up with that will excite your subscribers?
Well, for 2015 I think we have come out with a clear thematic campaign which a lot of people have seen to be very inspiring motivational, that is ‘Better Me’. This is the fact that in every area of your life you must push to be better and that of course has put a demand on MTN to design and develop products and services that will allow our customers to be better. So one key thing that drives us is the Digital transition where customers can rely on their mobile network to bring every bits and pieces of their lives together. So if there’s any product that will shape 2015, it is an integrated and converged service where everything that has to do with Banking, insurance, Retail E-commerce are all enabled and facilitated via MTN service. That’s what customers should expect from us. We’ve started the journey and can I assure you we are going to expand to ensure that with your Sim, everything that defines your life; your health, money, family, your relationships and assets are all managed and supported by MTN.
Recently, MTN re-launched ‘Tru Talk’. Why did you go for a re-launch of a product that has been in existence for over a long period of time?
Thank you very much. The re-launch of ‘Tru Talk’, was driven by the market but more importantly customer-driven. We are a business that listens to our customers and research we have done indicated clearly that customers wanted more from their ‘Tru Talk’ so we went back to drawing board and asked ourselves what more we can do to deliver on customer expectations and it became clear that customers wanted to form their own football team, they want to aim high and score great goals in life and so the issue of football parallel came about. And we say, ok, if you are given unlimited access to 11 most important people in your life, you can actually score great goals and achieve your expectations using football as a parallel. So, what we have is to let you pick 11 most important people in your life and then you can call them at half the price; this is a big one, it has never happened before. It’s almost half the price from 20kobo per seconds to 11 kobo, you can call 11 people and that’s why we call it 11 for 11. So I’ll continue to say that ‘Tru Talk’ revamp was a response to what customers wanted and as a business that listens to customer, its expedient for us to work in the path of the customers.
If you look at the Nigerian ICT industry today, there is much talk about Broadband everywhere. What role is MTN playing in this new Broadband Ecosystem?
I’m sure you’re aware that as a business we are one of the few companies that have made significant investments. Beyond what we have done locally is also the fact that we are part of the West African Cable System (WACS). We have been able to connect Nigeria to the world and provide a very large bandwidth to allow Nigerians to access the rest of the world. Of course the challenge has been in the area of last mile, where this can get into people’s houses and get into their offices. But we will continue to engage the government because for an effective broadband policy, we must, of course, have fibre to the homes, and which we are also driving as a business. Today at 1004 Victoria Island and Victoria garden city (VGC) they already have a product called MTN Fibernet, where customers can enjoy Broadband with high speed megabit download, which is almost at the speed of light such that you can watch your television via your internet without buffing. We are already delivering that. But of course to make this pervasive and to be able to touch every nook and cranny of the city will require the right infrastructure. So, what I will say in that regard is that we will continue to partner with the government to see how we can align with the prevailing regulatory government policy to support investment in that space. But as a business, we are strongly committed to Broadband. We believe and understand the role that Broadband plays in the economic development. We understand that the proportion of economic development that can be correlated to broadband innovations is significant in many countries especially its ability to drive commerce, drive trade, drive education, drive medicine and we also look forward to a future where from a remote village you can talk to the specialist doctors in the best of hospitals in the world, you have access through telemedicine. That’s what we believe as a business and that is our commitment.
Talking about infrastructure the NCC recently announced the licensing of communication companies. Are you ready to work with these companies or are you also playing a role in providing infrastructure?
Well as you know, we provide infrastructure in terms of the fact that we have coverage in more places than any other player in this country through the principle of collocation, we share infrastructure. But of course, the ecosystem is also multi-dependent; we all depend on each other. So we also understand that everyone that has got infrastructure will willingly share especially for single purpose of economic of scale and when you share, you reduce your costs. I think that understanding exists among all the players that it’s in our best interest to share infrastructure. We as a business, we have always been a leader in that space and we will continue to drive that because at the end of the day, it is all about the customer.
For some time now, subscribers have been complaining bitterly about the issue of unsolicited text messages and calls and in most cases, they finger MTN. The feeling is that you network operators are not doing enough to safe subscribers from this headache. What is MTN doing about this?
Thank you very much. We are very concerned as a business because any customer’s complaint is an issue we take very serious. Interestingly, we have a dedicated unit that is managing customer complaints and trying to troubleshoot with a view to finding a permanent solution. We are not unaware of the issue of unsolicited SMS and we have clearly studied the ecosystem and we ‘ve seen that there is a new industry that has emerged, which is the bulk SMS industry and most of these people sometimes don’t even need you to give them your numbers, they can Auto-generate their numbers and we also understand that based on a lot of things happening, a lot of awareness either religious, political and all; have also triggered and enabled that industry. So as a business, we’re putting in place anti-spam solutions which will allow us to filter as much as possible. I can tell you it’s because we’ve been using anti-spam that’s why you have not been getting it every second. We have put a lot of things in place to curb that. But we also found out that people drop their office and business cards in different places and all these numbers are aggregated, some are even sold.
There’s an industry that’s emerging; I call it list management; they sell list of premium customers. So we understand that it exists and we will continue as a business to find the best way to minimise it without killing an emerging industry also. For us what we believe is an opt-in and opt-out approach and any of our partners who is doing that, our philosophy to them is that they must make it as transparent as possible such that customers can opt in and opt out whenever they want.
For MTN as business, having been in this country for some years, I know there are challenges, how have you been coping with the challenges and what do you think the government should have done but have not as regards those challenges?
Every business has got its challenges. For us what has made us to see beyond challenges is actually our passion for the customers and because we are a business that is driven to meet and exceed customers’ expectations, so we’ll do anything possible to overcome all the challenges that we face on a daily basis whether its structural, institutional or operational. For as much as it is about the customers, we’ll go the extra mile to address them.
We are aware that the government understands the role that we play in the economy. The recent GDP is a clear indicator that Telecoms and ICT is a strong driver of all the output of services and goods that account for gross domestic products and we do understand that the government is putting a lot of policy to support the industry such that some of these issues can be addressed. We are aware of issues around making our assets national assets to enjoy national protection; so that the problem of vandalism can be eliminated we know that discussion is on-going. We are also aware that the government is providing other supports through NCC and several other related industries. But like I have rightly said, what is driving us is beyond the problems, we are actually driven by the quest to provide solutions between per seconds’ bases for our customers.
That’s interesting! Still talking about challenges, there is a current building trend about the activities of Over-the-top (OTT) content, which is believed to be putting pressure on network operator’s data and SMS revenue. How is MTN handling the situation and what do you think the industry regulator can do about this?
Well, over the top content operators like it’s been said can be seen as parasitic somewhat because these are operators that are offering services that are directly cannibalising our business at ridiculously low rates. Of course most of them are free but if you look at the value of the data that they use, it’s just an infinitesimal percentage of the cost. And these are people who have no licenses, they are not paying local taxes, they are not committed to the economy, if at all they are listed, they are listed somewhere that is not directly impacting the local economy, and they are not giving back to the community and so there’s a direct economic impact beyond MTN.
Initially, as a business what we are trying to do is to partner with them and see how we can mitigate, but we think that going into the future there must be a clear policy on how OTT must be managed. We do know that in many countries there is already a lot of discussion on net neutrality where it is not just about carrying contents but also knowing the kind of contents I carry so that I can charge by the type of contents. So if I know that am running some of this OTT, I can premium charge them so that at the end of the day, I’m not throwing away value because we must all commit to industry sustainability. If there is no industry tomorrow, the OTT cannot survive and everyone must recognise the roles the mobile network operators are playing in building the infrastructure that the OTT are now building on. So there must be that mutual understanding and so at the end of the day, we do kill the industry and throw value on the table whilst also ensuring that we deliver optimum value to the customers. There must be that balance.
In that case, what do you think the regulator can do?
Like I said, elsewhere in the world the governments are already looking at the possibility even in some countries they are banned; in countries like china, they are banned because they are not regulated they can do anything. We believe that government must look into that space where we need their local presence, we need to know the people behind it, our government must be able to regulate and then their pricing mechanism must be agreed with the mobile network operator and then there must be some mutual understanding so that both industries can thrive together without any conflicts.
Looking at the Telecoms industry, it’s been about 15 years now, how will you access the progress that Nigeria has recorded so far and can you give a projection into the future of the industry in the next 5 years.
I’ll tell you that Nigeria has demonstrated the fact that we are a leapfrogging nation. If you recall what had been some years ago, when you had to rely on a land line. Nigeria embraced mobile technology and literally lives a mobile world today, where we sleep and wake up with our phones and everything in our lives has been aggregated around our phones. So going into the future we see a mobilised future; a world where everything that defines you is all enabled by the power of mobile which also align with what I described as the core strategic thrust of MTN as we go into the years ahead. So, if I look at the next five years, I see a future where mobile drives education almost 100 per cent; where students will not have to carry books again, they will have to go into the classrooms with their tablets; students can be home on holiday or during weekends and receive virtual lectures, I see Medicine being transformed completely where best experts in the world can share real time information and face to face using video conferencing with experts in Nigeria. I see a future where business transactions are completed virtually where people do not need to see face to face because mobile make it happen.
I see a lot of assets integrated into what we call machine to machine; where I can be in the office and be communicating with my air conditioner at home to get on, because I’ll be home in the next 20 minutes. I can see a future where there’s is a lot of integration around our world and of course that speaks to security which means that our lives will be more secured because virtually every bits and pieces of life are integrated. Even in terms of infrastructure deployment and government planning could be more efficient because traffic can be better managed. Through technology you can know how many people are moving at what time and as such people’s movement can be regulated. So we see a future where IT transforms lives and where will be a lot more savings because people will spend less time, trying to fix ordinary things. We see people living longer because technology will enable medicine, we see people saving more money, people enjoy life in much more ways than one because technology brings everything you want anywhere in the world to you at the speed of light.
You are the second indigenous CMO of MTN Nigeria. What legacy will you like to leave behind by the time you are out of this position?
Thank you very much. For me, looking at how we started the year, I will like to be a CMO that raised the game, a CMO that defined how mobile can become the centre of people’s life, a CMO that connected Nigeria to the best practices everywhere in the world and most importantly is the CMO that offered the best value to the main reason why we are in business; our customers and have also returned the greatest value back to the shareholders who have trusted me with the responsibility of engaging the customers.
Your position is quite engaging; I know you’ll be very busy all the time, so how do you relax?
I relax with my family; I look forward to that precious moment with my wife and children because for me that’s what takes the pressure off. There’s so much pressure every day, but that privilege of being with them, sharing with them, knowing how they’re doing in school in their challenges, sharing with my wife it’s something that cools the nerve and it makes me a fulfilled man.
Finally, what do you have to say to your subscribers out there?
Like we’ve told our customers, this is a year of better me. Customers should look out for more surprises, more innovations from MTN that will continue to make them better; better in their business, relationships, work, career, and in their finances. We’ll continue to look for best fits relevant bespoke innovations that redefine how we live our lives and how everything comes together through the power of MTN.
1 comment
Brilliant thinking!!