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Our strategy

The role that telecommunications plays in people's lives has changed rapidly in the last decade. Not so long ago, traditional voice services defined the telecommunications industry. Now they are just one of a growing range of services that impact many areas of our lives. The need for a broader digital offering has led MTN to refresh its vision and mission and refine its strategic objectives. This is to ensure that we maintain our leadership position in communications in emerging markets and sustain a business model that maximises value for all our stakeholders.

Our vision:

To lead the delivery of a bold, new Digital World to our customers.

Our mission:

To make our customers' lives a whole lot brighter.

Creating and managing stakeholder value

Creating sustainable value for our stakeholders is fundamental. The value created for our various stakeholders in 2012 is shown on page 16. An important part of this strategic objective is a sustainable shareholder returns strategy which incorporates an absolute growth dividend policy and opportunistic share buy-backs; ensuring an optimal capital structure and making the best use of our cash and our capex programme. Good corporate citizenship is key: it includes managing our socio-economic impact and reputation, as well as sustaining our environment by ensuring that we act responsibly when building our network. Making sure MTN is a great place to work is essential to achieve value creation. We are making changes to our HR operating model and practices, as well as culture, in support of our strategy. MTN's overarching philosophy is to ensure that its people conduct all the Group's affairs with honesty, integrity, diligence and professionalism. We recently embarked on a process of formalising our existing ethics practices and deepening our ethics culture.

Creating a distinct customer experience

As telecoms services become "commoditised" it is imperative that MTN continues to create a customer experience which differentiates us from the competition. Here, providing our customers with superior coverage and network quality are imperative. Knowing them better, improving our communications and improving customer service at all touchpoints are important elements of a distinct customer experience.

Driving sustainable growth

We will continue to refine our traditional product offering, as well as actively develop new opportunities to ensure the delivery of a bold new Digital World to our customers.

This encompasses our efforts to develop our participation in the enterprise sector, adjacent sectors (such as financial services) and media and entertainment.

Transforming our operating model

As competition and increased regulatory requirements place pressure on revenues, maintaining profitability is at the heart of transforming our operating model. Our priority is to transform the back office, centralising transactional activities, implementing standardised processes to promote efficiency as well as optimise technology. We will continue to monetise some of our passive infrastructure assets and transform our supply chain and procurement processes.

Transforming our operating model

We need to continue to be innovative in creating structures, policies and procedures, performance metrics, talent investment, and reward and recognition mechanisms to support the execution of our vision. Continued product and service innovation is also fundamental. Developing our culture and brand is key to achieving innovation and best practice sharing across the Group.