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Leading the change to MTN of the
future
As we continue to reinvigorate MTN’s pioneering
spirit it will be essential for the leadership team to
explore new and innovative ways of leveraging
various prospects available to the Group. To this
end, our primary focus in the structural, strategic,
operational and cultural shake-up necessary to
position the Group for the future has been to find a
suitable Group CEO and to strengthen our
management teams.
We settled on an earlier-than-planned start date of
13 March 2017 for Rob Shuter to take office as the
Group President and CEO, after which I will return to
my role as non-executive chairman until I step down
in December 2018. Rob has extensive leadership
experience, familiarity and understanding of Africa’s
competitive markets and experience in the high-
value customer segments gleaned from his work in
Europe. In addition, his financial services expertise
is pertinent to position the Group for new growth in a
converging telecommunications industry.
To ensure sufficient depth and wider experience
within management, we appointed several senior
executives with the requisite skills to take MTN into a
new growth phase. The reinvigorated management
team, of high calibre and diversity provides the
qualitative basis for the success of IGNITE and
beyond as the Group seeks to realise its full potential.
Notably, the revised team includes dedicated
executive focus on strategic business development
and business transformation.
The additional capacity within the executive team
has been replicated at board level, with key
independent non-executive appointments made to
the boards of MTN Group and MTN South Africa.
Five new directors have been appointed to the MTN
Our NPS
improved in
many markets
as we gained
ground on
competitors.
Group board over the past two years, and another
two appointments will be made in the coming year
to replace retiring directors. Besides the necessary
succession planning, these changes have focused
on deepening our commercial, risk and governance
skills and experience, and aligning the board’s
collective expertise to the Group’s strategic
trajectory. I am confident that the boards now have
the depth of skill and independence necessary to
provide robust counsel and credible challenge to
management’s thinking in approving strategic plans
and resource allocation. In MTNNigeria, the planned
listing will provide an opportunity to re-constitute
that board accordingly.
My thanks are due to Johnson Njeke and Jan
Strydom, who retired as directors in the year, for
their valuable contribution over many years.
The board is confident that the operating structure
and the manner in which it has been capacitated is
fit for purpose. The multi-layered management
reinforces oversight through stronger regional
supervision and commercial focus across our broad
network of operations, while giving the board
improved visibility. Greater attention has been
placed on regulatory and compliance issues,
including compliance training, with the intention to
support a more integrated approach to governance,
risk, stakeholder management and operational
imperatives.
A plan to transform and grow
We are focused on the key objectives of transforming
the Group’s operating model to realise the significant
value inherent in our core business, and accelerating
the growth of new revenue streams to diversify our
base as voice revenue declines. In support of these
objectives, we will look to improve certain operational
processes and deploy capital resources – both our
people and our money – more effectively.
These objectives are encapsulated in IGNITE, which
we launched in MTN South Africa and MTN Nigeria
and will be rolled out to all operations in the coming
years. IGNITE is about shaping the future of MTN,
as a more agile, efficient, innovative and profitable
Group. The initiative will improve the co-ordination
between marketing, advanced data analytics and
network utilisation as the basis for delivering
excellent customer experiences and value
propositions. Ultimately, IGNITE is about realising
our vision of leading the delivery of a bold, new
digital world to our customers.
MTN Group Limited
Integrated Report 2016
25
STRATEGIC
OVERVIEW