After 10 years at Vodafone in Malta, engineer Sandro Pisani was offered a role at the brand’s operation in Egypt. The offer could not have come at a more crucial time for the country, he tells The Times Business.
Sandro Pisani flew to Cairo on January 25 last year to take up his new role as strategy director for Vodafone Egypt after 10 years at Vodafone Malta. Mindful of what had just happened in neighbouring Tunisia, little did he imagine Egypt was about to see major upheaval to turn its own corner.
Vodafone Egypt has maintained its number one spot and also distanced itself from the second player
“That morning I scanned the online media to understand what was going on. As flights weren’t cancelled I thought things couldn’t be all that bad,” the engineer told The Times Business in an e-mail interview from his base in Cairo.
“Of course, the events have had an effect on our business. Personally, it has been a mixed bag. In spite of the instability that such dramatic changes bring about in a country, it has been an exciting time to be here. I will not downplay the serious incidents and loss of life that have taken place over the past months. The implications these have had on Egyptian society and the economy are immense. And I have joined my Egyptian colleagues in longing for stability, for economic growth to start picking up again and for tourists to come to flood the awe-inspiring monuments and sites, testament of the country’s age-old civilisation.”
In Egypt, Mr Pisani reports to chief executive Hatem Dowidar, a former CEO of Vodafone Malta whom he first worked with here. At Vodafone Malta, Mr Pisani had occupied a variety of roles including chief strategy officer and head of technology. Mr Pisani’s move to the Middle East came under Vodafone’s exchange strategy.
He explained that while many considered the Maltese market to be saturated, the Egyptian market was looked upon as emerging but maturing rapidly. Maltese mobile subscriptions grew by around 12 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of last year, reaching a penetration of 123 per cent.
The Egyptian market saw growth of around 22 per cent, just nudging the 100 per cent penetration mark in a country of 85 million people as opposed to Malta’s 400,000. Significant regional differences and distinct consumer usage patterns make the Egyptian scenario complex.
Similarly to Malta, the three major mobile operators in Egypt engage in a highly competitive market. Mr Pisani pointed out that over the past two years, voice prices have gone down by more than 50 per cent. As in all other markets, as saturation is reached, competition shifts to customer experience and customer value management.
At such a historical time, external factors impact strategy and decision-making although Vodafone is going strong.
“The current government is a transitional one, appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces so it is not expected that any long-term decisions that will impact the economy will be taken,” Mr Pisani explained. “The transition process is ongoing. Parliamentary elections have been held with the Freedom and Justice Party (the Muslim Brotherhood’s official party) winning a clear majority. The second electoral phase, of the Shura or Upper House, is underway. This will be followed by Presidential elections in June which will bring the transition to an end.
“Post-revolutionary Egyptian economic growth has unfortunately slowed down to 1.8 per cent in 2010-2011 and is expected to remain subdued until the end of the year owing to political uncertainty. Analysts anticipate that pick-up will only start taking place during the second half of 2012-13, averaging 4.5 per cent. Vodafone Egypt has managed to not only maintain its number one spot in the market but to also distance itself from the second player.”
Social media played a major role in the Arab Spring. Mr Pisani said internet users in Egypt grew by two million to reach 23.1 million after January of last year. Today 26 million are using the internet following a year-on-year growth of 16 per cent.
During the revolution and immediately after, some one million new accounts were created on Facebook. Today the number of accounts has reached 9.5 million. Youtube registered 8.9 million page views from Egypt in the first week of the revolution.
Internet was the prime media channel during and after the revolution with the Arab Spring clearly demonstrating the Egyptian population’s appetite for internet services. The immediacy of mobile communications has delivered on that need.
“Mobile broadband is proving to be the next battleground after voice,” Mr Pisani added. “Given the low fixed-broadband penetration – it was around 1.8 million last November – there is clearly a great growth potential for mobile broadband. Operators are experiencing a rapid growth in mobile internet traffic fuelled by social media application services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This, in turn, is driving operators to invest in their networks in order to provide innovative services to their customers. Vodafone Egypt has just announced that its investment this coming fiscal year will be around €300 million.”
Like every Vodafone operation around the world, Vodafone Egypt too has been committed to do business responsibly to the benefit of the community since the beginning of its operation in the country in 1998.
Colleagues here are as driven to deliver as they are in Malta
The operator has taken numerous initiatives involving health and education, mobile technology for development of social products, and energy efficiency. Mr Pisani said the company had built a strong partnership with society and international development organisations operating in Egypt.
Meanwhile, a percentage of Vodafone Egypt revenues and annual grants from the group are directed to the Vodafone Egypt Foundation which was established in 2003.
“One of the major issues which is a barrier to development in Egypt is the low literacy rate,” Mr Pisani stressed. “Adult literacy in Egypt, as reported by the UNDP 2011 Human Development Report, stands at 66.4 per cent. Now, in response to last year’s events, the Foundation has decided to launch the ‘Vodafone Illiteracy Eradication initiative’, possibly its most ambitious initiative to date.
“Aimed at assisting the country’s development, its main goal is to eradicate illiteracy among 17 million Egyptians over five years, with a success rate of 80 per cent. The initiative is being taken in cooperation with five key implementing partners: Life Makers, the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services, the Youth Association for Population and Development, UNESCO, and the National Authority for Adult Education and Illiteracy.”
Relocating for professional reasons brings with it challenges on a personal level. Mr Pisani said there were several similarities between working for Vodafone in Egypt and in Malta, particularly the strong brand culture which existed in both countries. The enthusiasm to deliver high standards of customer experience and the ambition to be the best at what Vodafone does was common to both.
“Colleagues here are as driven as they are in Malta to deliver on goals and the working environment is pleasant,” Mr Pisani said. “Personally, the arrangement has been challenging as my wife and children were unable to join me in Cairo. My wife is single-handedly juggling a busy work life and two growing adolescents. To some degree, technology has helped bridge the distance. Phone calls, video calls, messaging and social network chatting help keep us all in touch. Compare this with 15 years ago, when my family and I lived in the US. We called our families once a week on a Sunday, received snail mail and sent the occasional fax when the ‘urgency’ warranted it. It’s all just a measure of how communications have gone a long way in making our world smaller!”