The Challenge
When the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) decided to compete in the relatively new mobile telephony market of Greece as the 3d competitor, it partnered with a major Norwegian telecoms company (TELENOR) to form, under a joint ownership at that time, the company that would operate as the 3d MNO in Greece, COSMOTE.
In this context, one of the challenges for both OTE and TELENOR was to setup an organization and governance structure of COSMOTE that would benefit from the diverse capabilities of the two partners, the technical excellence of OTE and the commercial agility of TELENOR.
The Approach
Enabling the organization for the leading Mobile Telephony Operator in Greece
PLANET together with one of the leading international strategy firms, was selected to address this issue, namely to:
- consider the comparative capabilities of the two partners
- investigate the best practices in organizational choices for an MNO,
develop alternative scenarios,
- assess the scenarios based on a multidimensional methodology and
- come up with a best possible recommendation for the first organizational chart of the new company.
In addition to the facts and figures that were relevant to the project scope, what was also important was to develop an organizational proposal that would be accommodating the plans and expectations of the two partners, while at the same time it would abide by the technocratic criteria of the case.
Results & Impact
Indeed, the proposed organizational structure was well received by both partners and this led to a quick operationalization of the business venture, making quickly COSMOTE a strong competitor among the 3 actors in Greece, soon taking a market share lead that it still holds until today.
