Telenor Xpress 1 - 2000

Telenor’s International Centre

Born on 1 March, the Telenor International Centre constitutes a silent revolution within the heart of Telenor and its international operations. Once separated in body and spirit, the company's domestic workforce and international teams will now be united in a market-oriented organisation that will push more of Telenor's resources out into the international arena.

"It is important that our partners and customers experience Telenor at its best in the international field. Therefore, we have placed highly qualified people with international expertise in an International Centre dedicated to driving Telenor forward throughout the world. Our local, strategically placed offices provide grass root contact in our most important markets," says Terje Thon, who is responsible for The International Centre at Board level.

Brave New World
As long ago as the 1980s, Telenor began to venture out beyond the confines of its home country with its capital, expertise and creative spirit. Today's network of cellular, Internet, satellite and media services from Telenor operations in over 30 countries is testament to the company's combination of grit and ingenuity in international operations.

The organisation that directed Telenor's adventures into an increasingly deregulated European telecommunications market in the 80s and 90s – Telenor International – was an ideal match for the market scenario at that time. Today, both Telenor and the international telecommunications industry have evolved into a new phase characterised by larger players, faster product and market development and manpower scarcity. The old structure had to be reviewed, revised and reconstructed. The result: The Telenor International Centre.

"The International Centre has been created to generate more momentum for international expansion. It is the evolution and realisation of a powerful, preexisting idea: tap the whole of Telenor for its expertise and experience and direct it towards the international market. Our strategy is now market-oriented, focused on our main value drivers and geared towards better communication," says Henrik Torgersen, deputy director for The International Centre.

With the reorganisation, Telenor's business will be modelled after contemporary market thinking. ISPs are racing to gather as many local providers as possible under their wings; the line between cellular and Internet technologies is blurring; IT and telecom manpower is transient and scarce. The International Centre will bring Telenor up to the speed of international mergers and acquisitions, technological confluence and the Internet-spawned new economy.

The cultural, regulatory and technological bell has rung; as a result, the gloves are off. "There is a much greater potential to create value outside of Norway than in Norway. Telenor recognises this and plans to turn its upper hand in Norway into a means to leverage its operations internationally," says Torgersen.

Upside-down, Inside-out
The incorporation of The Telenor International Centre will affect not only the mind, but also the body of Telenor. Telenor employees in Oslo will be moving house, working with new people in new group configurations and tackling different challenges. Some product areas will fall into the spotlight; others will be renovated and readdressed. It amounts to a shift in corporate culture and a change in day to day practices.

For the time being, The International Centre's administration and strategic centre will be housed in the upper floors of Telenor's building on Keysersgate in Oslo. Like many other groups in Telenor, International Centre will eventually make the move to IT Fornebu – Telenor's new state-of-the-art headquarters being constructed at Oslo's former airport.

This kind of physical consolidation will be repeated in each country where Telenor does business. Rather than supporting a number of different offices for different product areas in the same country, Telenor will bring its staffs in each country together under the same roof to generate a local task force that addresses that market as a whole. And these offices, in turn, will receive support specific to their region from market and product analysts at the International Centre in Oslo.

At the highest level, International Centre has been styled around two market profiles: mature markets consisting of most European countries and emerging markets such as the CIS countries and Southeast Asia. Alongside these two main groups, a host of staff and support teams – International business development, change management, risk management, communication, etc. – tie The Telenor International Centre into a cohesive whole.

This conceptual division between mature and emerging markets matches existing infrastructure differences and addresses the need for separate strategies. "In Europe, our operations are galloping through a merger phase, where we constantly seek partnerships and cutting-edge technologies are deployed. On the other hand, emerging markets like Russia and Ukraine have a striking need for infrastructure improvements and political/regulatory change. Ideally, a business model based on acquisition in Germany might suit Austria and a business model based on network improvements in Russia might fit conditions in the Ukraine," says Torgersen.

The Best from the Best
For Telenor, Norway's model may be the best model. Telenor International was based in Oslo, but generally occupied solely with events outside of Norway. It was, in essence, a wing of Telenor's operations. International Centre is an intrinsic part of Telenor's operations inside and outside of Norway. Employees within the International Centre will share their time between international efforts and Telenor's Oslo-based central staff by a rough proportion of 80 to 20 percent, respectively.

"Since the privatisation of the Norwegian telecommunications industry, our domestic market has been beseiged by competitors. Thus, Telenor's domestic strategists are intimate with the aggressive market entry models of others. We would like to spread this knowledge and turn it around when we choose to enter new international markets," says Torgersen.

To some degree the whole point of the International Centre revolution has been to facilitate the exchange and application of information from one side of the business to another. Perhaps the most challenging task in this project has been to choreograph the relationship between business areas and market areas. What can cellular developers or operators in Germany, for example, contribute to Telenor's ISP business in Czech Republic? More than you think.

Telenor's CEO Tormod Hermansen said, "The Telenor International Centre will seize and develop new opportunities in the market, which can later be moved over to the business areas." If, for example, one country office launches a successful venture (perhaps in co-operation with the International Centre's business development group) the recipe will be communicated not only to other country offices but also to the respective business area. Ultimately, this business area might take over the entire project.

"The greatest challenge for our personnel will be to adapt from a hierarchical working environment – top-down – to a networking environment, which might resemble more of a spiderweb. Information will pass rapidly between working groups throughout the company. This set-up demands more from the employees, but allows for more creativity and growth. International Centre's success depends on the communication abilities of Telenor employees," says Torgersen.

Back to the New World
Telenor is coming into its own in the international arena. Cosmoté, a Telenor joint venture in Greece's cellular market, has grown by a factor of five in the past year; Telenor's Russian holdings have tripled in value; Nextra purchased four ISPs in Germany in a matter of months this winter; agreements with international content providers are pushing WAP development. But the international arena is steadily changing.

It is called the new economy: IPOs are pushing the value of new companies and manpower through the roof. As a result, cash is candy, but competent people are mandatory. Through International Centre and Telenor's forthcoming IPO, Telenor hopes to become more competitive on the international job front. "If Telenor hopes to be competitive in the international telecommunications market, it must attract skilled people. International Centre is the engine to draw the talent," says Torgersen.