October 2012 - Teletimes

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Unique initiative to nurture talents andengage with employeesOmantel launches “Omantel Talents”Omantel has announcedlast week the launch of“Omantel Talents” initiativewith an aim to identify andnurture the talents amongOmantel employees and theirfamilies on the personal andcareer levels. The company willalso help the gifted personnelshowcase their talents tosociety and represent theSultanate on the national andforeign events. The initiativecomes within the efforts madeby the Company as part of itswider ‘Employee Engagement’program which was launchedearlier by the Company.Commenting on this newinitiative, Mr. Yaqoub MubarakHuge response to Omantel‘Friday Film Festival’Customers can attend their favorite films freeOmantel, the pioneerintegrated telecomservices provider in theSultanate has announced thelaunch of a new offer thatenable Indian film fans to availfree tickets for the films ondisplay at City Cinema in Ruwivia a simple SMS message.Commenting on the offer,Mohammed Hassan Al Lawatia,Manager of Events at Omantelsaid ‘Indian movies are ofhigh popularity in our regionand we are introducing thisunique offer to pay a tributeto our customers from theAsian countries who are fansal Kiyumi, General Managerof Employees Services atthe HR Unit and head of theorganizing committee forthe initiative said ‘Omantelbelieves that its employeesare the most valuable assetand the main driver behind itssuccess therefore it does itsbest to provide them with anenvironment that is supportiveof creativity and innovation”.“Omantel is one of the biggestcompanies in the country andis manned by more than 2700employees. This initiative aimsat unlocking the potential oftalents within Omantel teamand their families through aseries of competitions that willof these films. We believe thisis a fabulous opportunity forthem to unwind and enjoythemselves as we are givingaway 800 free tickets in everyFriday show of blockbusterHindi movies with freepopcorns and beveragesstarting from September untilNovember 2012.’“Seats are provided on firstcome first serve basis. We arepleased with the responsefrom our customers in the firsttwo weeks and the opportunityis still there for people whowere not able to make it in thepast events to attend showsbe managed by external juriesfrom people recognized asleaders in their areas”.‘While designing thecompetition, we have beenvery keen to ensure thatit covers as many areas ofinterest as possible. Thecompetitions will includeQuran recitation , poetry ,drawing , general ideas , thebest traffic safety idea , thebest scientific innovation , thebest marketing idea , the bestidea for social responsibility,the best idea for humanresources , the best idea forenvironment protection , thebest talent with disability, the best idea to simplifyuntil November 16th”.“Omantel customers can booktheir favorite film throughSMS therefore saving time andefforts spent in the long Qsto get the ticket through thesale outlets or the internet.Customers wishing to attendneed only to respond to thebulk SMS sent to them bysending the word “book” to91220. A confirmation messagewill follow containing the nameof the movie, date of show andticket number which shall beshown at the cinema in orderto collect their tickets”. AlLawatia added.procedures or save costswithout prejudice to quality ofwork and the best application”Al Kiyumi concluded.Omantel HR Unit disembarkedon a number of initiatives thathas been well received byemployees and qualified theCompany to be the winner ofBest Employer Brand amongall Asian countries this year inan event held in Singapore lastJuly.Moreover, Omantel CEO wonthe HR focused CEO awardearlier this year in recognitionof his support to HR Unitand the initiatives that werelaunched by the Companyunder his leadership.Omantel is the pioneerprovider of leading edgetelecommunications servicesin the Sultanate of Omanconnecting individuals,enterprises and governmentacross the country through astate-of-the-art network. Byoffering unmatched range ofinnovative products and aftersalesservice, Omantel is themarket leader. We serve ourcustomers nationwide throughonline channels, shops anddistributors. Omantel is listedon the Muscat Stock Marketand trades under the nameOTL.OM.40 October 2012www.teletimesinternational.com
Laura W. GellerLessons from the E-Commerce WarsAs budgets tighten, manyexecutives face questionsabout how to grow theirbusiness? In the boomingworld of e-commerce, suchquestions are coupled witha need to stand out fromthe crowd. Entrepreneur JimMcCarthy has been on thefront lines of these decisionsfor 15 years. He cut his teethin tech startups, learningfrom both failures (onlinecalendaring venture Kiko Inc.)and successes (GeoCities, soldto Yahoo in 1999). Today, ascofounder and CEO of GoldstarEvents Inc., a privately heldhalf-price ticketing website,he’s found answers by forginga strong connection with thesite’s members. Getting toknow his customers — whatthey like, what they dislike, andwhat they might like — is keyto Goldstar’s business model,and drives its innovationprocess.When the startup launchedin 2002, the economy was inrecession and e-commercewas still reeling from the dotcombust. Today, Goldstar hasmore than 2 million registeredusers and has establishedpartnerships with thousandsof venues around the country.Although relatively small— the company sold aboutUS$50 million in tickets in2011 — it is growing rapidly,Entrepreneur - Jim McCarthy onwhy online innovations succeed — or failand forecasts that its saleswill grow by more than 50percent this year. Jim McCarthytalked to strategy+business inFebruary 2012, Goldstar’s 10thanniversary.Q: You’ve worked ine-commerce for 15 years, andhave seen highs and lows.What are some of the keylessons you’ve learned?A: One of the things that I’vecome to believe strongly isthat many people claim tohave expertise in a lot of areas,but the entrepreneur is in thebest position to evaluate whatworks or doesn’t work for hisor her company. Great peoplecan be very helpful to you, butthey can’t replace you as theentrepreneur when it comes tothe big decisions.You also can’t be taken in bythings just because everybodyis doing them. Otherwise, yourisk pouring huge amounts ofmoney into efforts that won’twork.I’ll give you an example, basedon something we learnedabout Twitter. Our firstimplementation of Twitterwas traditional; followerscould interact with us, andwe would editorialize. Thataccount is still active, and it’sfine. But we figured out thatmany heavy Twitter users justwant information. We createdautomated feeds for differentcities, such as @GoldstarLA.Nobody here touches them,we just take the data as anew event or new dates forevents come onto the site,and it automatically goes intothe feed for each city. Userscan sign up for a feed for theircity, and every time there’s anupdate on our site, they geta tweet with a link. Those aregreat links for generating ticketsales, and it’s very easy. Werealized that we didn’t haveto hire a team of people tofill @Goldstar with crazy, funcontent.I think the bigger point is,it’s possible that not usingTwitter would work for a givencompany. That’s not to saythat you shouldn’t try things ortest things or explore things,but entrepreneurs shouldhave the courage of theirconvictions about what they’velearned. It’s hard to do that inthe face of pressure, and if youhave investors, they can putpressure on you, too. You haveto resist it and do the thingsthat are best for the companyand for its customers andemployees. You can constantlychase whatever’s shiny, butentrepreneurs only have somuch mental bandwidth, soyou have to use it in the rightplaces.Q: What drives your decisionsabout innovation and growth?Jim McCarthyA: Innovation is really onlyinnovation if it serves a needthat customers have or givesthem something they want.Our job is not to find buyersfor our tickets, it’s to findtickets for our buyers. Ourinnovation process revolvesaround evaluating what we’redoing for our members andthen figuring out what we’renot doing as well as we couldbe. Sometimes those kinds ofinnovations are really simpleand other times they’re moretechnical. But they always startwith the customer.For example, early in ourbusiness, we started sendingout an e-mail to buyers afterthe event they purchasedtickets for had happened, tosee how it went. We were thefirst company I know of to dothis. We wanted to make surethat people were having aOctober 2012www.teletimesinternational.com41
Page 1: Etisalat:Innovation and Determinati
Page 8 and 9: Letter to readersKhalid AtharChief
Page 11 and 12: Neil JaquesBring Your Own Device (B
Page 13 and 14: Cisco has announced itsparticipatio
Page 15 and 16: Rose ManaogJacky’s Electronics un
Page 17 and 18: Etisalat:Innovation and Determinati
Page 19: PCCW GlobalConnected with your worl
Page 24 and 25: Free For OperatorsRegister & Pay On
Page 27 and 28: equipment (PASOLINK productline) as
Page 31 and 32: Mr. Arshad MahmoodCEO - UniCom Afri
Page 33 and 34: Asif MehmoodChief Executive Officer
Page 35 and 36: DCA thankful for STC’s contributi
Page 37 and 38: Khalid AtharThuraya Satellite Netwo
Page 39 and 40: we believe some people mightattempt
Page 41: Cloud Computingvs Network Neutralit
Page 45 and 46: DigitizationBahjat El-Darwiche, Mil
Page 47: contributes a gain in per capitaGDP
Page 50: service exports from 2005 to2009. E
Page 53 and 54: ●●ICT implementations indiffere
Page 55 and 56: Khalid AtharDoes Freedom of Express
Page 57 and 58: NEC provides Traffic Control System
Page 59 and 60: Techaccess partners with IXLAIdenti
Page 61 and 62: Conflict arises between the Incumbe
Page 63 and 64: Pakistan is a big market for Google
Page 65 and 66: December 2012Telecoms Cost Allocati

October 2012 - Teletimes

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?