Page 54 - IBT August 2021 Issue

Telecommunication Industry
THE TALE
OF A TELCO
VISIONARY
Shihab Ahmad, Chief Commercial Officer of Robi Axiata Limited, elaborates on the
role of digital innovation and environmental sustainability in the company's long
term strategy, the importance of effective consumer engagement and his journey
throughout the years in the sector.
Robi Axiata Limited was recently
recognized with the Innovation
Leadership Award and the Green
Telecom Award at the 19th Global
Edition of the Business Leader of the
year award in India. How vital are
innovation and environmental
sustainability in Robi Axiata Limited's
long-term strategy?
Digital innovation and environmental
sustainability are the two core elements of
our long-term strategy. As a customer-centric
company, it is only natural that we would
put special focus on these matters.
The Innovation Leadership Award and the
Green Telecom award only confirms that we
are heading in the right direction. The
Innovation Leadership award was conferred
to us for the outstanding initiatives we had
undertaken to use the power of Data
Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
addressing pandemic issues; concurrently,
the Green Telecom award recognized our
effort towards delivering our vision for
net-zero carbon emission.
Finding the right balance among the short,
medium and long-term strategies is a very
tall order for any company. Robi has been
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August 2021
in every aspect of our business to increase
value for our customers.
In this connection, apart from ensuring
affordable tariffs, we have increased
validity on product plans without changing
re-extended prepaid customers' validity and
the prices. We have also extended and
introduced free transfer of balance and
flexible payment options. Also, Robi has
heavily encouraged customers to stay home
and avail services through our digital
channels, where user experience has been
significantly amplified and simplified for
convenience. Furthermore, we also
introduced a special package for our
frontline health workers as a token of
gratitude from the company, where we
provided free 33 GB of data per month for
six months. We have also allowed payment
through Robi balance for subscribing to
popular apps. It has allowed the customers
to avail services at a more affordable price.
Furthermore, as part of continuous product
innovation to maximise customer value, we
are the only operator in the country to
introduce an innovative data bank package
in the My Robi app. This service allows
customers to purchase data and use it
anytime as per their convenience without
very successful in this regard, thanks to the shared purpose of having to think about validity expiration.
the organizational culture over the years. People of the While we focus on affordability and bring
organization are expected to demonstrate agility in doing the network to all customers with massive
things digitally, collaborate to deliver, and inspire to innovate. investment, we will continue to remain
competitive in terms of affordability of
This recipe has created an organizational culture that service and variety without compromising
celebrates the pursuit of innovation in every aspect of the
business. the quality of experience through the
It has allowed us to take up several ground-breaking pursuit of digital innovation.
innovative initiatives to serve the needs and wants of all our
customers. Especially during the pandemic, Robi has been able How are you ensuring effective
consumer engagement in the
to do justice to its promise of offering a new experience in the post-pandemic world?
lives of its customers with unmatched innovation in the use of As I have mentioned before, we have an
AI and Data Analytics solutions. We are confident that we are active social listening mechanism that
ready to dominate the digital landscape of the future. allows us to swiftly track shifts in social
Subsequently, our vision of net-zero emission creates an interaction trends, entertainment, and
opportunity to rethink the way we power our network. As the lifestyle needs. We assessed the conditions
country becomes ever more digital, our environmentally consumers were living in through in-depth
sustainable approach to running our business will go a long market research. The research findings very
way in meeting the national commitments under the much directed our engagement efforts. The
Sustainable Development Goals. core needs of customers trying to connect
with loved ones, acquiring knowledge, daily
How is Robi Axiata Limited ensuring that mobile entertainment needs, etc., mostly did not
internet and digital services remain affordable for the change- what changed were the methods
mass population of the country? and mediums these needs are being fulfilled
At Robi, we are constantly striving to ensure maximum value with.
for our customers in return for their spending in purchasing As the leading digital service provider, we
any services from us. We are always keen to bring innovation
took up a number of initiatives to address these changes in the
consumers’ behavior. We have encouraged and enabled people
to showcase their talent in singing, video-graphing, editing,
through various brand engagements in digital format. For
example, we enabled digital learning through Robi-10 Minute
School, facilitated digital participation in a star-studded
orchestra “Bijoyer Shurer Notun experience” during the last
Victory Day, and organized Eid celebrations online through
“Eid Fashion Challenge”.
We are also trying to cater to the growing video streaming
needs through our own OTT platform, Binge, which has more
than 3,000 exciting on-demand entertainment content
including children’s content, local and international
web-series, popular films, and exciting sports tournaments.
The recently concluded COPA America tournament was
watched by thousands of people. We also aggregated and
integrated all the digital services in a single platform– My Robi
App and My Airtel App. Our customers found it incredibly easy
to interact, engage and take services from this platform.
During the lockdown we have partnered with Gaan Bangla to
create live weekly musical shows knowing how much people
miss live music sessions. Apart from entertainment, we also
addressed a growing concern of mental health among the
youth with an integrated campaign that encouraged friends to
just be there for one another in these trying times- such
meaningful messaging gained tremendous organic traction
and engagement among our customers.
Additionally, through advanced analytics and tracking
methods, we introduced the country's first ever digital Corona
Update service in association with the Postal &
Telecommunication Division and ICT Division of the
Government. The platform used crowdsourced information to
identify high risk areas to warn people when entering those
areas through real-time SMS alert notification and integration
of Covid-19 map on our self-care apps- My Robi and My Airtel.
Robi has invested a lot of resources in
Robi Digital Universe; How will the
platform enhance the aggregate
customer experience?
The consistent user experience and service
excellence across all channels differentiate
a great customer experience from a good
one. The Omnichannel user experience is
something we have been working on to
connect all our digital touchpoints to
ensure customers don’t have to start from
the very beginning while switching between
platforms.
At the centre of our digital universe lies-
My Robi/ My Airtel app- we have been
building these platforms using the
“Super-App” concept. These apps
meaningfully collate and integrate all
digital services to provide ultimate
convenience for the customers. We have
already built up the My Robi/My Airtel
universe in a way that it can support the
digital needs of our customers- starting
from digital self-service to a range of
lifestyle needs, like streaming, health,
gaming, etc.
An exciting new frontier we have been
exploring is the AI-based customized
offering. It uses the power of Machine
Learning and robust statistical models to
predict future consumption patterns of our
customers. We closely study the past
behaviours of our customers to anticipate
future usage and offer customized offerings
to each of our unique customers. Not only
does this allow us to maximize ROI from ad spend
fine-tune our message according to customer prefe
We have also implemented world-class security fea
ensured integrations across all apps and our chan
Robi/ My Airtel App, Chatbot, and website allowin
system in Robi has a built-in constant feedback l
interactions with our customers. The omnichannel
customer insights. We take frequent surveys to qu
respond to customer feedback and integrate these
the system.
As a veteran professional in the Telecom sector,
would you say are the most rewarding factors of
working in the industry? What are the achievement
your professional life you fondly look back at?
I have been privileged to have the golden experie
working in the Bangladesh telecom industry since
gone through the ups and downs, pains and pleasur
socio-economic development.
sector as it evolved into the driving force behin
The Telecom industry facilitates the latest techn
connects millions of Bangladeshis across the coun
irrespective of their socio-economic condition. M
crore SIMs are in use, nine crore plus individual
telecom service, it is a testament by itself. Bei
journey and working side-by-side with so many oth
greats of Bangladesh is the most rewarding factor
telecommunications industry is fast-paced; new sc
unfold every day, new technology, new market move
stressful, challenging as it is; this is another
for me. Concurrently, I want to stress the fact t
has been possible because of work done by passion
committed team members, and I happened to be part
and had the opportunity to lead some of them.
Speaking of personal achievements, I fondly look
time during the early 2000s when I spent a signif
of time studying, assessing and strategising depl
options for the telecom companies, which has beco
the excellent infrastructure we have today. Subse
successful Robi-Airtel merger project was another
my career. I was heading this as Integration Dire
and this was one of the most successful telecom i
the world. It made Robi a stronger player in the
end of the project, we gained over 9m subscribers
revenue by about 3.5 billion.
Robi had been driving innovation in the country,
in continual innovation in bringing relevant serv
people. We launched the “r-venture” program to en
people on digital innovation, not only by competi
by investing millions in BDT to support top innov
from employees and across the country. As the r-v
program sponsor, I take pride that some of these
becoming full-blown tech ventures in the country.
this has been a rewarding experience and a journe
achievements both for me personally, as well as R
company.