Assignment

On
Grameen-
Phone
(GP)
 Company Profile

Since 1997 the widely acclaimed “Village Phone Programme” of GrameenPhone – a joint
venture telecom company, set up by Grameen Bank, with foreign (Norwegian) capital3 –
has provided telephones to 39,000 villages in Bangladesh, bringing access to the
telephone networks to some 70 million people. This extraordinary achievement is rightly
cited in the development literature as a success, an innovation which managed to bring
the Information Society to the remotest and most unlikely places of the country. Most
studies of the initiative have focused on the socio-economic benefits that new technology
such as cell phones can bring rural communities, giving the impression that the
programme is philanthropic in intention, presenting GrameenPhone as a not-for-profit
organization devoted to providing connectivity for the poor. This assumption does not
reflect reality. GrameenPhone is above all a business. The company provides a good
example of a multi-stakeholder partnership, as recommended in the Plan of Action of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva in December 2003.4 It
highlights the role of the private sector not only as a market player but also as an
effective and dynamic stimulator of development. This case-study aims at presenting the
various stakeholders involved in GrameenPhone, identifying their respective role,
responsibilities and interests, briefly analyzing the way these different institutions
interact, and assessing how much the experience can be replicated in other countries to
bring similar benefits there.
 Rationale of the
Study

This study will be both exploratory and analytical. This study will first try to explore the
nature of the marketing department as conceived and as conducted by the management of
Grameen Phone Telecom. Then it will try to analyze the reaction of the target consumers
to communication through conducting a survey.

Statement of Problems

The end user may not assign or transfer the use of services provided under this tariff;
however, where there is no interruption of use or relocation of the services, such
assignment or transfer may be made to:

(1) Another end user, whether an individual, partnership, association or corporation,

provided the assignee or transferee assumes, in writing, all outstanding indebtedness for
such services, and the unexpired portion of the minimum period and the termination
liability applicable to such services, subject to notification of the Telephone Company.

(2) a court-appointed receiver, trustee or other person acting pursuant to law in

bankruptcy, receivership, reorganization, insolvency, liquidation or other similar
proceedings, provided the assignee or transferee assumes the unexpired portion of
minimum period and the termination liability applicable to such services, if any.

(3) In all cases of assignment or transfer, the written acknowledgment of the Telephone
Company is required prior to such assignment or transfer which acknowledgment shall be
made within 15 days from the receipt of notification. All regulations and conditions
contained in this tariff shall apply to such assignee or transferee. The assignment or
transfer of services does not relieve or discharge the assignor or transferor from
remaining jointly or severally liable with the assignee or transferee for all long distance
toll existing prior to the time of the assignment or transfer, unless other specific
arrangements have been made.

(B) The installation and restoration of services shall be provided on a first-come first-
served basis.

Scope of the study

From this report we learnt many things. GrameenPhone Group is one of the very big
organizations in Bangladesh. By analyzing its current situations we came to know about
their strategies, their business success and also about their profitable and non profitable
businesses. We came to know about the MIS of the organization. As a student of MIS it
is very much essential to know about it. Book knowledge is not enough to understand
MIS. For that reason we analyse thoroughly the GrameenPhone Company to gather real
life knowledge. And to understand that how they capture the market, fight with
competitors.

Limitations of the study

We couldn’t give all the information as there are some restrictions of GrameenPhone’s
policy. We took information from different sources & their different reports &
publications. So, reports may vary from time. We also couldn’t explain everything in
details as there was limitation of time.

As the company is a very large, we couldn’t give the goals and strategies of the bank in
this report. Their goals and strategy changes from time to time and there may be a large
number of strategies in it.

We couldn’t do survey on a big number of people for the lack of time. As the
organization is very large, we might fail to explain about all of their products. Some
information has been taken from the internet, so it might not be the specific, accurate and
definite information.

Another limitation of this report is that this report is more based on the year 2007 & 2008
annual report of the company. As they didn’t publish their annual report for 2009, we
failed to give latest reports in this.

There was also Lack of experience and also shortage of money which made limitations in
the report.

Objectives of the
Study
Every study should have some objectives in it. Before doing this study, I also had some
broad objectives and some specific objectives of the study. They are given blow.

Broad Objective:

• To analyse MIS of GP

• To analyse customer satisfaction on GP

• To analyse market present and future market strategy

Specific Objectives

• To analyze the each section of GP

• To study the product line of GP.

• To study the products of the organization.

 Methodology of the Study

Data Collection Techniques

There are different techniques for collecting data. Such as- questionnaire, survey,
observation etc. We have collected data from two types of techniques. They are given
below,

Questionnaire: One of the data collection techniques of this report were

questionnaire. We asked different kinds of questions to the Grameen Phone managing
directors, their other employees who are working on the different businesses of Grameen
Phone, the retailer shops, such as- Agora, Shopno, Meena Bazaar etc. in which they sell
Grameen Phone’s different consumer products. We asked questions about the daily
production and the sales of their products. We also asked about their competitors’ and the
substitute products.

Observation: Another technique that was used in this report for data collection is
observation. We went to various shops to observe Grameen Phone products market
condition. We observed the customers in the retailer shops buying Grameen Phone’s
different consumer products. Many people were asking about the Grameen Phone’s
product that whether Grameen Phone’s product were available in that shop or not.

Sources of Data Collection

We collected data from two types of sources. They are explained below:

Primary sources:

1. Research approach for primary data collection:

# Observational approach: Observation is a method of data gathering in which a

qualified person watches, or walks through, the actual processing associated with a
system

 Best for studying processes, e.g. manufacturing

 Useful for studying the work flow through an office for example

 Could be active or passive

# Survey approach

2. Contacts methods for primary data collection:

• Individual interview: This also called an in-depth interview. The interviewer

begins by asking a general question. The interviewer then encourages the
respondent to talk freely. The interviewer uses an unstructured format, the
subsequent direction of the interview being determined by the respondent’s initial
reply.
• Focus group: A focus group is an interview conducted by a trained moderator in a
non-structured and natural manner with a small group of respondents. The
moderator leads the discussion. The main purpose of focus groups is to gain
insights by listening to a group of people from the appropriate target market talk
about specific issues of interest.

3. Research instrument:

• The research instrument was questionnaire.

Secondary sources:
► Internal Secondary Data: data collected within the firm, such as internal
databases of customer information.

► External Secondary Data: data obtained from outside the firm

# published (data available for free from libraries or trade associations)

# syndicated (specialized available for a fee to subscriber’s examples)

# Databases (collection of inter-related data)