2019

Communication
System of
Grameenphone

COMMUNICATION PRACTICES INSIDE OFFICE

GRAMEEN PHONE | Bashundhara,Dhaka

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 North South University
Department: Master of Business Administration

Course Name: Business Communications (BUS 500.4)

Project
Topic: Communication System of Grameen Phone

Submitted By:
Tanvir Hassan Mahmood (1925078060)

Sadia Tanzin (1925206660)

Md.Zakirul Islam (1925216660)

Srabonti Roy (1925275660)

Tasmia Mir (1925239660)

Submitted To:
Brig Gen Monirul Islam Akand

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 Acknowledgement

At first, we would like to bow our head with respect to Almighty ALLAH, who has
given us strength and opportunity to complete the project work.

It is mandatory to express our profound feeling of gratitude to our instructor,

respectable Brig Gen Monirul Islam Akand who gave us a proper guideline on how
to proceed with our resources and complete this report in the most efficient way.
His incite inspiration, helpful proposal with thoughtfulness, vitality and dynamism
has empowered us to complete our project. His teachings, deliverables, class
lectures helped us to enrich the report with full of resources. Sir also helped us a
lot to write the report and advised us in every respect of the report.

Finally, we should need to thank our friends and classmates who helped us to
build the report and write the report.

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 DEDICATED
TO
OUR BELOVED PARENTS
AND TEACHERS

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 CONTENTS

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Mission, Vision &Values ................................................................................................................................ 7
Objectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Communication System Of GP ...................................................................................................................... 9
Communication Methods in The Organization ............................................................................................. 9
Organizational Chart ................................................................................................................................... 10
Communication Flow In The GP .................................................................................................................. 10
Communication Flow In GP......................................................................................................................... 11
Communication with Customer .................................................................................................................. 12
Communication with The Agents ................................................................................................................ 13
Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Communication Platform:........................................................................................................................... 16
Findings ....................................................................................................................................................... 17
Recommendation:....................................................................................................................................... 17
Suggestions: ................................................................................................................................................ 18
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 18
Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 19
BooKs .......................................................................................................................................................... 19
Data Source ................................................................................................................................................. 19

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 ABSTRACT

The mobile market is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world economy. The
competition in this sector has become very intense and the companies’ need for survival, in
these very difficult conditions that dominate in this sector, force them to search for ways to
attract and to retain customers. Every company wants to stay in the mind of customer by
creating customer satisfaction and loyalty. Grameen phone is the leading operator in
telecommunication in Bangladesh. Communication practices in Grameenphone is very friendly
for both male and female. Communication system and flow in Grameenphone helps everyone
to take active part in every role. Communication with management and mass employee is good.
In this study we will analyze those along with a survey to prove our study

Key Words: Operators, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Mobile Phone Users, Cost,
Network, Service, Reliability and Contribution

INTRODUCTION

Grameenphone is the leading telecom operator with highest number of subscribers & widest
network in Bangladesh, providing best 4G internet service nationwide. It is a joint venture
enterprise between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation, a non-profit sister concern of
the internationally acclaimed microfinance organization and community development bank
Grameen Bank. Telenor, the largest telecommunications company in Norway, owns 62% shares
of grameenphone and Grameen Telecom owns the remaining 38%.

Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh. It also
established the first 24-hour Call Center to support its subscribers. With the slogan STAY
CLOSE, stated goal of Grameenphone is to provide affordable telephony to the entire
population of Bangladesh.

Grameenphone is one of only two Telenor networks to carry Telenor’s corporate branding but
not the Telenor name, the other being dtac of Thailand. Other subsidiaries using different
names were all renamed to Telenor around 2010, as was Telenor’s now-defunct Indian
subsidiary Uninor in 2015. (Malaysian mobile network operator Digi does not use the Telenor
group branding, nor is its logo similar to other Telenor subsidiaries.

Received operating license in November 1996 and started its operation from 26th March 1997
on the Independence Day of Bangladesh.

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 ➢ More than 70M subscriber securing the largest customer-based telecom operator in
Bangladesh
➢ More than 46% Market share holding the top in the market.
➢ Network covered 97% Population
➢ Network 90% of total land area
➢ Contributed 465 Cr taka taxes to the Govt
➢ Revenue: 132.8B Taka (2018)
➢ Net Income:35.2B Taka

Grameenphone became stock listed in November 2009, with, as at the date of this Base
Prospectus, the largest ever public offering in Bangladesh. It is listed on both the Dhaka and
Chittagong Stock Exchanges. As at 31 March 2015, Telenor held 55.8% of the shares in
Grameenphone, while Grameen Telecom, the other main shareholder, held 34.2%. The
remaining 10% of the shares were held by general retail and institutional investors The
international shareholder brings technological and business management expertise while the
local shareholder provides a presence throughout Bangladesh and a deep understanding of its
economy. Both are dedicated to Bangladesh and its struggle for economic progress and have a
deep commitment to Grameenphone and its mission to provide affordable telephony to the
entire population of Bangladesh.

The right and contemporary use of technology is the key to the progress of a nation. Keeping
this in mind, Grameenphone always brings the future proof technology in order to facilitate
your progress.

The possibilities in this new world are immense and someone as bright as you should not be
behind in anyway. At the end of the day, all the individual progresses accumulate to the
progress of the beloved motherland.

Grameenphone promises you to bring the best of communication technologies so that you can
Go Beyond.

Grameenphone has been a pioneer in bringing innovative mobile-based solutions to

Bangladesh. Notable among these are the Healthline, a 24- hour medical call centre manned by
licensed physicians, Mobicash, for electronic purchase of train and lottery tickets, and Billpay
for paying utility bills through mobile phones, Mobicash also allows mobile-to-mobile funds
transfers with certain handsets. Other initiatives include Online Schools, which uses video
conferencing technology to impart high quality education in remote areas, the provision of
internet facilities for 250 rural schools and the establishment of over 330 community
information centres across Bangladesh. These centres bring affordable internet access and
other information-based services to people in rural areas.

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 MISSION, VISION &VALUES

Vision:
➢ Empower societies: GP provide the power of digital communication, enabling everyone
to improve their lives, build societies and secure a better future for all .
➢ Their vision to empower societies is a clear call to action. Bringing vital infrastructure,
new products & services that stimulate progress and improvement.

Mission:
“We are here to help our customers: We exist to help our customers to get full benefit of
being connected”

We exist to help our customers get the full benefit of being connected. Our success is measured
by how passionately they promote us.

Values:
Make it Easy

Everything we produce should be easy to understand and use. We should always remember
that we try to make customers’ lives easier.

Keep Promises

Everything we do should work perfectly. If it doesn’t, we’re there to put things right. We’re
about delivery, not over-promising. We’re about actions, not words.

Be Inspiring

We ‘re creative. We bring energy and imagination to our work. Everything we produce should
look fresh and modern.

Be Respectful

We acknowledge and respect local cultures. We want to be a part of local communities

wherever we operate. We want to help customers with their specific needs in a way that suits
way of their life best.

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 OBJECTIVES

• To relate theoretical learning acquired through classroom study with that of the real life
business situation.
• To fulfill requirement of the Bus com- course.
• To discuss about a company profile and figure out different managerial
Levels with organogram of an existing organization. (Grameenphone)

• To understand how the communication systems of Finance, Innovation, HR, CRM,

Marketing and different departments of the organization works.
• Discuss the nature of communications in an organizational setting, including
communication flows, channels, and networks.
• Explain barriers to communication and discuss the most common types of barriers to
group communication.

Specific Objectives

• To provide an overview of the host organization - know about the communication

system of Grameenphone, its Internal-operational and its external process.
• To discuss about the importance of communication process in Sales and marketing
department of the organization.
• Identify the competitive advantages among GP & other companies and try to give some
suggestions that can help it upgrade its communication system.

• The current study is significant for the following reasons:

Firstly, it will help the researcher to understand the overall communication activities in the
departments of Grameenphone of Bangladesh.

Secondly, it will help to better understand of the internal & external communication structures
of Grameenphone following the chain of command.

Finally, it will help the future researcher for further study in this area and will provide more
information for these types of research.

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 COMMUNICATION SYSTEM OF GP

Every organization has two types of communication system. Grameen Phone is not except
from them. It has also two types of communication system which are following:

External System: This system is typified by the formal organization chart. This system is
used to control individual and group behavior and to achieve organizational goals. Some
elements of external system are following:

✓ Business letter
✓ Report writing
✓ Business proposal
✓ Memorandum report
✓ Email

Internal System: The internal system develops as people interact within the formal,
external system and certain behavior patterns emerge, patterns which accommodate social
and psychological needs. In internal system, both formal and informal elements of
communication is used which are following:

#Grapevine
#Face to face communication
#Work chat
#Mobile
#Email

COMMUNICATION METHODS IN THE ORGANIZATION

To achieve its operating goals, Grameen phone’s needs to direct and coordinate its
interdependence of units and individuals toward a desired point. As a result, a formal
organization structure results from efforts to achieve coordination. On the other side,
coordination results from effective communication and well-organized programs or systems.
There is a formalized hierarchy of Grameen phone has been shown below.

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 Here, organization chart defines the scope of the organization. The people generally occupy
roles and perform functions in all those spaces in the organization chart, he pictured structure
could seldom be considered a final answer. However, to conduct function, the officials of GP
have contact with each other. Generally, GP believes in informal communication when they
usually talk to each other. But, to submit a proposal, report to their management, they prefer
to email communication better. They do not submit these things by direct handing over. On the
other side, their communication in mobile by colleague is free as they have their own company
mobile SIM.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

COMMUNICATION FLOW IN THE GP

The flows of communication within the organization may be upward, downward, or

horizontally directed.
Grameen Phone Limited has downward and upward communication flows which are
following:

Downward Communication:
Downward Communication is that from superior to subscriber-from boss to employee, and
from policy maker to operating personnel. Five elements of downward communication are
following:

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 Job instruction: Teaching new or current employees how to do a particular task.

Rationale: The justification for the organization and its goals; how a particular function
fits into the total organization.

Information: Orientation to the company - its rules, practices, procedures, and history.

Feedback about job performance: Supervisors evaluation or appraisal of employee

performance.

COMMUNICATION FLOW IN GP

The effort to convey to and install in employees a degree of enthusiasm, loyalty, or

support for the organization. This flow, of course, related to the hierarchical structure of the
organization.

CXO
Downward Communication

Deputy Director/Director
Upward Communication

Deputy General Manager/General Manager Band

C

Specialist/Lead Specialist Band D

Executive/Sr Executive_Band E

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 Upward communication: When management requests information from lower organizational
levels, the resulting information becomes feedback to the request. This is called upward
communication. This communication keeps management informed about the feelings of
subordinates, helps management identity both difficult and potentially promotable employees,
and paves the way for even more effective downward communication.

Basically, these two types of communication flow are used by the Grameenphone.

COMMUNICATION WITH CUSTOMER

After fourteen years of operation, Grameen Phone has about 30 million subscribers as of
May 2008. To retain the current subscriber and to increase the number of them, Grameen
Phone has to communicate its customer continuously. As a result it comes to know about
customers problems, expectations and demand from the company.

To do so, Grameen Phone gets linked to its subscriber 24 hours throughout the year by
providing information. Moreover, the company fascinates the customer by giving every
type of facilities such as SIM replacement, change of address as so on in their customer
care center. To provide these services. The company communicates with its customers
through direct or indirect method. These methods are described below.

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 COMMUNICATION WITH THE AGENTS

The products and services of Grameen Phone are sold through the following channels:
They communicate with their agents via mobile phone, retailer app, email and face to face.

• 64 Dealers and their franchise.

• 150 Outlet agents.
• More than 5000 individual agents.

–Flora, Grameen Telecom, Brothers and Butterfly, are the leading

ones, with the maximum number of franchises. Besides their products, Grameen Phone also sell
service. Services are sold through info Centers and Hotline.Info center provides spot solutions.
Here subscribers can get subscription. Trained and friendly officers are serving at Info Center
from 8am-6pm. There is also 01 Sales &Logistics officer who is responsible for providing SIM
(Subscribers Identification Module) cards and handsets to the subscribers and distribution
of marketing items. At present there are 6 Info centers, two in Dhaka and rest four in the other
four regional heads, namely, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna. Not only has that
Grameen Phone interacted with the agents in the following way:
# Mobile Phone
# Online
# Face to face communication.
#Retailer app
Basically, these are the communication process GP used in operate their organization. Among
all the forms of communication with the agents retailer app is the mostly used communication
platform.

ANALYSIS

We conduct a survey to analyze the communication system of Grameenphone.There were

12 male employees and 8 female employees co-operate the survey by answering the
questionnaire. In the questionnaire, all questions were related to the communication
system like their satisfaction level in practicing communication inside and outside the office.

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 Q1. Are you happy with the official language prevailing in your office?

Language Comprehensive

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1 3

Yes No Neutral

Interpretation: Communication language inside the workplace is understandable from the survey.

Q2: Does the present communication process touch yours company Goal?

Touch to Goal
Neutral
10%

Aggre
20%

Strongly Aggre
70%

Interpretation: 90% of the employee think that present communication process touch yours
company Goal

Q3: Are you satisfied with the group communication?

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 Good Communication in Group Strongly
agree
12 12

10 Agree

8
6
6 Neutral

4
2
2 0 0

Interpretation: 90% of the employee think that present communication process is good for group
interaction.

Q4: Are the employees able to understand the order and directive from management?

UpWARD order

10%
Yes
30% No
60% Neutral

Interpretation: More than 90% of the employee can understand the directives from management.

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 Q5: Does different departments maintain good communication among themselves?

Inter Department
Communication
Strongly Aggre
10%
0%
Agree

20% Dis Aggre

Strongly Dis
Aggre
Neutral
70%

Interpretation: More than 90% of the employee think good communications have been maintained among
different departments.

COMMUNICATION PLATFORM:

Communication Medium

2, 10%

E-Mail

Video Call
6, 30% 10, 50%
Telephone

WorKMessenger

2, 10%

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 Different sets of communication medium are being used in Grameen phone internally. From the figure we can see
that people use 50% email as communication platform. Email is the main communication platform in
Grameenphone.

FINDINGS

✓ Grameen Phone Ltd. Has a good look to emphases its internal communication system.
✓ Grameen Phone Ltd. Renewed the old communication system of its brand.
✓ Internally the Company’s employees communicate to each other’s by their renewed
✓ communication process.
✓ Their Communication varied on employee’s skills, educational background, and
✓ experience of working for the organization.
✓ Mainly, for the internal communication, they use Telephone to communicate with
✓ employees.

✓ Secondly, they are using email to send letter, order and files.
✓ They have a good work plan for going to their goal.
✓ The employees of the Grameenphone Limited have a very little problem in
understanding language. In a word, they 95% of employees have no problem to
understand in order, which is different in language.

✓ Feedback is important to make any kind of best communication for a communication

process. The company communication process has a good image about the Feedback.
✓ Board meeting is so important to maintain a good communication between employees.
✓ In the company the board meetings are held in due time.
✓ They also have a good communication between employees in different area.
✓ Their internal communication is enough for them to do their work

RECOMMENDATION:

After critically observing and analyzing the assigned topic, I would like to focus and
mention appropriate recommendation, which would increase the priority of the topic and
ensure a smoother communication between the employees.

✓ They can change their all old system of communication such as one Meeting in a month.
✓ They are depending on telephone for communication. But they can change it to internet
based such as email, video conference and etc.

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 ✓ Some of their employees have problem to understand communicating language and
upper level order. The company can start a program to make them perfect to
understand language and order.
✓ They have no communication with others telecom companies in Bangladesh, which
is also important for a smoother communication in internal and external.
✓ After all they must improve their all sides to maintain a good internal communication.
Such as technologically.
✓ There should be more GPC at the southern side of the capital city. If there is more
Grameenphone center (GPC) is all over the rural area then service will be easier,
satisfactory time consuming and also quality service. Like it has to be one stop solution.

SUGGESTIONS:

After critically observing and analyzing the assigned topic, we would like to focus and mention appropriate
recommendation, which would increase the priority of the topic and ensure a smoother communication between
the employees.

✓ They have no communication with others telecom companies in Bangladesh, which is also important for a
smoother communication in internal and external.

✓ Due to mix workplace with foreigners, sometimes there arise communication problem with language.

✓ They should more practice in English to communicate with foreigners.

CONCLUSION

➢ We are able to reach this point that the managing communication skill of Grameen Phone is really
overwhelming.

➢ Not only that its effectiveness in communication helps it in a large way to achieve its organizational goal.

➢ The managing communication process of GP helps the organization to enlarge its business.

➢ So,there is no doubt that, Grameen Phone has very strong managing communication skill.

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 APPENDIX

REFERANCE

➢ http://www.alibaba.com/Telecommunications_s509
➢ http://www.grameenphone.com/
➢ http://www.grameenphone.com/sites/default/files/investor_
relations/annual_report/Full-Report-2014.pdf

BOOKS

➢ Lesikar.Pettit .(2003),Business Communication; A.I.T.B.S Publishers&Distributers, India.

➢ Cherrington, David J. (1995). The Management of Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.

DATA SOURCE

Primary source of data:

Interview of customer manager working at GP and taking survey from GP employees.

Secondary source of data:

Internet

Newspaper Archive

Annual report of GP 2017-2018

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