No surprises… well, maybe a few

Chari TVT, Chief Financial Officer together with Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly.

Celcom terms its fifteenth financial quarter, its best performance in the local mobile operator’s history.

To top that off, Celcom was also awarded the Best Market Performance award within the regional Axiata Group. Among its list of financial indicators which are positive all around with double-digit growths, the mobile broadband increase went on to double the industry standard at 6% growth quarter-on-quarter. For that, Axiata Group awarded Celcom’s mobile broadband Best New Line of Business 2009.

Celcom CEO Dato’ Shazalli Ramly, also sees 2009 as marking the completion of its turnaround programme. He states a transformation agenda for 2010 that would help it fight locally and also support the Axiata Group internationally. He says: “We can lead the market, if we want to.”

Plans for 2010 include three new areas for activities beyond the traditional business. One is a customer lifecycle management division, likely to be headed by Celcom’s Chief Marketing Officer Chee Pok Jin. The other is a consumer behaviour lab that will apply behavioural science specific to Malaysia but also include Asia in general. Celcom also plans to increase and enhance consumer touch points across the country.

Celcom also reveals ambitions to start distributing the Apple iPhone, but that it is balking because it “needs to ensure all support levels are in place.” However, it is still open to the idea even though it is cognisant that taking on the fruity gadget needs a lot of after-sales service, as well as IT support, to ensure apps delivery is in tip-top condition. Celcom is currently distributing a wide range of mobile phones from an assortment of platforms like Android, Symbian and even Blackberry. Celcom claims its share of Blackberry distributed in the region, is the highest.

Shazalli concludes Celcom’s 15th financial quarter reporting by saying to expect more aggressive play than usual from service providers in terms of distribution, product innovation, mobile broadband and also promotions.

“We went into this with a segmentation strategy, not price positioning. We want to close the gap to be as close as possible to the current number one, within context of segments, not necessarily overall.”  In short, “We are declaring ourselves as challenger brand to number one.”