Telcos need to move from a technology-driven mindset to a people-driven mindset. "There's far too much talk about technology, such as 2.5G, Edge, 3.5G and LTE. It's irrelevant to customers. It's all about services," said Telenor's head of Asia Sigve Brekke.
Brekke, a keynote speaker at the TM Forum Management World Asia in Singapore, told Telecom Asia that there are very few examples of companies that are truly customer focused. He said it's essential operators think as consumer products companies.
"Everyone claims to be customer focused, but few really are. It's a people mindset issue, but is also an IT issue. Our industry is not good at using customer information. Few industries have this amount of data. Actually, the problem is we probably have too much information about our customers. Few take advantage of this information and are able to micro-segment their customer base to launch new types of services."
He said operators can take a larger share of the customer's wallet through micro-segmenting and at the same time reduce costs by having a more narrow marketing focus.
Brekke said that Telenor, which has operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and most recently India, has no common brand across the region.
"There is a similar culture across our 13 operations worldwide - that is our brand. It's not important to have a common physical brand or identity. That is just a logo," he said. "Our model is a little bit different than some of the global players. We think every market is different. That's why you see that we don't have the same logo."
It also doesn't offer exactly the same type of services across its operators and doesn't use use the same service platforms or centralizing IT solutions.
In terms of potential economies of scale, he said the cost advantage of having common platforms across operations is less than the market advantage of being very close to each market and following how things are done locally.
While Telenor's operations in Asia are focused most on basic voice connectivity, he sees an opportunity to use its relationship with customers to launch new services, such a m-banking and mobile advertising. "We'll use our relationship with 70 million customers in Asia, which is the most important thing that we have, to drive growth in other areas."
The company's first move into Asia was in 1997 when it invested in a mobile license in Bangladesh. He said at the time people were thinking: "You must be totally out of your mind. First of all, you've never done things in Asia before, and you picked one of the most difficult markets." That company now has 23.5 million customers and has a market capitalization of about $5 billion, after being listed last year.
Telenor acquired a bank in Bangladesh and is actively driving m-banking and mobile payments. He said just 7% of Bangladeshis have a formal bank account and the majority of branches are in the major cities. "This is a big opportunity for us."
Telenor's global strategy, he said is to be a mobile growth company. "Back home in Norway, we do everything - fixed line, broadband, broadcast, all the different things. But outside the Scandinavian market, we are focusing on mobile and on growth opportunities."
That strategy means the company is constantly looking at opportunities. "But having moved into India last year, that's our main focus now. We need to build our customer base there, deliver on the business plan targets, and show people that even in that competitive market there is a room for us. That's our main focus now rather than further expansion."
He said the company was too conservative 10 years ago when it forecast mobile penetration across the world and thinks today most people also are too conservative when it comes to mobile internet penetration.
"We think that a new big opportunity for us is to connect people to the internet in a big way. Not 10% of the population, not the cities, but the masses."