King of Thieves finally quits

And about time that he did. The CEO of Grameenphone, Anders Jensen, has decided to resign shortly (December 2008, so we have couple more agonizing months) whereas he was originally contracted to stay until 2010. Telenor hasn't decided when where his next posting will be, but its pretty much guaranteed that Jensen won't be around these parts for some time. Jensen contests its because of 'family reasons' but it is pretty clear it was because in his tenure he managed to alienate everyone in Bangladesh.

When Jensen stepped in, the platform was already there. GP was an admired stalwart and got along with everyone. But now as he is stepping out, things are pretty much in tatters which makes the pervious CEO, Erik Aas look like a miracle. Jensen's failures are listed below.

Alienation
Pretty much everyone was irked by the way Jensen decided to present Grameenphone. GP came off as a completely different company with 'eyes larger than its stomach' to be specific. First Muhammad Yunus was alienated because GP did not appease his demands quickly enough (whatever they finally appeased him with, it was enough to keep Yunus's mouth shut)

Secondly they did not play nice with local banks. First filing a proposal to take over banking by using a first-in-the-world concept mobile banking. GP wanted to have a banking license by paying for the lavish trips of some consultants to the issue. Jensen proposed his own version of mobile banking to Bangladesh Bank which not only shocked the regulatory body but completely alienated it from all local and foreign banks. The bravado attitude was too much.

Thirdly they managed to alienate the SEC and the people of the country. First it was the IPO, they decided to hit the stars, with an unreasonable proposal. They even went out of their way in betraying the people of Bangladesh to see, first, if there were any foreign investors who wanted GP first. Finally when the foreign investors realized that the IPO does not make any financial sense (given GP's cash flow and assets) they came back to Bangladesh with a more reduced IPO. Even then the response has been lukewarm. Better luck next time. The IPO looked like a scam because Jensen wanted to cash out as much as possible as quickly as possible for Telenor. Even if that meant scamming a country of 150 million people.

No new customers in August
GP didn't manage to add 1 new customer for August. They blame BTRC registration process. This is extremely hard to believe as Banglalink reached 100 million customer point. Fingers can be pointed at the Grameenphone bloat. I have seen Grameenphone employees and they are extremely lazy. They expect the food to be handed to them and treat everyone else like Grameenphone is the one doing them a big favor.

GP's bloat does not end ther but continue to the expenses that have gone unhindered. Lack of proper foresight and a lack of synergies between other carriers and companies is also to blame. GP wanted everything and all in its sights. But people in Bangladesh don't sit around in one place too long.

VoIP
It wasn't VoIP. VoIP is GP's scapegoat for all their failures. They got off very lightly on this situation because they were accused by Yunus for money laundering. If things continue the way it is now, I expect GP to keep blaming VoIP for the next 10 years. They took out way more untaxed money through VoIP that make the fines look like a tip.