layers that we have in the company. It
is essential for being successful.”
The best growth opportunities for
Orange undoubtedly lie in emerging
markets. At last count, the carrier had
operations in 28 countries. Roughly
half of its networks lie in the mature
markets of Eastern and Western
Europe. The other half (excluding a
number of smaller operations in the
Caribbean) can be found in Africa and
the Middle East. With the exception
of the highly penetrated markets of
Botswana, Jordan, Mauritius and
Reunion, it is Orange’s operations in
Africa and the Middle East that Swantee
expects to find the best growth.
“You will see us carefully expanding
in Africa,” he says, on the day that
Orange announces a deal in Uganda.
“The reason we’re expanding there is
we feel very good about our industrial
capabilities in markets where there is
a great need for improving communication
infrastructure.
Swantee was quoted recently in the
press saying that he saw Orange as the
‘Telefonica for Africa’. “The Orange brand
is synonymous with development, innovation,
quality of service, it works really
well, so that’s one area we are looking at.
But we are not shying away from our
existing footprint in mature markets
and we’re looking at further potential for
consolidation or cost reductions.”
Swantee is strong on the subject of
industry consolidation. When Hewlett-
Packard bought Compaq, he not only
survived the merger, he thrived. He
rose from the position of director of
sales and marketing for Compaq in
Switzerland to senior VP Technology
Solutions Group Sales and Software
EMEA for the new look HP.
“Mergers and acquisitions are just
one part [of business]. Of course, it is
an important part, and I’ve seen good
ones and bad ones. I’ve learned that
you need to be extremely careful and
very conservative. I think it is very
good that Orange is very conservative
and selective. There are a lot of
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career history
» 1987: Receives a bachelor degree in economics.
» 1989: Receives European MBA from the EAP (Ecole
Européenne des Affaires) in Paris.
» 1990 – 1992: Begins career in IT with Compaq in
Germany as a product manager of its European PC
division.
» 1994 – 1997: Joins Digital as Marketing PC Director in
Geneva.
» 1997: Executive Adviser to the Chairman and CEO of
Digital in the US.
» 1998: Returns to Compaq as director of sales and
marketing for Switzerland.
» 2002: Following Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of
Compaq, holds a series of senior international leadership
roles in sales and marketing, rising to managing director
for the Western European region.
» 2005: Promoted to senior VP Technology Solutions
Group Sales and Software EMEA.
» 2007: Becomes head of France Telecom Personal
Communication Services (Orange mobile).
projects that come to us when you have
�7.8bn of cash generation per year, but
most projects we say no.”
Orange said “no” to TeliaSonera recently
of course. The fact that Orange
was able to turn its back on the deal
after carrying out a good deal of due
diligence is testament to both Orange
and Swantee’s conservatism and experience.
“There are so many examples, after
so much work, of staying in the process,
but we stepped out because we believe
the price was too high,” he says.
Orange may be conservative but it is
not afraid to spend money on development.
With 18 labs around the world,
it employs 3,500 engineers. Swantee
is confident that Orange spends more
on R&D than its rivals. “Orange is
MCI INTERVIEW
generating revenues of �53bn and six
per cent of our revenue is devoted to
all the new stuff like applications and
content. We see ourselves as an international
communications provider
that provides services, information;
we have one brand across different
vehicles, whether it is fixed, mobile,
broadband or TV,” he says.
Data represents 18 per cent of Orange’s
revenue, and 11 per cent of its customers
generate 71 per cent of the data traffic
over the network. One of Swantee’s ambitions
is to drive that 11 per cent up. The
key areas of networks, devices, tariffs and
content are all finally starting to fall into
place, according to Swantee.
“If you buy a cell phone in one of our
shops, in 80 per cent of the cases our customers
will have a device with an Orange
signature which is a menu that is the
same across different operating systems
and different devices,” he says.
Orange’s strategy for owning and
controlling the entire eco-system of
the mobile internet sounds ominously
like a walled garden, although Swantee
is keen to stress that this is definitely
not the case. “We have a fragmentation
of operating systems and different
platforms—there is Symbian, Apple,
Microsoft, LiMo. What we try to do is
provide one menu or view across all
the different platforms.”
When Sanjiv Ahuja stepped down
he announced that he was satisfied
that his mission to integrate the firm
was complete. In some respects he
was right; these days the company
reports as one, but it would be naïve
to think absolute integration had been
achieved. The carrier has 113 million
mobile customers and 175 million
total customers, spread across 28
markets, each with its own range of
challenges and opportunities.
Olaf Swantee is under no illusions
regarding the task that lies ahead: “We
need to be a leader in maturing markets,
we need to work on the priorities that I’ve
just outlined and there is a tremendous
amount of work we have to do.” ■
27
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