International Business Project

Case analysis on Bharti Airtel in Africa

By

Section B

Group No. 6

Batch: 2017-19

Submitted to: Prof. R. Sugant

ABHIJEET JHA (17051)

CHAYAN CHANDRA (17058)

REGINA VAZ (17080)

SAHIL SILHI (17082)

SAURABH SINGH (17084)

Date of Submission: 21st March 2018.

1. Outline the staffing policy adopted by Bharti Airtel in Africa. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of adopting this policy?

Answer:

Airtel’s strategy was to source the skilled labour that is suitable for the required vacancy locally
rather than recruiting expatriates. Since there was a lack of talent in Africa, finding the person
with the right skill was a challenge. They also concentrated on saving cost whilst not
compromising on the skill range.

Advantages

Airtel followed a dedicated service approach. Thus ensuring that FPG have been successful in
placing with the necessary skills in various fields throughout Africa. Airtel had to recruit an
entire team covering technical, finance, HR and marketing. Even though finding the right talent
locally was a difficult task, they were easily able to overcome the challenge of a comprehensive
recruitment campaign for a new start up in Rwanda.

They were able to save cost whilst not compromising on the necessary skills required.

Disadvantages

The existing employees may be put in an uncomfortable situation, as they would have to face a
few cultural changes. The employees may be reluctant to the change and the efficiency might be
at stake.

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2. Did the strategy of transferring people from Airtel and Zain headquarters succeed in Africa?
Justify your answer.

Answer:

After the acquisition Bharti Airtel moved employees from Airtel in India to work in Africa,
though most of the employees were not willing to relocate, some actually agreed to relocate.
Coming to Zain, Airtel brought in people from the Zain headquarters into Africa, but these whole
process or strategy of transferring people from Airtel India and Zain headquarters did not
succeed due to the following reasons:-

 Indian employees were aspiring to work in Europe or America but moving to Africa was
something they were doing was completely different, this would not keep them motivated
to work efficiently in Africa as in their mind they would feel their growth has been
slowed.
 Though the Indian employees moved to Africa, they were not much involved with the
other local employees there, they used to talk in their own language Hindi. There were
issues with the time zone, it was seen African employees complaining about Indian
employees that they were being disturbed in the early morning.
 The company also had to announce for more compensation and bonus plans to
benchmark its employees and itself with global companies, which would not have been
the case if employees from all over the world did not move in to Africa.
 Zain’s employees based in their headquarters Bahrain and had a Middle East mindset
which was completely different than the African mindset.
 Zain’s promoters brought in people from France, Lebanon and Jordan to run business
here, this people spent a lot of time travelling and relied on multiple constraints to make
decisions, so they were not effectively contributing to the company as they were mostly
travelling or their decision making was complex and time consuming.
 Indians were more used to a direct way of communication than what was in Africa, also
overcoming other cultural challenges in Africa for Indian like focusing on one single task
as compared to their usual multitasking behavior would take a long time and for the time
being these cultural differences won’t keep them motivated to work.

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Though the HR department of Bharti Airtel took steps to build a uniform environment in the
company by arranging for activities outside the workplace to encourage the African counterparts
to open up, it is said that it took 18 months which is quite a long time for a company like Airtel
to spent to get things set for a cultural integration but still we as a group believe that these
cultural differences will continue to exist and will affect the workplace relationships and the
productivity of the employees as the employees from India and Zain headquarters won’t be
motivated to give their best.

3. What are the reasons for failure of foreign employees in Africa?

Solution:

Lack of Cultural Flexibility

The inexperienced expatriate managers was taken up by surprise by the deep cultural differences
in their posted countries. Expatriate found that after a open communication about improvements
to be made staff members didn’t turn up for work for the next 2 days. In meeting, Local staff
think that it is acceptable to spend hours talking about every possible issue until it is agreed by
everyone. If expatriate managers are to be successful, they will need to learn how to adapt to
concepts such as “saving face” and “building consensus” that are important in Asia.

Too much of responsibility

In almost all cases, the responsibilities of expatriates in emerging countries will be larger than
they are used to overseeing. Given the nature of emerging countries in Southeast Asia,
expatriates may supervise 5 to 10 times more people than ever before.

Emotionally Instable
When the employees were moved to Africa they were all of a sudden pushed into the national
spotlight as a country manager of a prominent multinational association. On the individual front,
expatriates may have family hirelings out of the blue, are called upon to meet senior government
authorities and are for the most part made to feel critical.

Physical Breakdown
Expatriates regularly work for the extended period of time in order to get the more revenue and
they do whatever it takes to earn the higher revenue. Also they are spurred to succeed and amped
up for increasing worldwide experience. They are additionally adjusting to apparently
overpowering social contrasts with nearby staff and incredibly extended obligations.

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Stress of Family
Most expatriate’s directors are tested and eager to be in their new postings. They have to invest a
ton of energy at work since they are feeling the squeeze to adjust to the new culture and their
general obligations are frequently bigger than they have encountered previously. Accordingly,
the wives of expatriates invest a considerable measure of energy without anyone else's input –
and yes, trailing companions are still typically female – and are cut-off from their own family
and companions. In the meantime, the spouse is normally managing issues for which she has no
past involvement. She may find a servant taking or get halted by a policeman who needs a result
for a non-existent offense. She may have been informed that web availability is accessible
however then discovers it takes a half year to introduce. All through this, she will presumably
find that appropriate work for herself is beside outlandish in a rising nation – truly harming her
own long-haul vocation. It is nothing unexpected that it is for the most part the trailing
companion who endures the more noteworthy culture stun in the new nation. The outcome can
be a troubled mate who does her best to weaken the execution of the ostracize supervisor. Add
up to marriage breakdown isn’t a phenomenal outcome. Informal numbers from the Asian
Development Bank are that upwards of 40% of their exile relational union’s bomb because of the
worry of seaward postings. The outcome is that numerous exile postings are either ended early or
the execution of the ostracize chiefs are hindered.

4. What are the factors that are responsible for success of a home country employee in the
host country?

Solution:

There are few factors which are responsible for the success of a home country employee in the
host country which are:

 Shortage of skilled labour in Africa was one of the main reasons for success. There was
demand for talent in the host country as the host country lacked talent.
 The leaders of India were sent to Africa on a tour which would bring in a positive vibe in
the leaders which in turn would be spread across the organizations.
 Getting the talent from the home country who were well versed in administrative and
technological aspects was one of the challenges for Bharti Airtel. The skilled labours
preferred working either in Europe or America and to overcome this issue the management
had to pay them a lot more via mobility related packages in order to facilitate them to move
to Africa.

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  In the long run the management wanted the unit in Africa to be run by Africans. But there
was shortage of skilled labour. A few of the vacancies where filled with suitable available
local talent. But the mainstream job expertise was rare and even if found they were
expensive.
 Exchange programs were organized wherein the African employees came to India to learn
the various strategies and distribution channels in India. This lead to increase in cross-
cultural co-operation.

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