Mobilink requires Head of Marketing?

“Mobilink requires Head of Marketing” this was circulated very quickly yesterday on various job websites in Pakistan. We contacted Mobilink for its official statement, the contact person told ApnaTime that it was not about Mobilink but another Orascom’s subsidiary (TWA) is looking for the head of marketing.

Mobilink has not updated the website and still consider Mr. Ali Raza Mehdi as its VP on the management page of the site. (The website has been updated now on January 8, 2010.)

I must say that HR people at TWA need to take things seriously as this job was posted on different site with different job description and salary package. Few of them used the name of Mobilink.

Talking about the HR, Mobilink is already observing gradual changes within the company which according to analysts will turn out to be a major structural change within the company. Just recently the post of VP HR was filled by promoting Miss. Sadia Ahmed who was working as a director earlier.

Earlier Mr. Ali Raza Mehdi was performing the job who quit the seat some time back and joined Metro Pakistan. Mobilink has not yet updated the website and it still displays the name and picture of Mr. Ali as a part of Mobilink’s current management. The website has been updated now on January 8, 2010.

One of the applicants for the post of VP HR confirmed that Mobilink wanted to promote someone internally that is why external applications were rejected as a part of HR policy.

Similarly, Mobilink promoted Mr. Tariq Rasheed as Chief Strategy Officer which is actually the portfolio of Vice President (VP) and it was being handled by a much senior person Mr. Amir Ibrahim till few months back. Mr. Ibrahim has joined Telenor now. Before this shuffle, Mr. Tariq was serving as CIO and after his promotion; the vacant post has been filled by an internal but a much junior person, Mr. Irfan Farooq.

Another Vice President, Mr. Naeem Zimindar left Mobilink and got himself cleared in the month of October, last year. He had been sent away from Strategy and Planning a year ago to WiMax domain and then no one heard about him in the following year.

Mr. Mustafa Paracha was heading Customer Care as a Vice President when he moved to WiMax operations, Infinity which is still limited to Karachi despite of competitors’ nationwide expansions.

Sources in the company confirmed that there are changes being felt in the Marketing domain as well. Mr. Farid Ahmed who used to report Vice President Marketing, Mr. Bilal Munir Shiekh on Strategy related affairs, now directly reports to Mr. Rashid Khan, CEO of the company.  Whereas,  Mr. Bilal continues to  supervise Operations, Marketing side of VAS, Market Research, Brand Communication, CSR and PR, but analysts say, Strategy is always a core function which must be handled by Marketing Head as well.

A source in the company reveal that If anyone could study the decisions closely, it can be figured out that the portfolio of Vice Presidents is being brought to an end as a part of HR policy and that job description is being assigned to people from middle management and if that happens we may see couple of VPs moving away very soon.

Perhaps Mobilink has reviewed its HR policy and implementing it as a part of costing cutting measures. Those who are close to other subsidiaries of Orascom would tell that there is tight situation in other operations of Orascom as well.

“Ring Tel” another subsidiary of Orascom in Pakistan which took care of handset business is almost closed now. A year ago a company of more than 75 employees with 4 offices nationwide has been shrunk to one office in Lahore with only two people onboard, a guard and an accountant who is doing necessary last moment calculations.

For industry players, it is not a surprise, but a part of business plan to close the unwanted operations and reduce the cost as much as possible in this time of global crunch. Good luck for the future operations and actions.

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Response from Mobilink

January 7, 2010, 13:12 PM: We have just received the official response from Mobilink on the above story and it is being published here for our readers review

Farid Ahmad, Director Marketing Strategy & Pricing is moving to head the Business Analysis & Planning department which has been created to look after company-wide business parameters and their implications on the business and company plans

The function of “Marketing Strategy and Pricing” previously being looked after by Farid remains in Marketing and continues to be looked after by the department’s Vice-President. Syed Atif Raza – Manager Marketing Strategy & Planning will be the new Head of Marketing Strategy & Pricing, reporting to VP Marketing.

Atif Raza has an Engineering Degree in Electronics & Communication and an MBA degree from LUMS. At LUMS he was on the Dean’s List and was among the top three graduates of his class. He has an overall work experience of 9 years out of which he has spent five years in Telecom, working with Mobilink / Orascom. He has worked in the functions of both prepaid and postpaid pricing during his stay at Mobilink and his latest assignment was In-charge of prepaid and postpaid pricing. During his stay at Mobilink, he has also worked as head of market development for one and a half years at Banglalink – Orascom Telecom’s subsidiary in Bangladesh where he worked as an Expatriate OT employee.

Sadia Ahmad, who has been assigned the portfolio of HR and Administration reporting to CEO after the departure of Ali Raza Mehdi, has been with Mobilink for the past 6 years and has held various Head of Department roles in HR. Sadia Ahmad had been serving as Director, Organizational Development in the HR team since 2007.

Tariq Rashid who took over the Chief Strategy Officer has more than 22 years of experience in IT and Telecom. This was a parallel move for Tariq who was serving Mobilink as Chief Information Officer prior to this assignment. Tariq is a highly seasoned executive, who has set up and grown the IT division to where it is today. Not only has he driven the IT strategy, planning, implementation and operations at Mobilink, he has been a trusted advisor and key contributor to company direction as member of the Management Team for many years.

Irfan Farooq, who has been assigned the role of Acting Chief Information Officer, has been a key member of the Mobilink IT team since 1996, and has successfully managed various IT portfolios such as IT Operations, Planning and Systems, Infrastructure etc. during his tenure. His latest assignment was that of Director IT Planning, Implementation and Customer Care Management.

Tags: Employees, Mobilink