Ufone, PTCL Undergo Major Management Reshuffle, Bring Back Younas Sheikh

Continuing its process of consolidating Ufone and PTCL, the group has now decided to regroup further to realign organizational structures in order to attain more efficiencies.

The group, in an email communication shared with the senior management, a copy of which is available with ProPakistani, said that earlier efforts in this direction were greatly successful that paid well in terms of optimization of processes, both financially and operationally.

Inspired by the results, the group has now further decided to consolidate various functions, departments, and teams. As a result, it decided to undergo one of the major reshuffles of its history, primarily at CXO levels.

Following are the highlights of the new structure:

• Existing Development and Operations verticals of Technology are now divided into two separate functions of Network and IT. Heads of both the departments will be responsible for strategy, planning, operations, maintenance, and deployments in their respective areas. Heads will report directly to the Group President.
• Mr. Saad Warraich has been given the headship of IT wing and will now serve as Group Chief Information Officer (GCIO).
• Mr. Jafar Khalid will look after the network part and is made the Group Chief Technology Officer (GCTO)
• A new and combined vertical of Group Chief Customer Care Officer (GCCO) is created to take care of support functions, and its head will report directly to President & CEO. This function will be responsible for the merged operations of Quality Assurance, BPO operations, Revenue Collection, and Credit Management for both PTCL and Ufone.
• Mr. Ahmed Kamal is made the GCCO, and he will report directly to President & CEO.
• A new position of Head of Retail Sales for Ufone is created to cater to specifically look after the Sales and Distribution, Franchise Operations, joint shops, HVC operations of Ufone only. The idea is to decentralize the sales department of Ufone and PTCL as the approach had impacted the Ufone sales that may require more aggressive operations after the acquisition of additional spectrum in the recent auction.
• Mr. Younas Sheikh is made the head of Retail Sale at Ufone and will report directly to President & CEO.
• The existing position of Group Chief Marketing Officer (GCMO) is now merged with the position of Group Chief Commercial Officer (GCCO) in order to combine the functions that are related to commercial planning, marketing, branding, and PR, product lifecycle, digital, and mobile financial services, CVM, churn management and marketing and research for both Ufone and PTCL.
• Mr. Adnan Anjum has been given the new role of GCCO and he will be reporting directly to President & CEO.
• A new role of Group Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer (GCSTO) is created to look after group strategy, mergers and acquisitions, performance excellence, integrations, and transformative initiatives for both PTCL and Ufone.
• Mr. Muqeem-ul-Haque has been placed as Group Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer and he will report directly to President and CEO.
• The business segment of both Ufone and PTCL – which comprised carrier and wholesale, international business, SMEs, enterprise business, ICT, cloud – is now merged into one and will be headed by Group Chief Business Solutions Officer (GCBSO).
• Mr. Zarrar Hasham Khan is made the GCBSO and will report directly to President and CEO.
• While retail sales of Ufone will be managed separately, Mr. Shahzad Yousuf will continue to look after the sales side of PTCL with the title of Chief Business Operations Officer (CBOO) of PTCL.
• HR, Finance, Internal Audit, Regulatory and Legal Affairs will continue to operate as before.

Not to be missed here, PTCL has said that all above organizational structural changes were extensively studied before they were announced. It said that the single point agenda for all the above changes is to attain optimization in processes and functions to serve customers better.

PTCL group’s global telecom partner, A.F. Ferguson, also advised the group in reviewing the old structure and in ascertaining the re-organization of roles, functions, and departments.