India-based telecoms group Bharti Airtel has altered its strategy for its African subsidiaries, granting local heads greater flexibility in the management of each company, rather than setting a single, centralised approach for all of its units on the continent to adhere to, Business Standard reports. Under the new strategy, the CEOs of Airtel’s African units will be responsible for investments, market-related decisions, targets on sales and profits, and margin improvement.
The Standard cites a person close to the development as saying that the move is intended to improve efficiencies and grow returns in loss-making African operations. The change of tack acknowledges that Airtel is facing a diverse range of challenges in increasingly competitive African markets, and will allow the group’s subsidiaries to respond more rapidly to changes in individual markets than its previous ‘one size fits all’ strategy.