Executive Summary
MTN Ghana is a successful business which has been operating in Ghana since 2008. It benefits from MTN’s best corporate practices and has stable positions on the market. However, there are strategic issues like marketing and operational risks which should be faced immediately. In particular, there is a growing customers’ dissatisfaction with MTN Ghana’s products, policies, and business culture. It is a widespread modern tendency, since more and more communities see corporations as organizations obliged to work for public good. Such situation could put a burden of corporations, but there is a perfect solution for this problem.
Creating shared value is a concept developed by Porter and Kramer, the renowned scientists in the economic field in 2011. It overrides the traditional CSR strategies and suggests a new approach to creating the economic and shared value while also meeting the company’s primary strategic goals. This concept should be implemented by MTN Ghana on the Ghanaian market to empower the local communities and provide for the sustainable development and balanced competition. Since the concept was invented, it faced a vast discussion among the scientists.
Today more academics consider CSV to be the best solution for corporations who work in developing and developed countries, and are facing more hopes and aspirations from the populations and communities. For now, the CSV concept has not shown weaknesses, but proved itself as a sustainable alternative to the traditional capitalistic approaches. This paper studies the environment in which MTN Ghana operates its business and gives advice for its future strategy supported by scientific research.
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL analysis is usually applied in strategic analysis to describe the company’s external environment. PESTEL acronym stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors. Political factors may include governmental policy, political stability, corruption, tax, and trade policy. MTN Ghana has a sound base represented by a stable democratic state that does not create obstacles for the enterprise’s operation.
In 1992, Ghana adopted a constitution that protects citizens’ and businesses’ rights (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 76). Corruption is relatively high – as of 2018, Ghana scored 42 points out of 85, according to Transparency International (Transparency International). Regarding tax policy, given the high level of corruption, the company warns its investors that sudden changes in Ghana’s tax policy can affect the company’s earnings and are a severe risk factor (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 106).
Further, the Economic factors include economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates, inflation rates, and unemployment rates. Ghana shows progressive economic growth, is the leader in financial performance among West African countries, and had a GDP of USD 42.7 billion in 2016 (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016). The company mentions that it “provides significant employment opportunities to Ghanaians, growth and business opportunities to SMEs, revenue for the state through taxes and fosters economic growth through increased economic activity driven by mobile money floats” (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 45). Besides, the company acknowledges the telecommunications industry’s growth, strong economic growth, and increased competition (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 69).
Noteworthy, according to IMF, projected Ghana’s real GDP growth was seen to be 8.9%, 5.9%, and 5.1% in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 82). There were promises from the government to decrease the inflation rate to 8% by 2019, and there is exchange rate stability (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 82). Interest rates decrease, with 15.0%, 17.0%, 18.3%, and 18.2% rates for 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year bonds as of 2017 (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 79).
The company also notes that the main contributors to GDP growth are banking, agriculture, consumer goods, and telecommunication; there are also anticipations of a rising middle-income class. Another critical factor was the discovery of mineral resources of oil and gas, which is the key to stable economic growth in the future. Therefore, despite many challenges, such as high inflation rates compared to Europe and the United States, Ghana is a market with good growth potential.
Social factors are reflected in population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes, safety emphasis, health consciousness, lifestyle attitudes, and cultural barriers. Noteworthy, Ghana has a population of 28 million people, with 72.6% below the age of 60. MTN notices that Africa’s general trends are 60% of people under 24 and high youth unemployment (MTN Group Limited, 2019). However, these trends for Ghana are better since it has better employment opportunities and higher life expectancy with 62 years for men and 64 years for women. There is a large percent of the unmeasured informal population, which consists of 88% of the workforce (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016). This factor may have some effect on safety emphasis and lifestyle attitudes.
The MTN says that it strives to connect the highest possible percentages of African populations. Its sustainability report marks that “approximately 60% of rural populations in Africa are unconnected, and in 2019, we extended our rural network to over 6.9 million people, through our rapid rural roll-out program R3″ (MTN Group Limited, 2019, p. 16). The MTN Ghana sees particular importance in its mobile money service, which features contracts with seven major Ghanaian banks, and MTN ensures that this service “makes money go round Africa” (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, MTN Group Limited, 2019).
Technological factors are technology incentives, level of innovation, technological change, and awareness. They are critical for MTN Ghana and its implement all possible technology-based services and policies for attracting clients. The company says that its business is flourishing thanks to high tech-savviness among the Ghana population (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016). MTN Ghana has a high mobile penetration rate, and there is a general performance growth in the telecommunications industry (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016).
Environmental factors include weather and climate change, and the company does its best to meet the requirements of sustainable development. For instance, MTN’s sustainability report says that thanks to a Cote d’Ivoire program, the company gathered and recycled 72 tons of e-waste in 2018. Legal factors may feature labor, employment, antitrust, and consumer protection laws. The acquisition of licenses is the backbone of the company’s business. Almost every year, MTN Ghana spends substantial sums on acquiring licenses to provide telecommunications services, contributing to the state budget.
Five Forces Analysis
Michael Porter’s Five Forces model features the analysis of five competitive forces: rivalry among competing sellers, potential new entrants and entry barriers, competitive pressure from firms offering substitute products, suppliers ‘bargaining power, and buyers’ bargaining power. The author of this model suggests that the company should actively react to these forces, for example, seek unsaturated markets, exploit changes in the forces and reshape the forces (Porter, 2008). MTN Ghana is said to be “market leader and the first mobile network operator to cover all ten regions in Ghana providing voice and data services” (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 70). It operates in the “relatively crowded” telecommunications market, with moderate pressure from other participants (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 49).
There is low pressure from new entrants since the market has high entry barriers. The reasons for such low pressure are that MTN Ghana and other players have cost advantages due to depreciation, customers have high brand preferences, and service providers need licenses. There is also a strong ‘network effect’ in customer demand, the capital requirements are high, and there is plenty of restrictive regulatory policies (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 49). The competitive pressure from firms offering fixed telephone services is low. The pressure from suppliers ‘bargaining power and customers’ bargaining power is also low; therefore, the Five Forces support the industry profitability.
Core Competencies Analysis
MTN Ghana’s core products and services define its core competencies. These are voice services (including prepaid and postpaid mobile access), fixed-line, broadband, data, and Internet solutions (2G, 3G, 4G LTE networks, Fiber, Wimax, and Wi-Fi services for individuals and corporate clients). Besides, MTN Business service ensures the best mobile experiences for businesses, including MTN Dedicated Internet, Corporate Postpaid Packages, Asset Tracking, Vehicle Tracking, Smart Cam, Fiber Broadband, Multi-Caller Service, Global VPN, and Co-Location Hosting / Data Center Services (Initial Public Offering Prospectus, 2016, p. 43).
According to Prahalad and Hamel (1990), core competencies should be based on the strategic intent and support it. For MTN Ghana, this intent should sound like delivering high-quality mobile and Internet services for individual and corporate clients. The company has a solid list of core competencies, like providing voice and data services and services for corporate clients. Another vital core competency is providing mobile money services and products. The material base for these competencies is a good network of phone towers and internet cables.
Value Chain Analysis
Value chain analysis is usually performed applying the VRIO framework and resource-based view. Core competencies also play an important role in value chain analysis (Barney & Clifford, 2010). The value chain analysis evaluates internal business processes: primary activities like supply chain management, operations, distribution, sales and marketing, service, profit margin, and support activities like technology and systems development, HRM, and general administration.
MTN Ghana has a reliable and well-developed internal environment, but its main problem lies in this area. The value chain has the primary aim of creating added value for the product or service. Unfortunately, after analyzing customers’ feedback on the MTN Ghana Facebook page, it became clear that customers show low satisfaction with their culture and attitudes, which are fundamental elements of the product and service value. Therefore, the company needs to pay more attention to its corporate social responsibility programs and create the shared value for its products and services.
SWOT Analysis
The marketing analysts apply the SWOT model to evaluate the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the given business (SWOT analysis II, 2006). According to the company’s IPO, MTN Ghana’s main strengths are reliable material bases throughout the country, the introduction of best practices in technology, high levels of trust among the population, and a long presence in the African mobile market. Its main weaknesses are low levels of customer satisfaction and trust. The market provides the main opportunities with the balanced competition, which creates favorable conditions for large players like MTN Ghana. The growing middle class and economic growth make it possible for a continued gradual increase in the number of users.
It is noteworthy that by providing mobile and Internet services and enriching its arsenal with the latest marketing and technological developments, MTN Ghana empowers its customers. Ghana’s political stability and democratic form of government are an additional important factor that creates opportunities for CSR manifestation and cooperation with government institutions (SWOT analysis I, 2006). Potential and real threats include market, operational, regulatory, financial risks, credit, interest rate, foreign exchange, liquidity, capital management, and technology risks, as stated in the company’s IPO.
TOWS Matrix
The TOWS matrix is used to define how a company may address the issues identified in SWOT. According to its IPO, MTN Ghana is well aware of its risks and works to develop a proactive response strategy for each item. It greatly benefits from opportunities of the market, empowering it with its services of mobile communication, Internet connection, and mobile money. The company should address its main weakness of low customer satisfaction with its culture and attitudes through implementing the CSR programs and creating the shared value for its services. Finally, MTN Ghana has plenty of strengths obtained during its hard work in the Ghana telecommunications industry.
Current Strategy
Given the analysis above, the company currently has a stable strategic position in the Ghanaian telecommunications market, which provides plenty of opportunities for big corporations like MTN Ghana. There is a low degree of uncertainty and change in the external environment in which it operates its business. However, for now, the company faces plenty of strategic issues it has to cope with through its well-developed and most successful business strategies, including global strategy, diversification strategy, and external growth strategies (Grant, 2013). These issues include the potential of legislative pressure, marketing and operational risks, and financial risks.
Some spheres have more actual pressures than others; for example, in its IPO, the company put marketing and operational risks in the first place. Regulatory and compliance, financial, and credit risks are seen as less dangerous since MTN Ghana has reasonably stable positions in the Ghanaian telecommunications market. Technology, competition, and risk management risk also deserve attention due to the ongoing competition in innovations. However, MTN Ghana has a sound technological basis and effectively uses the diversification strategy to make an input to the balanced competition on the market. Political and management risks are seen as the least dangerous due to the effective design of the vertical relationships (Grant, 2013).
Since the marketing and operational risks were considered the most dangerous, the company pays particular attention to focus on the needs of various groups of customers in inner Ghanaian markets. Even though these aspirations can be an exemplar for other businesses because of the extensive diversification of MTN Ghana’s products, there is a lack of sympathy from the customers’ side, who mainly perceive MTN Ghana as a huge corporation that primarily pursues its own economic interests. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing a sound CSR and CSV strategy.
Future Strategy
The shared values principle is usually determined as the creation of economic values in such a way that they also create value for society by satisfying its problems. Shared values are then viewed not as an additional burden on the business that does not benefit the company but as a new way to achieve economic success (Porter & Kramer, 2011). In their article “Creating Shared Value,” first published in Harvard Business Review in 2011, Porter and Kramer determined the concept of creating the shared value (CSV) and outlined the business models to implement this concept.
For instance, the scientists emphasized that “a business needs a successful community, not only to create demand for its products but also to provide critical public assets and a supportive environment” (Porter & Kramer, 2011, p. 6). The scholars also emphasized that “companies have overlooked opportunities to meet fundamental societal needs and misunderstood how societal harms and weaknesses affect value chains.” The scientists also added that the vision of businesses and corporations has been too narrow.
Porter’s and Kramer’s main achievement was that they proposed three particular ways to create the shared value, and MTN Ghana’s future strategy should be based on this concept. Firstly, scientists concluded that shared value should be created by reconceiving products and markets. This process implies asking whether the company’s product is good for its customers, which is the first theater for implementing the CSV. Secondly, the CSV should be done by redefining productivity in the value chain, including improving energy usage, water usage, decreasing CO2 emissions, and other practices that are currently seen as a norm in most companies. Other elements of this stage, named the “second theater” of action, are logistics, resource use, procurements, distribution, employee productivity, and location.
The third theater of action features building supportive industry clusters at the company’s locations. The scientists note that “cluster thinking has also been missing in many economic development initiatives, which have failed because they involved isolated interventions and overlooked critical complementary investments” (Porter & Kramer, 2011, p. 14). Finally, the scholars add that many of the shared value pioneers were companies in developing countries who had scarce or limited resources and better understood the CSV concept’s opportunities. Therefore, the three stages should be implemented by MTN Ghana, as proposed by Porter and Kramer.
The implementation should feature specific metrics that evaluate whether the company meets its strategic goals and creates economic value while creating the social value and the shared value. Mobile money is an exemplar initiative in its sense and the way of implementation. Other practices related to developing new products for poorer customers should be created based on the focus group analysis. For example, the company could work with focus groups from the underrepresented groups of customers like rural and migrant communities to determine which community problems could – and should be faced.
In general, a more pronounced division of society into the middle class and poor rural and migrant communities is characteristic of all young democracies and developing markets. However, it should not be taken for granted; on the contrary, the situation should be addressed through refining the CSR and CSV strategies of sustainable development. It should be done by developing a clearer and more tangible strategy for sustainable development and implementation of the CSR and CSV practices in Ghana. These practices should address the three theaters of action proposed by Porter and Kramer. They may include CSR initiatives similar to those MTN implements in Côte d’Ivoire and throughout the African continent, including energy solutions and educational initiatives.
In other words, MTN Ghana should pay more attention to sustainability, CSR, and creating shared value in Ghana. MTN Ghana should build on its business strengths and optimize dialogue with the public through SMM and SMS mailing, informing the public about the implementation of CSR and CSV initiatives. The company should offer individuals alternatives to participating in these programs, empowering the local communities. The initiatives should be designed following the best scientific advice and be aimed at meeting the company’s strategic intents, economic values, and social values (Bungay, 2011).
MTN Ghana will have to take on more responsibility as customers expect this from the company, given the scale of its operations and the volume of cash flows with which it works. Otherwise, MTN Ghana may feel a severe blow to its image and lose some of its customers. Moreover, refusal to participate in CSV practices will likely lead to general market stagnation, as CSV initiatives can successfully act as a driving force for local markets. Besides, the employee and value-chain targeted initiatives (‘second theater’) will inevitably lead to creating the economic value and making an input to meet its strategic intents.
Customers’ dissatisfaction is probably due to the initially high trust levels, which can be justified through CSV and CSR programs. MTN Ghana could consider Porter’s and Kramer’s first stage in creating the shared value and develop a more customer-friendly product policy. For example, the company could shift its focus away from paid movie and game purchases. For a large proportion of customers, spending on such products seems unreasonable and unjustified, and their cost is unreasonably high. In this regard, MTN Ghana could launch a CSV program to promote start-ups that create applications that benefit the poorer population and local communities in general.
There is also an impression that MTN Ghana offers too many products and services for business – about 20 types of services, half of which may be in low demand. Therefore, MTN Ghana needs to change its current diversification strategy and stop inventing new “business ideas.” On the contrary, the company should look to local communities, which are an essential part of the market, supporting the local businesses that are now receiving so much attention. In other words, stimulating the most active part of the population was a successful solution in the early stages. But to ensure sustainability, MTN Ghana should pay more attention to more impoverished citizens.
Academic Analysis
Corporate social responsibility and the shared value are two concepts that are usually considered as one common approach, and sometimes Social Entrepreneurship is added to these two concepts. Hovring (2017) states that scientists evaluate CSR and shared value in the context of management and business ethics. However, due to a focus on results, experts often overlook the importance of communication processes that are extremely important for creating the shared values. The scientist claims that communication between business and communities creates a new sphere, alternative to the managerial and social perspective.
The author proposes new CSR and shared value concepts that would allow overcoming complicated and conflicting interaction processes. This concept’s essence is the continuous alignment of goals, interests, values, and agendas of companies and stakeholders. By stakeholders, the author means communities and potential partners of corporations – for example, NGOs, local governments, and competing companies. In other words, Hovring (2017) reaffirms the original concept of creating shared value developed by Porter and Kramer (2011) that a company should align its goals and expectations with actions in the three theaters of action related to CSR and the creation of the shared value, emphasizing the importance of communications.
Then, Matinheikki et al. (2017) admit that shared value creation results in a shift from corporate profits to corporate and community benefits. Scientists believe that institutional changes to create the shared value should occur by developing a shared vision. Matinheikki et al. (2017) emphasize the importance of ‘clusters’ that they call “business ecosystems.” According to scientists, participants’ relationship with the institutional, organizational, and socio-material environment is an obstacle to creating shared values.
Therefore, scientists propose using a shared vision to overcome these obstacles. Scholars identified three stages of creating the shared values through a shared vision – forming norms in the institutional environment, joint actions in the organizational environment, laying the foundations in the social and material environment. This idea, in general, is reflected in Porter’s and Kramer’s original idea, but these scholars associate the concept with institutional theory.
Kullak et al. (2021) also appear to be looking at Porter’s and Kramer’s idea of clusters, noting that Social purpose organizations (SPOs) “co-create shared values within a network” and use SPO business models to engage customers, communities, and partners (p. 630). According to scholars, business models are being used as interaction platforms to grow groups of participants. For example, in crises and funding cuts, corporations are more actively working on innovative models of creating the shared values and developing mental management models. Remarkably, scholars emphasize that shared values pursue social and economic goals.
They also note the possibility of moving the business model’s focus concentrated on the organization to create platforms for interaction with multiple groups of participants. Kullak et al. (2021) give an example of a German music festival, which managed to implement such a platform and obtain extremely effective results in creating shared values. The scholars prove that the amount of funding is not the most critical and decisive factor in creating the shared values.
Glauner (2019) sees an opportunity to transform the concept of the shared value into “an even more powerful strategic tool for developing business models” (p. 497). The scholar redefines and measures the tools to create such a model. The scientist notes that traditional business strategies usually do not address the “paradox of destructive wealth creation,” in a situation where “individually rational and successful economic behavior leads, at the group level, to a destructive outcome that puts the social, environmental and economic sources of this wealth creation process under existential threat” (p. 497).
Therefore, he sees the need to implement strategic models for creating the shared value and offers a set of indicators and parameters for transforming the concept of creating shared value into a “living model for creating resource growth cycles and creating added value” (p. 497).
Chen et al. (2020) examined the differences between CSR and creating shared value (CSV), noting that CSV was preferred in the US, Germany, and China. Scientists examined the influence of leaders’ moral qualities on the implementation of CSV practices.
The scholars concluded that PR has a significant impact on society’s reaction to CSV. Thus, scholars place the responsibility on PR professionals for leaving a strategic perspective for communication and promotion of CSV initiatives since PR specialists know precisely how the public perceives these initiatives. Notably, the researchers also found that respondents preferred CSV to CSR practices according to their study in the US, Germany, and China. The respondents also noted that leaders’ moral qualities matter more to them than their altruistic and behavioral traits when implementing CSV. This study proves that CSR practices matter most to society.
Wieland (2017) says that Porter’s and Kramer’s concept of the shared value creation aims to be put into the foundation of strategic business models. The scholar emphasizes that today, the idea is supported by a widespread discussion about the relationship between business and society. In particular, this issue was addressed by the UN Secretary-General in the context of understanding economic performance and metrics for its evaluation. According to Wieland (2017), the shared value concept entails a discussion of economic theories about the nature of the firm. The scientist concludes that the idea of CSR rightly takes an important place in the creation of strategic business models.
Kim (2018) also notes that CSV has a special place in Asian countries. Korea is the most open to introducing CSV practices and views them as a popular alternative to charity. At the same time, Japanese businesses are suspicious of them, and China practically completely ignores this idea. In this regard, scientists have developed Sustainable Development Goals aimed at introducing CSV in the region through the integration of the SDGs into the business strategy.
According to scientists, the SDGs were adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015 and are the generally accepted international standards, along with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and International Standardization Organization 26000 (ISO 26000). The SDGs are valuable because they represent “specific goals, ways to solve problems and implement strategies in the real market” (Kim, 2018, p. 4128). Therefore, scientists are exploring how the SDGs and CSV on the Asian market interact. According to them, CSV will help solve the problem of legitimacy and restore trust in business, is a more complex and perfect form of capitalism, and contributes to achieving sustainable business goals by linking to social causes.
Kumi et al. (2020) recognize that in Ghana, the lack of coordination and “disorientation of CSRs with community needs” limits the private sector’s capacity to achieve the SDGs through CSR initiatives (p. 181). Therefore, the scientist sees the need for dialogue between all stakeholders. They also emphasize that the SDGs are widely recognized in Ghana as a normative document that defines sustainable development globally. In particular, scientists analyzed CSR initiatives in the mining and telecommunications sectors of the country. As a result, the researchers concluded that, despite many CSR initiatives’ potential, failure is driven by the short-term nature of interventions, lack of coordination among private sector actors, and lack of meaningful community participation.
Amoako (2017) studied Vodafone Ghana Ltd case in terms of using CSR to build a brand. The scientist believes that “companies can add brand value and achieve superior results by incorporating CSR into their corporate brand strategy” (p. 7).
According to a study by Amoako (2017), most of the respondents understood the meaning of the CSR concept and knew about Vodafone Ghana Ltd CSR activities. At the same time, the scientist was unable to find links between brand awareness and its value in the eyes of respondents. In contrast, other variable brand forces were associated with brand value. In particular, the scientist determined that brand knowledge had the most significant positive correlation with brand value. Therefore, the scholar concluded that Vodafone Ghana Ltd and other companies should implement CRS since it directly impacts brand value.
Then, Mensah et al. (2017) examine CSR’s value in terms of the impact on employees of an organization using the example of rural and community banks in Ghana. The scientists note that although CSR has the goal of increasing customer loyalty, some companies see their employees as customers that should also be impacted by CSR. The scholars conducted research with 145 rural and community bank employees, which demonstrated that CSR has a strong positive relationship with employee commitment. Employees showed an increase of commitment associated with CSR engagement in 54.1% of cases (Mensah et al., 2017). The researchers concluded that CSR practices have a positive effect on the productivity and growth of an organization.
Islam and Hossain (2019) note that private commercial banks in Bangladesh are successfully working on CSV. The scholars point out, that banking corporations must identify the unmet banking needs of communities for targeted investments to realize the CSV concept. Scientists have developed a model of how private commercial banks in Bangladesh create shared value. It was found that this model can be applied to a range of products and services provided to society that creates shared value for the community and banks. It also includes elements such as markets and supply chains that have CSV potential. It is noteworthy that this study is an excellent practical guide and can be used by MTN Ghana to create the shared value.
Li et al. (2018) examined the application of the CSV concept in the education sector in Ghana. After examining 250 social enterprise organizations’ business activities, scholars determined that “economic value influences the creation of social value in the creation of shared value” (Li et al., P. 4216). Moreover, scientists have concluded that social innovation is an essential element and driving force in creating the shared values.
Shared values were created through reinforcing and empowering social values in the Ghanaian educational sector. Scientists have failed to discover the moderating effect of the innovations on the economic values when creating the shared values. In other words, innovation is an essential element in creating the shared values, but it does not guarantee the creation of economic value as part of the shared values. The scholars fairly determined the social value, economic value, and social innovation as the main elements of the shared value.
Nyarku and Ayekple (2019) analyzed the case of the transnational corporation Nestlé Ghana Limited (NGL). The scientists evaluated the impact of customer awareness of the company’s CSR practices on its image. According to a study of 300 respondents, a positive correlation was found between CSR awareness and company image. Simultaneously, the researchers found that the perception of the motives of the NGL’s CSR practices negatively correlated with her image.
Scientists concluded that an NGL company must balance the perception of its CSR practices and its motives for implementing these practices to ensure a sustainable image. According to customers’ feedback on MTN Ghana’s Facebook page, these results are especially important for MTN Ghana, as its clients also have a negative attitude towards the company’s CSR practices. It means that MTN Ghana should pay more attention to working on CSVs that are better perceived in terms of company motivation.
Conclusion
Thus, MTN Ghana’s case was analyzed, applying PESTEL, SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, Core Competencies and value chain analysis. The current and future strategies were defined and supported with the academic research. The company operates in a stable environment and uses growth and diversification strategies to ensure the further development of its business. However, MTN Ghana faces problems with the customers’ satisfaction and should move focus from traditional CSR practices to creating the shared value. Such a move is highly justified since it will help the company gain economic value and meet the strategic goals, while also empowering local communities.
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