Digi.Com Berhad - Malaysian Company Case Study

1.  Background Information

    Digi.Com Berhad (Digi) also known locally as “Digi”, a Malaysian public listed company, is the selection for our coursework assignment given that Digi is the third largest telecommunications service providers in the country (Telenor, 2016). Digi was established in 1995 and is the first telecommunications company to commence and operate a completely digital celular network in Malaysia (Digi, 2016). Digi head office is located strategically in the heart of Shah Alam, Kuala Lumpur. In addition, Telenor Group, a Norwegian multinational telecommunications corporation is the major shareholder of Digi and holds 49% of the overall shares ownership. Digi had officially changed its name from Mutiara Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. to Digi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. in December 1998 (Bloomberg, 2016).

    Digi was officially established to deliver “Internet for All” as their overall commitments to building an interconnected Malaysia that offers a vast array of Mobile Internet Services and Applications to Malaysian customers coupled with the right combination of devices and valued pricings, plus offering the best customer experience and expectations. Digi offers a wide range of products and services such as prepaid and postpaid plans, international roaming, data plans and services, broadbands and etcetera. Albern Murty is also the first Malaysian appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (Digi Annual Report, 2015). Albern Murty has previously held various positions in his working career with Digi before being appointed as the CEO of Digi given his vision and mission to lead Digi to be the leading telecommunications company in Malaysia.

    All in all, Digi has grown tremendously over the past two decades to become among one of the prominent and most successful telecommunications operators in Malaysia (Telenor, 2016).

 Organisation Structure

Given Digi’s objectives and strategy and its lean organisation structure, Digi’s organisation chart demonstrated clearly defined roles and responsibilities so crucial for a successful company. Much of Digi’s growth is organic and is attributed to expansion of its customers’ base and vast array of products and services on offer rather than through merges and acquisitions.

As seen from the organisation chart in Appendix 1, it has clearly shown that Digi’s corporation structure is based on departmentalization. Digi segregates its company business operations by functions according to departments, namely finance, marketing, corporate affairs, information technology, networking, digital and human resource for effective executions and management efficiencies in its day-to-day operations (Digi, 2016). Furthermore, each of these departments in Digi’s corporation are led by highly skilled and experienced department heads in their respective area of expertise to facilitate better control and increased performance of the company (The Star, 2013). For example, the chief marketing officer of Digi has extensive knowledge and experience in the marketing field. He has worked with Digi for over ten years and has held numerous senior positions in the marketing division including as chief sales officer. Apart from that, he also has many years of valuable experience in the telecommunications and accounting sector before joining Digi corporation (Digi Annual Report, 2015). A lean management structure is needed for achieving the company’s overall objectives and financial performance.

    At Digi, the CEO has overall responsibilities for the company. Most of its senior management staff are appointed from within the company as the company believes in giving opportunities to its employees who have shown remarkable capabilities to move up the corporate ladder and contributes to the company’s success..    

 Organisation Culture

    In Digi, there is a strong “Digi” culture that focuses on developing human talents as it strongly believe all its employees should be given equal opportunity to grow and contribute to the overall success of the company.

First and foremost, Digi practices a culture of people orientation. This is because Digi truly believes that the employees of Digi or better known as the “Digizens” are the greatest assets of the company. Hence, Digi highly value ideas, suggestions and efforts from its employees. Furthermore, Digi also offers numerous opportunities for its employees to share opinions and contribute ideas to the success of the company as part of their career development and corporate governance. Besides, Digi also provides a conducive environment for its fellow employees to work in. Digi also actively promotes open communications among its employees regardless of status and position in the company. Digi emphasise strongly on growth through learning and exposure to the day-to-day tasks (Digi, 2016). In other words, Digi believes developing human talent are key to its success and are included as part of its overall corporate responsibilities.

    Secondly, Digi also has a culture of innovation and risks taking. Digi has indeed been recognised for driving growth in all areas of its business strategy as a result of its ability to constantly redefine go-to-market approaches, operating models, customer focus and different ways of working. Indeed, Digi has gained a reputation as one of Malaysian’s favourite brands and for consistenly driving growth in innovations. As it is, Digi is also the sole Malaysian company and also the one and only telecommunications service provider in Asia that was successfully listed in Forbes World’s Most Innovation Companies (Forbes, 2014).

Lastly, Digi also has put in place a strong team orientation culture that actively promotes group participations and team building activities to increase productivtiy and efficiency in the company that hopefully, can lead to development of the next generation of products and services that can contribute to improvement in customers lives and make Digi an even better place to work in (Digi, 2016).

 Leadership

In Digi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Albern Murty practices authentic leadership in its management style as he constantly interacts with his subordinates at all levels. As CEO, he also makes regular visits to Digi branches throughout the country to have dialogues with customers in order to better understand their problems. The CEO in Digi place strong emphasis on innovations and has pioneered innovative business ideas crucial for the long term continued success of the company (Puspadevi, 2015).