Vodafone 2003 Annual Report Download - page 10

Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report & Accounts and Form 20-F 2003
8
INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY Continued
Business strategy
The Company has maintained a strategy of focusing on global mobile
telecommunications and providing network coverage to allow its customers to
communicate using mobile products and services.
The Company’s strategy is increasingly focused on revenue growth and margin
improvement from providing enhanced services to its customer base. This growth
strategy has three principal components:
•to grow voice and data revenues through an increased marketing focus on our
established high quality customer base;
•to extend our operational leadership of the industry through maximising the
benefits of scale and scope, through the use of partner network agreements,
by increasing equity interests in businesses where the Group has existing
shareholdings and by promoting the Vodafone brand; and
•to extend service differentiation, investing in delivering Vodafone branded,
easy to use, customer propositions for mobile voice and data.
Further details on the Group’s strategy for product and service development can
be found under “Strategic developments – Global services”below.
Where appropriate, and if circumstances allow, the Company may also make
further acquisitions or disposals of businesses.
Business activities – Mobile
telecommunications
Geographic operations
The Company has interests in 28 countries across five continents. Based on
ownership interests at 31 March 2003, the Company, through its subsidiary
undertakings, associated undertakings and investments, had approximately
119.7 million registered customers, excluding paging customers, calculated on a
proportionate basis in accordance with the Company’s percentage interest in its
ventures. There were approximately 296.0 million registered customers in
ventures in which the Company either has control or invests.
On 1 April 2001, in response to the expansion of the Group, the Company
implemented a reorganisation of its overall management structure into five main
regions: Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa; Central Europe; Southern
Europe; Americas and Asia; and Pacific. On 18 December 2001, the Company
announced a further change to its regional structure. With effect from 1 January
2002, the Group’s interests in Japan, China and India were formed into a new
Asia region. All of the Group’s other regions remained unchanged.
On 25 November 2002, the Company announced that the Group’s Asia region
and Pacific region, comprising the Group’s interests in Japan, Australia, New
Zealand, China, India and Fiji, were to be merged to form the Asia Pacific region.
Brian Clark, previously Chief Executive of the Pacific region, was appointed Chief
Executive of the Asia Pacific region with effect from 1 January 2003. Bill Keever,
formerly Chief Executive of the Asia region, stood down as Chief Executive of that
region and subsequently retired. As a result, the composition of the Group’s
Executive Committee changed. The Group’s segmental analysis of its financial
results was not changed.
The Company does not believe that these changes to its division of operations
will materially affect the way in which it conducts business across geographic
lines or the manner in which it manages its world-wide interests. The description
of each region’s business activities below is based on the geographical division
of the Company’s operations at 31 March 2003.
The table on the next page sets out a summary of the Company’s world-wide
cellular operations at 31 March 2003, and venture customer growth in the year
then ended.