Safaricom restructures top level management, Peter Arina and Pauline Warui exit

What you need to know:

A source at Safaricom said the two opted to resign when they were confronted with the performance of the units they were in charge of. The consumer business contributes about 90 per cent of Safaricom’s annual revenue.
Mr Arina has worked at Safaricom for the past 11 years in different positions, raising to the general manager’s position, while Ms Warui has held the role for the last seven years.
Safaricom is expected to announce its full-year results for the year ended March 31, 2015 in May.

Safaricom has made major changes at its senior level management suite that has seen Peter Arina, the general manager Consumer Business and Pauline Warui the director consumer services exit the company.

In the changes announced Friday, Sylvia Mulinge, will be taking over as GM Consumer Business, while Rita Okuthe will move from her current role as director of marketing to take over the position of GM Enterprise Business, a position that was previously held by Ms Mulinge.

Safaricom is expected to announce its full-year results for the year ended March 31, 2015 in May.

Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s chief executive officer said the changes were necessitated by the unresponsiveness of the units to its customer’s needs.

“These changes have been necessitated by an appreciation that we as a business have become disconnected from our customers’ needs at various levels,” Mr Collymore said in an internal communication to the staff, seen by the Business Daily.

He added that going forward, Safaricom’s proposition to customers will be based on three pillars, namely superior customer insights, operational excellence in its market execution, and delivery of great products and services.

The changes were also made at the head of departments, in a move that has seen Janet Atika move from her current role as head of retail shop footprint to take charge of the customer management team.

James Muteti has been promoted to head of consumer sales, while Victor Ngumo will lead retail and both will be reporting to the GM, Consumer Business.

Arjun Singh Dhillon takes up the combined role of head of SME and channels reporting to the GM Enterprise Business.

Eric Acholla will coordinate the activities of all shared marketing services which include brand, media, research, events, sponsorships and activations. Mr Acholla will report to the Enterprise Business GM, while all marketing product managers will report into the GM Consumer Business for marketing direction.

“These changes are necessary for us to be truly reflective of the demands of our customers and to prepare ourselves for the heightened competitive environment in which we are operating,” Mr Collymore said.

Mr Arina has worked at Safaricom for the past 11 years in different positions, raising to the general manager’s position, while Ms Warui has held the role for the last seven years.

As the GM Consumer Business, Mr Arina was in charge of non-voice revenue streams such as mobile data, PRS VAS and the Skiza portfolios.

The latest statistics from Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) show that in the three months to September 2014 mobile data users hit 14.7 million.

Of this market, Safaricom has 10.5 million users, Airtel has 1.9 million mobile data users, while Telkom’s Kenya Orange has 1.9 million subscribers.