Zain adopts its new 4WARD strategy – advancing with purpose and moving towards building the largest “technology cluster” in the Middle East

The Board of Directors approved it for the next five years.. Acceleration, continuity, and unleashing capabilities to drive growth.. Badr Al-Kharafi: The 4WARD strategy will enable Zain to translate the gains achieved into sustainable profitable value.

The 4WARD strategy came to build on the successes of the group’s strategic plans in the last five years

The group held its executive meeting in the presence of the presidents and CEOs of all its operations in the Middle East markets

-The new strategy will advance the group’s vision towards achieving its goal… “Continuous communication – a better life.”

The group launched a number of regional entities that await further expansion and growth in the region’s markets

Zain Group announced its new strategy “4WARD” – under the slogan “Progress with a Purpose” – which aims to boldly drive the growth of its business until the year 2030.

The group revealed that the Board of Directors, at its last meeting, approved the new business strategy “4WARD” for the five-year period extending until 2030, which will enable Zain to achieve continuity, accelerate and unleash capabilities, and build on the solid foundations laid by the Sight4 strategy in the last five years.

The announcement of the new strategy came during the executive meeting held by Zain Group at the Four Seasons Hotel, chaired by Badr Nasser Al-Kharafi, Vice Chairman and CEO of Zain Group, the CEOs of Zain Group’s subsidiaries, and the presidents and CEOs of all its operations in the Middle East and African markets.

Zain explained that the new strategy aims to strengthen its position and regional leadership by reshaping the digital landscape, and directing its business towards building the largest “technology cluster” in the Middle East and African markets driven by the goal (permanent communication – a better life), whose top priorities are: exceeding expectations, and providing… Exceptional experiences for clients, companies, governments, and societies, demonstrating that advancing targeted business strategies will help them achieve remunerative and sustainable cash flows for shareholders.

The group reported that the “4WARD” strategy relies on four main axes: customer happiness, digital services, purpose and decision-making, and collaborative growth, as it is no longer enough for customers to only feel satisfied, but rather to feel happy to increase the connection and loyalty with its brand, which has Positive implications for business success and growth.

She stated that these main axes, which are based on a group of accelerators, aim to integrate digital technologies into all aspects of business, combine artificial intelligence technology and innovations, and work to develop digital infrastructure as a basic foundation for accelerating digital transformation. These axes will also focus on enhancing the effort to provide an environment characterized by cooperative growth. By empowering employees, building more partnerships to enhance communication, increase the effectiveness of teamwork, and achieve synergy.

Zain Group launched its Sight4 strategy in the last five years with the aim of transforming from an operator focused on mobile services only to a leading provider in the fields of information and communications technology and the digital sector. With this strategy, Zain succeeded in achieving its goals and protecting its business in the face of social, economic and security challenges.

Badr Nasser Al-Kharafi, Vice Chairman and CEO of Zain Group, said: “The launch of our new 4WARD strategy highlights our commitment to our institutional work approach, and emphasizes the importance of exchanging experiences, expertise, and knowledge between our operational entities, especially with the continuous development in the information technology sector and artificial intelligence models, as well as the changes that bring about It occurs in the regional regulatory landscape.”

Al-Kharafi added, “The 4WARD strategy provides a roadmap to guide and advance the group’s plans to expand its business base by focusing on cluster diversification in many sectors and fields, and focusing on synergy programs, cooperation initiatives and partnerships. It represents a decisive step to build on the successes achieved, and gain more business for long-term growth.

Al-Kharafi continued, saying, “When it comes to synergy and adopting technological solutions, we had to align our operational effectiveness capabilities with our strategic goals to translate the gains achieved into sustainable profitable value, and this comes with gaining distinctive competitive positions in our industry and related fields.”

Al-Kharafi expressed his appreciation for all the efforts that contributed to the success of the group’s strategic plans in the last five years, as the group’s work during this period achieved fruitful goals, making it stand today on a solid base to move again towards new horizons of growth.

Al-Kharafi said, “During this period, we succeeded in creating a flexible ecosystem and building giant entities in the sectors of information technology solutions, digital infrastructure, financial technology, and wholesale business in the communications sector, and in our endeavor to build on this diverse legacy, we will intensify our investments in digital infrastructure.” “And upgrading and expanding 5G networks, and we will advance our business portfolio in the digital services sector in order to generate sustainable cash flows.”

He pointed out that the new strategy will work to provide an attractive environment to delight customers, and provide an improved and enjoyable communications experience, as increasing customer loyalty is achieved by nurturing the feeling that they are at the heart of attention, so we will be keen to direct our technological innovations, continue to build strong relationships, and ensure the achievement of continuous positive interactions. “.

Al-Kharafi stressed, saying, “This strategy will help us generate interactions to enable customers to make sound decisions, and push for more initiatives aimed at better engaging customers, in addition to developing career paths for employees to adopt creative thinking and innovation, at a time when artificial intelligence is heading to be an absolute factor of change.” In the way we live and work.”

Al-Kharafi said, “Our ongoing efforts to be the preferred business partner are driven by a true desire to serve our society by integrating social and environmental values ​​into our investment decisions. We renew our commitment in our new strategy to our social contract and to creating positive impacts on communities. Therefore, we are keen to ensure that our business takes into account our values.” In the areas of sustainability, inclusion, diversity, and equity, our goal is to always strive to achieve our goal (permanent communication – a better life).”

It is worth noting that Zain Group continued to search for opportunities that would push its operations towards achieving value in the long term, as it pushed its strategic initiatives to strengthen business sectors and government entities in digital transformation initiatives.

The 4WARD strategy will give the group better capabilities and characteristics to shape the future in the year 2030, as the group will move towards its implementation and it is based on the keys to the success of its strategy in recent years, which in turn prepared its business portfolio to keep pace with market trends in light of major transformations, as the launch of the new strategy comes to boldly lead the group’s plans. More quickly, with an emphasis on continuity and unlocking capabilities, to maintain the targeted growth pace.

Zain Group currently has a huge legacy thanks to its strategy in the last five years that made it ready for developments and changing market behavior in the future, as it succeeded during this period in establishing and launching regional entities in multiple business fields, which is ZainTECH, the most famous brand in digital and cloud services and cybersecurity, Zain Company. -Omantel International (ZOI), which revolutionized the wholesale business in the telecommunications sector, TASC Towers, the largest tower management portfolio in the region, Zain Ventures, which represents the investment portfolio of the group’s projects, a platform Consumer microfinance Tamam, Zain Cash e-wallet for money transfer, Bede, the platform that will see the group expand into fintech services in the region, Dizlee, an API platform, and Zain Esports.

Brand

With the development of the beautiful world of Zain in the expanding digital space, it was necessary to accompany this with another development in the objectives and brand message of the group to keep pace with this change, and based on the basic goal of maintaining the provision of an improved customer experience, the values ​​​​that the group embraces came to confirm its occupation of an influential position in the heart of… Creative Expression: As Zain works to empower individuals and companies with technological innovations to make their world brighter, Zain’s brand promise renews its commitment to the values ​​of heart, brilliance, and belonging.

Therefore, it was necessary to evolve the Zain brand and integrate these values ​​with new promises and ambitions to align its purpose with the new goals of the 4WARD strategy, which focuses on exploring creative expression and repositioning, inspiration, passion, and optimism to enable Zain to achieve its goal as an inspiring technology leader in the Middle East markets.

Thanks to the positive developments achieved by the group’s strategy in the last five years, the value of the Zain brand increased by 50% to reach about $3 billion, with a rating of AAA-, according to the latest report issued by Brand Finance for the list of the strongest brands.