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Case

Educator Copy

Mobilink (A): The Eid Pre-Payments Decision

Shazib Ehsan Shaikh


INDUSTRY : Telecommunication

AREA : Management Information Systems

ORGANIZATION : Mobilink

LENGTH : 9

LUMS No : 18-439-2013-1

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2013

DESCRIPTION

KEYWORDS:

Mobilink,Communications,Telecommunication,Commercial & Technicial Division,Pre-payments Capacity,Dilemman,Decision Making Skills


DESCRIPTION:

A joint team of the Commercial and Technical Divisions at Mobilink, including their Directors, had to finalise the pre-payments capacity allocation for the nearing Eid-ul-Azha holiday. Transaction volumes peaked to 30-40% above the norm and the revenue was critical to the targets set by the parent company in Egypt. Due to the one month lead time, they only had a few days to place the order. The one decision under debate was the capacity split between the two pre-payment methods: (i) scratch-cards and (ii) phone-to-phone JazzLoad. One of the directors in the Commercial Division is uneasy about having to shoulder the consequences of the majority proposal to split network transaction capacity. It keeps high-margin scratch cards to the minimum due to the technical complexity involved in handling the infrastructure. The Director of the Technical Division has thrown his weight behind this option. The scale of demand and number of uncertainties make even a few percentage points important in achieving earnings targets. But how could they say what ratio was right? The protagonist has to make use of a recess of half a working day to come up with a better decision-making approach. He also has to decide what data he really needs and what he does not.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1) Achieve clarity on what "Decision-Modelling" means. 2) Understand what is meant by "Model-Driven" Decision-Making vis-à-vis "Data-Driven" Decision making. 3) Begin to appreciate why model-driven decision-making may have merit over "data-driven" decision-making in certain organisational situations. 4) To appreciate why model-driven decision making tends to be favoured in large organisations vis-a-vis "gut-feel". 5) Pedagogically, to make students who feel technically challenged comfortable with this course and what objective the topics in this course serve.


SUBJECTS COVERED:

Management Information Systems, Decision Modelling For Managers