Case Study

Turkcell (B): From a telecom network operator to a customer experience provider

15 pages
November 2018
Reference: IMD-7-2025

Kaan Terzioglu, Turkcell’s CEO, and his top team had spent Capital Markets Day with global investment analysts celebrating the firm’s achievements. Over the last three years, the company had transformed itself from a network operator selling undifferentiated data and voice services in Turkey into an experience provider that offered messaging, music, TV, search and other services to its customers. This had culminated in the launch of its Lifecell digital brand in Turkey in September 2017. This had turbocharged its revenue growth, which reached 23% in 2017. While there was room for Turkcell to grow its core consumer business in Turkey, it would also rely on opportunities in digital services, the corporate market and in new business areas including energy, finance, healthcare and automotive to sustain future growth. Turkcell had rationalized its international portfolio, taken steps to make its subsidiaries in Ukraine, Belarus and Northern Cyprus financially stable and was moving forward with the same digital operator strategy as in Turkey. The company planned to grow internationally by franchising the digital operator model it had pioneered in Turkey to telecom operators worldwide. Kaan Terzioglu felt this would increase the company’s valuation given the valuation of global over-the-top (OTT) companies. Turkcell’s growth plan raised questions. Did the firm have the management bandwidth to move into so many new business areas in Turkey? Would it be able to grow internationally using the franchise model? The answers were not clear.

Learning Objective
  • How corporate executives can determine what the digital future of their business is
  • How companies can embark on a digital business transformation to achieve the digital future of their business
Keywords
Strategy, Telecommunication, Emerging Market, Multinational Corporation, International Growth, Digitalization, Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Future, Over-the-top Services
Settings
Middle East, Turkey
Turkcell, Services, Telecommunications
2015 to 2018
Type
Field Research
Copyright
© 2018
Available Languages
English
Related material
Teaching note
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This case study is part of a series
  • Turkcell (A): How to respond to digital disruption?
  • Turkcell (B): From a telecom network operator to a customer experience provider
This case study is part of a series
  • Turkcell (A): How to respond to digital disruption?
  • Turkcell (B): From a telecom network operator to a customer experience provider
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Turkcell (A): How to respond to digital disruption?
By Tawfik Jelassi and Pallivathukkal Cherian Abraham
Case reference: IMD-7-2024 ©2018
Summary
Kaan Terzioglu, Turkcell’s CEO, was in a pensive mood on his fifth day on the job. He had just received his first WhatsApp call, which highlighted ...
Reference IMD-7-2024
Copyright ©2018
Copyright owner IMD Copyright
Organization Turkcell
Industry Services, Telecommunications
Available Languages English
Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Turkcell (B): From a telecom network operator to a customer experience provider
By Tawfik Jelassi and Pallivathukkal Cherian Abraham
Case reference: IMD-7-2025 ©2018
Summary
Kaan Terzioglu, Turkcell’s CEO, and his top team had spent Capital Markets Day with global investment analysts celebrating the firm’s achievements....
Reference IMD-7-2025
Copyright ©2018
Copyright owner IMD Copyright
Organization Turkcell
Industry Services, Telecommunications
Available Languages English
Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications