Dena Almansoori at e&: Fostering Culture Change at a UAE Telco Transforming to a Global Techco Custom Case Solution & Analysis

Evidence Brief: Case Extraction

Financial Metrics

• Operating across 16 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
• Transformation from Etisalat Group to e& announced in February 2022.
• Significant capital allocation toward acquisitions including a 50.03 percent stake in Careem Everything App for 400 million dollars.
• Acquisition of a majority stake in Central and Eastern European assets of PPF Group for 2.15 billion euros.
• Investment in Vodafone Group, becoming the largest shareholder with a stake exceeding 14 percent.

Operational Facts

• The organization rebranded into four main business pillars: e& life, e& enterprise, e& money, and e& capital.
• The workforce consists of approximately 46,000 employees globally.
• The legacy business operated as a regulated telecommunications utility for over 46 years.
• Introduction of a permanent hybrid work model and a four-day work week pilot in select regions.
• Launch of the e& universe, a metaverse platform for virtual collaboration and training.

Stakeholder Positions

• Dena Almansoori (Group Chief Human Resources Officer): Driving the cultural transformation through the Care, Dare, Share framework. Focuses on shifting from a hierarchical utility mindset to an agile technology mindset.
• Hatem Dowidar (Group CEO): Architect of the 2030 strategy to transition from a regional telco to a global technology company.
• Legacy Employees: Represent the traditional utility mindset, characterized by risk aversion and tenure-based progression.
• New Tech Talent: Recruited from global technology firms, expecting high autonomy and rapid execution.

Information Gaps

• Specific attrition rates of legacy employees versus new tech hires following the rebrand.
• Detailed breakdown of technical skill gaps within the existing 46,000-person workforce.
• Direct correlation between cultural initiatives and revenue growth in non-telco segments.
• Internal survey data regarding employee sentiment toward the four-day work week pilot.

Strategic Analysis

Core Strategic Question

• Can a state-backed telecommunications utility successfully re-engineer its cultural DNA to compete with global technology giants while maintaining its core connectivity revenue?
• How does the organization reconcile the risk-averse nature of regulated infrastructure with the high-failure tolerance required for software and fintech innovation?

Structural Analysis

Applying the McKinsey 7S framework reveals a profound misalignment between Strategy and Staff/Skills. While the Strategy has shifted toward high-growth technology sectors, the Staff remains rooted in legacy telecommunications operations. The organization lacks the internal technical depth to build software products organically, necessitating aggressive M&A. The Shared Values, redefined as Care, Dare, and Share, attempt to bridge this gap, but the underlying Systems—performance management and compensation—still reflect utility standards rather than technology industry benchmarks.

Strategic Options

• Option 1: Aggressive Talent Replacement. Systematically exit bottom-performing legacy staff and replace them with high-cost tech talent.
  • Rationale: Accelerates the transition to a technology company mindset.
  • Trade-offs: High severance costs, loss of institutional knowledge, potential political friction in the home market.
  • Resource Requirements: Significant recruitment budget and aggressive HR exit management.
• Option 2: Structural Bifurcation. Maintain the legacy telco as a utility while spinning off e& enterprise and e& money into independent entities with unique cultures.
  • Rationale: Protects the cash-cow telco business while allowing tech units to move fast.
  • Trade-offs: Creates internal silos and prevents cross-unit integration.
  • Resource Requirements: Distinct HR and operational frameworks for each pillar.
• Option 3: Integrated Cultural Reskilling. The current path of retraining the 46,000-person workforce through the Care, Dare, Share framework.
  • Rationale: Minimizes social disruption and maximizes internal loyalty.
  • Trade-offs: Slowest execution speed; risk that legacy staff cannot adapt to tech requirements.
  • Resource Requirements: Massive investment in L&D platforms and internal communication.

Preliminary Recommendation

e& must adopt Option 2, Structural Bifurcation. The cultural requirements for managing a 5G network are fundamentally different from those required to build a fintech app. Attempting to force a single culture across 46,000 people with vastly different job functions will result in a diluted culture that serves neither. The organization should allow the technology pillars to operate under separate employment contracts and performance incentives to attract top-tier talent.

Implementation Roadmap

Critical Path

• Month 1-2: Segment the workforce into Core Telco and Growth Tech categories based on job function and future skill requirements.
• Month 3: Launch distinct performance management systems for Growth Tech units, emphasizing output and speed over tenure and process.
• Month 4-6: Execute the digital upskilling program for the Core Telco group to automate legacy processes, freeing up capital for growth.
• Month 7-9: Integrate acquired talent from Careem and other acquisitions into the Growth Tech units, ensuring they are not absorbed into legacy telco bureaucracy.

Key Constraints

• Regional Labor Regulations: UAE labor laws and nationalization targets may limit the speed of workforce restructuring.
• Internal Resistance: Long-tenured middle management may perceive the shift toward Dare and Share as a threat to their authority.
• Brand Perception: Convincing top-tier software engineers to work for a former regional telco requires a significant shift in employer branding.

Risk-Adjusted Implementation Strategy

The implementation must prioritize the protection of the cash-flow-positive telco business. A phased rollout of the four-day work week should be used as a retention tool for high-performers rather than a universal right. Contingency plans must include a specialized recruitment task force based in global tech hubs like London or Singapore to bypass local talent shortages if internal reskilling fails to meet the 18-month target for product launches.

Executive Review and BLUF

BLUF

e& is attempting a high-risk transition from a protected utility to a competitive technology firm. The current cultural strategy, while comprehensive, risks being too slow to match the speed of global tech competitors. Success depends on the ability to decouple the technology growth units from the legacy telco operating model. Without structural separation of performance incentives and operational speed, the legacy culture will inevitably stifle innovation. The organization must prioritize talent density in its new pillars over cultural harmony across the entire group.

Dangerous Assumption

The analysis assumes that a significant portion of the 46,000 legacy employees can transition from a process-oriented utility mindset to an outcome-oriented technology mindset through training alone. Experience in similar industrial transformations suggests that up to 30 percent of the workforce may be unable or unwilling to make this shift, potentially creating a drag on execution speed.

Unaddressed Risks

Unconsidered Alternative

The team failed to consider a pure holding company model. In this scenario, e& would function as an investment firm (similar to Alphabet or SoftBank) that owns a telco, a fintech company, and an enterprise software firm, rather than trying to force a single cohesive culture across all three. This would maximize the agility of the tech units while insulating the telco from the volatility of tech experimentation.

Verdict: APPROVED FOR LEADERSHIP REVIEW