In the arena.

(From Arabies Trends)

On a strategic level, what motivated MTC's decision to adopt an aggressive, cross-border expansion strategy?

MTC found itself piling up massive financial resources with a very long industry experience (around 20 years), locked in a small market, with an ultra-aggressive competitor encroaching on its main market. On the other side, we saw a two-year window for a big opportunity in a high-growth market (the Arab world) that is severely underserved. [At the same time] world-renowned players were preoccupied with their problem of stock market collapses, huge debts resulting from greed for their 3G licenses and business xenophobia that have kept those players from leveraging this high-growth market.

In what ways has the relationship with Vodafone helped to make this policy such a success?

When we decided to go out of our immediate boundaries and become an international player, progressing towards a global player, we had to achieve world-class standards and the shortest route to this was to enter into a strategic partnership with the most renowned global player in the business.

What challenges has MTC had to face in penetrating regional markets, and how has the company overcome those challenges?

The challenge was to achieve exponential growth in our skill set and capabilities in a very small window (two years) and the challenge is how to mobilize and create the sources - not the resources - that ...