Ole Bjørn Sjulstad is a seasoned executive with 25 years of telecom experience from Asia and Europe. In his current role, he heads the Thailand Investment Team at Telenor Asia, responsible for the Norwegian telecom giant’s Thailand business, the co-ownership of True Corporation.
Telenor is a global telecommunications company headquartered in Norway that has been in Asia for almost three decades. Starting from a belief that everyone would benefit from mobile connectivity, the company has successfully rolled out a mass market strategy and built strong local telecom brands across the region.
Embracing its first-mover spirit, Telenor Asia made significant moves to stay ahead and capture new growth, and in 2022-2023, it completed Southeast Asia’s two largest telecom mergers in Malaysia and Thailand. Today, Telenor Asia operations serve more than 200 million customers and holds leading positions in Thailand, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.
True Blog caught up with Ole Bjørn to discuss Telenor Asia’s expectations and experiences in Thailand.
Highlights from a First Year Together
The ambition of True Corporation’s largest shareholders, Telenor and CP Group, was to create a leader that has size, resources, and expertise to drive digitalisation, deliver attractive and innovative services to its customers and capture new growth opportunities in Thailand.
“Since True launched over a year ago, our focus has been to ensure that the new company keeps momentum in the market, integrates successfully and builds a winning corporate culture. Over the first year and a half, there has been substantial progress, and the company has initiated multiple activities to bring employees together and modernize operations. Obviously, there is still significant work to be done, but I feel confident that the company is on the right path,” said Mr. Sjulstad.
Mr. Sjulstad underscored that a key priority for True is to realize synergies and become profitable. A healthy financial foundation is needed to fund investments in high-capacity networks, research new technologies and develop advanced data enabled services. “True Corporation has so far presented strong financial results, and we are encouraged by the company’s expectations to turn profitable in 2024 on an underlying basis,” he added.
From Telecom-Tech leadership to AI first
“Telenor has witnessed firsthand how mobile connectivity has contributed to progress in Thailand. The country now has a population that is fully connected, tech-savvy and avid users of digital services. Thailand’s hunger for data will only continue to grow, and it will be important for True Corporation to continue to meet this demand and offer advanced data services that benefit customers,” said Mr. Sjulstad.
His belief is that new technologies will impact all aspects of daily lives. With rapid innovation and advancements within 5G, AI, IoT and cloud services, the world is facing transformational shifts that will not only connect millions of people, but also billions of devices.
“We are in the business of building telecom companies for the future. Taking advantage of these new opportunities requires new capabilities and partnership models. Our companies in the Nordics and Asia are already running hundreds of pilot projects to explore ways to build new services or improve efficiency in key sectors. AI is one area of particular focus and recently Telenor made major moves to become an AI-First company, including entering partnerships with Nvidia and establishing principles for ethical use of AI,” he explained.
He noted that Telenor’s “AI First” program is set to unlock the value that AI and gen AI offer in a structural manner: “The program is anchored from the top, and prioritises building a data driver organisation, working with global partners and establish guidelines for responsible AI, as well as human capital upskilling. Telenor believes in a human-centric approach to AI development and use, working to raise ethical standards with regards to digital inclusion, sustainability, and security, as well as mitigating risks.”
Governing from the Board
With the merger of dtac and True, Telenor went from being the biggest shareholder in dtac to being a partner with True. This means Telenor and CP Group now govern the company through nominated directors in the True board.
Having two large equal majority partners means that True benefits from the combined experiences and perspectives of both Telenor and CP. This combined with insights and advise from independent directors and those from other shareholders, provides the company with an experienced Board. CP Group has solid local knowledge from its presence in different industries and businesses in Thailand.
“Telenor is an industrial owner with a strong telecom history and experience from eight markets in Asia and the Nordics. This gives us access to global technology leaders and digital giants and allows us to bring learnings from other operations and international partnerships to Thailand,” said Mr. Sjulstad.
Telenor Asia’s office in Singapore is set up to provide oversight, add value to operations and safeguard the company’s interests in the region. It has a dedicated investment management team and expert functions that are actively supporting True Corporation, strengthening partnership relations, and interacting with key stakeholders.
“This means that I am frequently travelling to Bangkok to ensure that we are working closely with our partners and the executive committee, providing necessary support to True and meeting our own expectations on performance and responsible business,” Mr. Sjulstad added.
Mr. Sjulstad also believes that directors should help True realize its important role in fueling digital ecosystems, transforming traditionally strong Thai industries, and supporting the nation in the further development of the Thai society.
“The digital economy in Southeast Asia estimated to reach US$1 trillion in 2030. Thailand needs to nurture a digital ecosystem that takes a significant share of this growth, and here True will play a vital role,” said Mr. Sjulstad.
