Diagnosing BSNL as a Business

In looking into firm level financial performance, generally analysis is concerned with two sets of performance measures. One based on capital market valuation of a firm and the other set based on accounting measures of profitability and financial performance. Our method is to approach the issue from a stakeholder’s point of view. Stake holders in BSNL are: Government of India, Customers, Regulatory agencies, Suppliers and the General Public. The traditional way of defining Stakeholders also does not seem to hold valid for BSNL because the objectives of the Government (as the only investor) is far beyond the short-term goals of financial returns of value maximization. With the opening up of the Telecommunications sector in India, the Consumers as a stakeholder acquires a different meaning, and it becomes the focus of all marketing and innovation of all operators in the sector. The same could be said of the suppliers and the peripheral equipment vendors. We can then argue that the most important stakeholders in BSNL are in fact its own Employees. Our attempt will then try to focus on an assessment of the Company’s performance that views financial performance from the perspective of the Employees. At the same time we wish to point out that it cannot offer a complete perspective because employees have much more at stake than just financial issues before them.