Over the course of the last decade, Etisalat has truly gone global. From one market in 2004, it now operates in 19, and is the twelfth biggest telecoms firm worldwide. It’s now the UAE’s largest listed company, with a market cap of over $25bn, and its brand is emblazoned all over the planet, from Manchester City FC’s Etihad Stadium to rugby pitches in Sri Lanka. It is one of the few Gulf companies to feature regularly in lists of the world’s most recognisable brands, and it now has a global subscriber base that is heading swiftly in the direction of the 200 million mark.

“I never really expected it to grow so big,” jokes Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, the man who took on the hot seat at Etisalat in 2011. Having made his way up the ranks since starting as a planning engineer at the company 27 years ago, the group chief executive has a better handle than most on what makes Etisalat tick.

But spend an hour in Julfar’s company and there is little sense that this is a man who is resting on his laurels. Instead, the conversation is all about the future. Consolidation in key markets. More choice for customers.  A better experience and faster technology. Next year, Julfar says, Etisalat will hit its longstanding target of achieving 50 percent of its revenues from outside the UAE, up from 36 percent in 2013.

It’s not all been plain sailing, though. In early 2012, shortly after Julfar took over, the firm announced that it was considering restructuring, largely due to the effects of the global financial crisis, competition in some markets putting pressure on prices and a slowdown in profits.

Today, that process looks to be largely complete, although Etisalat is still reviewing prospects in some of its markets. Julfar says that the firm will focus in the future on reproducing the success it has had in fast-growing markets like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Nigeria.

“Take Mobily, in Saudi Arabia,” he says. “We started that as a small mobile operator. Now we want to transform the company into a fully integrated telecom operator and ICT provider in the country — so from mobile into the whole ecosystem of ICT.

“And we want to replicate the success that we had in the UAE in other markets, whether it is launching new technology like 3G or 4G, or being a fully integrated operator.”