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Running Vodafone Group PLC has never been easy for Chief Executive Officer Arun Sarin.

The head of the world's largest cellphone-service provider by sales has had to deal with many of the tricky issues left to him in 2003 by his predecessor, Sir Christopher Gent. In the process, Mr. Sarin has been trying to pull Vodafone Group into a new era after years when growth came either from big acquisitions or the fact that cellphones were novel.

Today, Mr. Sarin, 51 years old, faces a much tougher competitive landscape: The company's traditional markets in Western Europe are saturated, while new services like Internet calling are threatening its business. The mantra for many telecommunications companies has become to offer a wide range of services such as wireless, broadband and fixed line to all customers.

Vodafone is "trying to get to terms with this new world," says Robert Grindle, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. "[Mr.] Sarin's job is to drag the company into middle age," says Mr. Grindle, who has a "buy" investment rating on the stock. He doesn't own Vodafone shares, and his firm doesn't have a banking relationship with Vodafone.

Mr. Sarin, an Indian-born U.S. citizen with an engineering background, rose in the telecommunications industry to become chief operating officer of AirTouch Communications Inc., a big U.S. wireless operator. The company was acquired by Vodafone, of Newbury, England, in 1999. Mr. Sarin then left Vodafone for other technology ventures before returning as CEO in 2003.

Mr. Sarin got off to a rocky start with shareholders after a failed bid for AT&T Wireless, which irked some investors who felt Mr. Sarin failed to communicate the potential benefits of acquiring the U.S. cellular company. Investor frustration has grown recently as the share price has fallen and fears of competition in Vodafone's core market in Europe has increased.

Still, in recent days, Mr. Sarin has tackled some immediate challenges to buy him some breathing room with restive investors. He faced up to slowing growth in his core markets by unveiling an impairment charge of 23 billion to 28 billion ($40 billion to $49 billion) and effectively acknowledged defeat in Japan by entering discussions to sell a majority stake of its operations there to Internet conglomerate Softbank Corp., of Tokyo.

The company's board publicly stated its support for him as his predecessor, Sir Christopher, on Sunday said he was stepping down as honorary life president, a position that held no executive or advisory responsibilities but gave him a formal role. Sir Christopher said he wanted to avoid controversy following media allegations that he was meddling with management.

Mr. Sarin is aware that many investors are looking for an update on the company's global strategy given his rethinking of the position in Japan, say people close to him. Vodafone spokesman Ben Padovan says the company will "be flexible and pragmatic" about its global strategy but declined to comment on any future direction. Mr. Sarin wasn't available to comment.

Mr. Sarin is also considering a potential exit from the U.S., where Vodafone holds 45% of Verizon Wireless. The joint venture with Verizon Communications Inc., a deal struck by Sir Christopher, has presented Mr. Sarin with a strategic bind, as Vodafone doesn't have a controlling stake in the business, but it is the company's only U.S. holding.

Now, AT&T Inc.'s proposed merger with BellSouth Corp. puts pressure on Verizon to take over all of Verizon Wireless to keep pace. In recent weeks, there have been several discussions between the Verizon and Vodafone camps, and Verizon has publicly said it wants to buy out its United Kingdom partner's stake in Verizon Wireless. So far, Verizon has made no bids -- formal or informal.

Vodafone's Mr. Padovan said: "We recently indicated that keeping the U.S. is the right strategy for now. But we will continue to review that situation." He added that Vodafone's discussion about the Japan business "doesn't signal a change of our overall strategy."

Many shareholders aren't in a hurry to exit from the U.S. Stuart Fowler, a fund manager at AXA Investment Managers, which owns about 1% of Vodafone's shares, thinks Vodafone should remain in the U.S. if management thinks it has a "better chance of making money out of that asset than elsewhere." He adds that he likes Mr. Sarin's flexible approach.

Another issue for Mr. Sarin is the threat of competing technologies such as Internet calling, which, along with increased competition and regulatory price cuts, are fundamentally changing the telecom industry.

As a result, said Mr. Sarin in a Feb. 1 interview, investors generally are left asking: "What is the end story here?" He said Vodafone remains a wireless company at its core but that it could use innovations, such as a broadband wireless technology known as WiMAX, to offer new services.