Ringing the Changes
- 07 November, 2005 17:46
- Comments
Memo to telcos everywhere: the world is changing. Get used to it.
Life will always hold certain bizarre mysteries for me. I'll never understand why some men, clearly in love with themselves, go for a jog in Lycra Speedos; or why service station attendants cannot be bothered to notice they place the "8" upside down when habitually changing the petrol prices on their roadside signs.
I'm not sure which one upsets me the most, although the upside down numeral "8" does seem to freak me out a bit, especially after a couple of short-black coffees. (Guys, the small loop goes on top!)
Another mystery is the constant surprise of the general population to the fact that the world is changing. This stunning revelation occurs about once a quarter in this country, when the leading executives of Telstra stroll up to the podium to tell their long-suffering shareholders that the grave for their corporate coffin is another 6 inches deeper than the last time they stood before them.
Their fashion at the moment is to whinge about regulation - a legacy of the company's own price-gouging and generally dismissive attitude to customers during previous decades. There are now nearly 350 pieces of regulation today where there were 20 in 1997, complains the chairman, Donald McGauchie.
Good. And there are reasons for that, as you well know, Mr Telstra. Anything else on your mind?
The trouble with Team Telstra, as they delightfully describe themselves in their e-mail addressing convention, is that they don't get it; or they do but just will not admit it beyond hushed conversations of their own offices.
Regulation, Helen Coonan, John Howard et al are not the problem, not even the reality that government owns 50.1 percent of the company. In fact, there is not even a problem. There is a challenge and it comes in the form of new technologies and entrepreneurs whose vision is still a decade from global manifestation but is already rocking the status quo.
It is hard for Telstra shareholders, especially the mums and dads who crashed the party too late with the T1 and T2 offerings, to hear that the great cash-cow of fixed line revenue fell 1.5 percent in the first half of the financial year and then went skydiving in the second-half, free-falling 5 percent.
Cheques to the value of $2.5 billion are being sent out to shareholders, representing about 20c per share, to ease the shareholders' pain. The more astute in this community of 1.6 million might be concerned by this action. The investor Warren Buffet is famous for being wary of companies that pay out dividends, saying it is an indication that the management think you can get a better return on investment elsewhere in the market. That's not something that inspires him.
Given that one imported Telstra manager would not recommend the stock to their mother, Buffet's generalization might ring especially true here.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
BYOD security: How to protect your business on the move
-
Face Time - Interview with John Brennan and Robert DiStefano
-
Face Time - Interview with John Brennan and Robert DiStefano
-
IT service management going social
-
PC users admit to pirating software - $US63 billion worth of it
-
The Big Six: The CIO Executive Council’s Frameworks for IT Value and Leadership
This overview of six of the CIO Executive Council’s most important pieces of intellectual capital represents the thought leadership of literally hundreds of global CIOs spanning over half a decade. It is intended to convey the Council’s position on the current and future CIO role and the value that IT should be creating for the enterprise. We hope that it offers the IT community an intriguing and comprehensive roadmap for continued success. -
Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite
Careful analysis and continuous optimization of business processes delivers real competitive advantage. Conversely, a random approach to process design negatively impacts a company’s bottom line. This insight is one reason successful companies adopt business process management (BPM) as a way of aligning their business processes with business and customer requirements. Success with BPM eliminates the gap between business strategy and implementation. Business users are empowered to participate in all stages of the business process lifecycle. Closed-loop integration between modeling, execution, and monitoring enables continuous and holistic business process improvement. -
Removing BPM Silos to Unleash Process Power - 15 Best Practices for Enterprise BPM
You are about to get a lot smarter about Enterprise Business Process Management (BPM ). T his article is the first in a series of our soon-to-be-published book, “The Intelligent Guide to Enterprise BPM .” So consider this first article your all-important primer.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
Comments
Post new comment