Saturday, January 9. 20102010 - The Year Every Thing Changes For Exetel?John Linton The new calendar year has begun exceptionally well with applications for new ADSL1, ADSL2 and wireless broadband services all tracking at over 50% higher than for the first 8 days of January 2008. Naturally 8 days is not a truly indicative period of what is going to happen but it has been something I've looked at each year of Exetel's 'life over the last 5 years and it has been a pretty good guide to what the full year tracks at. So the indications are that we will attract a much higher volume than we did last year when we operated the company very, very conservatively in many ways despite the lack of real signs of any overall economic downturn. We made a payment yesterday to start the ambitious project in Sri Lanka which, if it is successful, will play a part in beginning to ease the rural poverty in that country and also reduce the shooting of the dwindling number of wild elephants there. We also sent out the increased monthly payments to the endangered species programs we, and our customers support - totalling well over $A50,000 for January (mainly because of the large initial payment to the Milk/Elephant project but also because we have increased the money we commit to each of the projects we support). Our monthly recurrent bill run was a new 'record' but it only grew by a very small amount because we, unlike any other data communications company in Australia, reduced the plan charges for over 50% of our CURRENT customers by quite substantial amounts AS Well AS increasing the down load allowances on ALL current plans - something that is extraordinarily rare in this industry. We also hired a record number of people in a single month as well as giving a record number of employees salary increases and I notice our payments of commissions to agents has continued to increase to a very substantial level and our purchases from suppliers reached new highs in December with payments to Optus becoming the highest recurrent amount we have ever paid in one month to any supplier....all payments were made ahead of their due dates. In terms of every 'bench mark' we measure the progress of the company against - Exetel is doing better now that at any time in its existence and there are no indications in any of the things that we measure that this trend will not continue over the coming months - there appears to be no 'cloud, no bigger than a man's hand on any horizon' that I can meaningfully scan.......but, and this is the issue for me personally.....I lack any sort of enthusiasm for the daily tasks I perform and nothing I do goes anywhere towards re-kindling the enthusiasm, let alone the creativity that seemed to be so easy to bring to bear on any given situation in the past. Like any busy manager I dismiss these feelings by simply getting on with the next task and then the next but as a part owner of Exetel I look at the results of my efforts with less and less tolerance for the quality and creativity of the work I perform. I think I'd have had more than a 'quiet word' with any person either in Exetel or in any other organisation in which I've held some sort of overall management position who began to perform as I am doing lately but I can't seem to find the words I need to say to myself. An odd situation and one I am failing to address let alone resolve....and, yes, not being a complete fool I have run through all of the obvious options. Doubtless a solution will be found, one way or another, in the near future but in the meantime it is annoying to wake up each day with little or no enthusiasm for the day ahead. So it was with a great deal of relief that I woke up this morning with the understanding of what was causing my dis-illusionment and how to 'banish' it forever. It was so simple and so obvious it is embarrassing to realise how stupid I have been. All I have to do is stop having contact with total d***heads and actually listening/reading what they say. If I do this I will get 40% of my day back and I can do something about restoring some sort of reasonable health which is the root cause of all of my current problems.
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'Our monthly recurrent bill run was a new 'record' but it only grew by a very small amount because we, unlike any other data communications company in Australia, reduced the plan charges for over 50% of our CURRENT customers by quite substantial amounts AS Well AS increasing the down load allowances on ALL current plans - something that is extraordinarily rare in this industry.'
I didn't see any price reductions, or bandwith increases? You appear to be neglecting us 8mbit users.... Comment (1)
I'll apologise in advance if this wanders off into "teaching grandmothers to suck eggs" territory ...
Back when I used to interact with small businesses, one of the most frequent comments I'd get from owners/CEOs was "I'm always too busy dealing with problems, etc, every day to be able to look at bigger picture stuff". This usually comes about when the owner is very hands on at the creation of the business, and favours that style as a differentiator of their business. However, growth of the business increases the volume of issues that need taking care of, and also the percentage of issues that are not really issues, but are simply noise created by the total d***heads. I had some success promoting the 4 D approach to these folks, as they sorted out their action items (which covers the gamut of actual to-do's through emails received from customers and employee's etc). In a nutshell, as you view each item you categorise the relative importance/value and priority, then "assign" it as follows: High importance, high priority - Do it High Importance, low priority - Defer it Low importance, high priority - Delegate it Low importance, low priority - Dump it The major sticking point for many was the "Dump it", but if a item is truly of low importance, and has no priority, don't waste an further time on it, and don't lose sleep over dumping it. It sounds like you've reached this point with the d***head minority (and I'll wager it's a very small minority, in comparison to your total customer base), and have realised how to remove the attendant workload, allowing you to focus on what every CEO should, which is growing the business. On a side note, the Delegate and Defer categories are useful for on-the-job training for any succession planning candidates. Comment (1)
Klaas,
I think your analysis is spot on - I am still trying to run my responsibilities at Exetel as if the company was a tenth the size of what it is now and that is generating the discontent and physical and mental exhaustion that I am experiencing. By eliminating the 40% of the time I spend simply getting annoyed I should be able to do the real work much better than I do at the moment. Comments (4)
There is little a small Telstra wholesale customer can do for 8 mbps ADSL1 connections. The monthly rental price is ridiculously high, the back haul price is ridiculously high and Telstra keep increasing the number of exchanges that are downgraded fro 8 mbps to 3 mbps causing great unhappiness for a growing number of end users.
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Hi John,
It's not hard to find negative news and attitudes nowadays. In the press, magazines, TV and even hidden in romance novels (as my Wife found yesterday). Luckily, we have the ability to close the magazine, turn off the tv or DVD and stop reading that book ...... .... even today I still get some delight in consigning items to the "round file" - my rubbish bin! My take on this? "a good life is about indulging in good food, good friends, good health, good surroundings, good cheer and good work. Harry. Comments (2)
Harry,
A very sound philosophy. I will now try and emulate it. Comments (4)
If you are going to emulate it....
.... maybe I should add "good drink"? ..we must not forget those malt wiskeys you have spoken about. Harry. Comments (2)
Hi John,
I think that with the way exetel has grown and the fact that you are still the best value for money on the market, they you should look at "expanding" the little things that you offer. As an eample the games network could do with a complete redo, some more servers etc to build up the numbers. A larger mirror would be a good addition as well, these things seem small and people may not use them but it gets your name out there whn others find what they are looking for on thoes servers. Just some thoughts. Comments (2)
I'd tend to disagree James. Anytime I've ever downloaded anything from a mirror, Australia or US are just as fast. When I see an 'Internode' mirror I never think 'I'll check out their business.' I just want the file
But with the games network, are you willing to volunteer for it? Maybe Exetel would take you up on that. Comment (1)
Hi Clive,
While i agree about the mirror, I have in the past looked at the business that offer the services. That might just be me but it is interesting to see what people offer. As for the games network I would be happy to. I am a fan of my gaming. Comments (2)
+1 for a steam mirror.
Steam's the best thing since sliced bread came along for casual games. Comment (1)
Hi John
While I think its admirable Exetel pays supplier bills before due date (and not 15 + days later as a standard business practice like some companies) I have to wonder why you just dont automate the system to pay bang on the due date. That way you would get the bank interest on these not insignificant sums - surely this is all but free money going begging? Comment (1)
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