John Linton .....which is nice to see as sometimes it appears that too many nasty people don't get the 'punishment' they so richly deserve....and unfortunately legal process prevents me from explaining why I found it 'necessary' to explain why I have made that comment more fully at this time.
In business life, just as in personal life you inevitably have to 'mix with' people who, given a choice, you would not give the time of day to - let alone your money or any sort of 'service'. However there are less choices in business life than in personal life and you, too often it seems to me, find your personal principles, I hesitate to use the word 'ethics', compromised by what you have to do for the good of your company (and its customers and personnel) and what you would really feel you should do. I recently found myself in such a situation and it made me realise how many similar situations actually exist at any given point in time in business life. Clearly it's my own ineptitude that causes these conflicts of 'principle' but its too late for me to acquire the necessary skills/experience to deal more effectively with these aspects of business.
I wasn't sure how to react to this summary of Telstra's progress over the past two months as reported here:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/telstra-toughens-nbn-stance-20100929-15xh8.html
I know how Telstra's latest 'welcome home' programs are affecting Exetel (we lose almost as many current customers to Telstra as we gain from Telstra). However, assuming the reported numbers are correct Telstra is out performing the next best 'gainer' of new ADSL customers, TPG, at a rate of 15:1 and is winning back overall market share at a rate of well over 1% a month (rather than losing market share as it has done for several years) - a terrifying statistic for the larger ISPs in Australia who, in this static/slow decline ADSL market numbers are obviously losing market share at a scary per month rate.
It is a stark reminder that there must be a better way for Exetel to operate than the ways we operate the company today (and have done since it started) and I'm sure that there are. Most of those ways mean that Exetel would have to be changed and give up the base tenets of its existence to date and move to a more conventional set of objectives which in itself would seem to be sensible any way (except to me). It would, quite possibly, also be far easier for most of Exetel's personnel and, especially, it's owners and directors. However I would not have much interest in such an organisation so it poses a personal problem and one which I am not sure how to address - beyond the obvious.
We will be going to Sri Lanka in a couple of days time and I have always found that a few days spent in that country allows a different perspective to be gained on all sorts of things. Perhaps it will allow me to resolve some of the things that concern me at the moment and find new enthusiasm/different ways of dealing the growing number of aspects of communications industry 'life' that I find anathematic to so many of my personal views of right and wrong.....though that may be too 'dramatic' a way of expressing it. Whatever the correct way of looking at current circumstance may be the most obvious fact is that significant changes need to be made - changes that go way beyond the 'normal' constant changes required in any set of 'dynamic' marketplaces.
I will be glad to finish off the key outstanding 'issues' over the next two days and go away for a week to resolve the current contradictory scenarios that are beginning to emerge in these difficult times.
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