John Linton ....having not succeeded the first few dozen times over 100 years?
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Thodey-Telstra-restructure-NBN-sales-consumer-busi-pd20110706-JH42F?OpenDocument&src=kgb
One of the statements made by Telstra's CEO in his recent announcements struck me particularly. Amid all the 'this person will now be replacing that person and adding greater focus to such and such" was an almost clarion call like (though perhaps that is "hyperbowl"): "We will aim at doing new things that cannot be copied". I thought it stood out because since 'competition' was introduced to the then Telecom Australia it seems to me that every competitor to Telstra simply adopted the view that providing the same service as Telcom/Telstra did at a more realistic (lower) price was all that was required. The really bold and innovative few tried to also offer a slightly better than abysmal service level but, at least as far as I can see, that's as far as it went.
There is little doubt that Telstra must have, both now and in every year of its existence, a huge amount of intellectual talent buried under and suppressed by the most bureaucratic and archaic accretion of procedures and processes only a 100 year old monopoly can develop. However it's actually difficult to think of anything that Telstra/Telecom/GPO etc has done over the past century that could be called innovative let alone beneficial to any end user and whatever has been done in the past has been done years after it has been in place in other countries around the world and always more expensively. As I re-read this paragraph, I realise it is a very unkind generalisation of the efforts of, literally, millions of people over ten decades - but at least at first glance it is essentially true. But what credibility can any CEO have who also juxtaposes his 'innovation' statement with this:“Today’s initiatives are further evidence that Telstra is changing by putting our customers first"
Is he saying that for the previous 100 years customers never came first at Telstra?
What actually did come first at Telstra over the past 100 years if it wasn't customers?
I only remark on yesterday's announcements by Telstra because they seem to be more of the same that monopolies always say. No monopoly in the history of commerce has ever done anything but distribute as much of its customer's 'wealth' between its senior employees for as little effort from those employees as possible. It is pointless trying to state that isn't the case - it's an inevitability. However this particular monopoly will, if the 'NBN2' continues as planned, lose it's current monopoly completely. However its old monopoly has generated it more than enough money and more than enough time to create a new monopoly (or service that can't be copied to use the careful phrasing that such an overt claim must be couched in).
Personally, I will not be involved in Australian communications (except, possibly, as a private citizen) by the time Telstra creates its new monopoly(ies) if in fact that is both the intention and it has the capabilty. I only thought it was remarkable because it shows that employees can only contemplate the future by conjuring up plans to re-establish a monopoly scenario for the future when their current monopoly is threatened. The problem is that while a 20 year old Bill Gates can create a monopoly by accident it was the 'monopoly' (IBM) that gave him that opportunity at the expense of its own monopoly (of their own innovation of a commercially viable PC) it equally demonstrates that even a monopoly can't create a new monopoly - if only because it lacks the 'vision' to do so. As Cisco has so successfully demonstrated (if the Bill Gates example is not enough) only individuals who have the capability of bringing their 'visions' to market create new services and products which monopolies can then buy up....
...but then I don't think that is available to Telstra whose current idea of innovation is to "put our customers first". That statement demonstrates why all the other statements are flawed beyond redemption.
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20 - Ideas of what will happen in the coming two decades:http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/02/25-predictions-25-years