John Linton ......and for people who don't notice the sun's position in the sky the media will tell us that it's the first day of Spring....which actually wont be here for another three weeks. August finished with a bang....with far more than 200 new mobile orders (243) being received for the first time in one day in Exetel's history and the eventual tally of new corporate data orders reaching 157 for the month. Monthly billings were up by more than 7%, accounting for the new complicated way we now need to deal with supplier bonuses, which is an increase percentage we haven't seen for over three years.....since the Empire Struck Back. So all, at least temporarily, is well with the world as we prepare to leave on our belated annual break.
Personally, I think the last 15 months have been the hardest and most difficult times of my working life...and if my memory is correct, I have had some pretty horrendously difficult times since I came to this country as an almost 18 year old with a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket and knowing absolutely no-one across the length and breadth of this considerably sized land. Telstra has made life miserable for companies like Exetel and companies much larger than Exetel and while that was not exactly unexpected the scale and length of the problems has been almost impossible to deal with. The fact that we dealt with them is of no credit to any sort of planning or execution of brilliant strategies it was simply that we had absolutely no choice but to survive as best we could and take our nascent company (in the event a seven plus year old company can be described that way) in a new, Telstra free, direction.
I am hoping that a few weeks of r and r will restore my body and mind to some sort of unexhausted and rational state where I can sensibly provide some input as to just how Exetel should continue in business from this point. It would have been wrong to consider any major changes while we were in the midst of what appeared to be never ending predatory 'marketing' exercises by Telstra aimed at destroying the business we had built up to that time. With virtually every day containing some elements of a 'battle for survival' (undoubtedly that's over dramatising a mundane commercial situation) there was no sensible way to begin to address major changes. However as the smoke clears and the extent of the carnage can be assessed we really do need to decide on just what mess Telstra will make of our business lives and just how best we, as an irrelevant to anyone but ourselves, group of people should best devote our resources to.
So, we will shortly make our way to the airport to begin our belated 30th wedding anniversary celebration and I am hoping that time in Paris, Bugundy and rural England will produce restorative effects large enough and complete enough to allow some rational decision making....if not for Exetel's immediate and short term future then at least for our own personal futures. A future free of bullies would be nice to contemplate but that's not likely. Perhaps a future with far less d***heads will turn out to be possible? I can almost taste the wine and food we have so carefully planned to put ourselves in the way of next week after a few days seeing what coffee and fresh rolls in Paris is like after a long absence, and........
.......I have to go.
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