John Linton .....doesn't always produce the results you expect and often require.
I reviewed the business plan over the weekend, in between doing a number of other things unrelated to Exetel, and will try to make more progress over the coming week. However I think we have established a realistic and conservative revenue growth target for the coming six months together an even more modest profit target that, with careful management and a reasonable forecast of other companies activities, and a great deal of hard and imaginative work by every single person within the company should be deliverable. Mind you I always think that at this stage of the planning cycle and am not always correct.
Subject to any last minute changes of mind by Steve or Annette we will proceed with the appointment of a sales director with the aim of him starting on the first working day of January. Who we will select for that position remains a tough call which I hope to resolve today after one final chat which I didn't manage to have last week due to an unexpected family issue with the person concerned. It has been a hard decision to make which is unusual in my experience - I usually make up my mind 'instantly' on personnel suitability - yet another sign of something or other. So the week will start off with a decision that will have a material impact on just how Exetel progresses in the early part of 2011 - scary responsibility.
The basics of the plan for the next six months are now done with 'only' the detail remaining to be completed. There are now two working weeks for this to be put in place which, assuming we make some progress today and tomorrow should be enough time to not make too many errors. I would think that we will be able to get through that work without all that much trouble if we can actually concentrate on the different elements for sensible periods of time.
There is one major issue that we have to address which we have shilly shallied about with for far too long. That is - what do we do about Telstra? With the Telstra Separation Bill now passed, I am assuming that something or other will now happen over some long term time frame. Unlike Ms Faustus and Stupid Stephen, I see no changes taking place that will benefit Exetel in any way and quite possibly make the already extremely difficult process of selling ADSL (1 or 2) services from Telstra becoming even more difficult. I am a heartbeat away from recommending to Exetel's directors that we cease selling Telstra ADSL completely and allow Telstra Retail's ongoing marketing campaigns to reduce that section of the customer base over time or encourage that section of the customer base to 'migrate' to Optus or AAPT based ADSL2 services. I am very frustrated at giving Telstra Wholesale $1.5 million a month that they use to mount marketing campaigns against us to take those same customers away from us. When you consider it this situation is ridiculous. When I am reminded that we have had $1 million of our personal money tied up as a "security deposit" for over five years for the privilege of selling services on behalf of Telstra so they can try and put us out of business it becomes sheer lunacy.
I think more than a heart beat of time has passed but I haven't yet made that recommendation.
There are a number of decisions of that magnitude that need to be made over the coming two weeks which will adequately fill in any time available to make them.
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