Telecom NZ CEO's mantra: we've heard it all before

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 04 October 2007 16:31

IT Industry - Deals

Less than a week into the job, Telecom New Zealand CEO, Paul Reynolds has addressed the company's AGM, setting out his mantra: "Getting things right for our customers first time, every time." It's a mantra that Telstra's new management trotted out shortly after taking the reins.

Reynolds said: "This principle is a simple yet powerful one...It's a ruler that will be run over all of our big decisions and actions in the new and challenging environment of operational separation. These actions range from investment to the design and provision of our products and services, to the conversations we have with our customers about these products and services, particularly when we've made mistakes, to the ways in which we can add value to the strong base and brands we already have in place in New Zealand and Australia, to building on the success of our Wholesale unit, as an emblem of our commitment to the realities of operational separation long before the process was finalised."

Reynolds' mantra is hardly original. In November 2005 at its day long briefing shortly after Sol Trujillo took the reins and imported his team of US executives, one of these, COO, Greg Winn said: "We're going to operate with four basic principles: We're going to do it once, we're going to do it right for the customer, we'll do it in an integrated way and we'll do it at low unit cost. We're going to simplify the customer experience in our business. We're going to make things simple, we'll make them more intuitive for us and our customers."

Winn added: "This is a transformational change which runs counter to the ingrained behaviour of the business, but the pay off will be extraordinary. It's going to unleash value and energy right across the company and it will make the savings sustainable, not temporary. So this will have a lasting benefit for our customers, our employees and our shareholders."