Seven Tough CEO Questions – Telco 2.0 Update

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We've identified seven questions that are fundamental to telcos' forward success, and compiled some of our recent research that helps address them.

Seven Tough Questions

In the process of refreshing our 2016-2017 research agenda, STL Partners has identified seven ‘meta’ themes in our recent research that can be thought of as part of a contemporary checklist for telecoms strategy.

These are some of the questions that we believe boards and executives should be asking themselves as they assess their own strategies and decide what further actions and initiatives to investigate and initiate. In the following brief article, we point our customers to our latest findings in these areas. [NB If you’re not a customer, you’ll be able to see some, but not all of the analysis.]

We do not claim that this is a full and exclusive list, and indeed we’d welcome your input via contact@stlpartners.com to set up a call with our research team or share your thoughts and questions directly.

1. Do you have a compelling vision based on an evolving, competitive digital customer experience?

There are a number of scenarios facing telecoms operators in which any compelling vision must apply. Our initial scenario analysis was directed to European operators, and we have subsequently also conducted workshops and seminars with operators in other parts of the world that identified and developed similar relevant groupings in their markets.

Figure 1 – Four Illustrative Telecoms Market Scenarios

We then identified the fundamental problems with telecoms transformations in Problem: Telecoms technology inhibits operator business model change, and subsequently proposed a vision and solution to this in Transforming to the Telco Cloud Service Provider.

Much of our other analysis integrates with these ideas, exploring the themes in more specific domains, such as how to transform, relevant strategies in adjacent and disrupted/disrupting industries, developments in advanced enterprise cloud and ICT, and the future of the network, and we outline some of this analysis in summary below.

A critical foundation stone of any future strategy is how competitive the digital experience that your company delivers to its clients. In this regard, we have published the first iteration of MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Customer Experience Index which looked at 27 operators in seven markets, and compared the relative performance of operators’ mobile data networks in terms of how they deliver customer app-use experience. We are also working on further a global analysis in this domain which will be published soon.

Another foundation stone for telcos is that becoming a truly digital business is not just about technology, IT, marketing, or even HR for that matter. It is an approach that requires the engagement, re-thinking and adaptation / evolution of the whole business.

Looking at other aspects of operators’ digital competence, and following on from our research into operator agility, we are also now working on research into how well operators are transforming their customer-facing digital activities in marketing and sales, and also into other areas of digital maturity and transformation.

In addition, we continue to frame and update the strategic picture in the context of industry analyses such as Brexit: Telecoms Strategy Implications and US Wireless Market: Early Warning Signs of Change, and identify leading case studies of telco innovation in reports such as this one on Dialog’s surprisingly successful API programme, and this on Telstra’s ambitious healthcare investment programme.

 

  • Seven Questions (and pointers to our answers)
  • 1. Do you have a compelling vision based on an evolving, competitive digital customer experience?
  • 2. NFV/SDN: tools of business transformation or toys of the technology department?
  • 3. IoT/5G/Cloud: the Holy Trinity of Hope – or Hype?
  • 4. Can/does your business work well with others in new ways to deliver?
  • 5. Are you tuned into innovation in Communications, Commerce and Content?
  • 6. Is your Enterprise/SMB strategy keeping pace with the market?
  • 7. Is your network holding you back or taking you forward?
  • What’s next?

 

  • Figure 1: Four Illustrative Telecoms Market Scenarios
  • Figure 2: Cloud business practices – key principles
  • Figure 3: Challenges for Telco Digital Services Partnering
  • Figure 4: Six Healthcare Pain Points Telstra Health Aims to Address

Technologies and industry terms referenced include: , , , , , , ,