Telecom scared stupid

We have clients all over the world, in all aspects of telecom. Service providers. Vendors. Software developers. Chip makers. Management consultants. Wireline, wireless, cable, telephone companies, cellular. The works.

And they have all turned dumb. Not a smart one in the bunch. Try as we might, we cannot get past the paranoia, closed-mindedness, surrender and "throw myself on the mercy of the court" mindset that now grips our industry.

Everyone wants to do what it takes to just keep their job. Nothing creative. No sticking a neck out. Keep under budget. Those who do nothing, oddly, get the greatest praise today.

We're watching one client firm slowly go down because of their mindset of cutting costs to the bone and riding it out. Wall Street is watching them and rewarding their diligence. But they fail to see that their competitive advantage will evaporate in about a year, because of technical obsolescence.

At another client, an executive says the corporate strategy won't work, and by the time the company figures it out, it will be too late. But he's not about to do anything because "they don't want to hear it." So he'll meet his numbers for the next two quarters, and migrate to another job somewhere. He's a good guy, he'll find a job. The rest of the company won't.

Then there's the case of the equipment vendor that has held up a carrier network contract finalization for almost six months because they could not confirm one piece of data required for the final paperwork. Note: The answer was given in the bid process; the carrier just wanted it confirmed. All the equipment vendor needed to do was to certify the original statements, which met certain thresholds, and they were in the clear. Four presidents of the company got involved, and numerous answers to the questions were speculated. No one could give an official answer that was supportable. Finally, someone at the vendor company decided to go out of house for an independent opinion. That answer failed to meet the thresholds the carrier required, so the carrier dropped that vendor. Seems an atrocious waste of six months of work, especially after the vendor effectively had won the bid.

Or the case of another equipment vendor that did not want to send equipment to be tested for a network bid, because they did not think they had a chance in the sales process. Not sending the equipment for testing ensured they were right.

The equipment vendors aren't the only ones being stupid. Almost every U.S. provider we work with is sitting dumb. Those in bankruptcy are focused on the tactics of getting out. Those not yet in bankruptcy are focused on the tactics of how to avoid it. Very few are thinking seriously about how to reshape their business in the restructured industry - or even what that industry will look like.

Which businesses should they be in; which should they exit? Which markets should they enter; which should they abandon? These are strategic issues, but if they're being evaluated today, it's purely a short-term financial analysis. The financially "right" answer is the lazy answer. We're having trouble finding anyone brave enough to pursue the real "right" answers - the ones that will still be right a year from now.

Every day it's a different company, same attitude. The market is hopeless. No one is buying anything. We're just going to wait and outlast everyone else. They have to start buying sometime.

Lethargy, resignation and depression have set in, and are causing people's actions to be stupid in the end.

We need to wake up. Smell the coffee. And kick the person standing next to you in the pants.

Or, here's another strategy. On a given day, we'll take all those who still have jobs and fire them. Then we'll hire back all those without jobs. Hey, they may not be the smartest of the bunch, but at least they're not deer stuck in headlights. We'd rather work with people willing to try than those who have given up.

RELATED LINKS