Telecom Business Assurance: Simplicity, Focus, Coordination & Wise Executive / Sales Compensation

June 30, 2012 - PRLog -- The best way to run a telecom is to start with something simple and understand what you’re really trying to accomplish.  And you then choose a relatively small number of objectives, but really knock those things out of the ballpark.

That's the analysis of revenue assurance consultant Ed Shanahan in an exclusive interview with Black Swan Telecom Journal entitled: "Stay Focused, Coordinate and Keep it Simple: Applying Steve Jobs‘ Leadership Tenets to Telecoms and Business Assurance" http://bswan.org/keep_it_simple.asp

Shanahan uses the business career of Steve Jobs to illustrate where telecom organizations need to go to improve their operations.

In fact, when you consider the work Jobs did in designing the perfect mobile phone, Jobs could be considered one of the most innovative telecom executives the industry has ever seen.

People were complaining about how hard it was to use their mobile device.  Phones had all sorts of features but most people didn‘t know how to use them.  It was a very complicated solution to a fairly straightforward problem which is, “I need a communication device”.

In the article Shanahan expands on the key principles that buttressed Jobs' business practices:

[b}Simplicity[/b} -- Jobs‘ overriding management style was a top down, simple is better approach.  For example, most Apple products don’t have an on/off button because Jobs considered that rather inelegant.

[b}Organization Focus[/b} -- Rather than try to do everything, Jobs rigidly focused on what was in the best interest of the company.  

[b}Patience[/b} -- Just before a product was launched, if he saw that something needed to be changed significantly, Jobs would delay the launch so he could be sure to get it right.

Taking Jobs' leadership lessons as a starting point, Shanahan then outlines a prescription for  improving a telecom operator's business.  Here are highlights of his advice:

[b}Simplify the Business Around High Value Products[/b}

Shanahan feels telecoms must simplify or rationalize their businesses to move forward.  They need to provide more products that the customer perceives as being high value.  And you remove products and services that the customer sees as low value — or alternatively that are too costly to manage.  

[b}Monitor an End-to-End, Horizontal Flow of a Few Focused Missions[/b}

Rather than focus on individual functional areas, Shanahan advise telecoms to monitor relatively few end-to-end missions of the company and do those extremely well.

[b}Make Sure Executive or Sales Compensation Dovetails with the Focused Missions

While people don't need to be on the exact same comp plan, Shanahan feels telecoms must ensure that all compensation plans align with what is in the best interests of the company.

[b}About Black Swan Telecom Journal[/b}

The Black Swan Telecom Journal http://bswan.org is an on-line zine dedicated to the professionals and executives who protect and grow a robust communications business.   The Journal covers a broad range of strategic issues, operator case studies, consultant perspective, and solution vendor advice, particularly in the fields of revenue assurance, fraud assurance, cost/margin management and security.