There is no single candidate right now better suited to succeed Sol Trujillo as Telstra chief executive than the telco's current consumer marketing and channels chief David Moffatt.
commentary There is no single candidate right now better suited
to succeed Sol Trujillo as Telstra chief executive than
the telco's current consumer marketing and channels chief David
Moffatt.
I'm so confident the telco's chairman Donald
McGauchie and the rest of the board will recognise this fact and
hand him the job when Sol leaves, that I've put my money where my
mouth is and wagered the princely sum of $5 on the outcome with
ZDNet.com.au telco reporter Suzanne Tindal.
I'll let Suzanne back her own horse in a separate article (she'll lose).
Moffatt (pictured, image credit from Telstra) won my vote for several reasons. Firstly, I agree
with David Braue's argument that Telstra is likely to continue down the ambitious, necessary and relatively successful long-term
path that Trujillo sent it on when he stepped on deck back in
mid-2005.
Trujillo was a king-hit level international telco executive
brought in to rejuvenate a Telstra that needed to shift onto a
commercial footing (finally) after a long and uncertain period of
being a quasi-government entity.
The telco needs a calmer and more Australian head that can
execute on Trujillo's vision while warming Telstra's icy
corporate heart.
As David mentions, so much changed under Trujillo's watch that
the company doesn't need another visionary of his level (with all
the American-style arrogance that came in the package and so
annoyed the Australian public).
Instead, it needs a calmer and more Australian head that can
execute on Trujillo's vision while warming Telstra's icy
corporate heart.
Its detractors might not agree, but the construction of
Telstra's Next G network was a stunning technical endeavour that
gave the company a massive boost in the mobile war; a war that most
of the rest of Australia's telco industry is only now starting to
realise it is losing badly. (The pending merger of Hutchison and
Vodafone is the most visible indicator of Telstra's success in
this area.)
In this context there is no better candidate to take over
Telstra as a whole than Moffatt, the man Trujillo tasked with
overseeing the provision of services on the Next G network to
consumers. Of course, Moffatt also manages the provision of
broadband, fixed line and entertainment services to Australia's
great masses.
Are you starting to get a picture for just how much of
Telstra's revenue he is already responsible for?
But wait, there's more.
Moffatt is also Telstra's former chief financial officer and
group managing director, finance and administration, a position he
took up after being CEO at the Australia and New Zealand division
of General Electric. He's also held roles with other large
companies like Citibank and (get ready to tick one more box off,
McGauchie) management consultancy Bain.
And to cap it off, Moffatt's been overseeing the rejuvenation of
Telstra's retail strategy; which appears to have been drawn
straight from the brain of Steve Jobs (the most visible example of
this can be seen on George St, Sydney, where Telstra's ritzy
T[life] store sits directly opposite Apple's flagship
monolith.
Moffatt was
reportedly seen as a strong contender to replace Trujillo's predecessor Switkowski
It's possible to make the argument that some of Moffatt's
colleagues (for example business chiefs Deena Shiff and David
Thodey or CFO John Stanhope) have similar qualifications, and they
do, at least on paper. But in person they lack the leadership
potential and human touch that Moffatt alone amongst Telstra's
senior ranks seems to possess (in some measure).
Wholesale chief Kate McKenzie probably has the personality to
do the job — but her public sector background is her biggest
weakness and will likely rule her out for the hot seat.
There is also Moffatt's form with Trujillo and his ongoing
dance with the CEO role, which started when Trujillo's predecessor
Ziggy Switkowski was dumped back in December 2004. Moffatt was
reportedly seen as a strong contender to replace Switkowski,
although I suspect a lack of senior telco experience compared to his
rivals let him down at the time.
When Trujillo stepped on board, The Australian reported that he
quickly put Moffatt through some fairly stern paces, including a
notice that he could lose his consumer chief role unless he met
targets. I can testify that Moffatt and a number of other
Australian Telstra leaders appeared a little more shaky than
normal when presenting in public at the time; not hard to understand since the
ground had clearly been cut away from under their feet.
However, Moffatt must have earned some board kudos for
sticking with his lot and dramatically deepening his telco
experience; we can assume, since he's still around, that he met most of Trujillo's targets.
The picture this all paints should be clear: unlike the last
time around, Moffatt clearly has the experience and gravitas to step
into Trujillo's shoes; and undoubtedly the effort of holding his
ambitions down under Trujillo will have given him ample energy and
patience to deliver results on a bigger scale.
Who are you betting on to succeed Telstra chief executive Sol
Trujillo? Got any inside info? Drop us a line confidentially or
post your comments below this article.