PORTFOLIO OF EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS
THE NEW COMMANDERS
By Isabelle Paradis
President, HOT TELECOM
February 2017
Interviews - Magazine format Interviews - PDF format
We are at a point of no-return in the evolution of our industry, where wholesalers need to completely re-think the way they go about their business. In addition to reviewing the services they offer, they also need to re-invent many of their business models, when it comes to their customers, partners and, maybe even more importantly, when it comes to their dealings with other wholesalers.
The natural reaction when you are attacked from all sides, as the voice wholesalers are at the moment, is to retreat and protect what you still have. But I strongly believe that attack is the best form of defense here.
Yes, it is crucial for wholesalers to protect their voice business, as it will continue to be a source of revenue for some time to come. But at the same time, they also need to create the right environment to become entrepreneurs again.
This will probably be the greatest challenge in wholesalers’ history: successfully managing both sides of the wholesale brain - the entrepreneurial and operational sides.
To achieve this, wholesalers must start by simplifying their voice wholesale business from start to finish and by optimizing the way they manage their traffic, they negotiate their agreements, and they make routing decisions. This will happen by creating an automated, self-serve, high quality, direct termination model and the business is ready for it.
From there, it is time for them to go on the attack, by looking at their challenges and opportunities with a new set of eyes.
This starts by getting closer to the end-user and by creating a strong global connectivity base to build innovation on top.
So, we are getting to the $1 billion-dollar question. The question that all my customers ask: ‘What will be the next big thing to put on top of the network’. Well, the reality is that there will not be a next big thing, but rather several smaller innovations that will build the new wholesalers’ portfolio - this will be the new wholesale reality.
For some, these innovations may lie in IoT and addressing not only transport, but a more intelligent type of transport, complemented by real-time analytics. For others, it may lie in serving enterprises with high quality Unified Communications applications. Finally, others may decide to become enablers of the hyper-connected world.
But whatever the next big things will be, the industry will need the right people to inspire it to push the wholesale boundaries and take risks. As at the end of the day, the industry’s success will start with the people who lead it - the wholesale entrepreneurs.
Such entrepreneurs are not people who own businesses, they are individuals who make things happen. They create hope and empower people to make the extraordinary real. As you will see through this portfolio of interviews, the New Commanders who have recently joined our industry have inspiring visions and strategies to make wholesale great again!
Isabelle Paradis
President
HOT TELECOM
About the Author:
Isabelle Paradis, President of HOT TELECOM is an international telecoms expert, with over 23 years working experience in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.
HOT TELECOM has been serving global operators, governments, equipment vendors and telecom investors for over 14 years, providing leading edge market research and consulting services to industry leaders around the globe.
For more information on our HOT INTERVIEWS program, please contact Isabelle Paradis at: paradis@hottelecom.com or at +1 514 270 1636