Spark aims to reignite careers
Spark New Zealand chief executive Simon Moutter says he’s troubled by the changing nature of the workforce and is exploring how to best retrain people halfway through their careers to deal with the fluid environment.
The country’s biggest telecommunications firm wants to become the lowest-cost operator in New Zealand through simplification, digitisation and automation.
Moutter told shareholders at yesterday’s annual meeting in Auckland that flattening management structures and giving units greater autonomy, known as an “agile” model, had achieved “terrific results in customer experience improvement and speed to market”.
The introduction of artificial intelligence bots to help customers with poor broadband performance had cut call handling time by 40 per cent and achieved high satisfaction among customers and staff.
However, Moutter said he had been troubled by the changing environment for staff where people are getting caught short without the right skills to adapt, and that Spark is “exploring mid-career reskilling” to support staff through the shift.
Spark kicked off a new programme
to arrest margin decline in mid-May, where it will simplify its services and boost automation and digitisation to cut costs, use its suite of brands more effectively, and switch more customers on to higher-margin internet services such as fibre and wireless.
Moutter said the company was expanding its capability in cloud services, cyber security, data analytics, media, and Internet of Things, where winning in those markets “requires us to embrace an ‘all-digital’ customer experience”.
He reiterated his concerns about the state of broadband retail, saying while “customers are getting more back for their broadband buck than ever before” it was not sustainable for the more than 80 providers in the market and he expected consolidation.
“We are now at the point where it is likely cheaper to acquire a customer base from another provider through an M&A deal than it is to try to attract those customers through market efforts,” Moutter said.
“For that reason, we expect to see, and participate in, significant consolidation of the retail broadband industry over the next couple of years.”
Vocus New Zealand, which owns the Orcon broadband provider with 192,000 customers, is on the block after its Australian parent decided to quit this side of the Tasman.
Spark chairman Mark Verbiest, who retired from the board yesterday, affirmed guidance for both earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda), and revenue to gain by as much as 2 per cent in the year ending June 30, 2018. Spark posted ebitda of $1.02 billion on revenue of $3.61b in 2017.
Justine Smythe will take over as chair.
Spark shares closed down 7.5c yesterday at $3.64.