"Everybody was born with a screwdriver in their hands"

Interesting interview with Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT as he transforms the company. He could have also mentioned everyone born with a monopolistic view point on the market.

And often with transformations, it is better to acquire and build from outside rather than try to change from within and BT has made almost 30 mid-sized acquisitions around the world in the last few years.

This interview with JP Rangaswami, Managing Director of Convergence shows BT's vision. It is telling that JP also writes a widely read blog.  A telecom exec as a popular blogger? Now that is transformation.

Last week, T-Systems, the Deustche sub has announced an alliance with Cognizant to go to market with its India workforce. More signs that European telcos may be evolving quicker than US ones who still are fixated on wires and screwdrivers - and yes, monopoly.

Comments

[Gregory Yankelovich]

I am a subscriber to JP blog, and largely agree with most of what is discussed in this interview on a strategy level. However I have a big problem with an execution side of this E2.0 philosophy.

I don't believe in "either/or", I trust in "and". We have had a highly structured data/process/information flow approach which have all sort of limitations and hand/mind cuffing controls. W2.0/E2.0 approach sets us free to exchange of knowledge at proverbial "water cooler", and that is wonderful but we still need to deliver products and services based on commonly agreed standards of quality and customer satisfaction. That requires a process, controls, etc.

Unfortunately I could find very little about building E2.0 on the foundation of process based applications. JP did not answer this question so far since I posed it on his blog.