Optus - under new management
Optus has announced a number of changes to its top level management team, with long- serving CEO, Paul O’Sullivan, taking over the role as company chairman and Alan Lew becoming its new chief executive.
The changes come at a time when Optus has been struggling to hold its market share in the face of strong competition from Telstra, especially in the mobiles market, and from companies like iiNet and TPG in fixed broadband.
As previous E-bulletins have observed, Optus’ profits in recent times have come from cost reductions (including job cuts) rather than from revenue growth.
There are limits to that strategy, though, as the new CEO has acknowledged.
“My objective is to revitalise Optus and grow it faster than the market,” Mr Lew is quoted as saying.
“We’ve done some cost-cutting and we’ve done some rationalisation to get our cost structure right. But we have an excellent brand and I want to leverage that to make sure we grow this business.”
But growth will require more than better brand recognition. It will require investment, including in the development of the skills and capacities of the Optus workforce. It is to be hoped that the cost-cutting in this area is over and that employees can now benefit from the revitalisation that the new CEO hopes to achieve.
