Assessment 2 Telstra PDF

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Assessment 2 Telstra

Introduction (200 words) Research on your chosen organisation (1000 words) 1. Research on your organisation’s industry (500 words) 2. Assessment and evaluation (500 words) 3. Conclusion (300 words) 4. References 5. Appendices (if required)

Introduction This report which is being written will present an overview of the company Telstra, and an outline of the company's Purpose and Values, Leadership team, board as well as an assessment and evaluation of the company being presented. To start, Telstra is Australia's leading telecommunications company, offering a range of communication services including high speed broadband, selling the best mobile phones and is a major competitor in all telecommunications markets. In the past Telstra was under the name of Telecom and created its very first mobile phone, they used to call it a car phone and also had telephone booths scattered all across melbourne, because the mobile phone was new a lot of people didn’t have one therefore people used telephone booths instead. Today Telstra works by the highest standards with smart phones with internet access as well as uses the highest speed broadband network which is currently being used by the australian government and multiple other companies. Throughout this presentation, the reader will learn about organizational changes Telstra has made and how telstra has become one of the most successful telecommunications organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Telstra Telstra is currently Australia’s leading 5G network provider. Although, they haven’t always been on the front foot. Not only is Telstra in the lead for being Australia’s top 5G network provider they are also Australia’s leading technology and telecommunications company. Telstra has a foot and

is competitive in all markets that include telecommunications. In Australia they provide retail mobile services, retail fixed bundles and standalone data services as well as retail fixed standalone voice services. Telstra has always been a telecommunications company, although they have branched out towards other ventures since its time as a business.

Timeline of Telstra Internal and external changes ● ●

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1900’s - All communication services – postal, telegraph and telephone – are placed under the Postmaster General's Department (PMG). Telstra originated in 1901 and was established by the commonwealth government to manage all domestic, telephone, telegraph, and postal services. It started as a brand called Telecom. From the year 1993 Telstra was formed, this was due to telecom renaming their brand to Telstra. From 1997 the government began to privatise the corporation. Telstra's CDMA network operated from 1999-2008 until change was implemented. In 2007 Telstra upgraded to a national broadband network. This upgrade was so good that the Australian government kept the upgrade and Telstra has also made a deal with the government upgrading supplying sources. In February 2011 Telstra saw technology rising and didn’t want a flood of people coming to their stores so they announced Telstra Digital and relaunched a website for its homepage. In September 2011, Telstra digital launched a new account services portal to help achieve its goals of managing 35% of Telstra contracts In October 2012, Telstra CEO stated “that the rise of online and social media had fundamentally changed the way which the company has communicated with its customers. In August 2013 Telstra apps had reached 2.5 Million downloads, later in 2013 they launched a new website which allowed the ability for customers to link their online accounts to their Facebook identity. In 2014, Telstra developed a new digital program called “Digital first”, later in 2014 Telstra announced the opening of a digital transformation centre, which had majority of their transfers done online. In December 2015, Telstra digital launched customer service on Periscope. In January 2016, Telstra announced its acquisition of cloud service provided by Kloud. In October 2016, the executive director of Telstra digital Gerd Schenkal left Telstra, to become CEO of a fintech company.

Leadership Change During Telstra’s early days where they would go through major changes, CEO’s would often leave on a negative note leaving the company and being forced to step down. Many of these

changes occurred during the process of deregulation of Telstra with the company having to have downsizing and cutoffs (Chu 2001). Andy Penn became the CEO and Managing Director of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, on 1 May 2015. At Telstra Andy is leading an ambitious change program transforming Telstra to be positioned to compete in the radically changing technology world of the future with 5G at its core. He joined Telstra in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. Andrew took over in 2015 from David Thoday who had stepped down from being CEO after 6 years. Thoday stepping down was on a good note after having improved Telstra customer relations and reputation as well as doubling Telstra’s value (Kimmorley 2015).

Culture Change Telstra has four values. Values to create change and be changemakers by being ambitious and delivering outcomes from their goals. They strive to be a company that encourages teamwork and a company that is seen to look after the environment. A company that although has very complex operations makes things simple and easier for its customers. Telstra’s corporate culture and change in culture over time has evolved as Telstra has. Telstra’s career development starts with its diverse workplace. They are all about change and the future and being innovative. Telstra creates an environment where they encourage you to be creative and innovative. Much like the article written by Mmobuosi (2007) Telstra’s culture changes with time and with ever evolving external factors. The article examines the ever-changing environment surrounding the external factors of an organisation and how change is handled by individuals who are creative in the workplace (Mmobuosi 2007). Telstra continues to take on new ideas and encourage new ways of thinking and working. For employees to thrive their own way. Telstra has now become an innovative culture. By fostering an innovative culture to the organisation, Telstra has become more successful with the ability to channel creativity for useful outcomes. A collaborative and open culture (Loewe & Dominiquini 2006)

Behaviour/ Market and consumer change Market changes ultimately affected change in consumer demand. The biggest change in the market for Telstra was the introduction of smartphones. When smartphones entered the market demand for it was high. At the time Telstra was heavily invested in phone booths. Telstra therefore were innovative enough to create services that align well with the smartphones e.g. Telephone plans, 4/5G networking, and broadband internet. To meet consumer wants and needs.

Technological change Telstra is known for its services provided in the market. One of Telstra’s first biggest changes due to technology was its move from Phonebooths to broadband network in 2007. The most important aspect of organizational excellence is to make the customer happy, keep your employees excited and happy, and to continually improve your operations (Manu 2013). Telstra fixed all three problems in one. With technological change and the introduction of AI’s Telstra kept employees and customers happy with the use of robotics. Telstra reduced customer wait times, and abuse to employees for this problem by having AI’s hear to customers queries or complaints when there are not enough operators available. This improves Telstra’s operations by decreasing wait times, having customers go to the right person as well as helps Telstra store its data more efficiently. Also, Telstra had introduced messaging where, instead of waiting on call you can message directly to either an operator or AI who uses data and deep learning to help (Whatphone 2021).

Disruptive Innovation Telstra’s innovative approach to being the leader in 5G networks have put other companies such as Optus on the backfoot. Telstra’s advantage won’t affect its competitors in large technical ways but its business model. According to the CEO of Telco, the success of Australia’s digital economy is because of the mimicking of Telstra’s innovation strategies (Reichert 2015) with development and collaboration of building labour skills and technology.

How Lewin's change model relates to Telstra. When undergoing analysis of a company such as Telstra, it is important to utilize change models. A change model helps managers stay ahead of competition and have a plan to prepare for change. Lewin’s change model is a three-step process of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. This model initiates the idea of change being needed within a workplace, then heading towards the new level that the company wants to be at, and then implementing and solidifying the change. For example, in 2011, Telstra had to adapt to a new world of online marketing as consumers were moving into a more digital era. Where consumers were not buying products online but being lured by online ads. Telstra needed to introduce a new way of selling products. Telstra didn’t want too many people in their stores, so they announced a product called Telstra digital. This new product would have caused organizational change due to the amount of staff needed to apply creation of the website as well as an upskill in staff for the renamed and renewed version of the company. Telstra going Global

In an article written by Chu (2001) examines the introduction to technology in Australia and its effect on the telecommunication industries. With the introduction of technology came the need to upskill workers as well as restructure the organisation within telecommunications (i.e. Telstra). The article explains how Telstra became a privatised company being deregulated after wanting to go global. Telstra looking into globalisation means the increase of competition. Increase of competition in the market makes a means to become more innovative. That is exactly what Telstra has done today. With the introduction of new competition Telstra has gone from just telecommunications to a leader in 5G network as well as NBN provider in Australia. Telstra needed to expand its activities to keep up with the international economic activities.

Organisation’s Industry The Australian telecommunication industry is known to be one of the most competitive and mature industries. The Australian telecommunication industry has a total of 3,622 business with Telstra corporation limited leading the industry. One of the key changes that affected the Australian telecommunication company was the deregulation of the telecommunication industry by the Australian government in the 1980’s. This process led to the privatisation of the Australian telecommunication monopoly “Telstra” (Ross 1970). As a result of the privatisation of the telecommunication industry Telstra had to undergo major restructure and downsizing. The mere arrival of 4G moved the internet directly to the comfort of our pockets, 5G could transform the network to something to talk to virtually (Markets 2019). With the arrival of 5G to Australia, telecommunication operators can now provide great internet speed to areas with good copper lines. Another change that vastly impacted the telecommunication industry was the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 compelled the Australians to implement fast changes in the telecommunications industry. COVID-19 has opened many doors for the telecommunication sector; one of the most significant opportunities could be the growth of the digital economy (Penn 2020b). With forced isolation and mandatory social distancing, there has been a massive surge in digitalisation with activities like remote learning, work from home, e-commerce, and

even tele-health. In response to these drastic changes Telstra has fast tracked lots of policy and regulation strategies. Another opportunity for telecommunication industries would-be long-term strategies for Australia (Penn 2020a). COVID-19 once again brought to our attention the importance of communication networks. The telco industries have been the connective tissue between millions during the lockdown phase. In addition, if the digital economy is crucial for the fast recovery of the economy, which it is, the telecommunication is one the largest infrastructure to boost the digital recovery (3 ways to prepare for wireless 5G 2020). This pandemic has seen great extents of national corporations from various businesses, especially big businesses. Telstra’s actions mainly included recruitment of additional staff to reduce further job reduction, the arrival of $500 capex spend to provide small businesses relief (Penn 2020b). Telstra also provided its employees with extra paid leaves and shifted the majority of its workforce to a work from home setting. In the year 2009, the Australian government realised the importance of developing Australian telecommunication industry for its future. The introduction of NBN will help with the same with nearly 75% of the Australian population being covered under Telstra’s 5G footprints by the end of June 2021. To excel in a fast-paced and constantly changing environment, with COVID-19 lurking right around the corner, 5G seems to be the future of the world. Organisations have started working with technology and telecommunication partners to explore the possibilities 5G brings.

Assessment and Evaluation In the assessment and evaluation portion of the report, I will take the reader through how telstra responded to the Bushfire and Covid 19 crisis, Strategy, and performance of telstra, the outlook for telstra and then full results and operations. To begin, the Covid 19 crisis took the whole world by storm in 2020, no one besides maybe government officials knew the impact of the illness which was going to stop thousands of Australians lives. Our home state of Victoria got hit hardest in 2020 the bushfires struck during the summer which caused a lot of distress especially to those living in Regional Victoria and then the Carona-Virus crisis with all businesses working from home, with only essential workers allowed to be working, Restaurants and small businesses closed off to the public and a curfew implemented in Victoria 8PM- 5AM for the first time in Victoria's history. When the bushfires hit in late 2019, Telstra technicians responded straight away by providing backup generators, installing temporary mobile cells on wheels and making repairs to its networks wherever possible (Telstra corporation Limited 2020). With the bushfires happening Telstra answered 55,000 calls regarding enquiries and because they were seeking support after the bushfires Telstra paid phone bills of approximately 10,000 fire fighters and SES volunteers over December and January. When the Coronavirus crisis hit Australia in March 2020, Telstra put job reductions on hold for 6 months to give staff enough time and security as they could. Unfortunately, however Telstra had to close some of its retail stores and if Telstra technicians had to visit households there had to be safe access points and there had to be no potential risks from household contacts (Telstra corporation Limited 2020). As people were bound to their homes, telstra knew people would be needing internet connection more than ever, telstra offered discounted rates to people on Job seeker payments. Telstra also were fortunate enough to save money as employees volunteered their time for free to help Telstra who were receiving a large amount of phone calls. The strategy and performance of telstra can often be linked to the T22 strategy, the strategy embarks on implementing four pillars, the first is Radically simplifying the product offering and eliminating customer pain points as written in my annotated bibliography, the T22 strategy also allows getting customer feedback on Telstra as well, the next step is to establish a business structure to drive performance, the following step is to greatly simplify our structure and ways of working to empower staff and serve the customer and lastly Industry leading cost reduction programs to minimize the cost of what they sell to the customer. To sum up the assessment and evaluation of our assessment, the outlook of Telstra has faced significant challenges like all businesses due to the pandemic. It is understood that Telstra believes customers will not be immune from the disruption, difficulty, and scarcity the pandemic has caused. Over the course of 2020 income declined

5.9% and net profit after tax declined 14.4%, however when it came to the T22 strategy nearly 3 quarters of the measures used to monitor progress and customer service were either completed or on track to be completed. Telstra also continued its leadership when it involved 5G with more than 10 million people now living, working, or passing through the 53 cities and towns in our 5G footprint everyday. Telstra has always been a leader in telecommunications technology, and they are the clear leader in Australia in 5G, as well as being at the forefront globally.

Conclusion In the limelight of the discussion it can be concluded that organisations like Telstra are working effectively despite many challenges and changes. This paper has presented the information about Telstra. The company is working as the leading provider of the 5G network. It is a technological as well as telecommunication organisation. That has branched to the many other ventures. This discussion has covered the internal changes and external changes within Telstra. Leadership change has been included within the paper as took place during the procedure of deregulation in Telstra. Improvement in relationship and reputation before the change in leadership has taken place already which improved the relationship and reputation with doubling value of Telstra. Organisational culture as well as change within the culture as per the time has evolved with innovativeness. The company is regularly working to perform with the new ideas and encourage many new ways in relation to new thinking and working ways. Changes within the market have influenced the level of change within the demand of customers. One of the biggest changes in relation to the market for organisations like Telstra was the introduction. Technological change has already taken place within the case of Telstra with the movement from phone booths network to broadband network. Innovation strategies of Telstra have led to development as well as collaboration of creating skills of labour and technology. This paper has included the discussion about how Lewin’s change model links to Telstra. Going global in relation to Telstra refers to the improvement of competition and becoming more innovative. This paper has explained about the telecommunication industry of Australia. It has explained that the pandemic has presented the growth within the digital economy. Section of assessment and evaluation has presented the organisational practice to respond to the Bushfire and Coronavirus crisis.

References: Bohatala.com 2021, Telstra Organizational Change Management Analysis - BohatALA, Accessed 19 June 2021.

3 ways to prepare for wireless 5G 2020, Telstra Enterprise, viewed 18 June 2021, . Chu, JJ 2001, ‘In response to globalization: what we can learn from the Telstra experience National Sun’ Yat-sen University, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2001, pp. 366-379 Manu K 2013, ‘Business excellence through sustainable change management’ Vora Business Excellence Inc, Vol. 25, No. 6, 2013 pp. 625-640 More, E, McGrath, M 1999, ‘Working cooperatively in an age of deregulation Strategic alliances in Australia's telecommunications sector’ The Journal of Management Development, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1999, pp. 227-254

Penn, A 2020, Seizing the opportunities after COVID, Telstra Exchange, Telstra News, viewed 3 June 2021, . Pierre, L & Jennifer D, 2006, ‘Overcoming the barriers to effective in...