Which recalls my own experience some years ago at the new multimedia division of a telco. The company went as far as declaring it was now an "information services" provider, and minted a new sign for the lobby.
But no one told the consumer division, which owned the network, the customers, most of the company's revenue and several battalions of marketers. Our carefully-crafted strategy only had a hope up to the point where it dovetailed with theirs. Looking back from today I'm surprised any of them even showed up for meetings. They agreed that our schemes were vital for the company's future, but there was no incentive for them to cooperate.
In a way the WinMo problem was the opposite. The existing product groups evidently dominated product development. It's all very well to seek synergies but not at the expense of the customer experience. MS's business strategy became its product development strategy, which was all about shoehorning Office onto a small device.
Lessons learned
The mobile phone is a vastly different platform from the desktop, and the customer experience should be the starting point, not an afterthought. That's why the market never warmed to WinMo, and it's extraordinary that it took the company so long to recognize this.
The lesson for telcos is that competition between company divisions is healthy, but requires leadership to ensure it doesn't turn toxic. If you're innovating, your CEO needs to give clear directions about where you want to go and how you're going to get there.
The evidence suggests that telcos just simply aren't innovating. At the Mobile World Congress last month we saw the usual fixation on new technologies and obsessing about flat-rate pricing and "dumb pipes". But as usual there was little sign of anyone solving these problems. Meanwhile, handset and internet firms are moving in on operators' turf and selling services directly to their customers.
Unlike Microsoft, operators don't need to build complex new products. They need to create new business and partnership models. They face the fate of Windows Mobile if they don't.