To succeed as digital services enablers, telcos must master a critical set of skills that they have not excelled at before, says Smart president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno. “I’m referring specifically to partnership skills -- the ability to manage relationships with many partners or the flexibility to meet the needs of partners with different business models.”
He said partnership skills are vital because you need to put together many different players to make connected life services work.
Kicking off the plenary at the annual Asian Carriers’ Conference in Cebu earlier this month, Nazareno said the telecom industry along with other industries is going through a profound and painful transformation because of the disruptive impact of digital technologies. “The internet and social media are radically altering the way people communicate and are undermining traditional telco services like voice and SMS.”
He said this transition is gathering momentum and compelling telcos to ask themselves: “What do we want to be in the future?”
The challenge for the 1,3000 attendees at the conference, he said, is to find the next-gen of intelligent services that will be compelling for customers and will be part of the industry’s search for an enduring future in the emerging digital world.
He said being part of a conglomerate with utility and broadcast assets makes it somewhat easier for Smart to purse connected life projects. “But this does not spare us from the need to upgrade our partnership skills. Even with our family [of companies] we cannot take things for granted. Alliances for creating connected life services still have to be properly negotiated, so the interests of all parties are taken into account.