The Context of the biography is located in the French company Alcatel that has recently merged with the American Lucent. The merger started in December 2006 with many difficulties: losses, a shrinking market share, aggressive competition from China, and a stock plumbing more than 60% of its value (which is - taking into account the financial disasters - not that unique).
In an interview Verwaayen is asked about this situation; mainly about the cultural-"divide" between the French and the US. Verwaayen explains politically correct that "this is an normal international (global) company that is more than French-American, but has locations in 130 countries."
When the chairman Serge Tchuruk and CEO Patricia Russo stepped down in july of 2008, people thought that Quigley from an Australia office would become the next CEO, but surprisingly it didn't happen.
What has Verwaayen got, that Alcatel was looking for?
Verwaayen is first of all not a stranger in telecom: he has experience in companies like KPN, ITT (the predecessor of Alcatel), lucent and BT. "He lives in Paris." Philip Camus (of French Origin) was chosen to be the next president and chairman of the board of which Verwaayen will be a member. Camus lives in the US.
In an interview with Andrew Cave the former BT boss Ben Verwaayen tells why he rejected politics to take on the task of reviving Alcatel-Lucent. He had left British Telecom just a month earlier, and people thought he would go into politics:
"Yes, I am very interested in politics and the relationship between public policy and private companies. But what gives people the feeling that I have left business for the field of politics?... I am not a politician. I think I have proven that.
Ben Verwaayen is 56 when he starts at Alcatel and he belongs to the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in his native Netherlands ... "and (he) is one of very few CEO's to have written a political manifesto." (1)
In addition, his first promotion, at US conglomerate ITT, came after he headed to Brussels in 1975 to protest about the company's alleged role in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government in Chile ITT responded by making him its Netherlands public relations chief.
Now he ... "still likes to pronounce his views ... he likes "constructive conflict" and vigorous debate more than didactic policy pronouncements."
He also values passion, an anecdote shows how he once stopped a meeting and announced: "Can we please celebrate this moment? This is passion. This is fantastic."
His cultural experience is what Alcatel may have been looking for: ... "Alcatel-Lucent ... forged in a so-far-unsuccessful transatlantic merger ... is riven by partisanship and internal strife."
Lucent's origin is a spin-off from AT&T and "Alcatel was laying fibre-optic cable for fun in France." There are similarities as well as huge differences he admits; in both cases we had to deal with: "reality and perception. Both are extremely important." (1) He stresses the crucial importance of the organization to "understand the strategy and how to achieve it." People are keen to know what to do.
Had the individual companies lost purpose? Or, as Verwaayen showed that: the internal view of the company is completely at odds with the external view, which is one of "a company under siege".
Verwaayen's task is to deal with change; the Alcatel equipment is facing a threat from the telecom market that is more and more internet-based, a change similar in the market for cameras where "mobile phones are now taking more photographs than cameras." (1).
Yet, he thinks that ... "the challenge for Alcatel-Lucent is a bigger one .. (because) the company is still riven with internal strife... -- the talk of 'what's your background' and what's your blood group' has to end," referring to the tendency among employees to identify with the company they came from." (1) This is hard to imagine in a situation where only 25 percent of the group employees work in the US and 17 percent in France, which adds up to a minority of only 42 percent.
Now why is this biography a good match for Alcatel?
He worked both for Lucent as well as for Alcatel (when it was still part of the ITT conglomerate). That, together with his interest in politics he fits quite well in this dire environment.
(he) was born the fifth of six children to parents who ran a family chemicals firm in a small Dutch village and says he discovered early in his life that he wanted to be a "change agent".
He organized the first student parliament at school and during his national service he set up a union to lobby for better conditions. "Initially, after graduating with a law and international relations degree from Utrecht University, he wanted to be a journalist or politician and took his first job at the ITT subsidiary because it gave him time to sit on a state committee to reform the army." (1)
His management style is: "unreasonable with targets but passionate about people," (1) He had a blog to communicate with the BT group's 95,000 workers.
H.J.B.
Recommend : Cord Umbilical Fiber Optic Cables Video Cards Store. LOWER Prices
No comments:
Post a Comment