BOLD: HOW TO BE BOLD IN BUSINESS AND WIN – The Story of BT CELLNET (“02”)

The future belongs to the Bold.  The world is so crowded that only those who have a significant and dramatically different story to tell will grab the attention of customers.

In a world and age when we have come to expect good level of service and product as given, only an exceptional and memorable experience will earn customer loyalty.

Different breed of organizations are now emerging, they succeed because they have courage, confidence or just sheer chutzpah to pursue a purpose beyond profit:  to engage, entertain and educate their audiences, who see their customers and employees as members of a like minded community, who create and administer cult-like following among their brand – both within and outside their organizations – who are not just different, but dramatically different and who push to the extreme the consequences of their dreaded positioning and strategy.  02 is one of the bold brands.

02

02 started life as BT Cellnet, the mobile business of British Telecommunication.  As part of deregulation in the Industry, BT Cellnet was spun off as a separate entity in 2002 and rebranded as MMO2.  The very name was designed to bring a breath of “fresh air” to the industry.  However, the Financial Times was less convinced and said the name was daft and the brand practically worthless.  Four years later, the worthless brand was sold to Telefonica for a mere $17.7billion.  By 2008 02 had overtaken it’s giant parent (British Telcom) to become the largest provider of Telecom connections in the UK and the fourth best-loved brand in Great Britain.

What did 02 to turn around an ailing business and become a power house in UK economy:

  -     It was a classic approach of starting with customer insight.

-       Having a point of difference

-       Aligning your people with it

-       Tearing the industry Rule book

-       Seeking to dramatize your difference thru bold innovations  

-       02 values was bold, open trusted and clear

Today, 02 is market leader in UK, being number one in terms of total revenue, earnings, new customers, customer base, having achieved more connections than all competitors combined and customer satisfaction.

Bold Practices

-       The difference between 02 and other companies in their space, was that they were a brand first and foremost, rather than a company that happen to have a brand.

-       Lots of committed people, genuinely committed to making a difference, talking and listening to customers about things other than plain vanilla mobile communications.

-       DNA of 02 is changing the rules of the industry or not playing by the rules at all.

-       Our hypothesis was that would differentiate in a commoditized market by looking at the experience we delivered as opposed to the technology – becoming experience focused, rather than technology led.  We become an enabler of great experiences – we are not in the voice or text business – asking people how they want their life enable and you make your device to serve their purpose.

-       The sim-only tariff broke the industry norm of attracting and trapping customers into contract so they cannot exit at will.  Competition thought 02 were crazy and their customers would leave them, but they didn’t.

-       02 did not only change the contract terms, they changed customers’ experiences,  network experience, shopping experience and tariffing experience  - Now their deeds were matching their word – the keep it simple.  Ultimate vote of self-confidence.  This attracted loads of customers to 02.

-       Changing the way the industry works.  Telecommunication is notorious for making the simple incredibly complex.  When a new customer contacts us, the first thing the industry will say to the customer was “what you need to do is………, well if that’s the start of any conversation, you have lost it already.  At 02, they became ruthless at taking out the things that customers don’t value and refocusing more of our energy and our resources on things that they truly value.

-       Existing and new customers were offered new deals against industry norm of only offering new prospects deals to convert them.

     

Turning people to fans

-       If you cannot turn your employees into fans, there is no way that you will turn your customers into fans.

-       Providing value to customers “If we make 10 things 10 percent better, we become 100% better – categorize customers into categories as regards their value to your capacity and treat them accordingly well.

-       We are a customer insight company, first and data-based second.

Bold Lessons

-       It only works when it all works – we will be doing well when all of us is applying themselves, not a few.

-        Ying Yang – Always give customers and employees some love to appreciate them. 

-        Create a victors cycle – happy employees, happy customers, happy shareholders.

-        It’s about what you do, not what you say you do.  Don’t tell me you are funny, tell me a joke and I will laugh.

-        Courage of conviction – To build a relationship with customers, you have to be clear in your communication and their expectations and your deliverables.

-        Measure what matters.

Bold Practices

-        It bought the naming rights to the “white elephant millennium dome” – one of the largest distributors of live entertainment tickets in UK (e/and partnering with AEG, rebranded it the 02 Arena) which is now the most successful music venue in the world.  (We are in the entertainment business because we are in the experience business 02.

-       Turning people into fans – measures “fandom”, willingness of it’s customers to become evangelic advocates for the brand.

-     02 pioneered sim-only tariff, against industry practice of trapping customers with contract phone lines making it easier for them to leave whenever they feel so.

-        Fair deals for existing as well as new customers.

-        02 products are designed as simple to use as possible.

-        02 took 500 people out of head office and put 2,000 into retail stores and call centres to interface and change customers’ experiences, i.e. relocating cost to those areas customers value most.

-        02 bought Ja Jah, a VOIP Technology that is direct threat to 02 existing technology.

-        Launch Apple Iphone into UK market.  Apple chose 02 for no financial advantage over others but because they were the brand that has most of their type of customers and the brand that is aligned to their own experience in terms of customers’ experience.

-        02 values were bold, open, trusted and clear.

-        02 believes to be in the experience business not the mobile phone business.

          So, let’s be bold.

Culled from:  BOLD:  How to be bold in Business and Win, by Shawn Smith and Andy Milligan