After having direct influence over the provision of telecommunications services in the Caribbean for many years as the parent company, Cable and Wireless International is taking a major “right hand turn” in reshaping its operations across the region. The company is doing so by creating a single Pan-Caribbean provider, grouping the 13 regional territories, including Anguilla, in which it does business.

Regional reporters at the Launching of Cable & Wireless Caribbean in Barbados

The London-based parent company will now in future act as a financial investor, allowing local management to invest in services for their local customers. This will allow the Cable & Wireless team in the region “to create a truly Caribbean business operated, wherever possible, by Caribbean people for Caribbean people” with world-class products and customer service.

The announcement was made in Barbados and Jamaica on May 23 at a press conference that was attended by reporters from many of the regional islands where Cable & Wireless operates. The main speakers were Phil Green, Chairman, Cable & Wireless Caribbean and President and CEO, Jamaica accompanied by Errol Miller, Vice President Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs there; and by Richard Dodd, CEO, Cable & Wireless Caribbean who had with him Donald Austin, Chief Executive and Sonji Phillips, Corporate Communication Officer in Barbados.

A Highly Efficient Operation

Regional reporters at the Launching of Cable & Wireless Caribbean in Barbados

A release, issued following the press conference, stated that Cable & Wireless’ Pan-Caribbean approach was driven by its wish “to offer a more consistent set of services for all customers; to respond to competitive pressures and to capitalise on advances in technology which enable the provision of faster, better and cheaper customer services.”

Mr. Green told the reporters that the aim was to transform Cable & Wireless’ interests across the Caribbean into a strong Pan-Caribbean regional Telecoms Business Model. This will mean one consistent proposition for all customers across the region; a consistent delivery of first class service quality; and a highly-efficient operation allowing Cable & Wireless to compete very effectively in the Caribbean economy of tomorrow.

The operating principles of the new Pan-Caribbean Business will ensure that Cable & Wireless Caribbean makes the right business decisions to enable it to build a Caribbean telecoms company that delivers world-class services; that Cable & Wireless Caribbean leverages its economies of scale across the region in its back office and support services so that it delivers better value for customers; that ownership of Cable & Wireless Caribbean customer experience stays “on-island – as close as possible to the customer; and that Cable & Wireless Caribbean sources staff and other services from within the region wherever possible.

Customer Service: Top Priority

Phil Green

Mr. Green said that the decision was taken to establish a Caribbean Board of Governors to manage the affairs of Cable & Wireless Caribbean. He explained that this would make local autonomy much stronger in terms of key decision-making, business training, capital investment, business development and customer service and that the transformation of the Caribbean Business Model was at least a two-year journey. “It represents a right hand turn with regards to Cable & Wireless’ strategy of managing its investments across the Caribbean,” he said.

Richard Dodd explained what was meant by ‘a single Pan-Caribbean Business.’ “It means that we will treat our International Headquarters in London largely as a shareholder and in the Caribbean we will have a self-determining operational entity where decisions are made in the Caribbean on behalf of the Caribbean,” he said. “We expect it to have a number of benefits for us and we will have common branding and positioning across the Caribbean; we will have a common suite of production services and we will be able to make decisions faster and more effectively for the region…The driver for this is our customers. Our need is to make our business better for customers, making it easier for our colleagues in the business and more efficient to run and a big thing underlying that is simplifying the complexity and the legacy of our current businesses.”

Richard Dodd

Mr. Dodd laboured the point about customer service by stressing: “Delivering just enough is not good enough; customers in the Caribbean are sophisticated users of telecoms services and deserve the very best; that’s what we’ll deliver. By combining the skills, resources and vast experience we have across the region, we’ll create the first (and only) truly Caribbean telecoms company…an organisation that makes delivering a great customer experience its top priority.”

During the question and answer period, he told the regional reporters that Cable & Wireless was in the very privileged position of providing full telecommunications services to customers and was now endeavouring to make those services work better in the region. “The real strength that we enjoy however is the quality of our workforce which is unmatched and exemplary and we believe that we have huge strength and depth to draw upon,” he went on. “The implications of this regional model are that we will provide certain back office and support service activities on a regional basis. We believe this will allow us to deliver those services more effectively and more efficiently. However it is important to note that customer ownership will remain on island. In other words, the ownership of a Barbados customer will stay with the head of our Barbados business.”

Asked about the back office and support services, he explained that the intention was to provide as many of those services from within the region as possible. Some of them may be in the existing operations and others may need to be created separately. He was of the view that some world-class partners may be used in certain aspects of delivering those services but said the details were still being sorted out and would be the subject of another announcement later on.
He said that Cable & Wireless Caribbean had already discussed the new changes with all major stakeholders including employees, customers, unions and political leaders and that the talks would continue throughout the process.

Schools of Excellence

Messrs: Donald Austin, Richard Dodd and Ms. Sonji Phillips

The reporters were told that opportunities for staff development would be looked into as the transformation process continued. “We are looking at establishing within the region, as part of our focus on Caribbean culture and identity, schools of excellence,” Mr. Green disclosed, stating that they would include schools for management training, marketing and technology. Discussions are already being held with institutions in the Caribbean and such a step is an indication of Cable & Wireless’ very strong commitment to the development of the people in the region.

Staffing Numbers

Responding to a question, Mr. Green said: “We do expect this new paradigm to allow us to operate a very highly efficient model to compete very effectively in what will be a very competitive economy in the Caribbean… What that translates to, is that we will be looking at cost structure and that will include our staffing costs so we do anticipate a reduction [in our staffing numbers]. He said the step being taken by Cable & Wireless was a similar journey that a number of Pan-Caribbean business enterprises (such as FirstCaribbean International Bank) were taking and were setting the pace in terms of excellence and operating a model business in alignment with the region.

Competition

On the question of competition, Mr. Dodd said Cable & Wireless Caribbean could not afford to sit on its laurels and enjoy its position in the marketplace because that position was going to be under a stronger threat. “What we are doing in Barbados as part of our Pan-Caribbean strategy is to move in advance of increasing competition to make sure that we are fully prepared to serve our customers into the future,” he reported.

In supporting Mr. Dodd’s statement, his colleague, Donald Austin, said that in going forward there would be a real passion for customer service. “I am looking forward to this Pan-Caribbean business. I think it is a great opportunity for all the Caribbean companies to come together as one big organisation,” he stated. “…A lot of the competitors in the industry will be using very similar technology and really it is going to be customer service that is going to differentiate us from the others.”

Commenting further on the question of competition, Mr. Dodd stated: “I must say that Digicel has been a strong competitor for us across the region. I think we respect what they have done and I think they have improved the standard of service to customers across the Caribbean; and that’s normally what happens in a liberalised and competitive environment. We are competing very effectively with Digicel. We have retained leadership in mobile in most of our markets, as you know, and we intend to continue that situation…Digicel, as you probably are aware, has advanced in other ventures at this point. We intend to continue to compete vigorously with Digicel. We believe that the strategy we have outlined today will certainly help in that…The winds of competition are not just from Digicel; there are a lot of competitors in other markets.”

Impact of Fuel

Ras B, of Upbeat Radio in Anguilla, asked Mr. Dodd for a statement about how the high fuel prices were affecting the Cable & Wireless’ operations in the region.

Mr. Miller and Phil Green in video conference

“I think that is a very pertinent question,” he replied. “As you know we are major users of fuel on our islands… Fuel has become a problem for us, a material component of our cost base and a bigger component than we had anticipated a year or 18 months ago. It hurts us on the cost side and also on the revenue side because our customers are faced with spiraling food and energy prices…Naturally enough food typically comes above telecommunications in order of priority… I think our commitment is to manage our efficiency better and we are working hard on doing that. For example, we are introducing the latest server technology which is much more efficient in terms of energy consumption, compared with old technology; and introducing IP switches which …use considerable less power…”

Reporters’ Reaction

The press conference was described by the regional reporters as having been most informative and useful. One of the noticeable reactions of some of them to the changes being made by Cable & Wireless, particularly from the larger islands, appeared to have been an attempt at attracting special recognition for the strides made in the development of telecommunications by their Business Units. It was pointed out however that Cable & Wireless Caribbean was embracing all the islands at the same level with no particular one being in a more privileged position. In terms of recognition, it could easily have been said that the past 36 years plus had seen tremendous growth by Cable & Wireless in Anguilla where there is a strong up-market tourism industry with growing demands for full service telecommunications, that the island is the home of a Regional Call Centre and that, despite the competition, the Business Unit and the Chief Executive and his Management Team have been doing a phenomenal job.

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