Cable and Wireless creating pan-Caribbean operation

Published: Friday June 6, 2008

Telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless (C&W) is building a single pan-Caribbean telecoms provider as it moves to change the way it does business, and officials have admitted that there will be some job losses along the way.

C&W's newly appointed chief executive officer, Richard Dodd, and chairman, Phil Green, said a change in the company's business model was necessary to effectively deal with competition and other challenges.

The restructuring process, they said, will create a single Caribbean operation and complete transformation will take at least two years.

"We will have common branding and positioning across the Caribbean, we will have a common suite of products and services and we will be able to make decisions faster and more effectively for the region," Mr Dodd said in a teleconference link-up between Barbados and Jamaica.

"By combining the skills, resources and vast experience we have across the region, we'll create the first truly Caribbean telecoms company. We will achieve this by streamlining and focusing our business on the best of products and services available to our customers and by empowering and developing even further our greatest resource, our colleagues who already serve you across our many businesses," he added in a statement announcing the new focus.

Mr Green added that it was expected that this "new paradigm" would allow C&W to operate a "very highly efficient operating model in what will be a very competitive economy", noting that such a move would require the company to review all elements of its cost structure, including its employee roll of over 4,000 across the region.

"So we do anticipate a reduction in our overall staffing numbers. The extent of who, what and where is something that will evolve as we move into this operational model in the future," he added.

Mr Dodd said the transformation would also include giving the Caribbean operations more decision-making power.
The company statement said the move is part of C&W International's business-wide strategy "to give a much higher degree of autonomy to regional businesses so decisions are taken closer to the customer and the right actions can be taken in individual markets to deliver what those markets need".

"Cable & Wireless International (the parent company of Cable & Wireless Caribbean) will, in future, act as a financial investor allowing local management to invest in services for their local customers. This will allow the Cable & Wireless' Caribbean team to create a truly Caribbean business operated, wherever possible, by Caribbean people for Caribbean people," it said.

The pan-Caribbean management team would be distributed between Barbados and Jamaica and the board of governors is expected to be in place by next September.

The statement said the new approach sought to offer a more consistent set of services for all customers, respond to competitive pressures and capitalise on advances in technology, which enable the provision of faster, better and cheaper customer services.

"The introduction of a world-class pan-Caribbean provider focused exclusively on the Caribbean will also benefit economies in which the business operates, particularly as it will allow the company to operate a Caribbean sourcing programme - taking all the goods and services it needs from regional suppliers wherever possible," it added.

"The reshaped business will be focused on ensuring that Caribbean customers receive levels of customer service comparable with the very best telecoms operators in the world."


Source: Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20080605T220000-0500_136439_OBS_CABLE_AND_WIRELESS_CREATING_PAN_CARIBBEAN_OPERATION.asp