AT&T Wireless acquired by Singular - Another icon gone
Last week marked the continuation of the ongoing decline of one the greatest company icons in American history, when Cingular Wireless one the bidding war for AT&T Wireless against Vodafone.
Cingular stated that, if the sale goes through, it will phase out the name AT&T Wireless. Gone – another one.
I found a quote in an older Fortune Magazine (Oct. 1, 2001) that describes the situation "nicely":
"AT&T's era began to end in 1984 with the breakup, and it is in a period of longlasting decline. Nature is running its course."
(Scott Cleland, Analyst of the Precursor Group)
Look around you – the landscape is full of companies that managed to rewrite company history – EBay, Amazon.com, even Dell, which is a somewhat new company.
Which company failed or nearly failed over the last couple of years?
Polaroid, the once mighty company of instant photography, which declared bankruptcy in 2001. The name has been bought by a Hong Kong company, who plans to relaunch the company in a different market segment.
Xerox – a company that struggled for years and once declared to have an unsustainable business model and Kodak, which in January 2004 declared that it won’t support R&D in traditional photography anymore. Only recently have they been able to get their footage back.
McDonalds – whose revenue declined for many quarters – and now also tries to relaunch itself.
IBM – nearly failed in the early 1990s, when the market forces overtook it.
Microsoft – which embarked on the Internet only after Netscape was tremendously successful. Or, a company in an even older industr- Bethlehelm Steel, which went bankrupt in 2003, despite being protected (for a while) by import taxes imposed by the Bush Administration.
What about the American Record Industry, which still fails to embark on a new business model and hopes that following Apple’s successful online shop for music downloads will help it succeed – and which doesn’t realise that the public voted with its feet for a different business model.
You will ask, what is happening? Well, frequently, company leaders deny acknowledging changes in their business model will affect their company. Everything is then blamed – bad economy, market turbulences, currency speculations, and everything else possible (which statements have you heard?).
Companies don’t realise that underlying technology is changing their “livelihood” and that everything changes faster by the minute. That early-warning systems don’t work as they did earlier, if the information required is falling behind the overall noise of change and too much information. Or when leadership ignores signals and believes that its company is isolated from the overall market.
Here, we can call upon Cisco, which claimed to know everything about its markets, back in 2001, and said that the dot.com bust wouldn’t affect it. In April 2001 (when I remember correctly), Cisco had to write off US$2.5 billion, and laid off 8,500 employees soon afterwards.
Can we believe Clayton Christensen, who stated, in the innovator’s Dilemma, that companies fail, because they stay too close to their customer, and didn’t foresee the rise of new technology?
As you can imagine, there are plenty of situations, when companies fail, and how they fail. Clear is that no company is isolated, and that no company is protected from the forces elsewhere anymore. Change is everywhere, ongoing and accelerating.
Countries in Asia realise this- they face different challenges, namely the rise of China and India, while they embark on their own journey to venture outside of their country.
Just yesterday was announced that Temasek Holdings - a conglomerate in Singapore -is interested in purchasing a stake in a smaller Malaysian bank, called Alliance Bank.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is making moves outside of Singapore and invests heaviy acrosss the region in other companies - Optus in Australia - which already resulted in strong profits. Right moves, and companies in other countries should follw - which, however, would inrease competition and might lead to failures.
But Abduallah Badawi, the Prime Minister of Malaysia stated correctly on January 14, 2004, namely, that “Protected companies or monopololies are rarely ever leaders in innovation and creativity.” So the opening of markets are good for the region, for the countries, and in the end, for the individual consumer as well.
What do companies and countries need?
1.) Clear, ongoing information on which they can act.
2.) Besides this, they also need the right channels. It does not make sense to get good and accurate information but the knowledge goes to the wrong persons
3.) Ability to change earlier positions – Flexibility and agility is needed
4.) Empowerment – company leaders need to be open to suggestions from their employees. Frequently, they just want to hear what is good for them – no more. Engage and empower your workforce to listen, report and change – if you are a small company or a big company.
There is more that could be said here - but this trait is way too long already!
(By Asia Business Consulting)
Cingular stated that, if the sale goes through, it will phase out the name AT&T Wireless. Gone – another one.
I found a quote in an older Fortune Magazine (Oct. 1, 2001) that describes the situation "nicely":
"AT&T's era began to end in 1984 with the breakup, and it is in a period of longlasting decline. Nature is running its course."
(Scott Cleland, Analyst of the Precursor Group)
Look around you – the landscape is full of companies that managed to rewrite company history – EBay, Amazon.com, even Dell, which is a somewhat new company.
Which company failed or nearly failed over the last couple of years?
Polaroid, the once mighty company of instant photography, which declared bankruptcy in 2001. The name has been bought by a Hong Kong company, who plans to relaunch the company in a different market segment.
Xerox – a company that struggled for years and once declared to have an unsustainable business model and Kodak, which in January 2004 declared that it won’t support R&D in traditional photography anymore. Only recently have they been able to get their footage back.
McDonalds – whose revenue declined for many quarters – and now also tries to relaunch itself.
IBM – nearly failed in the early 1990s, when the market forces overtook it.
Microsoft – which embarked on the Internet only after Netscape was tremendously successful. Or, a company in an even older industr- Bethlehelm Steel, which went bankrupt in 2003, despite being protected (for a while) by import taxes imposed by the Bush Administration.
What about the American Record Industry, which still fails to embark on a new business model and hopes that following Apple’s successful online shop for music downloads will help it succeed – and which doesn’t realise that the public voted with its feet for a different business model.
You will ask, what is happening? Well, frequently, company leaders deny acknowledging changes in their business model will affect their company. Everything is then blamed – bad economy, market turbulences, currency speculations, and everything else possible (which statements have you heard?).
Companies don’t realise that underlying technology is changing their “livelihood” and that everything changes faster by the minute. That early-warning systems don’t work as they did earlier, if the information required is falling behind the overall noise of change and too much information. Or when leadership ignores signals and believes that its company is isolated from the overall market.
Here, we can call upon Cisco, which claimed to know everything about its markets, back in 2001, and said that the dot.com bust wouldn’t affect it. In April 2001 (when I remember correctly), Cisco had to write off US$2.5 billion, and laid off 8,500 employees soon afterwards.
Can we believe Clayton Christensen, who stated, in the innovator’s Dilemma, that companies fail, because they stay too close to their customer, and didn’t foresee the rise of new technology?
As you can imagine, there are plenty of situations, when companies fail, and how they fail. Clear is that no company is isolated, and that no company is protected from the forces elsewhere anymore. Change is everywhere, ongoing and accelerating.
Countries in Asia realise this- they face different challenges, namely the rise of China and India, while they embark on their own journey to venture outside of their country.
Just yesterday was announced that Temasek Holdings - a conglomerate in Singapore -is interested in purchasing a stake in a smaller Malaysian bank, called Alliance Bank.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is making moves outside of Singapore and invests heaviy acrosss the region in other companies - Optus in Australia - which already resulted in strong profits. Right moves, and companies in other countries should follw - which, however, would inrease competition and might lead to failures.
But Abduallah Badawi, the Prime Minister of Malaysia stated correctly on January 14, 2004, namely, that “Protected companies or monopololies are rarely ever leaders in innovation and creativity.” So the opening of markets are good for the region, for the countries, and in the end, for the individual consumer as well.
What do companies and countries need?
1.) Clear, ongoing information on which they can act.
2.) Besides this, they also need the right channels. It does not make sense to get good and accurate information but the knowledge goes to the wrong persons
3.) Ability to change earlier positions – Flexibility and agility is needed
4.) Empowerment – company leaders need to be open to suggestions from their employees. Frequently, they just want to hear what is good for them – no more. Engage and empower your workforce to listen, report and change – if you are a small company or a big company.
There is more that could be said here - but this trait is way too long already!
(By Asia Business Consulting)
posted by Andreas @ 8:32 pm
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