Looking forward to 2010, it’s clear we’re in an era of new competitors. xchange editor Tara Seals talked to execs at AT&T, Google, Clearwire, Comcast, XO and others about what exactly is shaping competition going forward and where the new threats are. Part I of a two-part series. For Part II, please click here.
xchange: What do you see shaping the face of competition now and what are the biggest challenges for you?
AT&T Inc.’s Roman P. Pacewicz, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Application Services: I don’t see much benefit in discussing specific competitors, but I’ll note that the telecommunications industry is extremely competitive today and intermodal telecommunications continue to evolve and thrive (wireless, voice over cable, voice over IP), and all of this competition ultimately benefits customers.
There are three major trends worth noting:
- First, companies are going global as they move to take advantage of opportunities in emerging markets. Today, half of the sales of the companies on the S&P 500 come from operations outside the United States.
- Second, companies are going mobile. According to the global market intelligence firm IDC, two-thirds of America’s workforce operates in locations outside their headquarters. The number of mobile workers worldwide exceeds 400 million.
- Third, companies are going virtual. They’re adopting new business models with the goal of becoming more cost efficient and improving their responsiveness to customers and market forces. Achieving this means transferring key functions to partners who have superior scale, deep functional expertise and the ability to operate 24/7 around the globe.
Each of these trends is putting enormous pressure on companies and creating friction within their businesses. As we see it, our job is to help companies drive friction and inefficiency out of all their interactions, including time, geography and process complexity.
All of this requires more than mere connectivity or networked computing. Our job is to deliver the services, applications and expertise that help companies of all sizes simplify the complexities, overcome the pain points and take advantage of the opportunities created by these trends
Clearwire Corp.’s Michael Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer: Competition over the next several years will be about anticipating what customers want tomorrow as opposed to what they’ve chosen in the past. Consumers can’t see the tech trends the same way tech companies see them. So companies make bets on those trends. We think the trends are access to Internet at unfettered speeds from anywhere, the convergence of broadband and mobile, and open devices, connections and usage patterns. There are still people out there that can’t imagine that future. Fifteen years ago people had "bag phones" slung over shoulders, and these were niche devices. But the category of course turned out to be everyone. The Internet has been transformational in their lives. Success in competition will be about who can anticipate the trends before the consumers can, and then catch their imagination.
